Sid Meier says the easiest way to get a game concept is to dream up the details, then genre [e.g. I want to make a game about cars... I think action would be the best genre for this]. This is pretty good advice. If you try to start with FPS.... what hasn't been done before? But if you start with a car concept and choose the genre FPS then you might come up with a mix between Mario kart and Halo.
You need LOTS of play testers. Your fellow nerds [assuming you're a nerd], your Mom & Dad, all your friends, just anybody who will play test it. They can give you valuable feedback on what aspects are too hard/easy/annoying etc... Also, with all these people anticipating the game to be released, you are less motivated to just stop developing the game.
You also need motivation. There have been precious few games I have actually finished. 99% of my games I just stopped developing because I lost motivation. If you lose motivation, just plod your way through unless its obvious that the game idea is lame. Sooner or later [hopefully the former] you will regain motivation when things get more interesting.
Most game ideas are lame. Totally lame. [Yeah, I know. The cup is half full with me right?] And sometimes, you don't realise it until after you spend hours [even days] working on the game. So DON'T START DEVELOPING until you know that the idea at least isn't FULLY lame. Write down all the details about your game idea on a piece of paper or type them up [I always do the latter]. Then come back after a long period of time. Try not to think about the game idea too much. Come back at the least an hour or so later. For best results [now I sound like pop tart toasting instruct writer] I would leave the idea for a full day. When you come back to the idea, try to think about your game in a rational way. Try to think why the game would be fun to play. If you do this, you could save yourself hours [even days] of work. Once you think you're sure the idea isn't lame, or at least is kind of fun, then start designing!
Now for the designing part. If you are totally new to the whole programming thing, then Game Maker is for you. If you feel you are willing to actually type in the code, then you should look at Microsoft's XNA game studio, Microsoft's Dark GDK, and Java. I personally use XNA, but its your choice. Maybe sometime in the future I'll make some XNA or Java tutorials..... but not right now.Anyways, that pretty much wraps up this "tutorial". Thanks for reading!
