Tip #1 can’t be stressed enough, I spent my first year learning courses on coursera and udemy, thinking I’d get into game design once I’m “ready”. That day never came, no matter what I learned I never felt ready yet. Then one day I just started working on my project and said I’d learn new things where I needed to. Honestly doing things this way made me progress faster than any course ever has
Maybe it was easy now with all the courses you took hehe. Seriously though, I'm in the same exact spot where you were taking all those courses and I haven't tried to make 1 game myself. Plus, I've seen this tip being repeated by a lot of game devs so yeah, time to move away from the courses and into the development itself. Thanks for the reassurance!
honestly this is me I have watched so many tutorial in youtube and udemy but when I'm about to make my game I felt I haven't learn enough yet I guess this is a wake up call I need to get my hands dirty if I'm stuck on something I'll just watch tutorial thanks for the great advice
Been in game development at least 14yrs now, I literally lost track. Greatest advice given here is to target a niche and do something special: platformers and zombie games are a dime a dozen. Pick out something unique that's cool, maybe something that no one has done in many years. That's how Stardew Valley blew up on Steam.
True that, a genre of game that has garnered a cult following, for the most part, is an good idea. That's why games like Hollow Knight and AXIOM Verge did so well in the drought of Metroidvania type games. We don't need anymore Survival Horror games, Horror games in general have been getting pumped out from indie devs as of late, Battle Royal games aren't worth the time, and platformers are just everyone's baseline first game to make. Personally, it's hard to figure out what kind of genre to dip into; I'd love to make a RPG that focuses on Weapons and Skills utilizing those weapons, but that's obviously a complex thing to do for a beginner. That, or make a Star Fox inspired rail shooter game; since Nintendo doesn't know how to utilize their IP. But most times, being a beginner, we'd probably venture into just making a platformer or shooter.
@@superresistant0 you probably already have one. There's almost certainly some obscure or lesser-known game you thought was really cool that very few people remember. If not, you probably didn't play a lot of games and haven't been gaming very long.
The tip I see missing from all of these videos is: Take inspiration from *wide* sources. Not just your favorite games. What's the GOOD in the game you otherwise hate? What do you like about that book you just read? How can you incorporate colour like they do in that movie you watched? This is what they mean when they say "Good artists copy, great artists steal". When you steal something you *make it your own*, and if you steal from a diverse set of inspirations, it becomes truly yours.
dissecting and knowing how to extract value from everything, even(or especially) things you dislike, is a legit superpower that helps in every aspect of life
This tip right here There are many games I don't like that much often, but contain very good niche ideas or mechanics sometimes these very ideas I can consider to be game changing if the dev-team that has it were able to fully utilize its potential which sadly isn't and is more of a side gimmick.
@@teratoma. agree this even works in stuff like animation and "finding your artstyle" an example is with storyboard artist, you can grab a frame of your favourite movie, find anchor points like, where's the camera in the room of the movie, where's the characters or the focal point in the frame, what objects are and how they lead your eyes to the focal point you only get good at things like that if you have references, if you steal from whether your favourite movie or from a picture you took, 'cause, that's what imagination is, a lots of ideas you steal from somewhere else to mashed them up and make something new
I have to agree: There is no shame in having the docs open all the time. Memorizing everything isn't what gives you skill. The important skill is knowing where to find the details when you need them.
yes. i haven't been born before the Internet so i don't know how game development before the internet would be like, but i can imagine the developers having three or four bookmarks in the documentation book, and a lot of sticky notes that copy small pieces from that books.
@@sosasees Close -- we tended to make cheat sheets instead! Instead of trying to reference the book all the time or take notes on individual sticky notes, we'd pack a page with as dense of notes as we could read. Important API parameter lists, important memory locations if you're on a platform with memory-mapped registers instead of hardware abstractions, code snippets for important tricks that you didn't have memorized yet... The lucky among us had the manuals in digital form, but the cheat sheets were still super useful. There was even a cottage industry in the mid-80s of publishing notebooks packed with cheat sheet-type information.
I felt something like this. I've been trying to program a game using c++ from scratch(without using any engine) as a beginner to programming and it's insane to remember all the functions of SDL2 and openGL. It took 400 lines of code and all I have is a triangle on the screen. At this point I realised that understanding what you're doing is the main thing and the details can be looked up anywhere.
1) Create a folder. 2) Call it ‘Standard Assets’. 3) Put all your asset store assets in it. 4) DONT use a ‘Resources’ folder (load assets externally) 5) DONT use Unity scenes (load levels as prefabs externally) Wham. Watch your game playtest at lightning speed, and your game folders go from 30GB to 1GB. Unity’s got problems, yeah 🎉
Makes sense to me so you're not importing them into each individual project can you have a standard library of assets is from you know what's in there hopefully.
Imo something that's Extremely underrated, especially for programmers is learning to use programming design patterns early on. Observer pattern is a MUST for game dev with larger projects. Having objects that fire events and other objects that subscribe to them is a much more sustainable way to do things than having a million references in each class to other objects, and it makes your code more modular (each class/game object is its own self contained thing). Singleton and Factory patterns, as well as SOLID principles are also good to look into. Factory less so for Unity since you can use GetComponent to retrieve references for things. If you're using Unity, learn to use Unity events/C# events and you will make your code a lot cleaner and save time on large projects.
@@rytif I mean, it depends on which side of game dev you're doing. I do a lot of tools dev for which design patterns are really useful for keeping things modular, but I understand for more game-facing features or for rendering you might want to squeeze every bit of performance, in which case you might not want a lot of system bloat with extra pieces of indirection. Event driven programming is pretty much baked into every commercial game engine though and doesn't have that much overhead considering the benefits.
