can I ask one thing, I am going the graphic designer way, and even if I use the no-code engine, can I still make a new system (I mean either nearly new gameplay system, or base on a not very common gameplay system and add a new one into it to make into a Unique gameplay)
Best advice you can give someone starting out is that you need to learn both coding and make art. If you buy the code or the art, you won't know how to use it, make it your own, or how to optimize it so that your game can actually run. Everyone thinks they are smarter, and can find another way. Having a team member who fills that role doesn't eliminate the need either.
@@royaldarkness8453 Go look up RPGMaker, and look at the games produced. They all look the same, and all have nearly the same systems. Do you think they all intended on making the same game? or do you think they are limited by the tools? It's like trying to make an oil painting with a type writer. The only solution is to mod the typewriter, which needs code to control.
@Hundey FuFu If you know how to code, sure. If you don't, you won't be able to communicate how you want your systems designed. Also, i've never worked on a game that hasn't needed tweaks and new systems to solve some unforeseen problem all the way to release. Besides, if it's a good system they can always just take it, buy some assets and release it as their game.
For the lazy: 1. Lack of Feedback 2. Lack of Demo build 3. No Source control 4. Not using Coding Standards 5. Building own Custom Engine 6. Bad Art 7. No Test Plan 8. Not finishing
I prefer the term logical XD legit I came here to have 8 mistakes to avoid not a 13 minute rant on random shit and fluffing up the concepts with filler that doesn't help. This, what you typed is exactly what I came for, straight to the point no filler, no bullshit statements.
Clean code etc. is important for you too, so you can actually read your code months or years later. Ready to play build is important for marketing opportunities (like even showing your friends or someone you met by accident and got interested).
Are you telling me a single person cannot create a single server MMO with realistic physics and dragon raising in real time? With having kids and dying and a real ecosystem where everything grows, dies, lives and breeds? With over 1000 squaremiles, with alot of details and over 10000 quests? I think its realistic
@Frederic Schlueter Nah, your "ambition" is still too easy. Add a persistent self-learning AI into your solar system simulation instead, and make every object and or terrain 100% destructible, just for fun. Also the quest should be infinitely auto-generated, as well as it's procedurally generated planet and space. Ah~ Now that is a *bit* challenging, imo...
My main problem with finishing a game is that I’m more interested in developing a specific feature than to make a complete game. Step1: Make a full blown super flexible itemisation system, check Step 2: oh I really wonder how machine learning works, let’s take a break from that ARPG idea -
Here are the things seen if we remember Jim Sterling: 1. Lack of effort and care 2. Incapability of receiving criticism 3. Lack of profession 4. Awful prioritization and risk-taking 5. Improper goals and ideas 6. Disrespect to consumers
All the properties of one that doesn’t get along with others. I think the person to person soft skills are the icing on the cake that makes a solo dev relatable and capable of maintaining a fan base
"more games are started than released" wouldnt it be strange if it were the other way around? But I know what you mean, I started about 8 titles without finishing them. Started my first project about 7 years ago, just never had time to finish it. Work and all in the way. Then new engines, tried a new approach, and gone. Sometimes after 2 or more years I didnt even know anymore what the game was supposed to be
Isn't that the case for almost everything in life though? In general I'm pretty sure people start reading books but mostly never finish, start an idea but mostly never finish, start exercising but almost never finish (as in keep doing it). It would be a very different world if people mostly finished what they started.
one crucial thing not included in the video: *NETWORKING* sadly this is how the world spins now and without networking, no-one will ever know your beautiful game you've shed blood and tears working on. and luck... but of course no-ne has control over it.
You don't need networking if you're a solo dev self publishing. You do need advertisement, but that's not the same thing. Networking _can_ definitely be helpful if it gets you a shoutout to an existing audience, but it's not neccessary.
"sadly this is how the world spins now " Having known the world before internet, I can tell you that now the world spins way less with networking than before. Before you didn't have the posibility to post you work for free in a place where every one can see it. There was a huge amount of intermediate actor that you had to interact with before having a chance to see you song on the radio or your game in a consol. However, today networking is still super usefull: the more people you know in your area of interest the more people you will be able to ask question, ask for help, ask for advice etc. But today it is just usefull, before it was necessary.
I'd add scope to this, if you're solo you have to know when to cut back on things that will either take too long or require you learning something new that will take a long time
Couldn’t agree more, it’s easy to come up with an epic game idea but much harder to see it all through to the end. I try to see smaller simpler games through to the end
While watching this I realized I hadn't made a build of my game in a while and lo and behold it wasn't working. Had to address that real quick. Thanks guys !
The funny part is, when you're a game designer with an artistic background, and not a programmer background, usually we check every finished chunk of code when we write (or connected the dots in a visual script). We, the artist game designer, are so afraid of making mistakes in our code that we are obsessed to make everything working the whole time. Well, I think it's funny, because our fear of a broken game works in our favor. (Our weak point: we have to keep the code simple).
Source control and lines. My biggest weakness. I remember when my actual programmer friend looked at my hobby programmed game(complete) and said nice but as soon as he saw the source. He went white lol.
@@user-ye5cl3xd6c That's code, source control is a system to manage certain "states" of your code, especially when adding incremental features to what is going to become a large code base. You essentially maintain a "clean" version of your code and create copies of the clean version that you can work on, and integrating (or merging) those versions once it is complete and tested. A popular source control tool is Git.
Hello, I am aspiring indie developer and employed software engineer. I definitely agree with all of this. I would also point that marketing and bulding your community is very important if you plan to sell your product. Other than that: make sure that values in your game can be easily tweaked. DO NOT try to create custom engine. I mean, I really, just DON'T. I did it, I've been there. I tried using just simple graphic or multimedia libraries and build my engine from scratch. As much as I actually managed to write some working/playable games (network tic-tac-toe, wannabe server/client architecture for my master degree, some old school whack the mole in western setting, checkers) it was time consuming, it sucked a lot, it was hard to mantain, it didn't work as I wanted it to. I also tried twice making my own 2D game engine wasting almost 2 years on it. I learned a lot and even if writing log system, crash reports with core dump, windowed errors, rendering with layers, resource managements and stuff was lots of fun, I got asked very important question. Do you want to write your own engine or your game? Well, I found out that Godot has really evolved since last time I was looking on free game engines (which was like 3-5 years before) and I found out that it actually has everything I need so I said fuck it and started learning music theory and art instead. Really, don't make mistake I made as you can save a lot of time and maybe even develop one or three games instead of reinventing the wheel and proving yourself that you can do it yourself. Listen to me, I mean seriously. GODOT engine has been in development for about 5 years privately, it was work done by more than one person and they were more experienced and goal oriented than me or you. No it's free, public which means you can just download GODOT source code and customize it to your preference. It's that easy. I wouldn't use Unity because you need to keep their logo / pay montly or if your revenue jumps, you need pro edition. Also, Godot worked better for me, it felt like smoother experience, devs are responsive. It feels good to have tool like this. That's all. Good luck folks!
This video provides excellent advice. I do believe finishing a game is indeed hard, especially when the novelty has long since worn off and only the endless grinding remains
mistake number 1: working on your game with someone else. i can't tell you how many times i tried to make a game on my own, but then got someone else involved and accidentally made a game as a team.
I afraid it would happen to me too. I have tons of idea to make a good game but I can't code. But I afraid that people will stole my idea and make it their game instead. All I want is make my idea into a game together with a team (and I should be the one who work the most of course) on the thing, not some credit-stealing dude stole all your idea.
@@SnivyO.O Never got friends to be part of my game development, even though I'd be the one to do most of the work and share the potential earnings equally. Well, should I succeed, they'll get nothing. bwa-hahaha.
@Donaldo Mac Eachen I know how to draw art and vector art, know how to animate and editing. But I just never use game engine before and don't know how to code. Haha.
I spent 12 years of dabbling in making games in c++, and always made some part of the engine myself and never finished my projects. A year ago I decided to finally learned unity 2D and I'm now going for game design full time for a year. It was a weird ego thing that just got in the way so that point resonated painfully : ).
Going from C++ to C# and unity is probably a god-like performance boost. I've been getting the same from going from C99 + Win32 + OpenGL to JavaScript + WebGL. The "Ego" thing is the reason I stopped doing online coding challenges. Maybe good if you are starting out. But at some point it just becomes an addiction to competing with others rather than learning excercise.
Great video and, as a solo dev myself, very valid and important points. The only thing I would add to this list, or expand upon, would be marketing. Finishing a game is a monumentally important step, but so many solo projects have a hard time gaining market attention. Thanks for the great video. :)
Source control and backups are both important things. But they're two different things. You can have just local source control without a backup and still lose your all your work when your hardware fails and you can have a simple backup without a history but will still have a big problem when you notice that your new code is far worse than the old one that is even already overwritten in the backup.
I often hear this argument that source control if for "safety". Its not safer than any other backup solution to an external device or cloud service. Source control is constructed mainly to allow collaborating in a team, reducing the coordination costs. Doing dedicated backups or commits is for safety, even if that means just making a zip file and storing it externally.
