Super Joe’s bionic arm from NES classic Bionic Commando:

Last year Jesse Sullivan, survivor of a limb-destroying electrical accident, received the first brain-controlled bionic arm. According to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, “The new nerve induction technique… allows a full arm prosthesis to be driven by the user’s own thought-generated nerve impulses.” Mr. Sullivan looks forward to fishing again soon.

Simon Belmont’s invisibility potion from Castlevania:

It’s a blend that includes wine and poppy seeds, according to Gerina Dunwich’s book Magick Potions. However, according to one expert, “There is no potion to reverse the effects of this spell… Whether the invisibility wears off on its own accord or after a period of time, [if it] is permanent, or can be controlled by the magician’s will is not known.”

Cybernetically enhanced soldiers from Halo:

The University of Southern California has been working on brain-implanted chips to assist Alzheimer’s disease and strokes survivors, essentially turning people into cyborgs. And, to quote Popular Science magazine, “[they see] potential commercial and military applications for the brain chip, which is partially funded by the [U.S. government’s] Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.” Oh boy.

Ghost cameras from the Fatal Frame series:

You don’t need a special camera to capture ghosts on film. A Field Guide to Spirit Photography author Dale David Kaczmarek, however, suggests using infrared film since ghosts are “associated with heat, [not vision,] so you won’t necessarily see anything. It shows up later.” When asked if a spirit-capturing camera exists, all Mr. Kaczmarek could say was “No.”

We’ve all been there: You bring home a new game and quickly realize that it has the play value of a wet cardboard box. “This game sucks!” you say. “My 2-year-old nephew could make a better game!”

We feel your pain. And luckily so does Sony, Agetec, and other companies. They’re all releasing game creation tools so you can make your own games. Game creation isn’t as easy as it sounds, but at least you don’t have to buy a Microsoft $20,000 game development kit to have fun.

Choose your flava: Spicy, Extra Hot or Lava
The best part about becoming a hobbyist game developer is that you only get as involved as you like. Depending on your available brain power (and cash) you can pick a method that works best for you.

Easy:
The quickest way to get started is to get a game development kit. Most rely on pull-down menus and icons, so you can concentrate on gameplay instead of programming.

Atlus has the RPG Maker series for PSOne (MSRP $29.95) and PS2 (available later this year), letting you make your own private Ultima.

If you prefer PC gaming, there are plenty of freeware (read: no cost) and shareware software packages, such as the Adventure Maker 3.0 < www.detaille.com/giftedminds/> and the CRPG/Adventure Game Toolkit < www.dcgames.com/>. However, be warned that their quality may vary. What do you expect? They’re free.

And just because it doesn’t require programming doesn’t mean your games have to suck. Take ChiselBrain Software‘s “Pencil Whipped,” a finalist in the 2002 Independent Games Festival that was created using Pie In The Sky’s Game Creation System (MSRP $69.95). Though it only can create first-person shooters, “Pencil Whipped” creator Lonnie Flickinger says GCS would be great for anyone looking to get started. “If you were doing [this type of] raw coding from scratch, you’d most likely have to have a huge team of developers and it would take many, many hours, even years to see results,” he says. “The GCS is a good starting point for a creative person who wants to make a game.”

Medium:
If you’ve got some time and extra dinero, Sony’s got the package for you. In May Sony released a limited-edition kit that allows PS2 owners to use the programming language C++ to make games. At $199.95 it’s not too hard on your pockets, but you’ll also need a VGA monitor (another couple hundred) and a PS2 if you don’t have them already. There are other technical details, so check out the official website .

On the PC side are options that also require programming, but give you a good starting point. One product is McMillian Software’s Game Programming Starter Kit 5.0 (MSRP $49.95), which comes with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 for programming, 3D GameStudio Standard 5.12 for level design, and Marc Saltzman’s Game Design: Secrets of the Sages for food for thought.

This isn’t kids stuff: both the Sony Linux package and the PC gaming kits require patience, focus and time. However, these packages come with low-level libraries that will help you do the dirty work. For instance, Sony’s Linux suite comes with pre-made routines that make 3D effects easier to use.

Hard:
We’re talking raw PC programming here — this is hardcore and not recommended for anyone without some previous programming experience. The upshot of your hard work is control, so you’ll be able to eek out a little more speed or further manipulate the visuals in your games.