Not sure if it's mentioned in this video, but something I feel should be said in every tips video like this: DON'T DO YOUR DREAM PROJECT FIRST You will ruin it, if you don't give up first
YES. definitely, a good approach is to split your dream project into parts, a lot of parts, and make a small game around those parts, BEFORE you make your dream game
I just started with developing, I never had the thought of a "dream game" I just wanted to develop a game, and thats what im doing now. But I have a plan what my game should be like, and thats where im heading at, but my dream lies in becoming a professional gamedevolper and working in a team of other great devs
I disagree. My dream project was a huge open world parkour game, in the end I ended up making a small level-by-level game with a cube bouncing around simple obstacles. However, having something in mind to work towards made me know what I should try to learn and what kind of code is fundamental to know, the project may not have turned out as I first imagined but in the end I'm glad I tried, on looking forward to revisiting my dream game once I'm more experienced
@@trewilliams3044 theoretically you could do that, but you probably will end up with something completely different, a game that isn’t like you envisioned your dream game
I can vouch for Brackeys, man makes every topic fun and interesting. Also, the part about making really small games is so true. People always start with a huge idea without realizing the amount of hours, then give up on it. Just pick something really simple and make a clone of it, nothing helps you learn faster.
If you're new to making games, don't let the marketing section distract you from the first steps. People who start learning game development to make money are going to be disappointed for a long time. Your first few games should be something that you'd like to play yourself. It doesn't have to be unique. It doesn't have to be something anyone else will like. If you enjoy making it, that's all that matters. (EDIT: The video even said this itself earlier on. I'm only talking about the marketing section, so really this is a reminder to people getting started not to forget that this advice isn't meant for you ) Turning game dev into a career is hard. Don't overlap learning how to make a game with learning how to make money on a game. You will only stress yourself out. Find out if you're even going to enjoy the process before you start looking for commercial success.
This guy's tip is by far the most important one. Making games is not a good career, you can make a literal masterpiece and still not sell any copies. It's not worth the time. Make it a hobby at first, see whether you like it or not.
I guess you made a very good point here about developing game and at the same time, Handling TH-cam channel. I’ve been developing for 3years now as a hobbyist game developer an 2years into TH-cam, and sometimes find it tempting to work on develogs. But what I learned is that you don’t need motivation to work, working on what you love in the first place is the motivation for you! Great video!:D
This is almost like a mirrored reflection of my first project, great advice! - one tip id like to mention on organizing your project in general, both code and assets (as I found this a major problem later in development), add assembly definition files (which can also speed up compile times when you make script changes - GameDevGuide and Infallible Code have great videos on setting them up), then group your code into systems and build a centralized "manager" for each system, this way everything can work independently of eachother, and you can more easily offload Update logic to an event and have your systems talk to eachother through their "manager", which can give you a performance boost, and make it easier to track down bugs in your code
Awesome advice, I've just started out learning Unity and love it. My goal is to turn pro Indie game dev and people like you make me realize how possible it it is. The advice is a seriously great motivation to do things right. Oh, and yeah Brackeys is awesome. And a big thumbs up for the Polygon authors, their stuff is fantastic
Yes if you think you might want to add multiplayer / co-op you really should do it from the start, suddenly you have to validate everything your players are saying they are doing along with replicating all the right properties without flooding the network and your animations and simulation has to be on point since players will be doing crazy things that AI just wouldn't / we would give AI a pass on
It's also worth noting for the more intermediate creators that if you're serious about a project, then a lot of the default unity systems are going to need to be rewritten, wrapped, or replaced with other assets that are more tailored for your project. Specifically things like LOD, navmesh, networking (I believe they don't really actually have a networking system atm), character controllers, camera controllers, UI, and the input system.
I definitely didn't realize if I had like sprite import settings I could just click on the little sliders icon in the inspector and save the current preset. Then when you import something else you can just go in the same place and select your saved preset. Thanks for mentioning that.
What A great video, thank you so much for sharing this! One comment - I had a hard time understanding the apps you used for Planning "trello" and "milanote". Trello I had heard of, but after come google searching a few minutes later I discovered you were saying the name "milanote". What I heard was "muknow" ("moo"-"Know", maybe my ears need cleaning, ). Again, a great video, I am going over tkaing lots of notes to help on my beginner Unity JourneY! Yes, I am also using GameMake Studio and starting to use Unity more! :)
One thing i can say is that you are a walking W for adding splitscreen most devs dont do that since mostly everyone plays with friend online mowadays so its cool you went out of your way to add that to your game
I haven't thought about splitscreen local multiplayer in a while. Kinda make me think there could be a cool game concept about single player FPS using splitscreen to see the AI perspective. 1. You are being hunted by AI and you can see from their perspective when they notice footprints, broken branch etc. 2. Your character could be psychic and use nearby enemy to see what is around them, listen to their thoughts or conversation, take control of them to activate switches. 3. Bring back good old fashion screen peeking in online multiplayer game lol.
And once unity upgrade their fu@king audio to support multiple audio listeners... but they will never do it 😆 and that makes split screen 3d games in unity a real pain. And of course other little bugs like with post processing with split screen...
That reminds me a lot of the old Japanese horror games called Siren. You could see through the monsters’ vision at the cost of your own. Cool game. Might be worth looking into for inspiration if you’re interested
10:00 The built in system works just fine with multiple controllers. I used indexing to differentiate the type of controller by pulling its hard coded name form the device then selecting the proper input map and setting that as the current default. It eliminated conflicts and made it accessible to even basic cheap controllers that are mapped as "generic". It really was only a switch statement with the string of the name and the " i " set to its index. And it even works just fine with multiple players. Edit: also multiple controllers triggers not working IS NOT UNITY'S FAULT. its the default map setting its triggers vs sticks to its 3rd/4th axis. The new unity system auto pulls some of the triple a controller maps but not generic ones and auto assigns them. Adding generic input is still on you.
Given how most people don't know how to file taxes and accounting is probably the no.1 general startup skill a game about filing taxes may actually find a niche in the learning space 🤔
Perfect Tips. I also started 2 years ago and I agree with the planning part, It is so hard to plan the game when you already started it. Planning before Starting Game Creation is a very helpful Tip. Thanks.
I think my next mobile game will be about filing taxes 😏 have you seen what's on trending on the app store?? Games like filling a fridge or scooping ice cream. I think I'll make a fortune with this one 😂 great video btw really helpful tips in here!
