Have you ever thought that you could do a better job designing games than most developers? What’s stopping you?

Sure, as an amateur game designer working in your spare time you’ll have to start small and probably sacrifice boring things like socializing, but it’s better than never starting at all. A game doesn’t have to be 60 hours long and utilize a complex physics engine to be great. Just look at successes like flOw and Everyday Shooter.

Above: Fl0w, which began as a Flash game, made it all the way to the PS3

The fact is that you can make a game right now. I won’t call you a noob for being frightened by variable arrays - there are ways to start building your game regardless of your understanding of computer science. No money? I’ve collected tons of links to free software and resources.

I may not be a professional game designer myself, but I have spent years as an amateur tinkerer, toying around with modding, programming, 3D modeling, animation, and so on. This is what I've learned.

(If you want to skip all this highly important blabbing, you can jump straight to the big list of game creation tools.)

Figure out what you’re going to make. Sort out the conceptual problems now, and you'll save yourself a lot of time in the execution.

Create a design document. Even if it’s just for yourself, writing down your ideas will help you organize your thoughts and exercise your creativity. Decide what kind of game you’re making, what will be needed to complete it, how the controls will work, and so on.

Above: Your concept art will probably not look like this - that’s OK

Think about what’s reasonable. Can you build a massive 3D world? It’s certainly possible with the tools I'm about to show you, but determine whether or not it is feasible given the amount of time you’re willing to dedicate. Retail games are made by teams of professionals - you're one amateur. If you’re an absolute beginner, as this article assumes you are, you should probably start small and build up your game as you learn new skills.

Don’t be discouraged – small doesn’t mean simplistic or dull. You might assume that everything has been done before, but in actuality, gaming is still a young medium. There are billions of ideas just waiting to be had, and it doesn’t matter if your game is big or small – good ideas are good ideas. Consider how quickly games went from vector graphics to 2D sprites to 3D rendering – there simply wasn’t enough time to cover all the possibilities, and that fact is partially why 2D gaming is seeing a comeback.