I have had at least 1000000 creative ideas in my day. I have attempted all of them in one way or another. But it would seem that my biggest fault in those areas is that I have no ability to produce anything but prose, and some of these great ideas. Whether they be video games, comics, or anything. I've only had a handful of great ideas, but it would seem that they never fit my abilities. And don't just tell me to "work them into prose" because "that is what your good at" If Spider-Man was a novel, if star trek was a radio drama, if samurai jack was sing a long book with a tape player. It just gets on my nerves, cus its the good stories that I flesh out in my mind tell me i'm not alone, cus from what I've seen this is a strict writing group, though there have been 3 threads (different authors) about super heroes. I just know that some ideas would be horrible novels, bur great comics and such.
Okay, first, video-games aren't impossible to make (trust me). You just need to get working on it. Learn python well and then go on to the lower-level languages like C and C++. To give you an idea of what you, alone, can accomplish look at Bob. He made an awesome game all by himself for the DS and look at how awesome it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrAYDSTkXgQ Bob has already been contacted by a few publishers. The same for other games like N (and N+), Braid (Super-awesome) and CS (started as a mod for Half-Life). If you're not too old you might want to study a bit more and become a game producer. They just develop on the idea of a game (really REALLY well) and pass it to management and the programmers so they can make it. But I recommend going into programming if you want to be the one-and-only decision maker into what goes into the game. And, for me, it's fun. Now, all of these is just wasted time if you don't have initiative or willpower to learn. About comics... I ain't got a clue. Hope I helped. Edit: I remembered what an old teacher said to me about something like this: "Never put yourself down, because you no more than an statistic and when you put yourself down you put the whole human race down." He wasn't a very a inspiring teacher :/ /
You are not alone. Each "field" as a skill set. Some people have what is called "Talent" in that skill set, while others do not. Those with little to no talent will find learning the skill set very hard if not outright intimidating or even overwhelming. Not to mention that many people have learning difficulties because of how their mind works. So learning new skills with out an instructor can be very intimidating to say the least. Some people might say "Well just learn it" But how many great cooks have you heard of that "Just read a book and learned it"?
Ommonite, if you feel your ideas lead you in other directions than simple writing maybe you should explore some of those possibilities. Find out what you can about the video game making process. I think a lot of colleges give classes on things like that. Or you could try your hand at art and play around with some comic book ideas. There's no law that says a writer can only do one thing-write.
I have all kinds of great ideas for drawings and artwork with my characters and dreams in my head, but I haven't nearly the talent to translate it all onto paper at all the way I envision it. And of course, there's a vast difference between a drawing of one moment and a story that covers everything. I try to do art now and then but it's never as good as I envision. I would adore being able to do really great artwork of my characters and story scenes because maybe THAT would help draw in more readers! (Art does tend to get a lot more viewers.) I did finally learn to draw, but still not nearly as good as I'd like. I guess art isn't meant to be my talent. I can write serials that go on for hundreds of thousands of words, but drawing a picture of one moment in said serial, it never seems as good as it should be. So there are other people who can't translate well between the different media. Everybody has talents and weaknesses. *shrug*
The comic thing is more of my issue. As far as video games go, i don't want to learn code and spend hours making a person's arm move at the push of a button. I want to be the kind of guy whop sits back and says "I want this guys arm to move when you press that button" because lets face it, great programmers of video games are not the ones with the great ideas behind it. so learning C++ would be the largest waste in the universe for me.
First off the great programmers are usually the producers. They come up with the video game idea. Programming and coding are where you start. Also with video games and comics you really need to learn to draw. I tried to be a graphic designer but became discouraged when i found out how much artwork I would have to produce. If you are not ready to do that then you are not ready for comics. Everything requires hard work remember that. Comics require more art then story sometimes. Also you have to be a good writer because all the images that you write need to be envisioned by the artist if that is not you. That artist will have to produce what you want as far as artwork. It takes time to draw, almost as much sometimes more time then it takes to write. So focus on what you want to do, because you can not do it all.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_designer [2]Dissing programmers = not cool. A lot of game programmers are also designers and a lot of the best games were designed and programmed by the same person. Like Peter Molyneux he designed and programmed (not all) of Fable, Black & White, their sequels and Theme Park. Or Bob. Or Will Wright who went on to making the upcoming hit Spore, the Sims and etc. Or Ed Boon co-creator of Mortal Kombat. So, dissing programmers = not cool.
Im gonna have to agree with Acglaphotis. The bulk of major game designers right now are the patriarchs of the gaming industry and all of them are programmers from the old days when two or three people could make an entire game in less than a year. Those coming in to the field are mostly programmers who have worked their way up. I doubt any video game developer would ever hire someone who doesn't know anything about programming as a designer. What if some of your programmers come to you arguing two different methods of implementing your design? You can say "Make this guys arm move" but there is way more than one way to make that happen and some may be better than others depending on what kind of game your making. If you don't know anything about code you won't even be able to deicide which of the options available to you is the best choice for what you want to do.