Great advices. Thanks for posting this video. I'm making a game now in Godot but I'm taking a step back after the first prototype to write a game design document. I think that will be a great help for the future and that will help me list out some of the skills and stuff.
Have watched many videos of this type and a key thing I don't see people saying if they select Unity, is to go through the pathways within Unity for learning. I've been doing this for a few weeks now and my understanding of the application, C# and various key features in the tool are expanding at exponential rates. Each one includes functional projects to grow your skills, not just pure video observations without practical application. Would highly recommend for anyone interested in learning unity.
@@skol45 Unity has a learning section with specific 'courses' called pathways to emphasize certain aspects of unity to learn. Very effective for quick learning.
i am a brand new game dev i just started 3 weeks ago and ive been struggling to grasp certain things so im glad to see theres people out there still helping all the discords i join the poeple are toxic cuz they "know everything"
Good luck, there are a lot of helpful people out there but also a lot of people who think they know everything. Funny thing is most of these elitists won’t ever ship a game because they’re too busy arguing about game engines and programming languages
not a game dev but a programmer and i fully agree with the part about neat code, as i write very messy code that just barely works and is constantly on the edge of collapsing
Another hint: Use chatgpt to create some code to test out stuff as well as for ideas and plans what to start with and of course fixing your not working code.
I only started using Unity recently but I find the newer input system a lot more intuitive and it doesn't make me cringe in pain like the idea of a check for every single input used every single frame does. (Even if that may in fact be how it works under the hood.)
are you a developer if you are i can give you any unity project or asset that is on my chanel for a very cheap price that we end up with after bargaining there is no one on youtube doing this and it would be with proofs and have a refund policy to if you have a better excuse
That last point about multiplayer is the most important. I joined a unity discord server and asked about multiplayer thinking “ok I’ll add it at the end since it will probably e the hardest thing to implement” thankfully someone set me straight before I had done too much with my game and I was able to add netcode. Apparently multiplayer will change the way you have to code your game. So you’d probably have to scrap years of code and rewrite it if you save it till the end. Plus if you plan to release a multiplayer game on consoles they require different code per their specifications to run.🥶 TLDR: if your game will age multiplayer and you want to release on consoles…ADD IT FIRST!
are you a developer if you are i can give you any unity project or asset that is on my chanel for a very cheap price that we end up with after bargaining there is no one on youtube doing this and it would be with proofs and have a refund policy to if you have a better excuse
finally a channel that goes over some of the essential assets to make a game. whenever i see a gamedev channel not talk about this, it's an immediate red flag.
nice video. learned a lot from this. I have an idea of a simple game, and i'd like to get started with unity (i spend 80% of my waking hours coding anyways for work).. this video helped me make my decision
I switched from GameMaker 1 to Godot and I don't regret it. I spent like hours watching a tutorial on how to make a main menu that takes like 5 mins in godot lol. My productivity in Godot immediately increased from like, slow paced sluggish lol-he-hasnt-even-made-an-intro-yet to OH-MY-GOD-IM-ACTUALLY-MAKING-LEVELS-IN-MY-GAME-NOW-AND-NOT-CODING-OBJECTS-FOR-A-ROOM-SYSTEM-THAT-SUCKS-ASS!!!!!!! THANK YOU GODOT!!!!
Probably a bit advance for complete beginners but learning to create structs it very useful. Being able to store and access data in a format that you've created for a specific purpose makes a lot of things much faster and easier. I personally always use it for storing inputs and every input is named how I want it and relevant to the game I'm making. Also instead of trello, Hack n plan is really good and I would say its better suited to game development.
I recommend figuring out how and what you are going to save from the get go makes it easier for you to structure your stuff from the get go instead of having to retrofit a bunch of behaviors later.
An interesting video and I learned something, but not as much as I possibly could have. Does this guy have some kind of aversion to consonants while talking?
thank you. i was like did he say monote or millinote. why he didn't put the names on the video like he did with the Unity assets or the links on the description......
Great, useful, informative - thank you for sharing, I definitely 100% agree with all your suggestions. It took me years to discover, learn and incorporate things like scriptable objects into my projects and now I can't imagine working without them. If only I'd seen your video when I was staring out :) If I may, as tactfully as possible, offer a small suggestion - I think it would greatly widen your potential target audience if you tried talking a bit slower. There are a lot of people who generally understand English quite well, but struggle with fast speech and I am positive it would make it infinitely easier for them if you spoke even a little bit slower :) Anyways thank you again for the great video! I've just discovered your channel but I am already certain I'll visit more often :) Cheers!
I relate HARD to the last two general tips. Multiplayer I added early enough or so I thought - whew that was a painful few months. And input is just a never ending source of pain but that's flight sims for you
The problem with Unity starting out is that it was so easy it created over confidence. My game was half done with no apparent bugs, then a few months later I was several features and most planned enemies because more and more bugs cropped that I just couldn't fix or even figure out where to look for the problem. By that time working on it had taken over my life as a miserable and self-destructive exercise in futility. Since I'd already forked out money to put it on Steam during the over-confidence phase this meant my sucky first Unity game was simultaneously launched and abandoned.
