About Tigris GameDev Group

Tigris stands for The Independent Gamedeveloper. Independent game developers are a rare breed. Sacrificing enormous amounts of hours to make a living breathing video game, composed of multiple parts.

Usually the resources being created by these courageous creatures contain diverse creative elements such as sprites, pixel art, animations, UIs and 3D models. Some even compose music and game soundtracks. And they program the game, too.

How do you become an independent game developer?

Many game developers started by sitting down at a computer and figuring out what it takes to write computer code, draw art assets, or make music. Most software to create these assets can be found and downloaded for free online.

From IDEs for writing computer code in languages such as C# and C++, to entire game-maker software based on popular engines like Unity and the Unreal Engine (UE for short.)

Game development is not easy. If for any reason, it’s because with so many devices and platforms nowadays, there are so many choices to be made. And to make the right choice you have to first familiarize yourself with at least one computer programming language.

You can make browser games in JavaScript and HTML5, or write your own PC game engine from scratch in C++ with OpenGL or DirectX.

What software and tools do I need to get started?

Many game developers use Unity, UE, Construct 2, Godot, and AGS (Adventure Game Studio) and plenty of others. It really depends on what kind of game you’re planning to make, and what market you are planning on advertising it in.

For example adventure games or FPS (First Person Shooters) do well on the PC, because mouse and keyboard are the primary means for controlling such games. Mobile games are usually written in Objective-C on the iOS or OSX, if you’re planning to publish them in the iTunes store.

You can even make a mobile game in JavaScript and HTML’s canvas tag, you just have to embed your source code in a BrowserView object. Many iTune games are actually HTML wrapped in the browser object. They just appear as native apps. The iTunes store will gladly accept a game written in such way. As long as it passes their standard quality assurance evaluation.