I've seen quite a few videos about game development tips/mistake, none of them is even remotely accurate except for this video. Everything that this video mention is 100% genuine and 100% accurate.
If you are like me and want to build your own engine, instead I suggest you pick up Unreal which has their source open, which means that you can just optimize the engine to do whatever you need once you familiarize yourself with it. Not only will this save you a lot of time and headaches, but it will also make you a much better engine programmer, learning from the Unreal devs.
unreal may have its source open, but I never got it to install (and execute) on any computer I've had. Not saying I'd understand any of its code anyway.
1. always need feedback. 2. at lease give gamers a chance to know your game. 3. got to keep it clean. 4. bad coding could lead to bug and glitches and even not working at all. 5. best start from other engine 1st. 6. it takes time. 7. always testing your game before releasing. 8. got to finish it.
I can argue about the code quality a bit here. Fast prototyping with throwaway code could be better to keep your gears going. Once you get a working ad-hoc prototype, that proves that your mechanics are playable, you can start reimplementing it from scratch, using code standards and even a different engine
This is the most beautiful indie gev channel in the world. As an indie dev with an unsuccessful indie game release I thought it was beautiful that half of those things y mentioned were things I had noticed were the problem with my development cycle code not written to industry standard no good comments or diagrams no source control light github used. You are correct and you know it especially about the fact that I have an indie game right now that I’ve made in 2014 for XNA and C# that is not complete
I think it's best to figure out what you are good at(for example: art, animations, coding, game/level design, coding, music, sound, story) and hire someone for the stuff you are bad at.
If you can find a good, reliable partner, as dedicated as you are, with plenty of time to work on the project, and you agree on everything in writing, then it can be a great advantage. I haven't found that yet, but the asset stores help :) It's also good to study up on your weak areas, so you are at least able to confidently explain what you need, and participate usefully.
most people do not have the funding to be able to do that, and you would probably be surprised to know that Is what most people do, as well as one of the main causes most games fail. either from being unable to find a reliable partner for an area, but instead finding someone who just wants a quick buck, joins the team, throws in stock work for their area, takes the money and when confronted just ditches. that happens a lot as well. you would more than likely be better just studying how to improve your weak areas or adapting to use the weak area instead as a strength, trying to make a high res game but horrible artist? rethink your plan and come up with a design you can do, it does not take long to follow some how to draw tutorials and become decent at drawing anime or cartoonish themes. or if you are bad at programming but trying to make a sophisticated feeling game that seems well engineered? look into game engines that do not require programming, or use languages that are super easy to learn like Lua and GDscript. heck even if you are not good at any of these things and all you have going for you is an idea, everyone has to start somewhere, and even though getting started might take a while, if you plan smartly and don't over extend your abilities to where it burns you out, you will be able to learn and improve all of those skills. but hiring people to do everything you cannot, I do not believe is a valid way to move forward. especially if you have so little skill in an area that you do not even know the proper terminology to explain your ideas to someone who does
Yup...best way here...great at level design but fail at everything else lol ... So I hired a programmer....Im sure you guys can find someone for a under $200 even $100 to help you craft maybe 20 min of a game
The video was a bit too superficial to be helpful. "Plan your file structure for future growth"... okay, how? It didn't need a full doctoral dissertation, but an example or two of the basic idea would at least give folks an idea where to start researching. It's perfectly fine to link to more in-depth videos. But that isn't justification for completely avoiding any elaboration.
INFOTAINMENT is the best performing category for technical channels. If you want "in depth" Johnathan Blow streams on twitch. And HandMadeHero is still going on.
@@KANJICODER there was no INFO in this TAINMENT. There was nothing mentioned that I could search for to learn more. It isn't "in-depth' to mention a couple file structure paradigms. That would have been helpful info that I could have explored further. Being told simply, "plan for growth" offers no guidance on what to search for.
@@johnterpack3940 I can give you one very specific mistake I made. Coding a game in flash. And then flash died. How do you avoid coding in a language that won't be dead 10 years from now? 1. Language must be OPEN SOURCE. Free is not open source. If one company controls whether it lives or dies, don't use that language. 2. If you find yourself searching "is __X__ language dead" that is a good sign you should avoid that language" 3. Weird driver problems is also a sign to avoid. It's a sign people don't have their shit together. One of the reasons I ditched "OpenCL" even though "OpenCL" was a better option than "OpenGL" for the rendering algorithms I had in mind. 4. If it has the games industry behind it, it is probably a good choice. VULKAN for instance. My problem with vulkan is that it makes it damn near to make a ZERO DEPENDENCY C99 code base because you need to run GLSLANGVALIDATOR.EXE to compile your shader code into Spir-V. So, I use OpenGL & WEBGL but try to be very minimalistic in the feature set I used to avoid driver difference issues. My languages of choice are : 1. JavaScript : It is the only language that works right out of the box on all browsers. It has high adaption rate because it is "simple" (on the surface level) and people will pick it up because it is the path of least resistance. 2. C99 : You might think that "C" is a language not many people use. You are correct. But what do you think the popular high level languages are written in? All those languages have to die before C will die. So... Never. I personally think C++ is going to hit a critical mass where no one smart enough exists to keep maintaining the standard. They keep adding new features. If the "RISC" vs "CISC" compiler debate extends to languages , "C" will win over "C++". .... My other advice is... Programmers might make the game, but ART sells the game. If you find a hard working artist to join you on your project, they deserve an equal share of profits. I can't say for sure I know what I am doing. But I think a lot can boil down to luck. So I am trying to keep a loose association with other technically minded people. Feel free to email me : KanjiCoder@Gmail.com
I've been trying for years to develop some kind of game but my personal main problem is actually getting ideas for a new game as I'm just fleshing out the ideas of a game I just thought of before And I never make it past that without thinking of yet another "epic" game idea that I want to do, and will inevitably abandon for a new one
I have that problem with creating in general myself. I have some 15ish projects I could be working on ranging from silly games all the way up to multiple album ideas for bands and as far out of left field as ideas on non traditional restaurants. Shit sucks but such is life as a broad strokes creative type. Might I suggest keeping notes on your phone or actual paper. That way you at least have something to come back to when you get sidetracked by something else.
just throw it all in but shrink them down. your game is your art piece there are no rules. think back to all your ideas and pick the one(s) that come back most easily (aka the ones you either prefer or thought most about) as a base. then find places to put your other ideas in. actually i lied i can think of 3 "rules": 1) games rarely follow a single idea, they merge many into one otherwise they'd be boring after 15 min. 2) some games go to extremes throwing multiple genres (and ideas) into them, such as saints row and GTA. cant say they're failures if anything diverse games tend to be extremely fun and popular. 3) by the time you've finished (as poker suggested....) 10 full games based on different ideas you'll have forgotten half of them and be 60 aka its not the right way to go about it. PS. if all else fail then make POCs (proof of concepts) for each idea, share them around and go with the one people loved most. personally i wouldnt do that cuz to me at that point you're making a game for others based on your idea but social motivation is a thing so.
Focus on making a simple game, not your epic master piece but something as a small exercise. Cut the scope in two twice and make that game as an exercise. This way you will learn more and also finish more games
Figure out how you can make a finished game with 1 good core mechanic from all your ideas. Then think about how you could "add in all that other stuff you want" later. Easier to build on top of a simple well-polished game than a clusterfuck of half-finished ideas.
Feedback is difficult for me, I'm terrified of others and I'm overly sensitive with a self-destructive mentality, so the thought of receiving negative criticism to me is like the thought of pointing a loaded gun towards one's head. Plus the thought of eventually directing or developing alongside multiple people is horrific 😫
I would love to see a video on how to branch out from a solo project and get other people involved. How do you arrange with them to make sure that you're both legally protected and get a fair share of the earnings? Is it necessary to incorporate into a company, or can you continue in a less professional environment? These are things I think about a lot, and I would love to hear your take.
I would love to get more feedback on my game, and I've been looking for feedback since my earliest versions. But the REAL problem is: where? Where and how does one get feedback, and especially MEANINGFUL feedback? When I try to show what I've made to family or friends, they adore the project too much because it was something a friend/family-member did, which leads to an unintentionally filtered response. And its even worse if it isn't even the kind of game that friend likes to play. The biggest reason most people are solo developers is because they lack the connections to form a team. That lack of connections also translates into not having good resources for feedback and testing. I'd love to get some feedback for my game. But where can I get feedback? And where can I get enough feedback to be able to determine what responses are typical and what are outliers?
Hey! I'm working on a game too and I got quite a few words of useful feedback by posting it in Reddit communities and publishing it in itch.io... In my specific case I also got a lot of feedback from other folks that use the same game library as I do, as it is not a very main stream one (Gosu for the Ruby language). But generally speaking, I think Reddit would perhaps be the easiest way to get lots of people to see your game. Hope this helps :)
I’m working on my own because I’m a beginner in game programming and game design. That’s why I’m making my first game step by step with the help of tutorials. I know that my first game is probably going to suck even if the idea is good but also once I learn enough to actually be able to work on a game with others I will start looking for a team
If you want quality people on your team you need a working prototype first. Doesn't have to be a big game. Could be a silly little thing. But you need that prototype.
