YOU CAN NOW MAKE YOUR OWN GAMES, HERE'S HOW...

Designing video games has always had this air of mystery and difficulty surrounding it, especially in the early days when only veterans could make them.

Thankfully we’ve come a long way since then and, basically, anyone can learn to make a game from scratch using a few pieces of simple software and a good set of instructions to go off of.

While you’ve probably heard of the platform, Unity, which is a sort of game engine, the C# language, and Adobe Photoshop, you may not know of BitDegree online courses that can show you how to marry all of those to make your own game.

Unlike other courses that assume you have some prior experience with the software or game creation in general, this one starts right at the beginning and goes from a completely blank Unity project to a side-scrolling shooter.

The course starts you right at the beginning with downloading the Unity software – which is also free for personal use. From here the elements of Unity will be introduced, these being key parts of the programme such as 3D elements, inputs and movement.

You will then be introduced to adding characters, and other elements that make up a game such as buttons, doors or whatever. These building blocks of game design can then be reused in any other projects you decide to do in the future.

However, game objects and their programming are only one side of any game, what about the visuals? Instead of using store-bought assets, you can make your own. Even for people who don’t consider themselves to be artists will find it easy to make art in the grid-based MagicaVoxel programme where creating game assets is as simple as placing blocks.

With some added effects which can be made in Photoshop, the game can be exported and played, with the source code and game assets being available for comparison against your final version.

If any of this sounds to daunting, do not worry cause BitDegree’s course is entirely video-based. There’s no need to read through endless pages of a textbook or a webpage that seems to scroll on forever.

Simply watch the videos and you can see exactly how the game is made – every mouse click, typed word and button press are recorded for you to view.

The first of these videos can be watched on the course page with the rest unlocking after you create an account and enrol in the course – which is all free!