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Your videos are always so helpful! In November/December I'm going to publish my first big game on Steam and I'm super excited! I started it last year during my masters and now I decided to improve it and publish it! I was lucky enough to have the game tested by students from several schools in Portugal and the feedback has been very good! I just have to thank you for the immense help your videos have given me during the development of my game! I'm now worried about making a good Steam page for the game and trying to think of a good marketing strategy. Let's see how it goes!
I recently launched my first Steam game during the Steam Stealth Fest last month, and your advice here was exactly my thoughts when going through that process! I knew launching the game during the fest would boost my player counts and I was indeed correct. In just 2 weeks nearly 15k people downloaded my game (free to play VR game)! After release I was getting great feedback from both let's plays and reviews, and I even started a Discord that people have been joining to offer feedback and suggestions. I learned a lot from the whole experience, and I definitely owe it to you and others here on TH-cam.
@@VolodymyrHaleshchuk Thanks! I had a handful of videos and my Steam page was live in the Coming Soon state for about a year or so, but otherwise all the growth was organic, likely due to how Steam shares new games + the Stealth Fest boosting it got.
My dayjob is teaching kids game dev (middle-school). Disappointement time for them is often not being able to make the game they dream about. But as soon as they get a sprite running around in Construct, man oh man, you can see their faces glowing. From that point on, it's smooth sailing, but it's a big part of my job to temper their initial expectations.
I occasionally TA or speak to my grad advisor's game dev & design class for junior/senior undergrads. Same issues :) If she didn't give them defined milestones, and make them submit & present their ideas throughout, the students would def try to make BotW in a semester 😅
heh I remember when I first encountered programming, when I first wrote some simple code to tell a chat bot what to reply, it felt magical to be able to tell the computer what to do!
Save system and localization shouldn't be "the last step" because by then, you will have to rework so much to fit it. Sometimes save system demands reworking internals, and it can be very useful tool for testing, especially in longer games. You can't rely on cheat jumps, select stages, loading scenes directly. It -can- will hide bugs and doesn't give a proper feel of balance. It also gives a good framework to prepare for specific scenarios that you know are bug prone. And with localization, you often need to rethink how to display texts, messages, etc., many of your text scripts, text effects will not fit common localization methods, and many languages will require additional scripting. For example, if you have text created from many parts, like weapon name in bold, it's cost and some info, with cost incrementing from 0 to full number, you will need to rework it all if you just hardcode it. It's a great idea to just make some test projects to check out how to make localization how with effects and uses you want and with save system. And with save system try it with game that you need to save data of all non static objects on map, like rpg that can have broken chests, loot dropped, monsters defeated. And keep in mind persistent and temporary data (persistent like your character data, and temporary like loot dropped in dungeon that can be wiped out as soon as you leave it) and how to handle persistent data between scenes. At least if you are gonna use more complex save system. Plus, if you want to ship it to different platforms, learn what they use. For example on consoles you may have save everything into one save, which is terrible for PC saves, so better build the system flexible enough to handle both, especially if you envision that you will not make save wipes and make saves transferable between platforms.
I published my first game in March. I happened to follow all of these steps naturally, lol. It was a super simple and short game, took me about a month to make. To date I’ve made $62 (net, which means I haven’t made anything since Steam doesn’t pay you til you net $100) Working on my second game, and I think I need to relearn these lessons, they are still valuable for your second, third, fourth….😂
Using what I learned from your courses I was able to develop and release my first game on Itch and considered it done from a learning perspective, but I'm wondering if I'm missing out on learning the marketing side of things by not doing a full Steam release?
It’s been quite some time since you made one of those "How it’s made" videos. Those are very educational, teaching how to make a certain mechanic. Especially coming from you, i really like how you use clean code and not just one of those "very basic" "how to do this" tutorials. As always, we appreciate the work you do, it has been very helpful for a lot of people, including myself. So thank you, and looking forward for future content! Good luck!
Yeah I really like that format and wish I could do more but sadly those videos don't do well at all in terms of views while being some of the most difficult ones to make. I've been experimenting with a more high level overview video instead of step by step tutorial so I will try out a similar format in the future
What a great breakdown, appreciate the practical marketing and production breakdowns! In my experience, things always take longer than initially anticipated, so being okay with it taking longer or planning a time buffer might be a good idea too.
damn these humble bundles are something else. From a previous bundle i already had the sci-fi characters vol 2 and a package called 3D sci-fi kit Vol 3.. between those two assets i am creating a big project for a while now and i never really though i would need any more assets. However now that the sci-fi characters vol 1 is available at that price i couldn't resists and just picked it up for future usage.
Thank You for sharing your thoughts and Practical Plan. 💯👍🏻 I will keep this video close & rewatch. I feel very confident about technical Game Dev stuff itself; what I feel I need to study more is about Marketing... 😅 (and it's a whole complete different Field, they didn't teach me much about it during my studies in college - Software Engineering. - It's like asking an Artist to become a good Salesman, there's a Learning Curve to patiently follow...).
I'm in the process of making my first game after doing your visual scripting course. I've found a (I believe suitable) game jam where I will submit it by the end of the month. It's nothing spectacular, just a mouse in a maze, but it's become a nice exercise so far
In order to officially participate you need to register, right now registration for the October festival is already closed But if you're just making a learning project you can release a Demo whenever you want
Your course really helped me to learn the basics . I took the game we built during the course and changed completely to my own game with my own style and mechanics( made it first person too lol). For now the progress is pretty good , made my npc system work along with the ordering system. Only things left are to create multiple recipes for the game I made and add more features such as money system and more. Hopefully by Oct I can release a demo of this game.
I actually got into making games just about 2 months ago because I realized I needed a game for a specific goal and suddenly I was knee deep in the unity trenches lol. Your videos have been very helpful and I feel like I shouldn't be this good at it so early on 😂 so thank you for that. I would love to hear your thoughts on my game if you ever feel up to it. I'm not sure how I'd go about reaching out to you so I'll leave it up to you if you'd like to hit me up.
I'm working on a blind accessible virtual pet game. I think I'll make this my first project I upload to Steam. 😊 Even though it's blind accessible, I still want sighted people to play so I don't get to be lazy on graphics and polish.
@@filadam7578 It doesn't have a name yet. Here is the latest video I have about it. th-cam.com/video/yQbnMXuAQw4/w-d-xo.html I've added a couple features since then like when you push "p" it now says if the pet wants anything, I've added a pause when you interact with the pet for when I attempt animations, a main menu screen with instructions and sounds, and a pretty skybox from the Surreal Skyboxes pack.
Great video! For me, im torn. Ive made many many many games, and have got a good understanding of documentation and such, but ive never actually published a game. I am currently working on a game, which will take about 1-2 years to make i estimate. Do you think it would be more beneficial to publish one of my older, smaller games first, before i publish my newest game?
Yes definitely, I highly highly advise against spending 1-2 years on your first game. Get some experience first, make some small games before embarking on such a big project
Awesome game plan! I've seen someone in the comments got a successful first launch following that plan it's awesome! As far as I understood you focused only on Unity engine, may I ask why Unity over Unreal ? I'm starting slowly to learn 3d modeling and stuff, and was wondering for later which engine I should focus on. If you could guve insights i'd gladly appreciate it 🙏
Personally I started using Unity because it was the only free option when I started in 2012, and I keep using it because I enjoy it But yes this plan is applicable to any game engine so just use whatever you like
@@CodeMonkeyUnity thanks for taking the time to reply ! Seems fair, I'm still torned between the 2 honestly 🤔🤣 Will have to figure out what's my jam in all of those aspects between 3D in general and game making 🤣 Have a lovely day mate ! 🙏
@@CodeMonkeyUnity yeah i understand. but some general tips from an experience dev will be quite helpful. Looking forward to your more awesome tutorials.🥰
Really glad I found ur channel 😆 I was trying to learn game dev for a long time but was unable to so Working on learning and practise during weekends cause regular IT day job is pretty taxing. Figured after seeing one of my fav manga get cancelled with no ending figured why not make a RPG style game based on that for practise and give it a ending.( Cause I aint getting any younger to do game dev as a hobby later after retiring , nearly 30 now 😓) Already Have a plan and how to proceed on the game , just needed to learn the right tools for the Job which is where u channel had been real helpful. Thank you. On the game : So the basic idea for enemies is they are highly sensitive to sound and smell but are blind , individually weak yet strong but can be beaten but strong in a group kind when stealth needs to be priority. So u have 3 survivors from different paths and physical attributes and training who have to escape from overrun complex inland to Extraction point that is a bit far and on the coastline. Any tips on how to develop a RPG like this that has stealth+action hybrid system? Or am I being unrealistic for beginner and setting myself up for failure?
I think your approach shouldn't be asking for specific advice on how to develop a mechanic. It's better to try to develop them yourself and if you are really stuck then ask for help on specific problem like a line of code or how to make certain thing happen. That's why you should learn the fundamentals of unity and most of all, understand the entire system first.