What you give here are tips to make a "good selling game" not necessarily a "game which you are proud of". If someone makes a game that only he (an maybe some other guys) wants to play, who am I to say it is a bad game? Games are an ART. The beauty of art is in the eye of the beholder.
That's fine if its just a hobby. But the are many young game developers that jump into that industry, spending time and betting their future income on it. If they do, they need to make something that sells or can be used to get a job.
I am going to be the asshole and say that beauty is __NOT__ in the eye of the beholder. The public opinion on what is beautiful is probably distributed on a bell curve. That said, it shouldn't be too hard to find something you enjoy making that others also enjoy. Afterall, you are both human, and thus carry "human sensibilities".
perfect timing. I was wondering when you were going to post a new video.. I just graduated and looking for as much info as possible as i can to get my own game going. Thanks Ask Gamedev.
Congrats on your graduation, Chris, and good luck on your gamedev journey! Feel free to ask us any questions. You can also join our Discord to meet other developers.
Hmm, I wonder how many of these mistakes I'm currently making, let's see.. 1. Feedback - I found a few people on UpWork, set up a test server, and a couple of them have been testing it and giving me at least some feedback. 2. Demo build - I don't publish to the test site until everything that has been implemented so far is working as far as I know. 3. Source control - Originally it was, then SourceTree broke for me; since then I've just been copying the test builds to a cloud backup area. I plan to fix that soon. 4. Coding standards - It's object oriented, there is separation of concerns, there are d.r.y. trees, there are a lot of design and code documentation and comments. It's pretty easy to find the code responsible for something, and pretty easy to add something new. I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it's pretty good. 5. Custom engine - I did roll my own engine, but it's 2D html5, so it's not that complicated or extensive. I just have a Game with a list of Scenes each with a list of Layers each with a list of GameObjects which may have a Transform and/or a Rigidbody and/or a Collider and/or a Renderer and a list of Behaviors.. it's loosely modeled after Unity that way. There's a CollisionManager with QuadTrees and stuff. I do bounding box proximity checking, and then point, line and/or polygon collision testing. All that stuff is working. It's been quite a while since I've had to add much to the engine or change it very much. 6. Bad art - I pulled most of the art from artists around the web who put their work up for grabs (royalty free). I like it, it looks pretty good, the testers think so to, but.. I worry that other games will use the same stuff. I edit it a bit so it's questionable how much of it would be immediately recognizable, but. I am a little bit worried about that. 7. No test plan - I test it, the testors test it.. I'm thinking of posting to some forums and asking for beta testors before I pull the trigger and open it up and advertise it. 8. Not finishing - I think I'm past worrying too much about that at this point. The vast majority of the hard work is done and most of the content is in. I just need to set up a production web site for it. That will definitely involve some rather arduous work that I'm not looking forward to, but I basically do web dev for a living, so. I think it'll go live here in a bit. I don't think it's going to break the Internet or anything, but. Hopefully there will be a substantial contingent of folks who like it.
For such a big block of text I was expecting to see some demo videos. Any reason in particular for not showing game footage on youtube? Yes, people can't play it. But if you can get views from showing off a game then you know it must be somewhat interesting to watch. And being "interesting to watch" can be a key to success on twitch.
@@shavais33 I was looking at 10 year old facebook posts of mine. And I get the same feelings. Well ,also the "fuck I am old as shit" because they are 10 year old facebook posts.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 so you are saying its a mistake to watch this informative video/channel because the youtuber put effort and time in producing it.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 covering what man? I found this video informative and thought to add my experience of not using a game design document. I don't care for the visuals, if I found the video helpful I like and comment, and if don't I just ignore it.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 God forbid they have production standards so you aren't staring at a blank screen while listening to someone talk. Your unneeded criticism isn't even useful.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 Wrong, I'm a great fan of effort and informative videos. I am, however, not a fan of baseless assumptions and people with unwarranted hate boners on the internet.
For the lazy: 1. Lack of Feedback 2. Lack of Demo build 3. No Source control 4. Not using Coding Standards 5. Building own Custom Engine 6. Bad Art 7. No Test Plan 8.
Ok yeah but look at a game called Sapiens that is currently in development. It looks great and basically breaks all the rules of being an indie developer. He is basically creating the history of the world as an entire game, on his own engine.
i already finish 2 game this week. of course it's not that good. but i'm happy and proud i can make my own game. you're right. i will do better. i will not give up
There are different stages of dev. concept, prototype basic, kitchen sink (all the game structure details), and first optimization of structure. the last 2, list everything of a certain part, first 2player, enemies, hazards, objects, backgrounds, text, sounds. in the first two stages most will toss most everything into say the "player's" code. but then you need to separate the different systems into their own files. once that happens you have a mind map of all that is going on. from that you will see what can be combined say like movement, some of the code is actually used by both the player, and the different AIs. so instead of doing those same lines of code dozen of times, you access it when needed and by what (the player and or the AI's), the the rinse and repeat a few dozen times, then step away for awhile, and do it a few more dozen times, till you have an optimized form that is logical simple and readable. unlike your "kitchen sink" that has dozen upon dozens of folders and sub folders ( so many you need a drilling rig to even get near the mid point of the file structure). and for a mind map that is needed. it shows you whats what. then you cut, edit, and optimize it. little by little. recombining single use code into a more general file (with docs). now many will combine the stages during different times of their process. that is ok, the key point is to know where you are at all times, how you got to that point, how you got out the last time, and how to do it better the next round. start with a concept, prototype it, toss in the kitchen sink, add in an if loop statement. "what does this do for my game?" do i need it? is it major or minor. if minor how much time and code will it take to make it work without glitches? then cut, edit, rinse and repeat, a dozen more times till you have nothing left but the bare bones once again. then go in and add back some of those "minor" aspects. then cut, edit all that again to get back to bare bones. to find out what is needed for the game and story you want to tell.
@@KANJICODER no... not hate at all. Its like writing a novel. you have two basic types of writers, Plotters and Pansters. Plotters will plot out down to the last detail of their novel or over 75% before they start writing it. so it makes since, fewer plot holes, contunuity and consisity errors. where as Pansters will just write on the fly, and what comes into their heads at that moment. Pansters have 5 times the rewrites as plotters do. same with script kitties. you have coders that are plotters and you have coders that are pansters. yet writers and coders have to go though the same processes of development, plot, subplots, characters, world building, and just as many editing sessions as the other. and the same types of editing as well. structure editing (plot for writers, flow for coders) should this chapter even be in this order or could it be cut out. the spelling and grammar ( the vain of both writers and coders.) word editing, is this the best word or phrase used at this point or something better or not at all? ( just change the word "word or phrase" for code.) and the same reasons writers write apply to coders. the big question... is it for you or for others? if for others you have to write it totally different then just for your enjoyment. you are just telling your story in the language of computer code not spoken language. fyi I have done both I was a script kitty then latter started writing novels. remember great code is like a great book, novel or movie. so learn form one to do the other. so my best wishes for you, and good luck on your journey.
@@dawg897 I 100% agree with this. I think if I was born 100+ years ago I'd either be a writer or an inventor. Your analogy holds up in other ways too. People think because you can program that you can hack. It's like , "No, I am a graphics programmer , not a network programmer" Same with a writer. A sports column writer and a children's book writer are totally different things. Though both are writers. If you are still coding I like to keep a list of programmers on my computer. Just a casual thing as success is kind of a "skill + luck" thing. So figure keeping lists of programmers can increase the luck factor. KanjiCoder@Gmail.com
#2 is my biggest trouble. I do have demo's it's just week to week it becomes outdated due to an update or iteration. I am nearing feature complete though so I really hope I'll have a solid, feature complete demo soon!
I love how you didn't have overscoping. I hate when videos like this discourage people from shooting for the moon. Yes, it's wiser to learn as you grow, but for some people, fighting for your dream despite the urge and world telling you to give up is what it's all about!
Yes, I think ambitious games are okay these days. No reason you can't make an open world/sandbox game and expand it indefinitely. That's how Minecraft started. I think players appreciate consistent updates. As long as you don't get sick of your own game in 10 years ;)
This is the best video I have ever seen from this channel. All the mistakes showed in this video are truth. As a solo Dev I have difficult on making good *Pixel Art* and I'm a beginner of 3D model in *Blender* . *Code* isn't entirely a problem since I have done some non-gaming projects but still it's important to save different versions your code. I should check *git*
For sure, the artwork is also a struggle for me, as well as good music composition and story writing. I’m coming around on the artwork slowly and the coding is not a problem for me, but I look forward to writing beautiful music
Nice topic, very informatve video! Also a suggestion: It would be nice if you put a final screen kinda like a summary, to be easier to remeber and get a screenshot for later, or/and talk about all the topics briefly in conclusion of the video.
