I’m trying to make a pocket pet game, like the evolution of all the little calculator screened toys in the 90’s and 00’s. I don’t want it to be the whale hunting, spyware riddled garbage that most phone games are. I’d rather like to release it on F-Droid instead of Google if I release it at all. I have all of it worked out on paper, from the random tables to the creature stats, to the combat mechanics, you can play it as a pen and paper if you wanted to. Problem is, I’m a pen and paper guy, and I’m having an awful time trying to learn anything about code. Where do I go to get help with this?
cant you use chatgpt?
You can use it to learn or to code most of it. …if coding was all that it took
I’m learning Game Maker rn, would be willing to try to figure out how to implement some of the features as a co-learning thing, if you’re interested in some random dipshit
The real question is how organized your design doc(s) is/are, honestly, you could probably make whatever you’re thinking about in RPG maker if you weren’t afraid of it being generic AF so long as the organization is solid
Where do I go
You go to a bank, because you need money to pay your programmer.
When you hear “I’ve got this great app idea—it just needs someone to code it,” it may sound to you like you’re halfway there. But from a programmer’s point of view, that’s actually the least interesting and riskiest way to start. Here’s why:
1. There’s no roadmap—just “code this”
- Undefined scope: If all I have is a vague idea, I don’t know what “done” even looks like. Am I building a basic prototype? A polished product? What features must it have on day one, and what can wait until later?
- Endless scope creep: Without clear boundaries, every conversation becomes “Just one more little thing,” and suddenly what was supposed to be a weekend project balloons into months (or years).
2. You’re asking me to invent half the project
- UI/UX design: How should it look and feel? What screens go where? How do users navigate? That’s a specialized discipline all its own.
- Product strategy: Who exactly is this for? Why will they use it? How will you reach those users? If you can’t answer that, I can’t write code that solves a real problem.
- Testing & polish: Code needs testing, bug-fixing, documentation, deployment, maintenance… none of which you’ve accounted for.
3. No incentives, no commitment
- Why me? Great programmers want to work on problems they find meaningful, challenging, or fun—and ideally get compensated for their time. “Just code my idea” won’t light anyone’s fire.
- Who owns it? If I invest weekends or nights building your vision, what do I get? Equity? Pay? Recognition? Without a clear agreement, it’s a recipe for frustration and resentment.
- Long-term support: Apps need updates, server maintenance, user support. If you haven’t thought through who handles that, you’re building technical debt.
4. Real success stories are team sports
- Cross-functional collaboration: The best apps come from teams that include product thinkers, designers, data analysts, marketers—and yes, developers. You can’t outsource half the work and expect a hit.
- Iterate and learn: You start with sketches or clickable wireframes, show them to real people, iterate, then bring in developers to build a minimum viable product. That way, you’re coding something people actually want.
What you can do instead
- Write a one-page spec: Describe the core problem, your ideal user, key features, and success metrics.
- Mock it up: Even hand-drawn sketches of each screen help communicate your vision.
- Validate your idea: Talk to potential users. If they’re excited, you’ve got something to build.
- Find a partner: A developer who’s excited by your clear plan—and who sees a fair path to reward for their effort.
In short: coding is only about 20% of what it takes to launch a successful app. If you can’t show a programmer that you’ve thought through the other 80%, they’ll politely pass—because turning a half-baked idea into a working product is a lot more work (and risk) than it looks.
This response is sort of the issue I keep running into. I’ve already gotten this talk, learned from it, and moved forward. I now have nearly two notebooks detailing every mechanic, mock ups of ui design, animation ideas, sprites, complex dice roll mechanics to engage with tables for content generation, and even a roadmap for the first 15 major updates to assess timeline based on the time it takes to convert to a digital format. I’m not even looking to offload the work, database entries are like 90% of this.
I’m here asking because I don’t know how to do the next part where I find the other 20% of making this happen.
Some constructive criticism? This is info you should have put in OP, it would likely have made the thread more productive.
I got another suggestion, use the game development design to start. This will get all of the foundations of the games design that you just need to implement.
Edit: GDD(Game Design Document) search what it is and what’s the purpose and it will help the most.
I have even bigger aversions to anyone coming with “I have this fully specced Game Design Document”
Why? It’s literally proving that you did the 80%?
“Waterfall process” is a curseword in software development for a reason.
