When people say making a video game is hard, I believe them. But “hard” is very vague and as an outsider I didn’t truly understand HOW hard it is. Seeing it broken down like this…man, that is eye opening. My respect for indie devs just quadrupled.
This was really fun and I continue to love the extra insight I'm getting into game development through your channel, as well as getting more familiar with you and your studio too.
Cool list. You forgot “Trying to fix a game breaking bug that just can’t be fixed, then finally get in touch with the third party tool developer that you suspect the bug is coming from and be given advice that doesn’t work, then continue this back and forth for 3 months, only for them to finally admit that it was their fault, say they’ve fixed it, but it’s still happening…ITS STILL HAPPENING AND ITS BEEN 6 MONTHS, IM GOING TO LOSE MY HOUSE”.
@@eastshadestudios8335 it’s okay, i have regular psychotherapy and adhd medication. Could be a lot worse. but yeah, game dev is hard, yes for the reasons you stated, but it’s also just hard. there are so many things that can confound and derail things, you need to be surrounded by helpful people that know what they’re doing. 🤗
I shipped a game a while back on iOS and Android that took years to make with me coding and 2 artists, these all feel right on (except I Love Audio Design). The Loathsome and Kill Me is right on, I did all those tasks, gives me PTSD looking at it
Thank you so much for this video! I learned so much about all the different aspects of game development. This will also give me better insight for when I’m evaluating a game.
I've got 11+ years of big tech experience with a desire to break into games. This video made me realize how woefully unqualified I am, but never more inpsired. Thank you!
I'm also a tech artist turned indie dev / programmer lead and I also fully agree with systems programming being at love. It's the best drug there is for me.
Agreed/ The highs of bug fixing is the euphoria you experience from stopping the pain but lets not mince words, that pain - especially if it's pain from hearing about the bug from customers, is some of the most stressful experiences for a developer. You can tell who loves their work too by how much it effects them. In a perfect world, I'd love to keep my emotional investment high but still be able to detach from the emotions in high-pressure situations. I've struggled and repeatedly failed to strike that balance but I'm still on my developer journey.
This was a nice overview of different tasks involved in the game dev process, thank you! I'm slowly working on learning Unity with the hope of making games myself one day, so it's nice to hear about some other tasks I need to prepare myself for.
I love these types of videos and the devlogs as well! I'm a software developer for my full time job, but I'd be super interested in hearing more about how long you were in your AAA full time job, and what/when you felt like you had developed the skill set you needed to be a successful Indie Game studio. I'd love to do something similar, but I think its still quite a ways away especially since I don't do video game development yet, but will soon on the side!
what an amazing breakdown mate. Buying your game just to ensure your work is recognized - even though its not my style of games. Wishlisting Glimmerwick too
This is insightful im happy i stumbled along your videos im looking forward to trying out Eastshade. Open world games with beauty and adventure are my type of games , especially when you can unwind relax and have a drink of coffee, being able to interact with the world is my favorite thing to do like being able to sit on every chair , or being able to order food in most games i feel like the NPCs have the most fun outside of the missions
I work with portings and I find it torelable on average. But I agree, going through certifications is absolute hell. And I knew EXACTLY what platform you were talking about 😂😂
Your thing about having difficulty getting a static IP shows the need for something important- make friends with folks in as many disciplines as possible! If you are having trouble with something and a friend has a skill set that would cover it, you’ll have a much better time reaching out. Nobody is below you, and a lot of people are worth knowing.
Hey man, this was well explained and relatable! I noticed a lot of lower categories are usually associated with the publisher role. I think it might be a result of how effortful a game is to download. If it is more effort than people need more convincing up front. I noticed now that I was putting the systems engineering goodness to minimize this downloading effort and thus hopefully make the publishing experience less of a drag. ❤😊
FWIW, if you get a small business level of service from any residential ISP, they can get you a static IP (and the people you talk to on the phone will actually know what they are doing).
This is too accurate. Porting is the one task I've found so deeply unenjoyable that I worried it could completely burn me out from enjoying gamedev at all
I have to say eastshade is a wonderful, fantastic game! I have spent many hours playing it on the PS5 and Xbox. And I love how you are a painter In a fantasy world plus I love how they promote tea In the game. I think more RPG's should promote the healing effects of tea. Plus on the console version of eastshade there just two issues with it. One character can't walk properly and the lady that runs the hot air balloon ride is completely invisible. So an update should be made to fix these issues. Other than that I love eastshade and I am so glad the game exists!