8:05 hey, that is me. Although through several good practices that I have picked with time, my code has less bugs and its easier to check and port, and yes it has a lot of comments, also it prints a lot of text, functions like printf in c/c++, trace on flash and console.log in java are the programmer's best friends.
I write novels and the last one has resonance. I know so many would be authors who spend all their time revising and rewriting what they have already done instead of finishing the novel and then polishing it. They never get anything finished. I was guilty of this myself a long time ago and have a pile (not a ton) of partially written novels. I came to realise that the most important aspect of writing novels is to finish your first draft before doing any revision or rewriting. It doesn't matter how good your characters, plot, settings, etc if the book is never finished.
I totally agree with these. My strength is on the art side, not code, and FYI I agree that programmer art can kill the ability to promote a game, a game needs to look good if it's going to sell well. That's tough but true. Lack of Feedback, and testing is obviously true. A few other things to note: Excessive scope can make an indie game impossible to finish. Feature creep is a real problem and you need to know what to make and what to cut. That's been tricky for me personally. Also, make sure you are using an engine that has a high likelihood of still being around and supported by the time you are finishing the project. In other words, an established and popular engine with frequent updates. Like Unity, Unreal, etc. Making your own engine is a mistake, but so is choosing an engine with no support. Backing up your entire project periodically is also a must, the worst you can do is lose weeks of work for no good reason. Finally, make an effort to promote your work on release, don't assume people will find it all on their own. I am promoting my game now: www.miniaturemultiverse.com. Pretty shameless but after I've put over $1k of hard-earned funds and a ridiculous number of unpaid hours into it, I'd like it to find an audience. IT's a first-person adventure/puzzle game set inside a range of realistic-looking miniature-art worlds, it's a little like a Myst game but if the worlds were all made with explorable O-scale models and the puzzles were a bit simpler. Finally, know when to find help from others to fill in your gaps in skill. I am collaborating with a music composer, and I'm not ashamed to admit I'm using visual-scripting addons for most interactions, as well as a lot of other assets, mainly shaders and the like. I have also made a ton of my own assets for game devs, on matthornb.itch.io if anyone's interested. 1500+ seamless texture maps, 150+ video elements, 100+ 3d assets. All bundled right now with other extras for 89 cents. (93% bundle discount!)
Not finishing is my biggest mistake. I never got anywhere beyond prototypes. Usually I get to a point where I get lazy or my code becomes messy and I try to rewrite it then never finish rewriting it.
Im one of those who develops an custom engine alongside. However the reason for me is my pursuit in understanding all the underlying tech. This is no fast game development for sure, but developing a game is not my primary goal either. This way im learning a ton about literally every tech aspect, which is what for me, besides game development as a whole, is super exciting
"Always have a build even in the very beginning of development of your game" "But also make sure the build isn't buggy so you'll have to put a ridiculous amount of time into bug fixing."
I think another mistake (I made it mostly in the beginning) is that the devs just get over-excited, as it is their first-ever project or when they feel that their game is a big success, and with this feeling, they make a tiny mistake, which they can't SIMPLY see how to fix
Number one is big for me because I do game design now, and how many discords and posts have I been in where an opinionated male player tries to tell me how the mechanics are supposed to work in a videogame when I'm literally a game designer (I use Unity). Of course, I don't tell them this, it's in my profile, I just let them talk and realize this is one of the reasons why designers don't listen to players, a lot of players think they know it all about that one game they play and I can understand if they put say, 5 or six years invested into the game, but I've had a new game come out and players try to tell me things about it and I'm like... You have no idea what you're talking about... this is the reason why we don't take them seriously. So, to combat this, I've been trying to connect players and designers more closely together and taking the time to explain "designer's intent" to them, or break down mechanics, show them how things work in Unity and so on. Hopefully I can tear down this thing between the two and we can live happily ever after, playing games together.
You have to ignore some players because they give contradicting advice. I listen to the player's who's sensibilities most closely match my vision. Also, maybe you've already done this. But I find this super valuable when testing: 1. Silently watch someone play your game. 2. Person gets past level 1 , cannot beat level 2. 3. SAY NOTHING. Take away computer. 4. Make a level 1.5 really quick. 5. They play 1.5 and beat it. 6. What they learned in 1.5 allows them to beat level 2.
ive always struggled with art. Im confident in my ability to program any kind of game as long as I have the enough time. I love coding, I come from a software engineering background, and I feel very proficient with Unity. my biggest issue is I cant draw for shit. I have zero talent in visual arts and it has become such a struggle. having the skills to build a game, but lacking that important part is so heartbreaking to me. I have tried to pull artist into my projects but they all let me down. my ex girlfriend is an amazing artist, but she wouldnt work for free. if only I had some money to hire artists. all I can do is buy assets from online stores, but that doesnt feel right cause most of them while really good are pretty generic.
the art doesnt need to look great, it just needs to look decent. For example, Touhou is very popular despite the less than stellar art of the characters. However Zun makes up for it with great music and witty dialogue with fun game design.
itch.io and opengameart.org I am in the same boat as you and those sites are helping a lot even though sometimes you still need to be able to adjust the graphics slightly to work with your game.
If your game prototype if promising enough you can find an artist who will go 50/50 on you with the profits. Programmers might make the game work, but artists sell the game. The hard part is that any really good artist is likely doing their own thing and can't say yes. Probably the same reason most Indie game devs are solo people. They know other good programmers, but the other good programmers are also working on their vision.
Wouldnt a good way to get Feedback, Support and Assets be to go Crowdfunding? Like Kilstarter. Do a Trailer of your current Game, or just show what u want ur game to be, whats ur vision, and tell the people what u need and why u need it. And u can let them experience the game via the demo. That way ull get faster to your goal
When I was trying to create my thesis project at USC I didn't have a good test plan and that was a big mistake! Fortunately I had time and created one! Thanks for the video!
i like how one of the points was don't use engines like unity, then to cap the video off he's like , play this neat game, it was made with unity. before i take any advice from this guy i need to know what he has worked on.
The more tricks of the trade that are given out, the more flooded the market gets. The higher the bar raises. Now everyone must meet that bar or you get nowhere.
nah, the bar barely moves. why? the more tricks of the trade that get handed out, the more entitled the average beginner feels and the less they try, but the more entitled they feel the more they expect to get from their game. the outcome? tons of very bad games going into the market with prices on them that should not even exist to begin with, and the lower the bar gets as AAA developers lower the quality of their games and begin producing near exact replicas of previous games that company has made, just with a slight change to the art style. what that all means? the amount of talented game developers is drastically decreasing, meaning the more possibility for new talented developers to come into their own. I would tell you all day long, the developers of the original DOOM game, were so much more talented than the developers that worked on the latest call of duty. why? it takes a genius and someone with incredible ingenuity to create something like DOOM with the technology they had at the time. but it only takes a non-talented robot with no ability to think to assemble another call of duty repainted game into the market
Nah. The market is already flooded and it always will be. The golden age was flash. Unity and Unreal are great for making game development accessible to everyone. But because of that, the market will forever be flooded now.
Bandit Leader because they have the knowledge to give to new game developers but they don't have a game that we know off, they are capable of making a really well made game but they decide not to
hey, at least, i see i've actually planned some in advance ! i mean, i'm an artist with some programming knowlege so the bad art is checked i know i'll need feed back from friend and familly (my dads plays a lot, my mom and sis less) so i can get the game more intuitive i'll use unity i already know at which point i'll make a playable demo the rest, i'm sure i'll avoid them but at least, knowing i'm on a good start
Sure a game can get a long way without good art during development. But at one point it must look presentable or have at least a coherent art style. Thats where assets packs or very minimalistic art styles come in.
If you have good gameplay , you'll be able to convince an artist to work with you. Because artists, like programmers, can envision the final product without needing the flashy graphics. Unfortunately , impressing the general public, not so much. I am pretty sure when people look at my tech demos they just see squares. But I see a highly optimized revolutionary way to store and render tilemaps. I could also be delusional.
It's okay to be bad at art, luckily there are lots of good artists who want their work in games. But you have to either pay the artist(s) or buy their art assets. So far, I've found that the keys are to (A) learn as much as possible about both the technical & aesthetic aspects of game art, and (B) have a very clear aesthetic & tech pipeline in mind *before* you buy or contract anything. No point buying art and then finding it doesn't work with your engine, or nothing looks like it belongs together.
I feel like the last point needs a video on its own, Any tipps on how to finish a game? I feel like the most reasons for not finishing a game already come from bad starts, like not organisign the game structure and getting overwelmed by the ammount of stuff going on, or not having a solid plan on where to go in the game after the basic mechanics are implemented, or because the creation alread ate tons of hours and after letting other test the game, they dont like it, but you already put so much work into it that you cant change its core.