Another positive is a plethora of options. You can take the freeware route with packages such as DJGPP C/C++ , which works well with the freeware game software library Allegro . Or you can get the popular Microsoft Visual C++ (MSRP $109.95 and up) or Borland C++ (MSRP $69.95 and up), both well supported by many game programming books.

C and C++ are the most popular game languages, but you can use whatever language you want as long as it gets the job done, such as Microsoft’s Visual Basic, Pascal, or Java — though we wouldn‘t recommend FORTRAN.

Have fun!
Visit the recommended websites to learn more about programming options. And when you‘re up at 3 in the morning, trying to get the last bug out of your funky-fresh game, realize that there are at least 50 million other coders doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. Welcome to the club!

SIDEBARS:
School of Hard Knocks - Basics of Game Design
Before you start making Grand Theft Auto 4, take a look at these steps to making a good game.

Brainstorming
This is the most fun part. Get a notebook and write down design ideas, draw game characters, even work on the background story. Write down everything — pairing down and focusing your idea comes later.

Basic Design Doc
Write up a one-page game description, like what you would say if you were describing your game to a friend. Go over the general info:
*How many players?
*What does the game look like?
*What genre does it fit in?
*What games is it similar to?

Give some tagline or catch phrase for your game, like “Metroid with Britney Spears” or “Bill Clinton vs. Aliens vs. Predator.” If the description doesn’t fit on one page more than likely you’ve put too much detail in too soon. Don’t sweat whether the Level 3 boss should wear a sweatsuit or MC Hammer genie pants — worry about that later.

Rough Demo
Start to learn the basics of the game system you‘re using: play around with the graphics, mess with the controls. Take your time — remember that the only set deadlines are your own.

After you’re comfortable, begin making a rough demo of your game. Now you should figure out:

*What controls work best?
*How big should the main character be?
*Does this game even make any sense now that it’s onscreen?

The rough demo shouldn’t be fully functional — you only want to put things onscreen and see how they look.

The rough demo is the last checkpoint before you get deep into game creation. Did the Mother Teresa-based FPS sound better on paper? Now is the time to take a step back to the brainstorming stage if you have to.

Underestimating a project is the biggest pitfall according to Kenny Thornton, who has been working on his popular indie RPG Fenix Blade since 1998. “Quite often rookie programmers will jump into a large project to discover, much to their dismay, that they have latent design flaws that only become visible as the project matures.” Don’t be that programmer.

Full Design Doc
Here’s the nitty-gritty where you go over your game in detail. Theories on how to make a design doc vary, as do document lengths, which range from one to thousands of pages — after all, there’s a difference between Tetris and Final Fantasy X.

“If you’re flying solo, so to speak, and you’re taking on a relatively simple project, you can often eschew the whole idea of a design document,” Thornton says. “When you’re looking into a group project, or just a complicated design, having a standard design document that lays out your vision isn’t just par for the course, it’s essential.”

You want to cover:
*What experience do you want to deliver to the player?
*Backstory/plot?
*Screen layout
*Graphics
*Music & sound
*Controls
*Characters
*Levels/areas

Remember that a role playing game may need a larger plot section, while a fighting game may need a bigger controls section. You also may need extra stuff like maps.

Improvement Cycle
Here’s the challenging part: hashing out the best game you can by cycling between programming, play testing and updating the design doc. Many indie gamemakers don’t realize their game idea is too ambitious until this point, well after spending weeks on the previous four steps. However, if you’ve been realistic about your game, you’ll have a better chance of getting it done. If you’re overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to start over with an easier game.

Another option is to simplify your original idea. Shigeru Miyamoto admitted that his concept of Mario wasn’t fully realized until Super Mario 64, nearly twenty years after Donkey Kong. Imagine if he waited!

Party Time
Congratulations! Take time to celebrate a completed game: do a postmortem story on what went right and wrong with the game, invite some friends over to play (they bring the pizza), or post your game online. There will be criticisms once other people play it, but try to take it constructively… or tell them to shut their piehole.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
Don’t know your sprite from your text parser? Check out these resources to get smart like Don Adams.

