This is something that I decided long ago that I was going to do. I will be making a long series of posts about the process I am taking to create a game. Each one will be tagged HTMAG, and will cover some aspect of the process. I hope it will be informational to those who are interested in doing the same thing. I hope to get enough readers that there will be a lot of comments on each post that will add to the discussion.
Step 1 – Have an idea
This isn’t really a hard step. Anyone interested in game development has ideas, and lots of them. Not only is it an idea, they all think that they have the next greatest idea. The difference between them and those who are actually making games is action. Not to stereotype everyone with an idea together, but a massive majority of them (look at ideas forum on GameDev.net for proof) think that if they have an idea, and it is cool enough, that’s enough to get into making games. They think either someone will want to make their game for them, or maybe someone will buy their idea. Those things are possible, but not likely. In fact, the likelihood of those things happening is so small, that 99% (or more) of them will never achieve it.
The brutal truth is: Ideas are like @$$holes: everyone has one and they all stink. This is also the hardest part to swallow for the dreamers out there. Having an idea and dreaming about it is important, but it definitely doesn’t set you apart at all. Your idea is going to change as the game gets made and you learn some things about your audience. So to think that your idea, now, as-is, is the idea is just naive.
Step 2 – Research
Saying you have an idea for an iPhone game isn’t good enough. Everyone and their mother has an idea for an iPhone game right now. What you want to do is research things to narrow down the scope of your idea. This doesn’t just mean researching your audience/player, but also research your market (PC/Console/etc.). Once you have this part decided on, you can then start to research how you are going to make this game. Even for those of you who know about the process of making games, you still want to decide on the language this game is going to be written in, what engine you are are going to use and then what additional middleware/libs you will need. If you aren’t a programmer yourself, you will want to research how to recruit one, because they don’t just grow on trees, afterall 
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If you are experienced, you are going to want to research the market a little deeper so you can measure what your estimated price-point is going to be. Then as you decide what tools you want use, you are going to be able to start putting together a cost for the project. This is an important step if you aren’t planning on using free/open-source to make your whole game.
Step 3 – Choose the right people
Having or not having the right people has the capacity to make or break any game. For Indies, hopefully you have enough contacts that you can choose those you need to involve. If you are a programmer, you can delay this step until after you have a prototype working which uses programmer-art. Most people are not jacks-of-all-trades, so this step will become a major factor, whether now or later.
I will save “Step 4 – Prototyping,” for another (series of) post(s). I am currently prototyping a game I am working on and will be giving updates. I already have 10 videos of my prototype’s progress, but you’ll have to wait for me to build my way there. My next actual post will be about how to start your prototype, which entails selecting an engine/toolset to use.