Major companies tend to worry more about shipping at all, then any semblance of code quality. “Look at how the professionals do it” may not align exactly with what this video advocates. Ideals are just ideals - at the end of the day, _you have to ship_. Imo, though, the real issues at these studios is being overambitious or feature creep. Yes, you have to ship, so _plan accordingly_. Minimize your goal more than you bloat it. Also, on another note, feedback is extremely important. Get as much of it as you can, early and often. Solo devs aren’t really solo - you’ll always have your friends and family.
major companies often ship bugged games because they HAVE to ship the game no matter the state it is in. they have messured budget they cant spend more than what they are given. after the game sells then they patch things up. cant do that in the indie world tho, you have to released a bug free game otherwise your reputation will be forever stained.
I can't do music or art, but I know for a fact that I can put the game play and probably the rest of the features together, I know what I want but I don't know how to go about finding the people to help complete it, or even how to communicate what that idea is, and I don't really have money to just outright hire someone
The prototype that you are building into the final game should communicate the idea. Make it impressive enough gameplay wise and you can convince an artist to go 50/50 with the profits. If you lurk around twitch you could probably find some game dev servers to find people.
Once my game is finished I will go out on the streets with a cardboard sign and stand on the edge of the highway if I have to to get people to know about it. I once scared some random guy in downtown seattle because I too eagerly approached him with my laptop to get him to test my game.
I just watched this for the nostalgy of times I was working on my games solo not actually knowing what I am doing back then. It's literally years of life sort of wasted, I have never finished anything :D It took me a "while" to be able to more realistically estimate the proportions of problems and challenges and I am still not good and at micromanaging my task priorities. Years of doing things wrong without any feedback just learns you how not to do things (and you subconsciously keep doing what you have 'learned') .. it's very hard to unlearn bad mind processes and practices that leads to failure. There wasn't so much information out there back then compared what is available today. Also because of my solo game dev. past I have such a bad mid. 30s crisis now after all those years lost I feel like I sacrificed way too much and it just didn't pay off. The lesson learned are valuable but not worth of so many years lost.
What about this fundamental one I think you have missed: there was no market research, so the game idea is basically nothing new, actually it makes no sense to develop it at the first place as it does not have its place on the market.
0:57 I don't know the quote. (I think it was someone at Ubisoft). But the idea was. If you're looking for ideas, don't look at successful games, look at B-games. Games that could be good but aren't. For example, Trouble in Terrorist Town. It does not suck, but it's not really good either. It has lot of flaws, that could be fixed, by polishing flaws. (For example, how to handle spawning, in a way that does not benefit Innocent Players.) Or Sexy Hiking, which turned into Getting Over It. Good games don't inspire you to do something better, bad games do.
![Inspiring Single Developer Games! Pt. III [2019]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kgkbIvOmRWA/mqdefault.jpg)
![Inspiring Single Developer Games! Pt. III [2019]](/img/tr.png)
![How Much Do Video Games Cost to Make? 5 Real Examples! [2019]](/img/n.gif)
Thanks for watching! For more Ask Gamedev, check out this video on 7 common game design mistakes: th-cam.com/video/5x4Q_SOLN28/w-d-xo.html
can I ask one thing, I am going the graphic designer way, and even if I use the no-code engine, can I still make a new system (I mean either nearly new gameplay system, or base on a not very common gameplay system and add a new one into it to make into a Unique gameplay)
Best advice you can give someone starting out is that you need to learn both coding and make art. If you buy the code or the art, you won't know how to use it, make it your own, or how to optimize it so that your game can actually run. Everyone thinks they are smarter, and can find another way. Having a team member who fills that role doesn't eliminate the need either.
@@royaldarkness8453 Go look up RPGMaker, and look at the games produced. They all look the same, and all have nearly the same systems. Do you think they all intended on making the same game? or do you think they are limited by the tools? It's like trying to make an oil painting with a type writer. The only solution is to mod the typewriter, which needs code to control.
@Hundey FuFu If you know how to code, sure. If you don't, you won't be able to communicate how you want your systems designed. Also, i've never worked on a game that hasn't needed tweaks and new systems to solve some unforeseen problem all the way to release. Besides, if it's a good system they can always just take it, buy some assets and release it as their game.
Please make something like this for those people who are using game engines or making games without programming, as in game maker, too.
For the lazy:
1. Lack of Feedback
2. Lack of Demo build
3. No Source control
4. Not using Coding Standards
5. Building own Custom Engine
6. Bad Art
7. No Test Plan
8. Not finishing
I prefer the term logical XD
legit I came here to have 8 mistakes to avoid not a 13 minute rant on random shit and fluffing up the concepts with filler that doesn't help.
This, what you typed is exactly what I came for, straight to the point no filler, no bullshit statements.
Thanks buddy!
9. Being lazy
thanks dude
That saved me 10 minutes, too bad I saw this when I got super bored at minute 3
I find it interesting how this list on tips for solo devs mostly focuses on things you need to do to be able to bring other people on.
@@bitw1se I feel you there. I feel scared now and barely reasured.
@@bitw1se What? Can you rephrase that?
Clean code etc. is important for you too, so you can actually read your code months or years later. Ready to play build is important for marketing opportunities (like even showing your friends or someone you met by accident and got interested).
I think you may have missed a critical one - being over-ambitious! (With your game)
That's a good one Henry! Having a project that's too ambitious can often lead to it not finishing.
That may be my problem, as I assume I'll be done with my game in three years lol
Are you telling me a single person cannot create a single server MMO with realistic physics and dragon raising in real time? With having kids and dying and a real ecosystem where everything grows, dies, lives and breeds?
With over 1000 squaremiles, with alot of details and over 10000 quests?
I think its realistic
@Frederic Schlueter Nah, your "ambition" is still too easy. Add a persistent self-learning AI into your solar system simulation instead, and make every object and or terrain 100% destructible, just for fun. Also the quest should be infinitely auto-generated, as well as it's procedurally generated planet and space. Ah~ Now that is a *bit* challenging, imo...
My main problem with finishing a game is that I’m more interested in developing a specific feature than to make a complete game.
Step1: Make a full blown super flexible itemisation system, check
Step 2: oh I really wonder how machine learning works, let’s take a break from that ARPG idea
-
Here are the things seen if we remember Jim Sterling:
1. Lack of effort and care
2. Incapability of receiving criticism
3. Lack of profession
4. Awful prioritization and risk-taking
5. Improper goals and ideas
6. Disrespect to consumers
All the properties of one that doesn’t get along with others. I think the person to person soft skills are the icing on the cake that makes a solo dev relatable and capable of maintaining a fan base
"more games are started than released"
wouldnt it be strange if it were the other way around?
But I know what you mean, I started about 8 titles without finishing them. Started my first project about 7 years ago, just never had time to finish it. Work and all in the way. Then new engines, tried a new approach, and gone.
Sometimes after 2 or more years I didnt even know anymore what the game was supposed to be
😂
Actually when you look at Google play I could see it.
One GAME released and then 20 "games"
Isn't that the case for almost everything in life though? In general I'm pretty sure people start reading books but mostly never finish, start an idea but mostly never finish, start exercising but almost never finish (as in keep doing it). It would be a very different world if people mostly finished what they started.
"more games are started than released" meanwhile Todd Horward: We a releasing Skyrim again so you can play it on your toaster now!
@@Noperare Wait, you can play Skyrim on a toaster.......cooool!
@@Noperare Todd Howard released a worse handling version of fallout 4 and called it fallout 76
one crucial thing not included in the video: *NETWORKING*
sadly this is how the world spins now and without networking, no-one will ever know your beautiful game you've shed blood and tears working on.
and luck... but of course no-ne has control over it.
Or marketing, to be specific
You don't need networking if you're a solo dev self publishing. You do need advertisement, but that's not the same thing.
Networking _can_ definitely be helpful if it gets you a shoutout to an existing audience, but it's not neccessary.
"sadly this is how the world spins now " Having known the world before internet, I can tell you that now the world spins way less with networking than before. Before you didn't have the posibility to post you work for free in a place where every one can see it. There was a huge amount of intermediate actor that you had to interact with before having a chance to see you song on the radio or your game in a consol. However, today networking is still super usefull: the more people you know in your area of interest the more people you will be able to ask question, ask for help, ask for advice etc. But today it is just usefull, before it was necessary.
The Game Dev reddit is pretty good for that stuff. I've watched a couple products go from nothing to something big on steam there.
I'd add scope to this, if you're solo you have to know when to cut back on things that will either take too long or require you learning something new that will take a long time
Couldn’t agree more, it’s easy to come up with an epic game idea but much harder to see it all through to the end. I try to see smaller simpler games through to the end
I love how every problem basically comes down to setting things on fire
While watching this I realized I hadn't made a build of my game in a while and lo and behold it wasn't working. Had to address that real quick. Thanks guys !
The funny part is, when you're a game designer with an artistic background, and not a programmer background, usually we check every finished chunk of code when we write (or connected the dots in a visual script). We, the artist game designer, are so afraid of making mistakes in our code that we are obsessed to make everything working the whole time. Well, I think it's funny, because our fear of a broken game works in our favor. (Our weak point: we have to keep the code simple).