Generous placement of playtesting as "Loathsome". The first time I play my game: this is the best game ever! One week later I realize my game is the absolute worst lol.
This is so useful for thinking what kind of people you need in your company! Look at what you loathe and prefer death, and hire someone (or find a business partner) to do that when it makes financial sense
I love the comments saying systems programming is the fun part and while I agree with that too dont forget the absolute pain we go through when shii refuses to work jus because of a spelling mistake XD.
Very interesting, I appreciate how revealing / vulnerable it was. It's somewhat a bummer to hear that you take negative criticism to heart, that "lazy devs" quote sounds super frustrating. One minor thing I noticed is that you used the word "addictive" as a positive multiple times, which is not how I think of it; I think the state you described is more related to "getting into a flow state" than to addiction.
I have just completed eastshade the game today! It is such a great game but it would be amazing if you could release some DLCs for it please that would be nice like a new town or city?
Hello, I'm interested to learn more about "Tech ART". What are some tools, tasks and responsibilities for that role? Can you point me to some online resources or people that specialize in that work?
rigging characters, writing shaders, writing exporters, developing lighting pipelines, writing editor tooling, really anything that is deeply part of the artists' pipeline that is highly technical and potentially requires coding. As far as resources I'm getting decent resources when googling "what is tech art".
I'm currently making my first game Shadow Pulse, and oh gods, how difficult it is for me to plan a good narrative flow, content programming and mapping. It's all so strongly connected and requires such a pure understanding of the whole picture in narrative-oriented games! Although there is nothing more difficult and thankless than marketing an indie game. You spend hours on a post, but you get a dozen likes and one wishlist. This is very disappointing 😒
Why did you started to do youtube content marketing ? are you consider start selling courses ? i really want to understand . you have successful game already . Thanks
TH-cam is just a great place to maintain a relationship with our current fanbase, as well as find new players. So far our TH-cam efforts have exposed a lot of new people to our games.
@@eastshadestudios8335 Thanks , part of the reason im asking is that Chris Zukowski says that social media do almost nothing for marketing a game . how can you explain that ?
@@whiletrue1-wb6xf It really depends on the platform. As far as I know Chris agrees that YT is one of the best platforms for driving WLs, but says it requires too much work and focus for it to be worth it for most indies. Anyway Chris is just one person trying to figure out what works like the rest of us. I have my own data, my own situation, my own skillset and my own brand. And YT is working spectacularly for us. That doesn't mean it's the best for some other indie dev. But we all have to do the work of figuring out what works for our business. Chris' data is great but his perspective is not gospel.
@@eastshadestudios8335 It's very strange. What can I say? It makes me question your disclaimer the fact that you made millions any way be careful and not become as other hustlers on youtube that selling courses with false info
Do you find it strange that nearly every other large game developer has a YT channel and also does content marketing? Like Bungie's games don't make millions, they make BILLIONS. And they still have a YT channel that does content marketing. It's actually much stranger to NOT have a TH-cam channel for a successful game company.
![เจ็บที่ยังฮัก - ม่อน วรวิทย์ [ Official Mv ] จอนนี่มิวสิค](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KALIGSRSjFs/mqdefault.jpg)
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
When people say making a video game is hard, I believe them. But “hard” is very vague and as an outsider I didn’t truly understand HOW hard it is. Seeing it broken down like this…man, that is eye opening. My respect for indie devs just quadrupled.
I was just thinking the same! Insane amount of work and you need such a wide variety of skills and perseverence.
Absolutely agree with systems programming being at love. I moved to ECS since it just felt so much more natural to me treating everything as a system
Bevy bevy bevy. I love Bevy ECS.
@@Xeros08 we are legion
What is ECS?
This was really fun and I continue to love the extra insight I'm getting into game development through your channel, as well as getting more familiar with you and your studio too.
Thank you so much for watching!
Cool list. You forgot “Trying to fix a game breaking bug that just can’t be fixed, then finally get in touch with the third party tool developer that you suspect the bug is coming from and be given advice that doesn’t work, then continue this back and forth for 3 months, only for them to finally admit that it was their fault, say they’ve fixed it, but it’s still happening…ITS STILL HAPPENING AND ITS BEEN 6 MONTHS, IM GOING TO LOSE MY HOUSE”.