Did a couple of decades as an indie game dev. My tips, a few of which are covered in this vid: - know what you are going to make, for whom, BEFORE you start making it. - make sure you're in the right forest before you spend years chopping wood. Test your ideas before comitting years of work and money to them. Be accountable to real world investors (like your partner or family or friends). Don't live in a silo. - you need a marketing plan BEFORE you ever open up Unity. You need to put together preliminary/mockup marketing materials, Steam Pages, web pages, social media posts BEFORE you start coding. These documents will guide you. Are you running a business or a hobby? - what is the price segment? Who are your competitors? Why is your game different? Why should gamers buy your game? - work out your schedule, how much time you'll take. Then TRIPLE that guess. Seriously. - start in 2D. 3D adds a lot more complexity, a lot more work, requires more experience. - DON'T GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOB. Unless you want to be dirt-poor, drowning in credit-card debt, with depression and sad-panda eyes. - target one platform first. THEN port the game if it's successful. If not successful, learn from your mistakes and move on. Don't waste time on trying to please every platform before you even know if your game is successful. - design for game controllers unless you want your game to be a super-niche PC-gamer only thing. See: are you in business or is it a hobby? You *can* make money from PC-only games, but it greatly narrows your options. Also: see STEAM DECK. - IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL NOT COME. Don't fool yourself in to thinking that all you need to do is create brilliance in your artistic garret for 3 years, and then suddenly people will realise your game is genius and you'll be the next indie darling, swimming in cash, getting your own NoClip documentary series. - YOU NEED TO MARKET YOUR GAME. Yes, this includes you, the nerdy dude who hates marketing and just wants to make a game. It especially includes you. You're going to need to get good at marketing or find/hire people who can promote your game. Announcing your game in a few Instagram posts is NOT marketing. You need a complete marketing strategy. And yes, I hate marketing. - you also need LUCK. It would be nice to believe that effort leads to success, but life doesn't work that way. You need a quality product that people know about, plus good fortune. Steam is full of great games -- many of them highly polished gems -- that have never made any money, never received acclaim, never been featured by which streamer is hot right now. Marketing your game helps increase your chances. - when you're 90% done, you've only got 90% to go. Seriously. Most of a game's goodness is in the polish. But remember, you can polish a bad idea, but you're still left with a bad idea. - don't worry about being unique. Don't fret about the competition. If your game is any good, some chopshop will copy it within days anyway. Instead, concentrate on being DISTINCTIVE. Give people a reason to care about your game. And if you don't have competitors then you're probably in a really bad market segment. Good luck.
" DON'T GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOB. Unless you want to be dirt-poor, drowning in credit-card debt, with depression and sad-panda eyes" Depression and sad panda eyes LOLOL
Yes, multiplayer should be made from the start. I'm more of a solo player, but MMORPGs is where the money is at. I am focusing on making a single player game as my 1st project, then I plan to tackle MMOs. MMOs are especially profitable if they have a monthly subscription. If you do the math on what the most played MMOs earn per subscriber, it is something like $15 x 300,000 = $4,500,000 per month. $4,500,000 x 12 months = $54,000,000 per year. EVE Online has a player base of 9,283,099 currently and they have been in operation for more than 10 years. Back when a subscription was mandatory, it was about $30/mo. You can see why they can now offer the game without a subscription, but they made certain items pay-to-win. WoW has a player base of 120,282,127 with subscription cost of $15/mo. A Game Dev would or should be satisfied with a few 1,000 player base at $3-$5/mo subscription.
Great content, man. Although I found it hard to understand what you were saying at times. Honest feedback, you could pronounce better and your vids would be 10x better.
I kinda hate it when people say “just make games” like there is literally so much that goes into making one, so many places to start, so many ways of going about it and it can get very overwhelming very quick for someone with little to no guidance. Telling someone to just start making games and figure it out is probably some of the worst advice to give to someone imo
At 7:10 you talk about the planner program, I would like to review it, but I don't know if I'm hearing it wrong, but I can't find it for the life of me. Could you just type the name of the site?
Tip #1 can’t be stressed enough, I spent my first year learning courses on coursera and udemy, thinking I’d get into game design once I’m “ready”. That day never came, no matter what I learned I never felt ready yet. Then one day I just started working on my project and said I’d learn new things where I needed to. Honestly doing things this way made me progress faster than any course ever has
Thanks, thanks a lot.
@@Azerty72200 Thanks a lot Rachael
Maybe it was easy now with all the courses you took hehe. Seriously though, I'm in the same exact spot where you were taking all those courses and I haven't tried to make 1 game myself. Plus, I've seen this tip being repeated by a lot of game devs so yeah, time to move away from the courses and into the development itself.
Thanks for the reassurance!
honestly this is me I have watched so many tutorial in youtube and udemy but when I'm about to make my game I felt I haven't learn enough yet I guess this is a wake up call I need to get my hands dirty if I'm stuck on something I'll just watch tutorial thanks for the great advice
I will start today.
Been in game development at least 14yrs now, I literally lost track. Greatest advice given here is to target a niche and do something special: platformers and zombie games are a dime a dozen. Pick out something unique that's cool, maybe something that no one has done in many years. That's how Stardew Valley blew up on Steam.
Vampire Survivors is a perfect example, too. Super simple, super fun, extremely popular.
True that, a genre of game that has garnered a cult following, for the most part, is an good idea. That's why games like Hollow Knight and AXIOM Verge did so well in the drought of Metroidvania type games. We don't need anymore Survival Horror games, Horror games in general have been getting pumped out from indie devs as of late, Battle Royal games aren't worth the time, and platformers are just everyone's baseline first game to make.
Personally, it's hard to figure out what kind of genre to dip into; I'd love to make a RPG that focuses on Weapons and Skills utilizing those weapons, but that's obviously a complex thing to do for a beginner. That, or make a Star Fox inspired rail shooter game; since Nintendo doesn't know how to utilize their IP. But most times, being a beginner, we'd probably venture into just making a platformer or shooter.
@@superresistant0 you probably already have one. There's almost certainly some obscure or lesser-known game you thought was really cool that very few people remember. If not, you probably didn't play a lot of games and haven't been gaming very long.
I tried to copy an existing game just to learn how it all worked , and with those skills I can make new , non copied ideas.
@@BigEvy a valid theory. Different people learn differently, but that works for many. 👌
The tip I see missing from all of these videos is: Take inspiration from *wide* sources. Not just your favorite games. What's the GOOD in the game you otherwise hate? What do you like about that book you just read? How can you incorporate colour like they do in that movie you watched?
This is what they mean when they say "Good artists copy, great artists steal". When you steal something you *make it your own*, and if you steal from a diverse set of inspirations, it becomes truly yours.
dissecting and knowing how to extract value from everything, even(or especially) things you dislike, is a legit superpower that helps in every aspect of life
This tip right here
There are many games I don't like that much often, but contain very good niche ideas or mechanics sometimes these very ideas I can consider to be game changing if the dev-team that has it were able to fully utilize its potential which sadly isn't and is more of a side gimmick.