@@luchinazo my bad , didn't mean it that way like I have no idea of how to implement it and asking for ideas , avoided it cause it would become a bit of a long comment. So the basic idea for enemies is they are highly sensitive to sound and smell but are blind , individually weak yet strong but can be beaten but strong in a group kind when stealth needs to be priority. So u have 3 survivors from different paths and physical attributes and training who have to escape from overrun complex inland to Extraction point that is a bit far and on the coastline. As a starting point , just wanted to know how a experienced dev would approach this idea or was I aiming for too much for a first game that's all. Will add this edit in main comment as well so ppl can get the context and not feel like I am just playing around for lol's.
If that's your first game then that sounds a bit too complex. I would start super simple, just make a basic character movement, then add some enemies, then some attacks, then research Enemy AI and state machines, etc, etc. That idea requires learning a ton of stuff, you can either learn all that as you develop one project, or take each one of those components and build an entire game around it.
My idea was also to play along with the next fest. but bad I was late to party so maybe next in my next game. for now, my focus is to publish my Steam page and learn to collect some wishlists by mid-October a release. yes, it is a short time span but the game is not big. but in the end, I already learn some stuff about making a Steam page and what I need. so next time it will go faster. and besides that, some promotion has given the game some eyeballs. not a ton but already people are aware that you exist.
Nice! Yup the second time will definitely be easier, the Steam backend and all the assets required is a bit intimidating at first but by your second game you'll be used to it
When you start recording "Clap" near the mic, later when you sync the video and audio you can sync that spike visual in audio strip to you hands coming together in video, after sync just trim the clap part and your audio and video will be perfectly synced.
Did you notice any desync? If so that's strange because the camera and vo were both recorded in the same file, I don't separate the audio from the video
@@CodeMonkeyUnity My bad then, I must have been looking too much into it then. Also can i request if not a full tutorial then atleast a short video on how to make data heavy games with data logs, like ur games Game Corp and Battle Royal Tycoon.
Thanks for the great videos on getting games from dev to production. One thing that absolutely terrifies me, is when it comes to areas like Trade Marks and Copyrights, especially for international released games. Do you have any advice or content on what your own thought processed were wrt your own games on steam? Do you think that Tms and Copy right type stuff is important at all when releasing games on steam?
If you are a small/solo dev like me then the answer is just don't worry about it. Unless your game is worth tens of millions of dollars then there's no point in spending time registering marks Even if you do own a trademark and someone else infringes upon it, you will still need to spend money to fight that in court, better to spend all that money/time making better games.
Amazing video, thank you very much ! I would like to ask since I'm really deep in the coding and understanding of the Unity engine and creating games ( currently working on my first game I will be releasing out) I'd love to know where would you recommend learning to create music and 3D objects for visuals for video games design? Is it better to just buy them every time ? Because I would like to create everything from scratch in my game P.S. love your content !
If you (like me) have no interest in 3D modelling and just need visuals, then I recommend just use assets But if you do enjoy 3D modelling and want to learn then there's a ton of content teaching Blender. I believe the channel Blender Guru has a bunch of awesome tutorials And a while ago I did follow a course to learn the basics and managed to learn quite a bit unitycodemonkey.com/video.php?v=95pEfMyhScc
Agreed entirely, I spent my first year cutting my teeth on Unity and C#. I feel as if I have a very very solid understanding of C# as well as a solid understanding of Unity now. I'm going back to learn up on shader graph, but I feel that the last bastion of stuff to learn from Unity is Shader Graph, Multiplayer and the new UI tool kit. On the programming side I'm figuring out procedural patterns now which I believe is going to mark down all the tools I need as a programmer as being behind me once it's done. I can say that I am out of beginner and into intermediate proper. I tried and didn't exactly like ECS, it feels like it needs a few more iterations until it before I want to grab it... it just feels clunky. But my first major project will likely never be completed, but I have done now 2 smaller projects one a solo project. In the last one I did (a jam) I was kind of forced to wear my programmer hat/ game dev hat / lead designer hat. The project got done but that reminded me of this lesson, scale the projects down first then scale up if I see room for it.
I also finished the 10 hour course Kitchen Chaos the best thing I ever done thanks for that. . . I have a question. How should we judge how long it will take us to make a specific game. . . How should we beginners judge ourselves and how professional like you decide...
That really just comes with experience, but as a general rule you will greatly underestimate the time/effort needed to make a game. So take whatever estimate you think feels right then triple it.
Started working on a game a couple days ago, with the plan to learn from it and release it at some point (within 3 months hopefully. Made a discord where I log the progress to keep myself accountable, and the same discord will be opened to the public when the game's proper MVP is made. (making a smaller demo to get some learning done, to help properly plan the project). Hopefully have a finished game sooner or later :D Edit: As I'm watching the video, I realise my scope might be a tad bit too large for a new gamedev, but oh well. Let's see how it goes :P
Cool. One can cut the in-progress game into pieces .. find a "fun chunk" and focus on that. Could have a 'to be continued.. ?' ending-card. I'm making a fun-chunk of enemies battling (player vs ai) and a "refillable ammo" system where the player's increasing skill helps you refill the ammo that is the limiter to winning. No other game mechanics, otherwise i'm doomed ;-\ . It won't have much of the cool stuff I wanted, though I might add some non-interactive comic-book explainers to bring up the mood. Good luck Ulfhednar.
Thx @@ByteSizedSociety :D Mine is a top down rougelike towerdefence kinda game. There's a core you have to protect, and enemies will come in hordes. Between waves, you will have time to explore around in the surrounding area to gather resources. Then the next wave comes. It's not too advanced, but visits a lot of things. Good luck to you too :D
@@theulfhednar2655 that's sounds inherently fun, yes. IDK why but evokes Returnal to me. Thanks for sharing. I want to tower defense in a future project. Thanks for the luck!
Making a public Discord to keep yourself accountable is indeed a nice option But yeah in terms of scope, if you think it's going to take 3 months, it will probably take at least 6, so if this is your first game I would recommend you limit the scope to something you think you can build in just one month Best of luck!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thx :D I have another idea that's pretty simple. Already finished it once minus post-prod. Lost it when I got my new pc. Might just make that :P
Imo, if you want to make a 2D game, make a 2D game, if you want to make a 3D game, make a 3D game. Realistically there is not much difference between the learning curve of both, especialy since game engines like Unity has complete character controllers made for free for 3D games.
although I'm not code monkey, I just started with the things I found most fun, I didn't wanna make a 2D game and I doubt I would have got anything done because I really wanted to make another idea (in 3d), so I just reccommend going with whatever (at least that worked out for me) :D
Like @suspecm6316, there really isn't much of a difference in terms of difficulty. I started at first with 2D but then gave up. After a while I started with 3D and stuck with it. I have made tons of 3D games and not a single 2D one. I think I could make a 2D one at least to some extend if I tried to. So in conclusion, start with whichever you want, you will know mostly how to do both later.
A few years ago I would have said yes but nowadays thanks to how extensive the asset store is (tons of free and paid stuff) I would say either one would work. Technically 2D would be somewhat simpler due to just XY but as long as you don't implement complex vertical mechanics then 3D on just a XZ plane would be just about the same in terms of complexity
As someone who isn't good at all making 3D models and animations, I'm sticking with 2D for now. You have to remember, 3D has the uncanny valley to worry about. And performance and other issues.
i ve been following your for just a while ( a month or so), i had a couple of games idea that ive had for a long time, written down, but no way to make it, may i ask which video should i watch first in order to learn how to develop my own game? Aside from the lack of programming skill, im confident in my modelling skill and graphic design so these shouldt be much of a problem
I recommend you start with my free complete course unitycodemonkey.com/kitchenchaoscourse.php It is targeted for beginners, if you go through it and you fully understand it then by the end you will have gained a ton of knowledge
Yeah I need to make an updated video on that, but for the most part you just add it to the project and initialize, by itself that will already give you tons of stats. Then you can use CustomEvents to get even more
If your focus is on learning and making small games, but still publishing them on steam - would you suggest going through the process of making a company, or just publishing as an individual? People seem to suggest doing so as a company, but that would add so much $$ and time so it really makes me lost :( P.s I just finished your turn based strategy course and it was fantastic!
That is highly dependent on how the law works in your country. In my country there's a concept of a "Individual Business Owner" which is much simpler to set up than a company and that's what I initially used. So yeah the only answer is speak to a local accountant/attorney to figure out what options are available in your country I'm glad you enjoyed the TBS course! Thanks!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thank you! I'll definitely do that if I ever get close to releasing on steam. Just one more question if it's okay, I assume this means you moved over to a company eventually, was that process easy (in terms of the steam side of things)?
Mobile is a completely different world and one in which I really don't have any experience in. It would still be great as a learning journey but in terms of eventually finding financial success, mobile is nearly impossible
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Agree with you, i'm working on casual game firms, and also make a few own games for mobile, the marketing process and monetization mechanics (for free games) its most difficult part witch need a lot of analytics, marketing spending money etc... its not just make a game its like make psychology trigger (cool graphics, story, story of character, limit of upgrading, some extra things, gradular growing etc.) to by some thing in you game ecosystem thats mostly reason of difference and not just pay and play..