Oh man I'm sorry 😞! That sounds horrible!
@@eastshadestudios8335 it’s okay, i have regular psychotherapy and adhd medication. Could be a lot worse.
but yeah, game dev is hard, yes for the reasons you stated, but it’s also just hard. there are so many things that can confound and derail things, you need to be surrounded by helpful people that know what they’re doing. 🤗
I shipped a game a while back on iOS and Android that took years to make with me coding and 2 artists, these all feel right on (except I Love Audio Design). The Loathsome and Kill Me is right on, I did all those tasks, gives me PTSD looking at it
Thank you so much for this video! I learned so much about all the different aspects of game development. This will also give me better insight for when I’m evaluating a game.
Hooray! So glad it was educational!
I've got 11+ years of big tech experience with a desire to break into games. This video made me realize how woefully unqualified I am, but never more inpsired. Thank you!
I'm also a tech artist turned indie dev / programmer lead and I also fully agree with systems programming being at love. It's the best drug there is for me.
Agreed/ The highs of bug fixing is the euphoria you experience from stopping the pain but lets not mince words, that pain - especially if it's pain from hearing about the bug from customers, is some of the most stressful experiences for a developer. You can tell who loves their work too by how much it effects them. In a perfect world, I'd love to keep my emotional investment high but still be able to detach from the emotions in high-pressure situations. I've struggled and repeatedly failed to strike that balance but I'm still on my developer journey.
Yeah I love systems programming. It's very fun to set up! Exactly right on your assessment.
This was a nice overview of different tasks involved in the game dev process, thank you! I'm slowly working on learning Unity with the hope of making games myself one day, so it's nice to hear about some other tasks I need to prepare myself for.
Sick video idea just started it but i already like the concept thanks
My fiancé and I loved Eastshade and we’re really looking forward to playing your next game 💕
I love these types of videos and the devlogs as well! I'm a software developer for my full time job, but I'd be super interested in hearing more about how long you were in your AAA full time job, and what/when you felt like you had developed the skill set you needed to be a successful Indie Game studio. I'd love to do something similar, but I think its still quite a ways away especially since I don't do video game development yet, but will soon on the side!
Really enjoyed video. Found channel last month. Thanks for the indie dev itch!
Rock on! Cheers and thanks for watching!
what an amazing breakdown mate. Buying your game just to ensure your work is recognized - even though its not my style of games. Wishlisting Glimmerwick too
I'm a hobby gamedev, but I didn't know how every task I do is called haha
Surprisingly educational
This is insightful im happy i stumbled along your videos im looking forward to trying out Eastshade. Open world games with beauty and adventure are my type of games , especially when you can unwind relax and have a drink of coffee, being able to interact with the world is my favorite thing to do like being able to sit on every chair , or being able to order food in most games i feel like the NPCs have the most fun outside of the missions
I work with portings and I find it torelable on average. But I agree, going through certifications is absolute hell. And I knew EXACTLY what platform you were talking about 😂😂
23:40 Thats Unity Game Engine for you
Here on the east coast, a static IP is a common option with a business account, just a small extra fee.
Oh that's really interesting! Over here my ISP was just confused!
@@eastshadestudios8335 "business account" could be the key element. Home ISP won't know, but it's not so uncommon that an ISP should be clueless.
super fun video idea!
Thanks for checking it out Jordy! You should totally do one! I'd love to watch yours!
yee
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this stuff :)
Your thing about having difficulty getting a static IP shows the need for something important- make friends with folks in as many disciplines as possible! If you are having trouble with something and a friend has a skill set that would cover it, you’ll have a much better time reaching out. Nobody is below you, and a lot of people are worth knowing.
Hey man, this was well explained and relatable! I noticed a lot of lower categories are usually associated with the publisher role. I think it might be a result of how effortful a game is to download. If it is more effort than people need more convincing up front. I noticed now that I was putting the systems engineering goodness to minimize this downloading effort and thus hopefully make the publishing experience less of a drag. ❤😊
FWIW, if you get a small business level of service from any residential ISP, they can get you a static IP (and the people you talk to on the phone will actually know what they are doing).