All of this advice makes perfect sense, but I'm going to ignore it all because I'm stubborn. Wish me luck with my first game!
3 weeks ago gussing you gave up
@Manek Iridius Congratulations! you just noticed a grammar mistake on the internet to try to look cool, proud of you!
SugarİsTheNewWhite off topic but sometimes i buy brown sugar.
7 months... No news... Andrés has fallen into a Game Dev coma.
when you said you're going to ignore it all, does it include not finishing your game?
Source control and lines.
My biggest weakness.
I remember when my actual programmer friend looked at my hobby programmed game(complete) and said nice but as soon as he saw the source. He went white lol.
whats source control exactly ?
@@starxhilmie the lines of code (the stuff you type) that run the game
And he was black?
@@GreedAndSelfishness it's a metaphor like when you see something horrifying your skin turns pale
@@user-ye5cl3xd6c That's code, source control is a system to manage certain "states" of your code, especially when adding incremental features to what is going to become a large code base. You essentially maintain a "clean" version of your code and create copies of the clean version that you can work on, and integrating (or merging) those versions once it is complete and tested. A popular source control tool is Git.
Hello, I am aspiring indie developer and employed software engineer. I definitely agree with all of this. I would also point that marketing and bulding your community is very important if you plan to sell your product. Other than that: make sure that values in your game can be easily tweaked.
DO NOT try to create custom engine. I mean, I really, just DON'T. I did it, I've been there. I tried using just simple graphic or multimedia libraries and build my engine from scratch. As much as I actually managed to write some working/playable games (network tic-tac-toe, wannabe server/client architecture for my master degree, some old school whack the mole in western setting, checkers) it was time consuming, it sucked a lot, it was hard to mantain, it didn't work as I wanted it to. I also tried twice making my own 2D game engine wasting almost 2 years on it. I learned a lot and even if writing log system, crash reports with core dump, windowed errors, rendering with layers, resource managements and stuff was lots of fun, I got asked very important question. Do you want to write your own engine or your game? Well, I found out that Godot has really evolved since last time I was looking on free game engines (which was like 3-5 years before) and I found out that it actually has everything I need so I said fuck it and started learning music theory and art instead. Really, don't make mistake I made as you can save a lot of time and maybe even develop one or three games instead of reinventing the wheel and proving yourself that you can do it yourself.
Listen to me, I mean seriously. GODOT engine has been in development for about 5 years privately, it was work done by more than one person and they were more experienced and goal oriented than me or you. No it's free, public which means you can just download GODOT source code and customize it to your preference. It's that easy. I wouldn't use Unity because you need to keep their logo / pay montly or if your revenue jumps, you need pro edition. Also, Godot worked better for me, it felt like smoother experience, devs are responsive. It feels good to have tool like this.
That's all. Good luck folks!
This video provides excellent advice. I do believe finishing a game is indeed hard, especially when the novelty has long since worn off and only the endless grinding remains
mistake number 1: working on your game with someone else. i can't tell you how many times i tried to make a game on my own, but then got someone else involved and accidentally made a game as a team.
I afraid it would happen to me too. I have tons of idea to make a good game but I can't code. But I afraid that people will stole my idea and make it their game instead. All I want is make my idea into a game together with a team (and I should be the one who work the most of course) on the thing, not some credit-stealing dude stole all your idea.
@@SnivyO.O Never got friends to be part of my game development, even though I'd be the one to do most of the work and share the potential earnings equally. Well, should I succeed, they'll get nothing. bwa-hahaha.
@Donaldo Mac Eachen I know how to draw art and vector art, know how to animate and editing. But I just never use game engine before and don't know how to code. Haha.
@Donaldo Mac Eachen nah it's okay. still can't do sh*t though because I don't know how to code at all.
Looool
I spent 12 years of dabbling in making games in c++, and always made some part of the engine myself and never finished my projects.
A year ago I decided to finally learned unity 2D and I'm now going for game design full time for a year. It was a weird ego thing that just got in the way so that point resonated painfully : ).
Great story, why make an engine when there are already beautiful solutions at your fingertips
Going from C++ to C# and unity is probably a god-like performance boost. I've been getting the same from going from C99 + Win32 + OpenGL to JavaScript + WebGL.
The "Ego" thing is the reason I stopped doing online coding challenges. Maybe good if you are starting out. But at some point it just becomes an addiction to competing with others rather than learning excercise.
Great video and, as a solo dev myself, very valid and important points. The only thing I would add to this list, or expand upon, would be marketing. Finishing a game is a monumentally important step, but so many solo projects have a hard time gaining market attention. Thanks for the great video. :)
Source control and backups are both important things. But they're two different things. You can have just local source control without a backup and still lose your all your work when your hardware fails and you can have a simple backup without a history but will still have a big problem when you notice that your new code is far worse than the old one that is even already overwritten in the backup.
I often hear this argument that source control if for "safety". Its not safer than any other backup solution to an external device or cloud service. Source control is constructed mainly to allow collaborating in a team, reducing the coordination costs.
Doing dedicated backups or commits is for safety, even if that means just making a zip file and storing it externally.
Thanks for the tips, can I give you one too?
When plugging your own videos, it helps to add them in the description lol
Probably they want you to search them. To manipulate the TH-cam algorithm. Btw they added them now at the (i)
I've seen quite a few videos about game development tips/mistake, none of them is even remotely accurate except for this video. Everything that this video mention is 100% genuine and 100% accurate.
thanks Dan. We learned a lot of these tips the hard way. :)
Lack of feedback is something you have to deal with as a part of game development and not a mistake .
Give me feedback.
If you are like me and want to build your own engine, instead I suggest you pick up Unreal which has their source open, which means that you can just optimize the engine to do whatever you need once you familiarize yourself with it. Not only will this save you a lot of time and headaches, but it will also make you a much better engine programmer, learning from the Unreal devs.
unreal may have its source open, but I never got it to install (and execute) on any computer I've had. Not saying I'd understand any of its code anyway.
1. always need feedback.
2. at lease give gamers a chance to know your game.
3. got to keep it clean.
4. bad coding could lead to bug and glitches and even not working at all.
5. best start from other engine 1st.
6. it takes time.
7. always testing your game before releasing.
8. got to finish it.
Even slightly bad code can be a disaster. All those little mistakes compound like the folds in an origami project.
@@KANJICODER yeah.
I can argue about the code quality a bit here. Fast prototyping with throwaway code could be better to keep your gears going. Once you get a working ad-hoc prototype, that proves that your mechanics are playable, you can start reimplementing it from scratch, using code standards and even a different engine
This is the most beautiful indie gev channel in the world. As an indie dev with an unsuccessful indie game release I thought it was beautiful that half of those things y mentioned were things I had noticed were the problem with my development cycle code not written to industry standard no good comments or diagrams no source control light github used. You are correct and you know it especially about the fact that I have an indie game right now that I’ve made in 2014 for XNA and C# that is not complete
I think it's best to figure out what you are good at(for example: art, animations, coding, game/level design, coding, music, sound, story) and hire someone for the stuff you are bad at.
If you can find a good, reliable partner, as dedicated as you are, with plenty of time to work on the project, and you agree on everything in writing, then it can be a great advantage. I haven't found that yet, but the asset stores help :) It's also good to study up on your weak areas, so you are at least able to confidently explain what you need, and participate usefully.
most people do not have the funding to be able to do that, and you would probably be surprised to know that Is what most people do, as well as one of the main causes most games fail. either from being unable to find a reliable partner for an area, but instead finding someone who just wants a quick buck, joins the team, throws in stock work for their area, takes the money and when confronted just ditches. that happens a lot as well.
you would more than likely be better just studying how to improve your weak areas or adapting to use the weak area instead as a strength, trying to make a high res game but horrible artist? rethink your plan and come up with a design you can do, it does not take long to follow some how to draw tutorials and become decent at drawing anime or cartoonish themes.
or if you are bad at programming but trying to make a sophisticated feeling game that seems well engineered? look into game engines that do not require programming, or use languages that are super easy to learn like Lua and GDscript.
heck even if you are not good at any of these things and all you have going for you is an idea, everyone has to start somewhere, and even though getting started might take a while, if you plan smartly and don't over extend your abilities to where it burns you out, you will be able to learn and improve all of those skills.
but hiring people to do everything you cannot, I do not believe is a valid way to move forward. especially if you have so little skill in an area that you do not even know the proper terminology to explain your ideas to someone who does
Yup...best way here...great at level design but fail at everything else lol ... So I hired a programmer....Im sure you guys can find someone for a under $200 even $100 to help you craft maybe 20 min of a game
The video was a bit too superficial to be helpful. "Plan your file structure for future growth"... okay, how? It didn't need a full doctoral dissertation, but an example or two of the basic idea would at least give folks an idea where to start researching. It's perfectly fine to link to more in-depth videos. But that isn't justification for completely avoiding any elaboration.