@@Pahan75D1 I guess it depends on your market & genre, but I really urge indies not to do free-to-play, whether it's mobile, PC/Steam, or whatever. Whether it's Ads or IAP, you need massive amounts of players to even make a few measly bucks, and a shi*ton of marketing/user-acquisition to even get in the game. The likes of King, MiHoYo, even some Indian team-of-6 churning out hypercasuals weekly - they all have oodles more manpower and money than any indie. IMO the only way free mobile games work for indies is if you score a platform deal, like Apple Arcade (I think carriers also still do this outside of North Am & Europe). Basically just get your check upfront, and you're essentially just selling to *one* customer - the platform. Otherwise just sell your game and identify/market to your audience like normal.
Hey Code monkey, The Assets you have given us in the cooking game guide video, do you allow us to use it for production or only for testing? I want to use it for my game "Waiter Dash", if it is not possible then I will remove it. Thank you for the reply :D.
I want to make a video game on my own but I'm having a hard time finding an idea. Even if I find something I can't tell if it can be done by one person or too advanced for a beginner. Do you have advice for that or a video you've published?
For anyone looking for more info or inspiration, I highly recommend Extra Credit's videos on making your first game. They're older, but cover concepts, not code. (Plus they're just fun to watch! 😋)
The October one already ended in July, I don't think they've mentioned dates for next year, I'm guessing the next one is somewhere around Feb so maybe registration until around December
Well I'm still trying to learn enemy AI so I can build a shmup, so it will be a while before I can launch... well anything at the moment. I'll figure it out eventually.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity lol that’s weird and great. Some innocent 12 year old will discover this channel and start gamedev, who just wanted to watch some CoC content
Whenever you give a time frame for development (E.G. "Spend 2 months developing your game") is that assuming your spending 8 hour a day for 2 months or what kind of hours do you assume? I ask because 2 months worth of work looks different for different people.
Hey Code monkey, I watched a video of yours like 1-2months ago. there was an asset tool to create tutorials for games easier. but i have no idea which video it was. would you happen to know which asset im talking about?
Hmm I know what you're talking about but don't remember the specific name There's a bunch of those on the store but don't know which one I saw assetstore.unity.com/?q=tutorial&orderBy=1
Doesn't it take 100$ to create a stream page? That seems like a lot for me considering that it's my first game and have no idea if my game would make any money
Oh, I didn't know the regitrations were already closed for Steam Next Fest, I was planning on submitting a demo there and thought I still had some time.
Yeah it sucks how they need games to register so many months ahead of time, I guess maybe setting up the festival is a ton of work so they need to know how many games will be participating, not sure.
Yeah, probably. Do you think it's better to wait for the next festival (2024 I guess) and work on a new game in the meantime (while still collecting wishlists), or to publish the game in October/November without participating in a festival ? I don't have any big constraints and I can wait a bit, but I guess the value of getting your demo played is really important, particularly for feedbacks and wishlists.
Depends on what is the goal with that project. If it's your first game and your goal is learning then I recommend the plan in the video, make the demo live during the festival even if not officially and afterwards just launch it If it's not your first game and you're hoping to find financial success then yes waiting and participating properly in a festival would be the right move
I have a question, I'm planning to get back to "Unity," however. I'm stuck on square one. I know nothing of Coding/Programming, meaning using Visual Studio. I'm at a dead end. But I've heard Unity Help actually works... What does that mean? Will Unity Help teach me to Code in Visual Studio, or do I need to find another source to solve my problem?
No idea what you mean by "Unity Help", there's no platform with that name that I know of I recommend you follow my free course unitycodemonkey.com/kitchenchaoscourse.php
@CodeMonkeyUnity What's the feature on Unity where there's a tutorial on the site website or before you start a new project? It's funny that someone on reddit asked the same question and got roast.
This is a great video. Intermediate-advanced developers should try to understand proper documentation. This skill set will keep you focused on your objectives and avoid scope creep by sticking to systems and mechanics with deadlines. It's easy to get caught in the infinite loop of adding/tweaking more. As a beginner, aim to have something that can be played from start to finish and have as many people as possible playtest and provide feedback. Doing this will teach you not only soft skills but lots of compounding growth opportunities such as understanding good quality feedback, iteration, creating an enjoyable experience and so much more. I want to emphasize what was said in this video, to start small! making games can be extremely overwhelming, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
I would say it's more planning & project management than documentation, per se. You can absolutely document your descent into scope creep 😅Learning to track milestones, progress/timelines, when to feature-lock, etc are all skills that only become more useful as you gain experience/complexity. And agreed, devs at any stage of their career should be in the habit of getting feedback as soon as possible, and as much as possible. Pitch your idea to people, especially folks you *don't* know well, and gauge their reaction - are they excited, do they "lean-in" and ask for more info, or do you just get the "polite smile & nod"? At minimum, you'll get practice for summing up the fun points of your game, without boring your audience, which is useful for marketing later. In the best-case, you may find out there are people who really like (or dislike!) aspects of your game that you never even considered as such.
Is there a problem with publishing games on Steam using free assets? I'm a programmer, I have an idea for a third-person zombie game (very simple, just horde survival, tiny map) to publish and use as a portfolio.
No genre is "too basic". Everything has its niche, you just need to know how to appeal to that niche. Though in case by "basic" you mean "simple", not at all. Platformers come with a set of problems to solve that most beginners overlook. Even something as seemingly simple as a Jump can be a challenge to implement in a way that feels good and responsive, like in Mario games.
That really depends on what else you want to implement. 3D Platformer by itself is pretty basic, but if you implement the number of skills/enemies/worlds like Super Mario Odyssey then it becomes too complex. If you limit the scope to just one or two small worlds and not many enemies/pickups then yup that could be a great genre for this plan
Thanks for the advice. Having a full time job and a family really slows your progress when you are learning. I thought i could make a game before the end of the year but in reality I haven't even started yet, i've just been writing down concepts and drawings and figuring out the mechanics, while I learn to use Unity. It has been like playing a game in itself. Thanks for your tutorials.
So true. Same situation here. Started a year ago, thinking a couple years is all I'd need. But I've blown the past year spinning my wheels, chasing the wrong priorities! Good luck!
Writing down concepts, conceptualizing mechanics, art/aesthetics, etc are all progress - that's pre-production. It's both the cheapest part, in terms of resources & labor, but potentially can have the biggest impact on the success of your project or learning endeavor. Figuring out what works & doesn't work, what excites you (and hopefully your players), and what sort of skills, resources, & goals you'll need to work towards acquiring - all of that is super-important and highly valuable uses of your time. Being a nights-and-weekends dev myself, I can say that our unique "big challenge" is time-efficiency. When I had to commute, I was using that time to think about my game, work through sticky points of system-mechanics, make & save notes about plot/character/references, all that stuff. Heck, I listen to tracks for soundtrack/BGM potential while doing dishes, and show off cool screenshots at family & friend gatherings. Think of it like the dev equivalent of "getting your steps in" LOL
Yeah doing game dev with a job and family is definitely doing it in hard mode. My advice (without having any experience with that specific scenario) is try your best to do a tiny thing every day, even if it's just 10 minutes, I really like the concept of "no zero days" when learning/doing anything
I would even go as far as saying the goal of your FIRST GAME is to get a few people to PLAY it and provide FEEDBACK. Asking for money is actually detrimental to this goal. Even giving your game away for FREE is harder than you imagine. But paradoxically, getting good at making FREE games will in turn make people want you buy your PAID games.
The Steam Festival, it's a great way to get players to play your Demo, give you feedback and gather wishlists partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/upcoming_events/nextfest/2023oct unitycodemonkey.com/video.php?v=nQe9k-xkxhM If your game is complete right now then perhaps releasing might be a good option. If you still have 1-2 months of dev ahead of you then I would recommend you follow this plan
my biggest problem is the entry fee on steam. It's scary to pay 100 dollars (for me it's a lot of money) with the risk of not earning anything. Yes, it will be an experience, but a very expensive experience.
Consider it the cost of tuition, if it is a huge amount then for your first few games just put them up on itch, once you feel you're ready to go to the next level then go for Steam
Learning how to complete projects, learning how to polish games, learning how to make tutorials, analytics, save systems, rebinding, learning the steam backend, etc, etc, etc You don't need a masterpiece to learn, you can learn lots of things with basic projects
while the plan is kind of ok but it has to many flaws, Considering that this plan is mean for solo or small teams the amount of work that has to be done is massive, Game development isn't just simple few steps it's very complicated. While on paper things make sense but in reality taking action is another thing adding to that Game Development is a non linear industry there are some stuff that you can't make plans for and making an FPS game is never like a TopDown game. I know the goal is to learn not get viral, the situations that a solo developer will pass through can make his first game no matter what big it is will take year or more. This Comment is base on my personal experience knowing that i have a Programming background before start using Unity Engine. As far as i remember the first Game(Not my first project and it was the First well functioning Game)i release was after learning and using unity for like 6+ months thanks for reading my comment
The amount of work is directly related to the scale, that's why I said something slightly more complex than Flappy Bird but not too much more. It absolutely does not take one year to make a game. For example Jonas Tyroller just launched his latest game Thronefall which is a huge hit and was made in I believe 8 months. Another example, my game Game Corp DX took 3 months to make. Again it's all about scale.