@@teratoma. agree this even works in stuff like animation and "finding your artstyle"
an example is with storyboard artist, you can grab a frame of your favourite movie, find anchor points like, where's the camera in the room of the movie, where's the characters or the focal point in the frame, what objects are and how they lead your eyes to the focal point
you only get good at things like that if you have references, if you steal from whether your favourite movie or from a picture you took, 'cause, that's what imagination is, a lots of ideas you steal from somewhere else to mashed them up and make something new
I have to agree: There is no shame in having the docs open all the time. Memorizing everything isn't what gives you skill. The important skill is knowing where to find the details when you need them.
yes. i haven't been born before the Internet so i don't know how game development before the internet would be like,
but i can imagine the developers having three or four bookmarks in the documentation book, and a lot of sticky notes that copy small pieces from that books.
@@sosasees Close -- we tended to make cheat sheets instead! Instead of trying to reference the book all the time or take notes on individual sticky notes, we'd pack a page with as dense of notes as we could read. Important API parameter lists, important memory locations if you're on a platform with memory-mapped registers instead of hardware abstractions, code snippets for important tricks that you didn't have memorized yet... The lucky among us had the manuals in digital form, but the cheat sheets were still super useful. There was even a cottage industry in the mid-80s of publishing notebooks packed with cheat sheet-type information.
there is no shame in having stackoverflow open the whole time either
I felt something like this. I've been trying to program a game using c++ from scratch(without using any engine) as a beginner to programming and it's insane to remember all the functions of SDL2 and openGL. It took 400 lines of code and all I have is a triangle on the screen. At this point I realised that understanding what you're doing is the main thing and the details can be looked up anywhere.
Who said its shameful to have docs open though?
1) Create a folder.
2) Call it ‘Standard Assets’.
3) Put all your asset store assets in it.
4) DONT use a ‘Resources’ folder (load assets externally)
5) DONT use Unity scenes (load levels as prefabs externally)
Wham. Watch your game playtest at lightning speed, and your game folders go from 30GB to 1GB.
Unity’s got problems, yeah 🎉
could you explain that a little further, why do you have to do that? Or do you have any sort of video for that?
ok but why? dont explain something if you dont say why
How you gonna say that and not elaborate?
Elaborate pls
Makes sense to me so you're not importing them into each individual project can you have a standard library of assets is from you know what's in there hopefully.
Imo something that's Extremely underrated, especially for programmers is learning to use programming design patterns early on. Observer pattern is a MUST for game dev with larger projects. Having objects that fire events and other objects that subscribe to them is a much more sustainable way to do things than having a million references in each class to other objects, and it makes your code more modular (each class/game object is its own self contained thing). Singleton and Factory patterns, as well as SOLID principles are also good to look into. Factory less so for Unity since you can use GetComponent to retrieve references for things. If you're using Unity, learn to use Unity events/C# events and you will make your code a lot cleaner and save time on large projects.
Great tip, thanks
These are some wonderful tips! Event-based programming is something I want to try with scriptable objects.
Very useful tip
@@rytif I mean, it depends on which side of game dev you're doing. I do a lot of tools dev for which design patterns are really useful for keeping things modular, but I understand for more game-facing features or for rendering you might want to squeeze every bit of performance, in which case you might not want a lot of system bloat with extra pieces of indirection. Event driven programming is pretty much baked into every commercial game engine though and doesn't have that much overhead considering the benefits.
Not sure if it's mentioned in this video, but something I feel should be said in every tips video like this:
DON'T DO YOUR DREAM PROJECT FIRST
You will ruin it, if you don't give up first
YES. definitely, a good approach is to split your dream project into parts, a lot of parts, and make a small game around those parts, BEFORE you make your dream game
I just started with developing, I never had the thought of a "dream game" I just wanted to develop a game, and thats what im doing now.
But I have a plan what my game should be like, and thats where im heading at, but my dream lies in becoming a professional gamedevolper and working in a team of other great devs
I disagree. My dream project was a huge open world parkour game, in the end I ended up making a small level-by-level game with a cube bouncing around simple obstacles. However, having something in mind to work towards made me know what I should try to learn and what kind of code is fundamental to know, the project may not have turned out as I first imagined but in the end I'm glad I tried, on looking forward to revisiting my dream game once I'm more experienced
What is the logic behind not doing your dream project first? If it's trash the first time, why not just keep working on it until it's great?
@@trewilliams3044 theoretically you could do that, but you probably will end up with something completely different, a game that isn’t like you envisioned your dream game
I can vouch for Brackeys, man makes every topic fun and interesting. Also, the part about making really small games is so true. People always start with a huge idea without realizing the amount of hours, then give up on it. Just pick something really simple and make a clone of it, nothing helps you learn faster.
If you're new to making games, don't let the marketing section distract you from the first steps. People who start learning game development to make money are going to be disappointed for a long time. Your first few games should be something that you'd like to play yourself. It doesn't have to be unique. It doesn't have to be something anyone else will like. If you enjoy making it, that's all that matters. (EDIT: The video even said this itself earlier on. I'm only talking about the marketing section, so really this is a reminder to people getting started not to forget that this advice isn't meant for you )
Turning game dev into a career is hard. Don't overlap learning how to make a game with learning how to make money on a game. You will only stress yourself out. Find out if you're even going to enjoy the process before you start looking for commercial success.
I make bank off iOS games
@@OKayD3N Is it truly easy to make simple IOS/Android games with IAPs and Ads and make decent money?
This guy's tip is by far the most important one. Making games is not a good career, you can make a literal masterpiece and still not sell any copies. It's not worth the time. Make it a hobby at first, see whether you like it or not.