This channel is full of fluff shouldnt have clicked
INFOTAINMENT is the best performing category for technical channels. If you want "in depth" Johnathan Blow streams on twitch. And HandMadeHero is still going on.
@@KANJICODER there was no INFO in this TAINMENT. There was nothing mentioned that I could search for to learn more. It isn't "in-depth' to mention a couple file structure paradigms. That would have been helpful info that I could have explored further. Being told simply, "plan for growth" offers no guidance on what to search for.
@@johnterpack3940 I can give you one very specific mistake I made.
Coding a game in flash. And then flash died.
How do you avoid coding in a language that won't be dead 10 years from now?
1. Language must be OPEN SOURCE. Free is not open source. If one company controls whether it lives or dies, don't use that language.
2. If you find yourself searching "is __X__ language dead" that is a good sign you should avoid that language"
3. Weird driver problems is also a sign to avoid. It's a sign people don't have their shit together.
One of the reasons I ditched "OpenCL" even though "OpenCL" was a better option than "OpenGL" for the rendering algorithms I had in mind.
4. If it has the games industry behind it, it is probably a good choice. VULKAN for instance.
My problem with vulkan is that it makes it damn near to make a ZERO DEPENDENCY C99 code base
because you need to run GLSLANGVALIDATOR.EXE to compile your shader code into Spir-V.
So, I use OpenGL & WEBGL but try to be very minimalistic in the feature set I used to avoid driver difference issues.
My languages of choice are :
1. JavaScript : It is the only language that works right out of the box on all browsers. It has high adaption rate because it is "simple" (on the surface level) and people will pick it up because it is the path of least resistance.
2. C99 : You might think that "C" is a language not many people use. You are correct. But what do you think the popular high level languages are written in? All those languages have to die before C will die. So... Never.
I personally think C++ is going to hit a critical mass where no one smart enough exists to keep maintaining the standard. They keep adding new features.
If the "RISC" vs "CISC" compiler debate extends to languages , "C" will win over "C++".
....
My other advice is... Programmers might make the game, but ART sells the game.
If you find a hard working artist to join you on your project, they deserve an equal share
of profits.
I can't say for sure I know what I am doing. But I think a lot can boil down to luck.
So I am trying to keep a loose association with other technically minded people.
Feel free to email me : KanjiCoder@Gmail.com
@@KANJICODER Thanks for all of that. I have a long ways to go before I try my hand at this. I'm in a perpetual research loop.
I've been trying for years to develop some kind of game but my personal main problem is actually getting ideas for a new game as I'm just fleshing out the ideas of a game I just thought of before
And I never make it past that without thinking of yet another "epic" game idea that I want to do, and will inevitably abandon for a new one
I have that problem with creating in general myself. I have some 15ish projects I could be working on ranging from silly games all the way up to multiple album ideas for bands and as far out of left field as ideas on non traditional restaurants. Shit sucks but such is life as a broad strokes creative type.
Might I suggest keeping notes on your phone or actual paper. That way you at least have something to come back to when you get sidetracked by something else.
Used to have that problem when designing maps in forgeworld. The key is to "always" finish what you started.
just throw it all in but shrink them down. your game is your art piece there are no rules. think back to all your ideas and pick the one(s) that come back most easily (aka the ones you either prefer or thought most about) as a base. then find places to put your other ideas in.
actually i lied i can think of 3 "rules":
1) games rarely follow a single idea, they merge many into one otherwise they'd be boring after 15 min.
2) some games go to extremes throwing multiple genres (and ideas) into them, such as saints row and GTA. cant say they're failures if anything diverse games tend to be extremely fun and popular.
3) by the time you've finished (as poker suggested....) 10 full games based on different ideas you'll have forgotten half of them and be 60 aka its not the right way to go about it.
PS. if all else fail then make POCs (proof of concepts) for each idea, share them around and go with the one people loved most. personally i wouldnt do that cuz to me at that point you're making a game for others based on your idea but social motivation is a thing so.
Focus on making a simple game, not your epic master piece but something as a small exercise. Cut the scope in two twice and make that game as an exercise. This way you will learn more and also finish more games
Figure out how you can make a finished game with 1 good core mechanic from all your ideas. Then think about how you could "add in all that other stuff you want" later. Easier to build on top of a simple well-polished game than a clusterfuck of half-finished ideas.
Feedback is difficult for me, I'm terrified of others and I'm overly sensitive with a self-destructive mentality, so the thought of receiving negative criticism to me is like the thought of pointing a loaded gun towards one's head.
Plus the thought of eventually directing or developing alongside multiple people is horrific 😫
Taking harsh feedback is definitely like taking a mental bullet. You only have so much energy for that sort of thing.
I would love to see a video on how to branch out from a solo project and get other people involved. How do you arrange with them to make sure that you're both legally protected and get a fair share of the earnings? Is it necessary to incorporate into a company, or can you continue in a less professional environment? These are things I think about a lot, and I would love to hear your take.
Reddit or linked in. There is Reddit threads for game creators looking collab.
discord.
@@turquando3133 I'm sure there are lots of great servers out there. Do you have any personal recommendations?
12:27: well imagine if many more games were completed, than started, now that would be confusing!
One more mistake:
Assigned by College for game developement which has deadline i.e. *Setting too tight deadline*
I would love to get more feedback on my game, and I've been looking for feedback since my earliest versions. But the REAL problem is: where? Where and how does one get feedback, and especially MEANINGFUL feedback? When I try to show what I've made to family or friends, they adore the project too much because it was something a friend/family-member did, which leads to an unintentionally filtered response. And its even worse if it isn't even the kind of game that friend likes to play.
The biggest reason most people are solo developers is because they lack the connections to form a team. That lack of connections also translates into not having good resources for feedback and testing.
I'd love to get some feedback for my game. But where can I get feedback? And where can I get enough feedback to be able to determine what responses are typical and what are outliers?
Hey! I'm working on a game too and I got quite a few words of useful feedback by posting it in Reddit communities and publishing it in itch.io... In my specific case I also got a lot of feedback from other folks that use the same game library as I do, as it is not a very main stream one (Gosu for the Ruby language). But generally speaking, I think Reddit would perhaps be the easiest way to get lots of people to see your game. Hope this helps :)
You can ask me for feedback. I am an asshole.
People are solo developers because all the good developers are working on their own thing.
I’m working on my own because I’m a beginner in game programming and game design. That’s why I’m making my first game step by step with the help of tutorials. I know that my first game is probably going to suck even if the idea is good but also once I learn enough to actually be able to work on a game with others I will start looking for a team
If you want quality people on your team you need a working prototype first. Doesn't have to be a big game. Could be a silly little thing. But you need that prototype.
What you give here are tips to make a "good selling game" not necessarily a "game which you are proud of". If someone makes a game that only he (an maybe some other guys) wants to play, who am I to say it is a bad game? Games are an ART. The beauty of art is in the eye of the beholder.
That's fine if its just a hobby. But the are many young game developers that jump into that industry, spending time and betting their future income on it. If they do, they need to make something that sells or can be used to get a job.
I am going to be the asshole and say that beauty is __NOT__ in the eye of the beholder. The public opinion on what is beautiful is probably distributed on a bell curve. That said, it shouldn't be too hard to find something you enjoy making that others also enjoy. Afterall, you are both human, and thus carry "human sensibilities".
Thanks, i'm working solo for now so this was perfect
good luck!
@@indieprogress7170 thanks but i'm not solo anymore
perfect timing. I was wondering when you were going to post a new video.. I just graduated and looking for as much info as possible as i can to get my own game going.
Thanks Ask Gamedev.
Congrats on your graduation, Chris, and good luck on your gamedev journey! Feel free to ask us any questions. You can also join our Discord to meet other developers.
@@AskGamedev Thanks, I am actually on your discord.. that is how I found out about this video :) you guys rock.. keep it up.
Hmm, I wonder how many of these mistakes I'm currently making, let's see..
1. Feedback - I found a few people on UpWork, set up a test server, and a couple of them have been testing it and giving me at least some feedback.
2. Demo build - I don't publish to the test site until everything that has been implemented so far is working as far as I know.
3. Source control - Originally it was, then SourceTree broke for me; since then I've just been copying the test builds to a cloud backup area. I plan to fix that soon.
4. Coding standards - It's object oriented, there is separation of concerns, there are d.r.y. trees, there are a lot of design and code documentation and comments. It's pretty easy to find the code responsible for something, and pretty easy to add something new. I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it's pretty good.
5. Custom engine - I did roll my own engine, but it's 2D html5, so it's not that complicated or extensive. I just have a Game with a list of Scenes each with a list of Layers each with a list of GameObjects which may have a Transform and/or a Rigidbody and/or a Collider and/or a Renderer and a list of Behaviors.. it's loosely modeled after Unity that way. There's a CollisionManager with QuadTrees and stuff. I do bounding box proximity checking, and then point, line and/or polygon collision testing. All that stuff is working. It's been quite a while since I've had to add much to the engine or change it very much.