To me it proves the person is thinks that a game can be created without prototyping and iteration. In addition to only doing 10% of the work, they are under the illusion that they have done 80% and completing it is just a rote exercise. They have also overdesigned untested features and mechanics which makes any iteration harder. I’d have to break their thing down and iterate over the parts with them while also explaining this to them.
It’s just double worst.
To be fair tho this is what happens when you get involved with passionate but ignorant people? Where else would people go to get help if you just shut them down? This seems like gatekeeping but maybe there needs to be more context to game development in general? This is about someone who has an idea but no knowledge about implementation.
Three things based on other comments here:
(1) <name of game engine> is free, try that!
Be wary with this. They may be free for students or small deployment situations, but may have increasingly agressive demands as your user base increases in size or your seek some kind of profitability. I wouldn’t panic about, but do make sure to carefully review the licensing terms for ALL tools that you use in your process.
(2) Learning/Tutorials
Depends a bit on how you learn best. Youtube almost always has some good instructional videos. Most of the major tool/engine makers have large libraries of tutorials to draw from as well. Even very experienced programmers routinely have dozens of browser tabs that start from web searches that read “<name of my game engine/platform> how to do <specific thing I want to do>”.
(3) If you look to hire or contract out some of the work, just realize that you will very often only get what you really pay for. Quality work costs more. One option you have is to spend the next year or three doing everything you can yourself. Get as close to complete as you can. Then go to something like Kickstarter and look for completion funds. “Look at how complete the game is. If I can just get a little bit of money, I can hire a professional <whatever> to do that one part that I couldn’t do myself”. This is especially usual for getting access to skills like art, music, voice acting, etc.
Code isn’t that hard to learn, it just looks intimidating trust me.
Gamemaker and unity are free. Anyone can make a game.
Just make it on your own.
You’re absolutely right about the intimidation.
Is there maybe a guide or something that’s more a guide book on common things and less “learn this whole foreign language from scratch”?
There are tutorials that have you build a game to learn the basics and syntax and stuff. Oh, right, if you actually do use GameMaker avoid that drag&drop layout at all costs lol it’s not “easier”
But if you have it all written out already, now you just need to read the manual on whatever development platform you chose and figure out how to make the computer do what you have written. Like, if you want the title screen to have scrolling clouds and a bouncing logo for example, you’ll need to find out how to change the logo sprite’s Y coordinate and the clouds’ X coordinate using the documentation.
Tldr do one of those “my first game” tutorials on whatever platform you chose to get the feel of it.
No. Learning anything is hard. It is important to accept this. There is no special explanation or trick that gives a shortcut to learning.
When people say “learning to code isn’t hard” they are also correct, but they are speaking relatively. Learning to code isn’t hard as learning things go. Compared to playing piano, guitar, doing skateboard tricks, juggling, etc… it’s just practice and focus and reading and watching and practice and time.
You could try hiring someone on Fiverr. There are plenty of freelancers looking to take on work, and they should give you some level of customer service, and set your expectations for what actually needs to be done.
This might seem crazy but maybe try an AI editor like Cursor, Cline or Windsurt.
Even the free versions of Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok and DeepSeek aren’t bad.
Just tell them what you want, attach any drawings you have and make it a web app first.
This may be the easiest option. I’m not against ai for personal use, I’m just worried I may if I do release it people will judge negatively on that.
I would instantly distrust and never go near your app. I am a software engineer with more than two decades of IT experience.
Exactly, and for all we know this could be your dream app as well and you’ll never experience it because my wacky brain can’t seen to retain anything that can’t be copy/paste into a text doc.
because my wacky brain can’t seen to retain anything that can’t be copy/paste into a text doc.
That is not what I said. Vibe coding and using AIs tends to have security issues and not produce the best code.
If you want a professional developer to work on it, you need to put your sales hat on and sell them on the idea (or come up with enough cash to pay outright for someone to do it). It sounds like, based on your response to another poster, you do have a lot of the mechanics, UI/UX design, etc. so you should have a good point from which to pitch.
That’s what he’s trying to do, just doesn’t know where to go for that.
Now that I’m thinking about it I’m surprised there isn’t a dragons den type thing for software development.
Yes. I don’t know where to go either. I was purely giving my opinion on the ai vibe-coding thing.