I do like what you say but this is probably feeding the indiepocalypse, where the game market is flooded by very small, very unfinished games that got 2 months of development.
Funnily enough I actually have an upcoming video talking about the 'indiepocalypse' and how it's not really a thing that exists, nowadays no one even mentions that word, it's just basic supply and demand. In theory a 1 year project should be a lot more capable and a lot easier to market than a 1-2 month game. If you think your project is competing with those games then you have serious problems either with your game or your marketing plan.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity In my opinion, I think it exists but it's not that big of an issue, and people makes it seem like a big deal. If something, it makes it so that there are a lot of small games you can enjoy for some time and not commit to, as you would do with big titles you are expected to play for 40+ hours. The biggest problem I think exists is that 90%+ of indie games end up losing money but we have to take into account that most of those projects are super low budget, entry level projects, and the fact that they took place and failed was a learning experience for the developer, either learning how to make a better game and how to handle the development, or realizing that game dev is not for them in the first place. For me, as a developer, I found VR the only market I was daring to publish something since it's not cluttered with thousands of of indie titles releasing every day. I got more users than I could have ever imagined and I'm targetting a very, very small market compared to mobile or flat screen games. If I was making the same game for flat screen, I don't think I could have gotten so many people involved in the project, but I can't look at an alternative reality where I never touched VR and made my game in a different platform, so I can't tell for sure.
It feels so discouraging reading the comments and these videos, I want to make fun games for moblie or even steam and make some good money from it, by myself but it honestly seems like just being a programmer for a company is the better choice, you are quite literally in this comments saying that releasing a game on moblie is useless. So depressing
Making money from games is incredibly difficult, I won't lie to you and say it's easy when it isn't. Nowadays it's basically the same thing as starting a band, how many bands make money? But just because full time is extremely difficult that absolutely does not mean you can't make games just for fun. Definitely go ahead and get a stable well-paying programmer job, then make fun games on the evenings and weekends.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity my dream is to make it big with a game like Undertale,doki doki literature club,FNAF. But that’s my teenager years speaking, I hate the idea of working a normal job I won’t lie, that is the main reason I got into programming in the first place, it’s like a hopeful light I saw at the end of the tunnel that maybe just maybe I can be unique enough that I’ll be able to stand out from the crowd, but you are probably right, Dreams are for fools. Thanks anyways! I’ll keep watching your content.
@@galzur5840 Kanye West started by doing solid quality beats for other artists for ten years before he could even start pretending to be the exceptional artist he thinks he is. It does not matter if you want go for an average solid career or exceptionalism, you need to do the work anyway.
One thing that no one mention it's the fact that every game development have different skills. For example for my it's almost pointless to download 3D weapon's for my game. The reason is because i already know how to make my own 3D model, it's easier for create or use my own 3D model and for is easier to create 3D model for made i code. My point is that good to regencies your skills to not try to follow blind what other do people or say. Like explain earlier i made my 3D models and because i have this skill i figured that it's better for my to made own 3D models, in that way the game visuals it's more consistent and look better in my opinion. Most of the assets i use for my game it's mostly tool's instead. One other advice that may help some people is if someone is more like artist it's easy able to made i more artistic game. I don't think will be bad idea if someone made exploresion, a game that focus on the art estathic.
heh I guess it's relative, I'm 35 and I certainly don't think of myself as old (just hit a new Bench Press PR yesterday!) although I do see myself at 18 as a complete child.
I worked on a little mobile game from zero coding/gamedev experience and during about 1 year of working in the evenings i ve released the game "Thank S" on android and i ve even released it on IOS aswell as "Thank.S". My biggest problem is that i cannot make it grow, i ve tried to promote it, but it haven t achieved to grow it much.. Could you help me with some advice?
Congrats on completing a game! I'm not a mobile expert but everything I know about mobile is how discovery is non-existent, the big players like Supercell spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars in user acquisition so I really don't know what you can do to promote it organically.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thank You so much for your reply! I am thinking about making another game and releasing it to steam aswell as mobile phones, but i don't know yet..
(sensitive people, don't read this) As for marketing, all these videos are useless and the techniques are outdated and non-working initially, because no one will post working marketing models, do not even doubt, it has already been tested by many!!! Look for your way, only fresh ideas will attract attention!
Which specific techniques are outdated? What did I say that was wrong? It sounds like you're looking for a magic button that will instantly market your game, no one tells you about that "magic button" because there is no such thing.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity This is not my native language, the translation distorts the essence, there are no complaints about you, I just pointed out generalized marketing models from the Internet, which are really almost useless for most... and besides, they are really outdated, well, except for the "steam festivals" available to everyone to declare themselves, this is the only thing that works, then it depends on the game...
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Your videos are always so helpful! In November/December I'm going to publish my first big game on Steam and I'm super excited! I started it last year during my masters and now I decided to improve it and publish it! I was lucky enough to have the game tested by students from several schools in Portugal and the feedback has been very good! I just have to thank you for the immense help your videos have given me during the development of my game! I'm now worried about making a good Steam page for the game and trying to think of a good marketing strategy. Let's see how it goes!
That's awesome! Sounds like you're on the right track, best of luck with the game!
I recently launched my first Steam game during the Steam Stealth Fest last month, and your advice here was exactly my thoughts when going through that process! I knew launching the game during the fest would boost my player counts and I was indeed correct. In just 2 weeks nearly 15k people downloaded my game (free to play VR game)! After release I was getting great feedback from both let's plays and reviews, and I even started a Discord that people have been joining to offer feedback and suggestions. I learned a lot from the whole experience, and I definitely owe it to you and others here on TH-cam.
Good for you, did you have some kind of advertising campaign or did all those 15k just find your game on steam?
@@VolodymyrHaleshchuk Thanks! I had a handful of videos and my Steam page was live in the Coming Soon state for about a year or so, but otherwise all the growth was organic, likely due to how Steam shares new games + the Stealth Fest boosting it got.
Nice! Congrats on launching the game!
That's a great result, I hope you learn a ton!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thank you! 😁
My dayjob is teaching kids game dev (middle-school). Disappointement time for them is often not being able to make the game they dream about.
But as soon as they get a sprite running around in Construct, man oh man, you can see their faces glowing. From that point on, it's smooth sailing, but it's a big part of my job to temper their initial expectations.
I occasionally TA or speak to my grad advisor's game dev & design class for junior/senior undergrads. Same issues :) If she didn't give them defined milestones, and make them submit & present their ideas throughout, the students would def try to make BotW in a semester 😅
heh I remember when I first encountered programming, when I first wrote some simple code to tell a chat bot what to reply, it felt magical to be able to tell the computer what to do!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity It *is* magical! But at first we all think we're Gandalf/Dumbledore, when we're really Level 1 noobs hehe
Save system and localization shouldn't be "the last step" because by then, you will have to rework so much to fit it. Sometimes save system demands reworking internals, and it can be very useful tool for testing, especially in longer games. You can't rely on cheat jumps, select stages, loading scenes directly. It -can- will hide bugs and doesn't give a proper feel of balance. It also gives a good framework to prepare for specific scenarios that you know are bug prone. And with localization, you often need to rethink how to display texts, messages, etc., many of your text scripts, text effects will not fit common localization methods, and many languages will require additional scripting. For example, if you have text created from many parts, like weapon name in bold, it's cost and some info, with cost incrementing from 0 to full number, you will need to rework it all if you just hardcode it.
It's a great idea to just make some test projects to check out how to make localization how with effects and uses you want and with save system. And with save system try it with game that you need to save data of all non static objects on map, like rpg that can have broken chests, loot dropped, monsters defeated. And keep in mind persistent and temporary data (persistent like your character data, and temporary like loot dropped in dungeon that can be wiped out as soon as you leave it) and how to handle persistent data between scenes. At least if you are gonna use more complex save system. Plus, if you want to ship it to different platforms, learn what they use. For example on consoles you may have save everything into one save, which is terrible for PC saves, so better build the system flexible enough to handle both, especially if you envision that you will not make save wipes and make saves transferable between platforms.
Excellent points. Though it's unfortunate that these excellent points are wrapped in a nonstop text-block formatting.
HOLY SMOKES! I am just coming back to TH-cam, and now I see CODE MONKEY TALKING OMG!!! Awesome, Thank you!
heh nice to see you again!