Wow. Found about some new hats I never considered
Good to know that all the stuff I haven't done yet... is in the "Non-green" categories
This is too accurate. Porting is the one task I've found so deeply unenjoyable that I worried it could completely burn me out from enjoying gamedev at all
I have to say eastshade is a wonderful, fantastic game! I have spent many hours playing it on the PS5 and Xbox. And I love how you are a painter In a fantasy world plus I love how they promote tea In the game. I think more RPG's should promote the healing effects of tea. Plus on the console version of eastshade there just two issues with it. One character can't walk properly and the lady that runs the hot air balloon ride is completely invisible. So an update should be made to fix these issues. Other than that I love eastshade and I am so glad the game exists!
yeah the art and design its make things more fun
I like your videos! Best wishes :)
Generous placement of playtesting as "Loathsome". The first time I play my game: this is the best game ever! One week later I realize my game is the absolute worst lol.
This is so useful for thinking what kind of people you need in your company! Look at what you loathe and prefer death, and hire someone (or find a business partner) to do that when it makes financial sense
I feel it just needs new stuff for it now and again to make it more of a living world! Like what they have done with skyrim with the whole mods idea
I actually like doing the business admin and taxes, I'm like "Mom, look, I'm doing adult stuff" (ignoring the fact I am 34).
I love the comments saying systems programming is the fun part and while I agree with that too dont forget the absolute pain we go through when shii refuses to work jus because of a spelling mistake XD.
I would just swap 2D and 3D around
Very interesting, I appreciate how revealing / vulnerable it was. It's somewhat a bummer to hear that you take negative criticism to heart, that "lazy devs" quote sounds super frustrating.
One minor thing I noticed is that you used the word "addictive" as a positive multiple times, which is not how I think of it; I think the state you described is more related to "getting into a flow state" than to addiction.
Cheers thanks for watching! And yes for sure I mean addictive in a good way!
I have just completed eastshade the game today! It is such a great game but it would be amazing if you could release some DLCs for it please that would be nice like a new town or city?
Plus where are all the hot springs in the game for the scientist? Its such a hard quest if anyone can help me i would be so greatful!
Hello, I'm interested to learn more about "Tech ART". What are some tools, tasks and responsibilities for that role? Can you point me to some online resources or people that specialize in that work?
rigging characters, writing shaders, writing exporters, developing lighting pipelines, writing editor tooling, really anything that is deeply part of the artists' pipeline that is highly technical and potentially requires coding.
As far as resources I'm getting decent resources when googling "what is tech art".
Would you be interested in an interview about game development? I have recently just done one with the Dev of Rooftops and alleys!
So much work 🤯 now I’m scared of game dev 😅
Level Design, Market Research and Optimization are gone from the template now.
I'm currently making my first game Shadow Pulse, and oh gods, how difficult it is for me to plan a good narrative flow, content programming and mapping. It's all so strongly connected and requires such a pure understanding of the whole picture in narrative-oriented games!
Although there is nothing more difficult and thankless than marketing an indie game. You spend hours on a post, but you get a dozen likes and one wishlist. This is very disappointing 😒
That's very exciting! Wishing you the best with your project!
amagin someone names themslefs westshades studios and then they challenge you and say they are better than you
Why did you started to do youtube content marketing ? are you consider start selling courses ? i really want to understand . you have successful game already .
Thanks
TH-cam is just a great place to maintain a relationship with our current fanbase, as well as find new players. So far our TH-cam efforts have exposed a lot of new people to our games.
@@eastshadestudios8335 Thanks , part of the reason im asking is that Chris Zukowski says that social media do almost nothing for marketing a game . how can you explain that ?
@@whiletrue1-wb6xf It really depends on the platform. As far as I know Chris agrees that YT is one of the best platforms for driving WLs, but says it requires too much work and focus for it to be worth it for most indies.
Anyway Chris is just one person trying to figure out what works like the rest of us. I have my own data, my own situation, my own skillset and my own brand. And YT is working spectacularly for us. That doesn't mean it's the best for some other indie dev. But we all have to do the work of figuring out what works for our business. Chris' data is great but his perspective is not gospel.
@@eastshadestudios8335 It's very strange. What can I say? It makes me question your disclaimer the fact that you made millions
any way be careful and not become as other hustlers on youtube that selling courses with false info
Do you find it strange that nearly every other large game developer has a YT channel and also does content marketing? Like Bungie's games don't make millions, they make BILLIONS. And they still have a YT channel that does content marketing. It's actually much stranger to NOT have a TH-cam channel for a successful game company.