Apps Great idea for a game but no dev experience

[Bobbin85]

I have a game idea I think could work. I have run the idea by a few friends and they think it would not only work well but their families would play it as well.

Unfortunately I have zero dev experience thus if I were to tackle this project it would take a tremendously long time, if at all possible. I have a full time job in another industry.

The game would rely on being location aware and able to draw on top of a google maps or other type of live map interface. I am aware of apps out there that do this (geocaching, fitness apps, augmented gaming) so I know it is possible, but it seems I would need to learn about API keys and the google application engine and so on on top of the Eclipse IDE and Java for Android.

Furthermore, as this game would be a type of MMO, I would need an online database to keep persistent data.

For someone with zero dev experience, with only a basic understanding of code, I am really uncertain if a standalone inexperienced developer can pull all of that off.

Any words of advice? Encouragement? Experience? Would be most appreciated.

Furthermore, am I on the right track? Without giving my core game idea away, if you were developing say a fitness app with live map interface that your app can draw on top of and fix to frames with data on the side, how would you go about it? Google's terms and conditions say I cannot alter their maps, and I cannot commercialize any application using the maps within it without written consent. I certainly wouldn't want to do it for free

And I "think" I need to create an API Key for the Maps for Android v2 API and somehow tie that to an app on Google App Engine where I can host the database. Is that correct?

If I do kick this off I will be around here for a while

 

[ProjectLiquid]

I like the idea and I like the enthusiasm! However, in my opinion it might be a bit to much to tackle for a first project.

I have game development experience on both PC's and Console's. But I am just now getting into mobile development and I am currently in the process of learning java and eclipse. Now unless you know other programming languages or are really good at picking up how to program with java, then like with anything else you've got to start somewhere....

I would suggest to start here with this:
Android SDK | Android Developers

Download Eclipse and follow the steps on the site to set it up.

And then see if you can follow the tutorials on the site:
Building Your First App | Android Developers

If after doing all that and you feel confident you can learn how to do this stuff quickly and correctly. Then you can start to think about bigger projects. If your still wanting to pursue this further there are a few books I can recommend that I've used myself.


Not to patronize you or anything, This is just something Ive noticed over the years. A lot of people will post on forums with their "Amazing Game Idea!" and ask people for help. Which is fine. As long as the person also helps themselves by doing a bit of research on things to understand how much work something actually is.

Programming for me isnt easy, but ive had to start somewhere and its still a slow process. But when you finally make something and it works how you want it. It's an awesome feeling of accomplishment.

So Good Luck! and I'll be around to give advice/help if i can.

 

[Bobbin85]

Thanks for the reply. I have gone through some of the basic tutorials a while back but I am doing them again for revision as most is forgotten.

Back in the day I started with some BASIC on the Commodore64 believe it or not the procedural languages made so much sense. Afterwards I moved on to Web Design HTML/CSS/PHP/MYSQL. Then I dabbled with Java, Python and C#. Understanding object-oriented code, libraries, classes etc... was a nightmare at first. I managed to make a decent app with C# but it was a hack job borrowing code from wherever I could find online. Also did some extensive VBScript for an old job as a server admin.

So coding has been nothing more than a hobby I have often picked up and put down again. I understand most of the syntax but my challenge is applying the libraries and turning them into something that works, literally not knowing quite where to start half the time.

Usually I have to copy/paste other peoples code and modify it to get by Hopefully this time I can really take it on and make some of my own ideas come to life.

Will stick around then and ask questions when I get stuck.