Websites
www.gamedev.net
More articles than you can shake a joystick at, ranging from novice tutorials to advanced techniques.

dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Games/Computer_Games/Programming/
Long listing of various game programming websites.

www.game-developer.com
A powerful Internet search engine to find game development articles.

www.programmersheaven.com
Excellent resources on all the major programming languages.

www.flipcode.com
An deep website with the resources necessary for advanced programming.

Books
Game Design: Secrets of the Sages, edited by Marc Saltzman
Extremely detailed book on making a game from start to finish.

Game Design Theory & Practice by Richard Rouse III
Step-by-step of game development process highlighted by excellent game designer interviews and in-depth game analysis.

Game Design: The Art & Business of Creating Games by Bob Bates
Looks at the whole games business including licensing, marketing, and team management.

Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of Videogames by Leonard Herman
The most accurate history of video games available.

The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon by Steven L. Kent
With tons of great game design anecdotes, it’s an excellent book to get yourself motivated.

Do you have what it takes to make a Playstation 2 game? Sony’s betting you do: For a limited time it’s offering a $199 programming package <www.us.playstation.com> that will allow you to make — that’s right, make — your own Playstation games from scratch. Best thing is, this isn’t a stripped down game making simulator. You’re using the same basic tools, engine and peripherals major game developers are using. All you need is $199, a computer monitor, and the patience to learn the programming language Linux.

What’s a Linux?
Linux is an operating system, similar to its archrival Windows but more flexible. It is also a programming language that designers can use to make games. Linux is unique because it is “open source,” meaning that the language itself is modifiable by the programmers. Linux is a natural choice for the PS2 programming package since, in a sense, Sony is “opening the source” of its great games to the public and allowing you to use and, to a certain extent, modify the system.

Big Package
Sony gives you a lot of bang for your buck, especially for just a couple hundred dollars. It comes with a 40 GB Internal Hard Drive that easy screws into the “mystery port” at the back of the PS2 as well as a Network Adapter that allows you to get on the net via an Ethernet (though not through a dial-up) connection. It also comes with a USB standard Keyboard and Mouse, and a Monitor Adapter to connect your computer monitor to the system (more on that later…).

The most important part of the package are the two Linux discs which hold the actual language you‘ll be making games in. Disc 1 is the startup disc and also has the help files for the PS2 Linux. Disc 2 is the software package disc, basically the functions and routines you’ll use to make PS2 games.

Not So Fast…
Even with everything but the kitchen sink provided in the package you’ll still need to get more equipment. You’ll need a clean 8MB Memory Card to only be used with the Linux system (Sony also recommends having another Memory Card as a backup).

Most importantly you’ll need a computer monitor, but not just any monitor: you’ll need one with “Sync-On-Green” capability, which is necessary for the monitor to recognize the PS2’s signal. Connecting the various system parts is relatively easy, but getting your monitor to work with the system can be more frustrating than playing five hours of Stuntman. Luckily, Sony provides a (semi-)reliable list of compatible monitors on the Playstation 2 Linux website <www.playstation2-linux.com>. Best advice? Look at the monitor list, see if your friends have any of those listed, and take your system over there to test it out. If it works, buy that brand yourself.

PS2 Hardcore
After getting situated, don’t expect to just jump in and make Grand Theft Auto: Des Moines. Linux is a relative of Unix, which is a relative of DOS, which means it can get pretty complicated. However, you’ll also get access to many of the tools the big dogs like Sony and Electronics Arts use.

The main limitation is that your other buddies with PS2s can’t play your finished product unless they have the Linux package, too. However, if you’re a budding game designer or want to figure out if you’ve got what it takes to make a real console game from start to finish, this is your lucky break.

-end-

Websites 2 Help U:
Official Playstation 2 Linux Website: http://playstation2-linux.com/
Linux Games: http://www.linuxgames.com/
Official Linux Website: http://linux.com/
Linux Game Programming Webring: http://h.webring.com/webring?ring=linuxgp;list
Linux/X11 Game Writers Page: http://game.ncl.ac.uk/

Games powered by Linux:
Powermanga: <http://www.chez.com/powermanga/> A colorful arcade shooter in the spirit of 1943 and other old-school classics.

Kwirk’s Quest: <http://www.kwirk.cx/> A traditional RPG involving a redhead rabbit, kidnapping goblins and you as a green lizard in a purple dress. SquareSoft, line 1…