Damn it has already been 2 years. I remember watching the first devlog like it was last week. I wish you good luck on your future journey
I guess you made a very good point here about developing game and at the same time, Handling TH-cam channel. I’ve been developing for 3years now as a hobbyist game developer an 2years into TH-cam, and sometimes find it tempting to work on develogs. But what I learned is that you don’t need motivation to work, working on what you love in the first place is the motivation for you! Great video!:D
This is almost like a mirrored reflection of my first project, great advice! - one tip id like to mention on organizing your project in general, both code and assets (as I found this a major problem later in development), add assembly definition files (which can also speed up compile times when you make script changes - GameDevGuide and Infallible Code have great videos on setting them up), then group your code into systems and build a centralized "manager" for each system, this way everything can work independently of eachother, and you can more easily offload Update logic to an event and have your systems talk to eachother through their "manager", which can give you a performance boost, and make it easier to track down bugs in your code
cant wait to play your game with my friends, it looks really fun :)
Awesome advice, I've just started out learning Unity and love it. My goal is to turn pro Indie game dev and people like you make me realize how possible it it is. The advice is a seriously great motivation to do things right. Oh, and yeah Brackeys is awesome. And a big thumbs up for the Polygon authors, their stuff is fantastic
These are some really good tips. Marketing is the one that I need to focus on the most. Keep it up! :)
Yes if you think you might want to add multiplayer / co-op you really should do it from the start, suddenly you have to validate everything your players are saying they are doing along with replicating all the right properties without flooding the network and your animations and simulation has to be on point since players will be doing crazy things that AI just wouldn't / we would give AI a pass on
You should be testing MS of almost everything from the start too.
Programming animations from hand is faster than the animator and more debuggable.
It's also worth noting for the more intermediate creators that if you're serious about a project, then a lot of the default unity systems are going to need to be rewritten, wrapped, or replaced with other assets that are more tailored for your project. Specifically things like LOD, navmesh, networking (I believe they don't really actually have a networking system atm), character controllers, camera controllers, UI, and the input system.
And this is exactly how the pro studios "use Unity". They actually kind of don't.
@@halfbakedproductions7887 I guess that makes sense lol, it's pretty much a very convenient wrapper for rendering and physics.
@@halfbakedproductions7887 It’s like Windows basically.
Also, if you expand you can trust the giants like Microsoft less
I definitely didn't realize if I had like sprite import settings I could just click on the little sliders icon in the inspector and save the current preset. Then when you import something else you can just go in the same place and select your saved preset. Thanks for mentioning that.
Can you explain that more? I didn't really get what they were saying in t he video :/
Wtf are you talking about
What A great video, thank you so much for sharing this!
One comment - I had a hard time understanding the apps you used for Planning "trello" and "milanote". Trello I had heard of, but after come google searching a few minutes later I discovered you were saying the name "milanote". What I heard was "muknow" ("moo"-"Know", maybe my ears need cleaning, ).
Again, a great video, I am going over tkaing lots of notes to help on my beginner Unity JourneY! Yes, I am also using GameMake Studio and starting to use Unity more! :)
Nothing is wasted. You have gained lots of important experience that will help you in the future.
100% agreed on the input and multiplayer suggestion at the end. good tips! And the official unity docs are invaluable!
One thing i can say is that you are a walking W for adding splitscreen most devs dont do that since mostly everyone plays with friend online mowadays so its cool you went out of your way to add that to your game
Thanks a lot bro. You're saved my years with this video.
I haven't thought about splitscreen local multiplayer in a while. Kinda make me think there could be a cool game concept about single player FPS using splitscreen to see the AI perspective.
1. You are being hunted by AI and you can see from their perspective when they notice footprints, broken branch etc.
2. Your character could be psychic and use nearby enemy to see what is around them, listen to their thoughts or conversation, take control of them to activate switches.
3. Bring back good old fashion screen peeking in online multiplayer game lol.
And once unity upgrade their fu@king audio to support multiple audio listeners... but they will never do it 😆 and that makes split screen 3d games in unity a real pain. And of course other little bugs like with post processing with split screen...
That reminds me a lot of the old Japanese horror games called Siren. You could see through the monsters’ vision at the cost of your own. Cool game. Might be worth looking into for inspiration if you’re interested
10:00 The built in system works just fine with multiple controllers. I used indexing to differentiate the type of controller by pulling its hard coded name form the device then selecting the proper input map and setting that as the current default. It eliminated conflicts and made it accessible to even basic cheap controllers that are mapped as "generic". It really was only a switch statement with the string of the name and the " i " set to its index. And it even works just fine with multiple players.
Edit: also multiple controllers triggers not working IS NOT UNITY'S FAULT. its the default map setting its triggers vs sticks to its 3rd/4th axis. The new unity system auto pulls some of the triple a controller maps but not generic ones and auto assigns them. Adding generic input is still on you.
Thanks for all the great videos! I can't wait for Couch Combat to come out!😁
How many ads can you fit into one video?
Levin: Yes.
Still got very valuable take-aways for new gamedevs, I appreciate it.
Given how most people don't know how to file taxes and accounting is probably the no.1 general startup skill a game about filing taxes may actually find a niche in the learning space 🤔
Love the Unity Tips section!
Thanks for including my video on behavior trees :)
Great insight mate! Look forward to the multiplayer DevLog, hope development goes well!
The Unity forum is everything!
Perfect Tips. I also started 2 years ago and I agree with the planning part, It is so hard to plan the game when you already started it. Planning before Starting Game Creation is a very helpful Tip. Thanks.
I think my next mobile game will be about filing taxes 😏 have you seen what's on trending on the app store?? Games like filling a fridge or scooping ice cream. I think I'll make a fortune with this one 😂 great video btw really helpful tips in here!
Why is this video is just an ad with content sprinkled in between?
Epic Asset Store segment (and tips) tbh 😳 all of those products look really useful
Great advices. Thanks for posting this video.
I'm making a game now in Godot but I'm taking a step back after the first prototype to write a game design document.
I think that will be a great help for the future and that will help me list out some of the skills and stuff.