I published my first game in March. I happened to follow all of these steps naturally, lol. It was a super simple and short game, took me about a month to make. To date I’ve made $62 (net, which means I haven’t made anything since Steam doesn’t pay you til you net $100)
Working on my second game, and I think I need to relearn these lessons, they are still valuable for your second, third, fourth….😂
Congrats on completing the game!
Now your second one will go much smoother because you already went through the entire process once, best of luck!
Looking forward to meeting you at Unite. Currently taking my first step to working on my cooking sim VR game
Unite should be fun! Best of luck with your project!
great advice, thank you! most likely I'm following this recipe with my new roguelike. I'm grabbing that sound pack hope it supports your channel.
Nice, yup that helps! Hope those sound effects help you with that game! Thanks!
Thanks for bundle recomendations, i think this two are gamechangers for me and my game learning process :)
Using what I learned from your courses I was able to develop and release my first game on Itch and considered it done from a learning perspective, but I'm wondering if I'm missing out on learning the marketing side of things by not doing a full Steam release?
Do you have the link of your game?
That's awesome, congrats!
Yup I definitely encourage you to take it to Steam, you will learn a lot which will be very useful in future projects.
It’s been quite some time since you made one of those "How it’s made" videos. Those are very educational, teaching how to make a certain mechanic.
Especially coming from you, i really like how you use clean code and not just one of those "very basic" "how to do this" tutorials.
As always, we appreciate the work you do, it has been very helpful for a lot of people, including myself. So thank you, and looking forward for future content!
Good luck!
Yeah I really like that format and wish I could do more but sadly those videos don't do well at all in terms of views while being some of the most difficult ones to make.
I've been experimenting with a more high level overview video instead of step by step tutorial so I will try out a similar format in the future
What a great breakdown, appreciate the practical marketing and production breakdowns! In my experience, things always take longer than initially anticipated, so being okay with it taking longer or planning a time buffer might be a good idea too.
Thank you Code Monkey! I am currently following your plan and creating a game then release it around November! Hopefully before the steam autumn sale
damn these humble bundles are something else. From a previous bundle i already had the sci-fi characters vol 2 and a package called 3D sci-fi kit Vol 3.. between those two assets i am creating a big project for a while now and i never really though i would need any more assets. However now that the sci-fi characters vol 1 is available at that price i couldn't resists and just picked it up for future usage.
Thank You for sharing your thoughts and Practical Plan. 💯👍🏻
I will keep this video close & rewatch.
I feel very confident about technical Game Dev stuff itself; what I feel I need to study more is about Marketing... 😅
(and it's a whole complete different Field, they didn't teach me much about it during my studies in college - Software Engineering. - It's like asking an Artist to become a good Salesman, there's a Learning Curve to patiently follow...).
Very useful tips and great video. Sank you!
I'm in the process of making my first game after doing your visual scripting course. I've found a (I believe suitable) game jam where I will submit it by the end of the month. It's nothing spectacular, just a mouse in a maze, but it's become a nice exercise so far
I think the thumbnail is a perfect plan
Do we have to register for the festival or do we just have to broadcast our demo during the festival?
In order to officially participate you need to register, right now registration for the October festival is already closed
But if you're just making a learning project you can release a Demo whenever you want
Your course really helped me to learn the basics . I took the game we built during the course and changed completely to my own game with my own style and mechanics( made it first person too lol). For now the progress is pretty good , made my npc system work along with the ordering system. Only things left are to create multiple recipes for the game I made and add more features such as money system and more. Hopefully by Oct I can release a demo of this game.
Nice! That's a great plan, keep working on it!
I actually got into making games just about 2 months ago because I realized I needed a game for a specific goal and suddenly I was knee deep in the unity trenches lol. Your videos have been very helpful and I feel like I shouldn't be this good at it so early on 😂 so thank you for that. I would love to hear your thoughts on my game if you ever feel up to it. I'm not sure how I'd go about reaching out to you so I'll leave it up to you if you'd like to hit me up.
I'm glad the videos have helped you!
Currently way too busy to look at other projects but I wish you the best of luck in your game dev journey!
I'm working on a blind accessible virtual pet game. I think I'll make this my first project I upload to Steam. 😊 Even though it's blind accessible, I still want sighted people to play so I don't get to be lazy on graphics and polish.
Başarılar. Görme engellilere değer veren bir oyun geliştiricisi olmak çok güzel. Oyunun ismi nedir ? Oyunu merak ettim.
That's a very interesting concept, best of luck with the game!
@@filadam7578 It doesn't have a name yet. Here is the latest video I have about it. th-cam.com/video/yQbnMXuAQw4/w-d-xo.html
I've added a couple features since then like when you push "p" it now says if the pet wants anything, I've added a pause when you interact with the pet for when I attempt animations, a main menu screen with instructions and sounds, and a pretty skybox from the Surreal Skyboxes pack.
@@filadam7578 I just recorded an updated video. th-cam.com/video/brquENr9gus/w-d-xo.html
Great video! For me, im torn. Ive made many many many games, and have got a good understanding of documentation and such, but ive never actually published a game. I am currently working on a game, which will take about 1-2 years to make i estimate. Do you think it would be more beneficial to publish one of my older, smaller games first, before i publish my newest game?
Yes definitely, I highly highly advise against spending 1-2 years on your first game. Get some experience first, make some small games before embarking on such a big project
Awesome game plan!
I've seen someone in the comments got a successful first launch following that plan it's awesome!
As far as I understood you focused only on Unity engine, may I ask why Unity over Unreal ?
I'm starting slowly to learn 3d modeling and stuff, and was wondering for later which engine I should focus on. If you could guve insights i'd gladly appreciate it 🙏
Personally I started using Unity because it was the only free option when I started in 2012, and I keep using it because I enjoy it
But yes this plan is applicable to any game engine so just use whatever you like
@@CodeMonkeyUnity thanks for taking the time to reply ! Seems fair, I'm still torned between the 2 honestly 🤔🤣
Will have to figure out what's my jam in all of those aspects between 3D in general and game making 🤣
Have a lovely day mate ! 🙏
Love your tutorials. Can you please share your knowledge on optimising the games as well.
That's a tricky one because every game is unique so there's not many general performance tips but it is a topic I'd love to cover
@@CodeMonkeyUnity yeah i understand. but some general tips from an experience dev will be quite helpful. Looking forward to your more awesome tutorials.🥰
Really glad I found ur channel 😆
I was trying to learn game dev for a long time but was unable to so Working on learning and practise during weekends cause regular IT day job is pretty taxing.
Figured after seeing one of my fav manga get cancelled with no ending figured why not make a RPG style game based on that for practise and give it a ending.( Cause I aint getting any younger to do game dev as a hobby later after retiring , nearly 30 now 😓)
Already Have a plan and how to proceed on the game , just needed to learn the right tools for the Job which is where u channel had been real helpful. Thank you.
On the game :
So the basic idea for enemies is they are highly sensitive to sound and smell but are blind , individually weak yet strong but can be beaten but strong in a group kind when stealth needs to be priority.
So u have 3 survivors from different paths and physical attributes and training who have to escape from overrun complex inland to Extraction point that is a bit far and on the coastline.
Any tips on how to develop a RPG like this that has stealth+action hybrid system? Or am I being unrealistic for beginner and setting myself up for failure?
I think your approach shouldn't be asking for specific advice on how to develop a mechanic. It's better to try to develop them yourself and if you are really stuck then ask for help on specific problem like a line of code or how to make certain thing happen. That's why you should learn the fundamentals of unity and most of all, understand the entire system first.
@@luchinazo my bad , didn't mean it that way like I have no idea of how to implement it and asking for ideas , avoided it cause it would become a bit of a long comment.
So the basic idea for enemies is they are highly sensitive to sound and smell but are blind , individually weak yet strong but can be beaten but strong in a group kind when stealth needs to be priority.
So u have 3 survivors from different paths and physical attributes and training who have to escape from overrun complex inland to Extraction point that is a bit far and on the coastline.
As a starting point , just wanted to know how a experienced dev would approach this idea or was I aiming for too much for a first game that's all.
Will add this edit in main comment as well so ppl can get the context and not feel like I am just playing around for lol's.
If that's your first game then that sounds a bit too complex. I would start super simple, just make a basic character movement, then add some enemies, then some attacks, then research Enemy AI and state machines, etc, etc. That idea requires learning a ton of stuff, you can either learn all that as you develop one project, or take each one of those components and build an entire game around it.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity gotcha , thx man.
My idea was also to play along with the next fest. but bad I was late to party so maybe next in my next game. for now, my focus is to publish my Steam page and learn to collect some wishlists by mid-October a release. yes, it is a short time span but the game is not big.
but in the end, I already learn some stuff about making a Steam page and what I need. so next time it will go faster. and besides that, some promotion has given the game some eyeballs. not a ton but already people are aware that you exist.
Nice! Yup the second time will definitely be easier, the Steam backend and all the assets required is a bit intimidating at first but by your second game you'll be used to it
When you start recording "Clap" near the mic, later when you sync the video and audio you can sync that spike visual in audio strip to you hands coming together in video, after sync just trim the clap part and your audio and video will be perfectly synced.
