What tips can you give a group working on their first game?

So a few of my friends and I, a total of five, have decided to make a video game together. We all have a very long gaming history so we know this and that regarding what a game needs to be good, and of course we plan on going for a simple and relatively easy goal for a first game. What we want to get out of this is mainly the experience and the fun in the process of development. What are some tips to keep in mind during the whole process? All answers are appreciated, even though they might contain what is supposed to be general knowledge.

Git gud.

Okay tip number 1... And this is the most important tip.... Don't ever ask gamers what they want... Don't ask the gamers anything, they are colossal idiots and anything you put in your games based on their dumb input is going to be swing or miss.

Tip 2, I'm not saying you shouldn't use gamers to help you making your game... You just shouldn't ask them... You're more than welcome to study and experiment with them any which way you want in order to get what you need to continue with your project.

@Fire_Wa11

Don't be a dick.

@Jimmy_Russell

Its one thing when many people ask for a game to be addictive not knowing what it truly means but for you to reccomend it, knowing all about Operant Conditioning and Skinnerian techniques is just unethical and wrong.

I would never reccomend anyone to make an addictive game.

The best tip I can give is have fun and just make the game you wanna make that will hopefully be like by people. If you guys need another team member, I'm available as well. I know how to write for a game and have a wide gaming knowledge.

And also don't listen to Lulu at all. He's the forum's professional troll and thread spammer.

First tip I can give is: join a game-development-community forum; a forum where you can discuss and ask questions about programming and fixing issues with your code. Gamespot is just a gamer's forum.

Second tip: If you want to succeed as an indy developer, you need to create something original. Something that looks and plays differently than anything else in the market. Don't create a "copy-cat" title (i.e. another first-person military shooter or Tomb Raider-like adventure game) unless you have a completely new idea that will revolutionize the genre. Publishers (as well as the gaming community) will turn their heads away as soon as they see a "copy-cat" title.

I had a friend who was very ambitious about creating games, but when he described his games to me he would say "it's like Splinter Cell, but with a girl" or he would describe a gameplay mechanic that sounded a lot like "Temple Run"...and it was difficult for me to care as soon as he used other games as his description for his own game. Don't make it easy for someone to describe your game by simply saying another game's title.

don't list to mastermetal, he just doesn't understand the fundemental difference between a game and a movie.

Like I said before... Don't listen to gamers...

@Lulu_Lulu: no attacks. This is meant to be legit advice for a new game studio. None of your personal agendas. Unless you have proper advice, then kindly go away.

Anyways, like I said, just make something you wanna make instead of following trends. And however you wanna make it is your call.

@mastermetal777

Oh now you adress me directly....

TheCakeIsAFly is a big boy, make your case and let him decide what he wants for his game, even if it includes following trends and or Skinner Boxes. We can slander each other later.

@Lulu_Lulu: I'm just giving some advice, which is what he wanted in the first place.

Don't ask for tips from those who haven't developed a game especially from anonymous forum dwellers, and yes I realise the irony of my post as I am not a developer and am an anonymous forum dweller.

Know your limitations and know that you might not be able to get every feature you want in the game.

@mastermetal777

We all were... You just felt the need to call me a troll in the process...

Keep it simple, don't go too ambitious for your first project

I can give you tips on the programming side, but I don't usually finish my games because I don't like creating the art and other assets.

• Plan that shit out and make as many reusable classes as you can. I always skip the planning stage and end up rewriting a lot of code.
• Polymorphism is awesome; for example: all your objects can inherit a base class with a draw and update method.
• Get inspiration from the real world. All your objects that can move can inherit a class that gives them properties like position and velocity (even acceleration, mass, hitbox info, etc). Then you can use regular old physics equations to control movements and collisions. And since they all inherit the same base class we can use polymorphism to compare all of them (ie a collision between the player and an enemy can use the same function as a collision between the player and an item if all three of them inherit the "MovableObject" class.
• Go big, but only after you've gotten small. Get a working prototype finished as quick as possible so you have something to play with, then expand it. I sometimes lose interest if I can't play with what I'm working on.
• Use OpenGL so you can run your game everywhere. Better yet, use a library like SDL. SDL is good for input, audio and 2D graphics. It's good for 3D too, but you'll be doing all the graphics stuff in straight OpenGL.