Have watched many videos of this type and a key thing I don't see people saying if they select Unity, is to go through the pathways within Unity for learning. I've been doing this for a few weeks now and my understanding of the application, C# and various key features in the tool are expanding at exponential rates. Each one includes functional projects to grow your skills, not just pure video observations without practical application. Would highly recommend for anyone interested in learning unity.
what exactly do you mean?
@@skol45 Unity has a learning section with specific 'courses' called pathways to emphasize certain aspects of unity to learn. Very effective for quick learning.
@@brandonreames4121 thanks alot
i am a brand new game dev i just started 3 weeks ago and ive been struggling to grasp certain things so im glad to see theres people out there still helping all the discords i join the poeple are toxic cuz they "know everything"
Good luck, there are a lot of helpful people out there but also a lot of people who think they know everything. Funny thing is most of these elitists won’t ever ship a game because they’re too busy arguing about game engines and programming languages
@@ButWhyLevin well said lol!
I'm about to start learning..wanna give me your discord? Let's learn together?
@@kyuuslash7755 same
Awesome video!! Game looks great And thanks for the shoutout 😁
Really nice tips! I don't love Twitter also but I can def see how useful it is
not a game dev but a programmer and i fully agree with the part about neat code, as i write very messy code that just barely works and is constantly on the edge of collapsing
super helpful, wishlisted several of those assets. thanks man
Another hint:
Use chatgpt to create some code to test out stuff as well as for ideas and plans what to start with and of course fixing your not working code.
9:00 Didn't expect the Zelda: Spirit Tracks soundtrack here but this is awesome!
Easy camera shake! 🔥🔥🔥🍻 I'll be going back through everything in this tutorial thanks man
I just got used to use the Scriptable Objects. Indeed very useful. I can even avoid using enums with them, if I want.
Great tip on just making games, it is certainly the best way to begin
I only started using Unity recently but I find the newer input system a lot more intuitive and it doesn't make me cringe in pain like the idea of a check for every single input used every single frame does. (Even if that may in fact be how it works under the hood.)
are you a developer if you are i can give you any unity project or asset that is on my chanel for a very cheap price that we end up with after bargaining there is no one on youtube doing this and it would be with proofs and have a refund policy to if you have a better excuse
Where did that bodyboarding footage come from? That was sick!
mobile.twitter.com/rootpilot
That last point about multiplayer is the most important. I joined a unity discord server and asked about multiplayer thinking “ok I’ll add it at the end since it will probably e the hardest thing to implement” thankfully someone set me straight before I had done too much with my game and I was able to add netcode.
Apparently multiplayer will change the way you have to code your game. So you’d probably have to scrap years of code and rewrite it if you save it till the end. Plus if you plan to release a multiplayer game on consoles they require different code per their specifications to run.🥶
TLDR: if your game will age multiplayer and you want to release on consoles…ADD IT FIRST!
are you a developer if you are i can give you any unity project or asset that is on my chanel for a very cheap price that we end up with after bargaining there is no one on youtube doing this and it would be with proofs and have a refund policy to if you have a better excuse
finally a channel that goes over some of the essential assets to make a game.
whenever i see a gamedev channel not talk about this, it's an immediate red flag.
nice video. learned a lot from this. I have an idea of a simple game, and i'd like to get started with unity (i spend 80% of my waking hours coding anyways for work).. this video helped me make my decision
I accidentally found your channel and you are awesome !!
That body boarding game looks like a lot of fun!
already uploaded and i feel soo good
I switched from GameMaker 1 to Godot and I don't regret it. I spent like hours watching a tutorial on how to make a main menu that takes like 5 mins in godot lol. My productivity in Godot immediately increased from like, slow paced sluggish lol-he-hasnt-even-made-an-intro-yet to OH-MY-GOD-IM-ACTUALLY-MAKING-LEVELS-IN-MY-GAME-NOW-AND-NOT-CODING-OBJECTS-FOR-A-ROOM-SYSTEM-THAT-SUCKS-ASS!!!!!!!
THANK YOU GODOT!!!!
wow, need to watch it on 0.5x speed
thank u for the vid
10/10 video as always
Thanks a lot.
ENUNCIATION
e·nun′ci·a′tion
To pronounce; articulate.
Probably a bit advance for complete beginners but learning to create structs it very useful. Being able to store and access data in a format that you've created for a specific purpose makes a lot of things much faster and easier. I personally always use it for storing inputs and every input is named how I want it and relevant to the game I'm making.
Also instead of trello, Hack n plan is really good and I would say its better suited to game development.
ty for the video man!
Thanks for sharing your experience 👍
Neat tips here! I definitely think marketing on twitter and youtube is such a big element to get your games out there.
this was really insightfull
Great Video!
This man said ez camera shake, that's this first setting I turn off in a game 😆
I've never thought someone could make an entire sentence sound like one word. My man sounded like he was about to run out of air.
I recommend figuring out how and what you are going to save from the get go makes it easier for you to structure your stuff from the get go instead of having to retrofit a bunch of behaviors later.
An interesting video and I learned something, but not as much as I possibly could have.
Does this guy have some kind of aversion to consonants while talking?
You should be linking any tools you mention that your using in the video description. took me a little while to find "Milanote"
thank you. i was like did he say monote or millinote. why he didn't put the names on the video like he did with the Unity assets or the links on the description......
The name wasn't in the video and I had no idea how to spell it so I had to search the comments. Thanks.
lol thanks, I just posted a comment asking about that. I thought he said mulunu.
Great, useful, informative - thank you for sharing, I definitely 100% agree with all your suggestions. It took me years to discover, learn and incorporate things like scriptable objects into my projects and now I can't imagine working without them. If only I'd seen your video when I was staring out :)
If I may, as tactfully as possible, offer a small suggestion - I think it would greatly widen your potential target audience if you tried talking a bit slower. There are a lot of people who generally understand English quite well, but struggle with fast speech and I am positive it would make it infinitely easier for them if you spoke even a little bit slower :)
Anyways thank you again for the great video! I've just discovered your channel but I am already certain I'll visit more often :)
Cheers!
soon i will upload my first devlog wish me luck also big respect
Good luck!
I relate HARD to the last two general tips. Multiplayer I added early enough or so I thought - whew that was a painful few months.