Did you notice any desync? If so that's strange because the camera and vo were both recorded in the same file, I don't separate the audio from the video
@@CodeMonkeyUnity My bad then, I must have been looking too much into it then.
Also can i request if not a full tutorial then atleast a short video on how to make data heavy games with data logs, like ur games Game Corp and Battle Royal Tycoon.
Holy! you are a f chad! Great video as always.
Thanks for the great videos on getting games from dev to production. One thing that absolutely terrifies me, is when it comes to areas like Trade Marks and Copyrights, especially for international released games. Do you have any advice or content on what your own thought processed were wrt your own games on steam? Do you think that Tms and Copy right type stuff is important at all when releasing games on steam?
If you are a small/solo dev like me then the answer is just don't worry about it. Unless your game is worth tens of millions of dollars then there's no point in spending time registering marks
Even if you do own a trademark and someone else infringes upon it, you will still need to spend money to fight that in court, better to spend all that money/time making better games.
Amazing video, thank you very much ! I would like to ask since I'm really deep in the coding and understanding of the Unity engine and creating games ( currently working on my first game I will be releasing out) I'd love to know where would you recommend learning to create music and 3D objects for visuals for video games design? Is it better to just buy them every time ? Because I would like to create everything from scratch in my game
P.S. love your content !
If you (like me) have no interest in 3D modelling and just need visuals, then I recommend just use assets
But if you do enjoy 3D modelling and want to learn then there's a ton of content teaching Blender.
I believe the channel Blender Guru has a bunch of awesome tutorials
And a while ago I did follow a course to learn the basics and managed to learn quite a bit unitycodemonkey.com/video.php?v=95pEfMyhScc
@@CodeMonkeyUnity this is just perfect, thank you very much and keep up the wonderful content you make! Truly inspire my journey as a game developer
Agreed entirely, I spent my first year cutting my teeth on Unity and C#. I feel as if I have a very very solid understanding of C# as well as a solid understanding of Unity now. I'm going back to learn up on shader graph, but I feel that the last bastion of stuff to learn from Unity is Shader Graph, Multiplayer and the new UI tool kit.
On the programming side I'm figuring out procedural patterns now which I believe is going to mark down all the tools I need as a programmer as being behind me once it's done. I can say that I am out of beginner and into intermediate proper. I tried and didn't exactly like ECS, it feels like it needs a few more iterations until it before I want to grab it... it just feels clunky.
But my first major project will likely never be completed, but I have done now 2 smaller projects one a solo project. In the last one I did (a jam) I was kind of forced to wear my programmer hat/ game dev hat / lead designer hat. The project got done but that reminded me of this lesson, scale the projects down first then scale up if I see room for it.
Yeah, it's really cool.
Bought bundle yesterday, you should upload link as youtube post faster to get some referrals :)
I'm barley out of the starting blocks. Have to start somewhere. Right now I just have a scaled up cube and a cylinder to write scripts for.
I also finished the 10 hour course Kitchen Chaos the best thing I ever done thanks for that. . . I have a question. How should we judge how long it will take us to make a specific game. . . How should we beginners judge ourselves and how professional like you decide...
That really just comes with experience, but as a general rule you will greatly underestimate the time/effort needed to make a game. So take whatever estimate you think feels right then triple it.
Started working on a game a couple days ago, with the plan to learn from it and release it at some point (within 3 months hopefully.
Made a discord where I log the progress to keep myself accountable, and the same discord will be opened to the public when the game's proper MVP is made. (making a smaller demo to get some learning done, to help properly plan the project).
Hopefully have a finished game sooner or later :D
Edit:
As I'm watching the video, I realise my scope might be a tad bit too large for a new gamedev, but oh well. Let's see how it goes :P
Cool. One can cut the in-progress game into pieces .. find a "fun chunk" and focus on that. Could have a 'to be continued.. ?' ending-card.
I'm making a fun-chunk of enemies battling (player vs ai) and a "refillable ammo" system where the player's increasing skill helps you refill the ammo that is the limiter to winning. No other game mechanics, otherwise i'm doomed ;-\ . It won't have much of the cool stuff I wanted, though I might add some non-interactive comic-book explainers to bring up the mood.
Good luck Ulfhednar.
Thx @@ByteSizedSociety :D
Mine is a top down rougelike towerdefence kinda game.
There's a core you have to protect, and enemies will come in hordes. Between waves, you will have time to explore around in the surrounding area to gather resources. Then the next wave comes.
It's not too advanced, but visits a lot of things.
Good luck to you too :D
@@theulfhednar2655 that's sounds inherently fun, yes. IDK why but evokes Returnal to me. Thanks for sharing.
I want to tower defense in a future project.
Thanks for the luck!
Making a public Discord to keep yourself accountable is indeed a nice option
But yeah in terms of scope, if you think it's going to take 3 months, it will probably take at least 6, so if this is your first game I would recommend you limit the scope to something you think you can build in just one month
Best of luck!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thx :D
I have another idea that's pretty simple. Already finished it once minus post-prod. Lost it when I got my new pc.
Might just make that :P
Do you recommend starting with a 2D game since its generally simpler? Or starting with a 3D game can be the way to go?
Imo, if you want to make a 2D game, make a 2D game, if you want to make a 3D game, make a 3D game. Realistically there is not much difference between the learning curve of both, especialy since game engines like Unity has complete character controllers made for free for 3D games.
although I'm not code monkey, I just started with the things I found most fun, I didn't wanna make a 2D game and I doubt I would have got anything done because I really wanted to make another idea (in 3d), so I just reccommend going with whatever (at least that worked out for me) :D
Like @suspecm6316, there really isn't much of a difference in terms of difficulty. I started at first with 2D but then gave up. After a while I started with 3D and stuck with it. I have made tons of 3D games and not a single 2D one. I think I could make a 2D one at least to some extend if I tried to. So in conclusion, start with whichever you want, you will know mostly how to do both later.
A few years ago I would have said yes but nowadays thanks to how extensive the asset store is (tons of free and paid stuff) I would say either one would work. Technically 2D would be somewhat simpler due to just XY but as long as you don't implement complex vertical mechanics then 3D on just a XZ plane would be just about the same in terms of complexity
As someone who isn't good at all making 3D models and animations, I'm sticking with 2D for now. You have to remember, 3D has the uncanny valley to worry about. And performance and other issues.
Among the best public service seen on the net
i ve been following your for just a while ( a month or so), i had a couple of games idea that ive had for a long time, written down, but no way to make it, may i ask which video should i watch first in order to learn how to develop my own game?
Aside from the lack of programming skill, im confident in my modelling skill and graphic design so these shouldt be much of a problem
I recommend you start with my free complete course unitycodemonkey.com/kitchenchaoscourse.php
It is targeted for beginners, if you go through it and you fully understand it then by the end you will have gained a ton of knowledge
Aigh thanks
hi sensei, can nyou make a video on how to set up analitycs I see that you use it and it looks very helpful
Yeah I need to make an updated video on that, but for the most part you just add it to the project and initialize, by itself that will already give you tons of stats. Then you can use CustomEvents to get even more
That crossed my mind not long ago. After finally finishing my first game (when that time comes), now what?
Then you work on your second one which should hopefully go much smoother since you already have a ton more knowledge
If your focus is on learning and making small games, but still publishing them on steam - would you suggest going through the process of making a company, or just publishing as an individual? People seem to suggest doing so as a company, but that would add so much $$ and time so it really makes me lost :(
P.s I just finished your turn based strategy course and it was fantastic!
That is highly dependent on how the law works in your country. In my country there's a concept of a "Individual Business Owner" which is much simpler to set up than a company and that's what I initially used.
So yeah the only answer is speak to a local accountant/attorney to figure out what options are available in your country
I'm glad you enjoyed the TBS course! Thanks!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thank you! I'll definitely do that if I ever get close to releasing on steam.
Just one more question if it's okay, I assume this means you moved over to a company eventually, was that process easy (in terms of the steam side of things)?
Great!
Love to see a similar game plan but for mobile games
Mobile is a completely different world and one in which I really don't have any experience in.
It would still be great as a learning journey but in terms of eventually finding financial success, mobile is nearly impossible
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Agree with you, i'm working on casual game firms, and also make a few own games for mobile, the marketing process and monetization mechanics (for free games) its most difficult part witch need a lot of analytics, marketing spending money etc... its not just make a game its like make psychology trigger (cool graphics, story, story of character, limit of upgrading, some extra things, gradular growing etc.) to by some thing in you game ecosystem thats mostly reason of difference and not just pay and play..
@@Pahan75D1 I guess it depends on your market & genre, but I really urge indies not to do free-to-play, whether it's mobile, PC/Steam, or whatever. Whether it's Ads or IAP, you need massive amounts of players to even make a few measly bucks, and a shi*ton of marketing/user-acquisition to even get in the game. The likes of King, MiHoYo, even some Indian team-of-6 churning out hypercasuals weekly - they all have oodles more manpower and money than any indie.
IMO the only way free mobile games work for indies is if you score a platform deal, like Apple Arcade (I think carriers also still do this outside of North Am & Europe). Basically just get your check upfront, and you're essentially just selling to *one* customer - the platform. Otherwise just sell your game and identify/market to your audience like normal.
Hey Code monkey,
The Assets you have given us in the cooking game guide video, do you allow us to use it for production or only for testing? I want to use it for my game "Waiter Dash", if it is not possible then I will remove it. Thank you for the reply :D.
Yup feel free to use it in your own projects, best of luck!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity First of all thank you for the quick reply and thank you for the help :D
I want to make a video game on my own but I'm having a hard time finding an idea. Even if I find something I can't tell if it can be done by one person or too advanced for a beginner. Do you have advice for that or a video you've published?
The easiest way is to simply clone a game, clone something like Flappy Bird, that's a perfect beginner game
For anyone looking for more info or inspiration, I highly recommend Extra Credit's videos on making your first game. They're older, but cover concepts, not code. (Plus they're just fun to watch! 😋)
Yup Extra Credits is a great general game design channel, although I haven't been following the latest videos since they swapped channels
Please make a video how to make the movement on the slopes and stairs🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.
Like in caracter controller but in 2D.
Hello, when is the registration date for the next fest ?
The October one already ended in July, I don't think they've mentioned dates for next year, I'm guessing the next one is somewhere around Feb so maybe registration until around December
@@CodeMonkeyUnity I understand . Thanks for the answer.
Well I'm still trying to learn enemy AI so I can build a shmup, so it will be a while before I can launch... well anything at the moment.
I'll figure it out eventually.
Great advice as always! But.. why is this video is displayed as Clash of Clans below lol
heh really no idea, I set it as "Education" but it seems TH-cam re-categorized it as "Gaming" and somehow things this is related to Clash of Clans
@@CodeMonkeyUnity lol that’s weird and great. Some innocent 12 year old will discover this channel and start gamedev, who just wanted to watch some CoC content
Whenever you give a time frame for development (E.G. "Spend 2 months developing your game") is that assuming your spending 8 hour a day for 2 months or what kind of hours do you assume? I ask because 2 months worth of work looks different for different people.
That's up to you to decide, figure out how much time per day you can spend, then define the game scope accordingly
@@CodeMonkeyUnity so it's not a hard and fast 2 months but around 2 months depending on time commitments? Thank you for your response.
Hey Code monkey, I watched a video of yours like 1-2months ago. there was an asset tool to create tutorials for games easier. but i have no idea which video it was.
would you happen to know which asset im talking about?
Hmm I know what you're talking about but don't remember the specific name
There's a bunch of those on the store but don't know which one I saw assetstore.unity.com/?q=tutorial&orderBy=1
Doesn't it take 100$ to create a stream page? That seems like a lot for me considering that it's my first game and have no idea if my game would make any money
Yes correct, consider that your tuition cost
Oh, I didn't know the regitrations were already closed for Steam Next Fest, I was planning on submitting a demo there and thought I still had some time.
Yeah it sucks how they need games to register so many months ahead of time, I guess maybe setting up the festival is a ton of work so they need to know how many games will be participating, not sure.
Yeah, probably.
Do you think it's better to wait for the next festival (2024 I guess) and work on a new game in the meantime (while still collecting wishlists), or to publish the game in October/November without participating in a festival ? I don't have any big constraints and I can wait a bit, but I guess the value of getting your demo played is really important, particularly for feedbacks and wishlists.
Depends on what is the goal with that project. If it's your first game and your goal is learning then I recommend the plan in the video, make the demo live during the festival even if not officially and afterwards just launch it
If it's not your first game and you're hoping to find financial success then yes waiting and participating properly in a festival would be the right move
I have a question, I'm planning to get back to "Unity," however. I'm stuck on square one.
I know nothing of Coding/Programming, meaning using Visual Studio. I'm at a dead end. But I've heard Unity Help actually works... What does that mean?
Will Unity Help teach me to Code in Visual Studio, or do I need to find another source to solve my problem?
No idea what you mean by "Unity Help", there's no platform with that name that I know of
I recommend you follow my free course unitycodemonkey.com/kitchenchaoscourse.php
@CodeMonkeyUnity What's the feature on Unity where there's a tutorial on the site website or before you start a new project?
It's funny that someone on reddit asked the same question and got roast.
Maybe you mean Unity Learn? They do have some free courses and I have heard good things about them although never tried them myself
i mean, i have a game idea, all rules, play style etc, based on a irl card game, but idk how to start, which way in programming will work for the game
Start with a super simple prototype, maybe just a single system from that game
This is a great video. Intermediate-advanced developers should try to understand proper documentation. This skill set will keep you focused on your objectives and avoid scope creep by sticking to systems and mechanics with deadlines. It's easy to get caught in the infinite loop of adding/tweaking more.
As a beginner, aim to have something that can be played from start to finish and have as many people as possible playtest and provide feedback. Doing this will teach you not only soft skills but lots of compounding growth opportunities such as understanding good quality feedback, iteration, creating an enjoyable experience and so much more.
I want to emphasize what was said in this video, to start small! making games can be extremely overwhelming, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
I would say it's more planning & project management than documentation, per se. You can absolutely document your descent into scope creep 😅Learning to track milestones, progress/timelines, when to feature-lock, etc are all skills that only become more useful as you gain experience/complexity.
And agreed, devs at any stage of their career should be in the habit of getting feedback as soon as possible, and as much as possible.
Pitch your idea to people, especially folks you *don't* know well, and gauge their reaction - are they excited, do they "lean-in" and ask for more info, or do you just get the "polite smile & nod"? At minimum, you'll get practice for summing up the fun points of your game, without boring your audience, which is useful for marketing later.
In the best-case, you may find out there are people who really like (or dislike!) aspects of your game that you never even considered as such.
Is there a problem with publishing games on Steam using free assets? I'm a programmer, I have an idea for a third-person zombie game (very simple, just horde survival, tiny map) to publish and use as a portfolio.
Depends on the license for those free assets, if you got them from the Unity Asset Store then yes they probably have license for commercial use
I am working on a third person 3d platformer. Do you think its too Basic?
do you think blond white girls are basic?
No genre is "too basic". Everything has its niche, you just need to know how to appeal to that niche.
Though in case by "basic" you mean "simple", not at all. Platformers come with a set of problems to solve that most beginners overlook. Even something as seemingly simple as a Jump can be a challenge to implement in a way that feels good and responsive, like in Mario games.
That really depends on what else you want to implement. 3D Platformer by itself is pretty basic, but if you implement the number of skills/enemies/worlds like Super Mario Odyssey then it becomes too complex. If you limit the scope to just one or two small worlds and not many enemies/pickups then yup that could be a great genre for this plan
Does the 10 course teach me also even if I only want to make 2D games?
The core fundamentals of game dev are the same regardless of 3D or 2D so yes, 90% of what you learn there is applicable in 2D in any genre
His voice really is code 🐒 than code monkey himself Lol
#Profit
So say the Gamedev Gnomes!
Quick question: The steam page of the next fest, where can I find it?
Here's the October one partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/upcoming_events/nextfest/2023oct
Thanks for the advice. Having a full time job and a family really slows your progress when you are learning. I thought i could make a game before the end of the year but in reality I haven't even started yet, i've just been writing down concepts and drawings and figuring out the mechanics, while I learn to use Unity. It has been like playing a game in itself. Thanks for your tutorials.
So true. Same situation here. Started a year ago, thinking a couple years is all I'd need. But I've blown the past year spinning my wheels, chasing the wrong priorities! Good luck!
Writing down concepts, conceptualizing mechanics, art/aesthetics, etc are all progress - that's pre-production. It's both the cheapest part, in terms of resources & labor, but potentially can have the biggest impact on the success of your project or learning endeavor.
Figuring out what works & doesn't work, what excites you (and hopefully your players), and what sort of skills, resources, & goals you'll need to work towards acquiring - all of that is super-important and highly valuable uses of your time.
Being a nights-and-weekends dev myself, I can say that our unique "big challenge" is time-efficiency. When I had to commute, I was using that time to think about my game, work through sticky points of system-mechanics, make & save notes about plot/character/references, all that stuff. Heck, I listen to tracks for soundtrack/BGM potential while doing dishes, and show off cool screenshots at family & friend gatherings.
Think of it like the dev equivalent of "getting your steps in" LOL
Yeah doing game dev with a job and family is definitely doing it in hard mode.
My advice (without having any experience with that specific scenario) is try your best to do a tiny thing every day, even if it's just 10 minutes, I really like the concept of "no zero days" when learning/doing anything
I would even go as far as saying the goal of your FIRST GAME is to get a few people to PLAY it and provide FEEDBACK.
Asking for money is actually detrimental to this goal. Even giving your game away for FREE is harder than you imagine.