And input is just a never ending source of pain but that's flight sims for you
The problem with Unity starting out is that it was so easy it created over confidence. My game was half done with no apparent bugs, then a few months later I was several features and most planned enemies because more and more bugs cropped that I just couldn't fix or even figure out where to look for the problem. By that time working on it had taken over my life as a miserable and self-destructive exercise in futility. Since I'd already forked out money to put it on Steam during the over-confidence phase this meant my sucky first Unity game was simultaneously launched and abandoned.
Does it cost a lot to put a game on steam?
Less than a year later and you've doubled your audience. Keep going mate.
One suggestion I would make is to speak a little more slowly. :D
Programming is just so damn cool! I’m new to it but am fascinated with it
You listen to Hopes and Dreams in a GameDev video. You are filled with Determination.
nice giant advert
Im slowly coming to terms with the fact that im just going through this uphill battle and it makes me want to just give up .
I very much relate with the multiplayer bit. I LOST A MONTH OF WORK
Good!. I've only been a month, you save me.
Did a couple of decades as an indie game dev.
My tips, a few of which are covered in this vid:
- know what you are going to make, for whom, BEFORE you start making it.
- make sure you're in the right forest before you spend years chopping wood. Test your ideas before comitting years of work and money to them. Be accountable to real world investors (like your partner or family or friends). Don't live in a silo.
- you need a marketing plan BEFORE you ever open up Unity. You need to put together preliminary/mockup marketing materials, Steam Pages, web pages, social media posts BEFORE you start coding. These documents will guide you. Are you running a business or a hobby?
- what is the price segment? Who are your competitors? Why is your game different? Why should gamers buy your game?
- work out your schedule, how much time you'll take. Then TRIPLE that guess. Seriously.
- start in 2D. 3D adds a lot more complexity, a lot more work, requires more experience.
- DON'T GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOB. Unless you want to be dirt-poor, drowning in credit-card debt, with depression and sad-panda eyes.
- target one platform first. THEN port the game if it's successful. If not successful, learn from your mistakes and move on. Don't waste time on trying to please every platform before you even know if your game is successful.
- design for game controllers unless you want your game to be a super-niche PC-gamer only thing. See: are you in business or is it a hobby? You *can* make money from PC-only games, but it greatly narrows your options.
Also: see STEAM DECK.
- IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL NOT COME. Don't fool yourself in to thinking that all you need to do is create brilliance in your artistic garret for 3 years, and then suddenly people will realise your game is genius and you'll be the next indie darling, swimming in cash, getting your own NoClip documentary series.
- YOU NEED TO MARKET YOUR GAME. Yes, this includes you, the nerdy dude who hates marketing and just wants to make a game. It especially includes you. You're going to need to get good at marketing or find/hire people who can promote your game. Announcing your game in a few Instagram posts is NOT marketing. You need a complete marketing strategy. And yes, I hate marketing.
- you also need LUCK. It would be nice to believe that effort leads to success, but life doesn't work that way. You need a quality product that people know about, plus good fortune. Steam is full of great games -- many of them highly polished gems -- that have never made any money, never received acclaim, never been featured by which streamer is hot right now. Marketing your game helps increase your chances.
- when you're 90% done, you've only got 90% to go. Seriously. Most of a game's goodness is in the polish. But remember, you can polish a bad idea, but you're still left with a bad idea.
- don't worry about being unique. Don't fret about the competition. If your game is any good, some chopshop will copy it within days anyway. Instead, concentrate on being DISTINCTIVE. Give people a reason to care about your game. And if you don't have competitors then you're probably in a really bad market segment.
Good luck.
" DON'T GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOB. Unless you want to be dirt-poor, drowning in credit-card debt, with depression and sad-panda eyes" Depression and sad panda eyes LOLOL
Thanks for the tips
This is helping alot
I was so focused on finals that I missed the Spring sale... at least I am graduated now and can start working on my games full sale.
Great advices, thanks for sharing :)
Unity's Particle System makes me go Y E S .
had to check to be sure the playback speed was still Normal. Hard to understand at times.
i like how fast you talk for the video
Yes, multiplayer should be made from the start. I'm more of a solo player, but MMORPGs is where the money is at. I am focusing on making a single player game as my 1st project, then I plan to tackle MMOs. MMOs are especially profitable if they have a monthly subscription. If you do the math on what the most played MMOs earn per subscriber, it is something like $15 x 300,000 = $4,500,000 per month. $4,500,000 x 12 months = $54,000,000 per year.
EVE Online has a player base of 9,283,099 currently and they have been in operation for more than 10 years. Back when a subscription was mandatory, it was about $30/mo. You can see why they can now offer the game without a subscription, but they made certain items pay-to-win.
WoW has a player base of 120,282,127 with subscription cost of $15/mo.
A Game Dev would or should be satisfied with a few 1,000 player base at $3-$5/mo subscription.
What is the game that starts at 8:12? I love that art style.
Hyper light drifter
@@ButWhyLevin Much Appreciated
Hmm. I couldn't figure out what you were saying at first when you started talking about Milanote. Closed captioning wasn't much help either.
Levin, what Moodboard do you use? May you share, please?
Milanote
Great video and good advice :)
PS: I'd like to suggest you to slow down a bit when talking, I've had a hard time understanding you sometimes :/
Great content, man. Although I found it hard to understand what you were saying at times. Honest feedback, you could pronounce better and your vids would be 10x better.
I kinda hate it when people say “just make games” like there is literally so much that goes into making one, so many places to start, so many ways of going about it and it can get very overwhelming very quick for someone with little to no guidance. Telling someone to just start making games and figure it out is probably some of the worst advice to give to someone imo
At 7:10 you talk about the planner program, I would like to review it, but I don't know if I'm hearing it wrong, but I can't find it for the life of me. Could you just type the name of the site?
It’s called Milanote
Thank you very much
Just got into this stuff, I don't care if people buy my game, or even play tbh, I just want to make something fun
I like this game keep going strong even game dev is hard