But paradoxically, getting good at making FREE games will in turn make people want you buy your PAID games.
What is the steam fest? Should I wait with releasing my game until then?
The Steam Festival, it's a great way to get players to play your Demo, give you feedback and gather wishlists
partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/upcoming_events/nextfest/2023oct
unitycodemonkey.com/video.php?v=nQe9k-xkxhM
If your game is complete right now then perhaps releasing might be a good option. If you still have 1-2 months of dev ahead of you then I would recommend you follow this plan
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thank you, I will try to finish it before october then :)
I was kinda already going to do this but dont really want to pay for it to go on steam. Am I making a mistake?
I highly recommend you take it to Steam unless you live in a place where $100 is a huge amount, consider that amount part of your tuition cost
my biggest problem is the entry fee on steam. It's scary to pay 100 dollars (for me it's a lot of money) with the risk of not earning anything. Yes, it will be an experience, but a very expensive experience.
Consider it the cost of tuition, if it is a huge amount then for your first few games just put them up on itch, once you feel you're ready to go to the next level then go for Steam
yes, that's my plan. But I'm still nervous)@@CodeMonkeyUnity
I never realized you were a model and a coder, the more you know
Have y pay twice for the release demo and final game on stream?
No, you just pay once to generate the AppId
Could be a good deal then to release a demo@@CodeMonkeyUnity
Is it required to look like a GigaChad to successfully make a game? 😅 Great advice though!
heh being fit certainly helps me be more productive!
one day..
We have a face to the voice
10/10
Hey hey hey. No need to trash talk my unfinished prototypes. 😂
hehe we all have tons of unfinished prototypes, maybe I should try to find my forgotten Flash prototypes!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity that would be really cool to see some of those! I’d definitely watch any videos on your unfinished projects!
When is next tutorial ?
Lately I've been working hard on my game so haven't had time to make tutorials since those videos usually take dozens of hours to make, so not sure
ok@@CodeMonkeyUnity😭
CHAD MONKE
do they still hve that $100 fee to add your game?
Yes it costs $100 to generate an AppId
ok@@CodeMonkeyUnity
But what's the point of putting a flappy bird clone on Steam?
Learning how to complete projects, learning how to polish games, learning how to make tutorials, analytics, save systems, rebinding, learning the steam backend, etc, etc, etc
You don't need a masterpiece to learn, you can learn lots of things with basic projects
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Oh you replied! I want to ask about all the code you wrote. Are we free to alter and use your code anyway we want?
What should the demo include
A slice of your game, but a very well made slice. It doesn't need to have all the content but needs to feel like a complete mini game
while the plan is kind of ok but it has to many flaws, Considering that this plan is mean for solo or small teams the amount of work that has to be done is massive, Game development isn't just simple few steps it's very complicated. While on paper things make sense but in reality taking action is another thing adding to that Game Development is a non linear industry there are some stuff that you can't make plans for and making an FPS game is never like a TopDown game. I know the goal is to learn not get viral, the situations that a solo developer will pass through can make his first game no matter what big it is will take year or more.
This Comment is base on my personal experience knowing that i have a Programming background before start using Unity Engine. As far as i remember the first Game(Not my first project and it was the First well functioning Game)i release was after learning and using unity for like 6+ months
thanks for reading my comment
The amount of work is directly related to the scale, that's why I said something slightly more complex than Flappy Bird but not too much more. It absolutely does not take one year to make a game.
For example Jonas Tyroller just launched his latest game Thronefall which is a huge hit and was made in I believe 8 months. Another example, my game Game Corp DX took 3 months to make.
Again it's all about scale.
4:00
Hey, I sent you an email some weeks ago but I assume it entered the spam folder, oh well il just forget about it
Not sure if I saw it or not but I do have quite a lot of unread emails right now, need to go through them all soon
@@CodeMonkeyUnity my email is the one with "Hello Rowkilla :)" in the subject
I do like what you say but this is probably feeding the indiepocalypse, where the game market is flooded by very small, very unfinished games that got 2 months of development.
Funnily enough I actually have an upcoming video talking about the 'indiepocalypse' and how it's not really a thing that exists, nowadays no one even mentions that word, it's just basic supply and demand.
In theory a 1 year project should be a lot more capable and a lot easier to market than a 1-2 month game. If you think your project is competing with those games then you have serious problems either with your game or your marketing plan.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity In my opinion, I think it exists but it's not that big of an issue, and people makes it seem like a big deal. If something, it makes it so that there are a lot of small games you can enjoy for some time and not commit to, as you would do with big titles you are expected to play for 40+ hours. The biggest problem I think exists is that 90%+ of indie games end up losing money but we have to take into account that most of those projects are super low budget, entry level projects, and the fact that they took place and failed was a learning experience for the developer, either learning how to make a better game and how to handle the development, or realizing that game dev is not for them in the first place.
For me, as a developer, I found VR the only market I was daring to publish something since it's not cluttered with thousands of of indie titles releasing every day. I got more users than I could have ever imagined and I'm targetting a very, very small market compared to mobile or flat screen games. If I was making the same game for flat screen, I don't think I could have gotten so many people involved in the project, but I can't look at an alternative reality where I never touched VR and made my game in a different platform, so I can't tell for sure.
It feels so discouraging reading the comments and these videos, I want to make fun games for moblie or even steam and make some good money from it, by myself but it honestly seems like just being a programmer for a company is the better choice, you are quite literally in this comments saying that releasing a game on moblie is useless. So depressing
Making money from games is incredibly difficult, I won't lie to you and say it's easy when it isn't. Nowadays it's basically the same thing as starting a band, how many bands make money?
But just because full time is extremely difficult that absolutely does not mean you can't make games just for fun.
Definitely go ahead and get a stable well-paying programmer job, then make fun games on the evenings and weekends.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity my dream is to make it big with a game like Undertale,doki doki literature club,FNAF. But that’s my teenager years speaking, I hate the idea of working a normal job I won’t lie, that is the main reason I got into programming in the first place, it’s like a hopeful light I saw at the end of the tunnel that maybe just maybe I can be unique enough that I’ll be able to stand out from the crowd, but you are probably right, Dreams are for fools. Thanks anyways! I’ll keep watching your content.
@@galzur5840 Kanye West started by doing solid quality beats for other artists for ten years before he could even start pretending to be the exceptional artist he thinks he is. It does not matter if you want go for an average solid career or exceptionalism, you need to do the work anyway.
What did you end up doing
hi
First❤
first cmt
One thing that no one mention it's the fact that every game development have different skills.
For example for my it's almost pointless to download 3D weapon's for my game.
The reason is because i already know how to make my own 3D model,
it's easier for create or use my own 3D model and for is easier to create 3D model for made i code.
My point is that good to regencies your skills to not try to follow blind what other do people or say.
Like explain earlier i made my 3D models and because i have this skill i figured that it's better for my to made own 3D models,
in that way the game visuals it's more consistent and look better in my opinion.
Most of the assets i use for my game it's mostly tool's instead.
One other advice that may help some people is if someone is more like artist it's easy able to made i more artistic game.
I don't think will be bad idea if someone made exploresion,
a game that focus on the art estathic.
AYO CODEMONKE OLD
Code monkey old? Yes he’s our big brother and teacher and he so pretty
heh I guess it's relative, I'm 35 and I certainly don't think of myself as old (just hit a new Bench Press PR yesterday!) although I do see myself at 18 as a complete child.
My dude. There is more filler and padding for time than content in your videos.
How so? What part of this video did you feel as filler?
this is the first time I saw your face. your voice and your face doesnt match haha
He is probably using voice changer
Codemonkeh gigachad
I worked on a little mobile game from zero coding/gamedev experience and during about 1 year of working in the evenings i ve released the game "Thank S" on android and i ve even released it on IOS aswell as "Thank.S". My biggest problem is that i cannot make it grow, i ve tried to promote it, but it haven t achieved to grow it much.. Could you help me with some advice?
Congrats on completing a game!
I'm not a mobile expert but everything I know about mobile is how discovery is non-existent, the big players like Supercell spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars in user acquisition so I really don't know what you can do to promote it organically.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thank You so much for your reply! I am thinking about making another game and releasing it to steam aswell as mobile phones, but i don't know yet..
(sensitive people, don't read this) As for marketing, all these videos are useless and the techniques are outdated and non-working initially, because no one will post working marketing models, do not even doubt, it has already been tested by many!!! Look for your way, only fresh ideas will attract attention!
Thank you bro, sometimes reality hurts but its true
What ground do you have to say this? What product have you launched?
this reads like some scam copypasta
Which specific techniques are outdated? What did I say that was wrong?
It sounds like you're looking for a magic button that will instantly market your game, no one tells you about that "magic button" because there is no such thing.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity This is not my native language, the translation distorts the essence, there are no complaints about you, I just pointed out generalized marketing models from the Internet, which are really almost useless for most... and besides, they are really outdated, well, except for the "steam festivals" available to everyone to declare themselves, this is the only thing that works, then it depends on the game...