6. Bad art - I pulled most of the art from artists around the web who put their work up for grabs (royalty free). I like it, it looks pretty good, the testers think so to, but.. I worry that other games will use the same stuff. I edit it a bit so it's questionable how much of it would be immediately recognizable, but. I am a little bit worried about that.
7. No test plan - I test it, the testors test it.. I'm thinking of posting to some forums and asking for beta testors before I pull the trigger and open it up and advertise it.
8. Not finishing - I think I'm past worrying too much about that at this point. The vast majority of the hard work is done and most of the content is in. I just need to set up a production web site for it. That will definitely involve some rather arduous work that I'm not looking forward to, but I basically do web dev for a living, so. I think it'll go live here in a bit. I don't think it's going to break the Internet or anything, but. Hopefully there will be a substantial contingent of folks who like it.
For such a big block of text I was expecting to see some demo videos. Any reason in particular for not showing game footage on youtube? Yes, people can't play it. But if you can get views from showing off a game then you know it must be somewhat interesting to watch. And being "interesting to watch" can be a key to success on twitch.
@@KANJICODER Good grief, I actually wrote that? Some form of temporary insanity overtook me.
@@shavais33 I was looking at 10 year old facebook posts of mine. And I get the same feelings.
Well ,also the "fuck I am old as shit" because they are 10 year old facebook posts.
9th mistake: not making and not following a game design document.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 so you are saying its a mistake to watch this informative video/channel because the youtuber put effort and time in producing it.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 covering what man? I found this video informative and thought to add my experience of not using a game design document. I don't care for the visuals, if I found the video helpful I like and comment, and if don't I just ignore it.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 God forbid they have production standards so you aren't staring at a blank screen while listening to someone talk. Your unneeded criticism isn't even useful.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 Wrong, I'm a great fan of effort and informative videos. I am, however, not a fan of baseless assumptions and people with unwarranted hate boners on the internet.
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 Yeeaahh, no, I'm done with you. Before I go, I gotta ask..why do you hate this channel so much?
For the lazy:
1. Lack of Feedback
2. Lack of Demo build
3. No Source control
4. Not using Coding Standards
5. Building own Custom Engine
6. Bad Art
7. No Test Plan
8.
Thumbnail caption:
"This is fine."
8:14 please stop flexing your art skills on me, jeez
ikr? like stop rubbing it to my face smh
Ok yeah but look at a game called Sapiens that is currently in development. It looks great and basically breaks all the rules of being an indie developer. He is basically creating the history of the world as an entire game, on his own engine.
i already finish 2 game this week. of course it's not that good. but i'm happy and proud i can make my own game. you're right. i will do better. i will not give up
5:52 as soon as I saw how that was worded, I knew EXACTLY what was coming next 😅
Final Fantasy IX is a work of art.
ah yes. the “i’m a harmless corporation” illustration style
Love the Moogle reference on the improper code segment
There are different stages of dev. concept, prototype basic, kitchen sink (all the game structure details), and first optimization of structure. the last 2, list everything of a certain part, first 2player, enemies, hazards, objects, backgrounds, text, sounds. in the first two stages most will toss most everything into say the "player's" code. but then you need to separate the different systems into their own files. once that happens you have a mind map of all that is going on. from that you will see what can be combined say like movement, some of the code is actually used by both the player, and the different AIs. so instead of doing those same lines of code dozen of times, you access it when needed and by what (the player and or the AI's), the the rinse and repeat a few dozen times, then step away for awhile, and do it a few more dozen times, till you have an optimized form that is logical simple and readable. unlike your "kitchen sink" that has dozen upon dozens of folders and sub folders ( so many you need a drilling rig to even get near the mid point of the file structure). and for a mind map that is needed. it shows you whats what. then you cut, edit, and optimize it. little by little. recombining single use code into a more general file (with docs). now many will combine the stages during different times of their process. that is ok, the key point is to know where you are at all times, how you got to that point, how you got out the last time, and how to do it better the next round. start with a concept, prototype it, toss in the kitchen sink, add in an if loop statement. "what does this do for my game?" do i need it? is it major or minor. if minor how much time and code will it take to make it work without glitches? then cut, edit, rinse and repeat, a dozen more times till you have nothing left but the bare bones once again. then go in and add back some of those "minor" aspects. then cut, edit all that again to get back to bare bones. to find out what is needed for the game and story you want to tell.
You'd hate me. I am doing an MMO in JavaScript. All code is in ONE FILE.
@@KANJICODER no... not hate at all. Its like writing a novel. you have two basic types of writers, Plotters and Pansters. Plotters will plot out down to the last detail of their novel or over 75% before they start writing it. so it makes since, fewer plot holes, contunuity and consisity errors. where as Pansters will just write on the fly, and what comes into their heads at that moment. Pansters have 5 times the rewrites as plotters do. same with script kitties. you have coders that are plotters and you have coders that are pansters. yet writers and coders have to go though the same processes of development, plot, subplots, characters, world building, and just as many editing sessions as the other. and the same types of editing as well. structure editing (plot for writers, flow for coders) should this chapter even be in this order or could it be cut out. the spelling and grammar ( the vain of both writers and coders.) word editing, is this the best word or phrase used at this point or something better or not at all? ( just change the word "word or phrase" for code.) and the same reasons writers write apply to coders. the big question... is it for you or for others? if for others you have to write it totally different then just for your enjoyment. you are just telling your story in the language of computer code not spoken language. fyi I have done both I was a script kitty then latter started writing novels. remember great code is like a great book, novel or movie. so learn form one to do the other. so my best wishes for you, and good luck on your journey.
@@dawg897 I 100% agree with this. I think if I was born 100+ years ago I'd either be a writer or an inventor.
Your analogy holds up in other ways too.
People think because you can program that you can hack. It's like , "No, I am a graphics programmer , not a network programmer"
Same with a writer. A sports column writer and a children's book writer are totally different things. Though both are writers.
If you are still coding I like to keep a list of programmers on my computer. Just a casual thing as success is kind of a "skill + luck" thing. So figure keeping lists of programmers can increase the luck factor.
KanjiCoder@Gmail.com
Being a solo indie dev, this was very helpful!
#2 is my biggest trouble. I do have demo's it's just week to week it becomes outdated due to an update or iteration. I am nearing feature complete though so I really hope I'll have a solid, feature complete demo soon!
Footage of outdated features could make for a good time progression mash up though.
I love how you didn't have overscoping. I hate when videos like this discourage people from shooting for the moon. Yes, it's wiser to learn as you grow, but for some people, fighting for your dream despite the urge and world telling you to give up is what it's all about!
Yes, I think ambitious games are okay these days. No reason you can't make an open world/sandbox game and expand it indefinitely. That's how Minecraft started. I think players appreciate consistent updates. As long as you don't get sick of your own game in 10 years ;)
This is the best video I have ever seen from this channel.
All the mistakes showed in this video are truth. As a solo Dev I have difficult on making good *Pixel Art* and I'm a beginner of 3D model in *Blender* . *Code* isn't entirely a problem since I have done some non-gaming projects but still it's important to save different versions your code. I should check *git*
For sure, the artwork is also a struggle for me, as well as good music composition and story writing. I’m coming around on the artwork slowly and the coding is not a problem for me, but I look forward to writing beautiful music
Nice topic, very informatve video! Also a suggestion: It would be nice if you put a final screen kinda like a summary, to be easier to remeber and get a screenshot for later, or/and talk about all the topics briefly in conclusion of the video.
8:05 hey, that is me. Although through several good practices that I have picked with time, my code has less bugs and its easier to check and port, and yes it has a lot of comments, also it prints a lot of text, functions like printf in c/c++, trace on flash and console.log in java are the programmer's best friends.
I write novels and the last one has resonance. I know so many would be authors who spend all their time revising and rewriting what they have already done instead of finishing the novel and then polishing it. They never get anything finished.
I was guilty of this myself a long time ago and have a pile (not a ton) of partially written novels. I came to realise that the most important aspect of writing novels is to finish your first draft before doing any revision or rewriting. It doesn't matter how good your characters, plot, settings, etc if the book is never finished.
Thanks for featuring me at 8:34
Nice FF9 reference at 5:55
I totally agree with these. My strength is on the art side, not code, and FYI I agree that programmer art can kill the ability to promote a game, a game needs to look good if it's going to sell well. That's tough but true. Lack of Feedback, and testing is obviously true. A few other things to note: Excessive scope can make an indie game impossible to finish. Feature creep is a real problem and you need to know what to make and what to cut. That's been tricky for me personally. Also, make sure you are using an engine that has a high likelihood of still being around and supported by the time you are finishing the project. In other words, an established and popular engine with frequent updates. Like Unity, Unreal, etc. Making your own engine is a mistake, but so is choosing an engine with no support. Backing up your entire project periodically is also a must, the worst you can do is lose weeks of work for no good reason. Finally, make an effort to promote your work on release, don't assume people will find it all on their own. I am promoting my game now: www.miniaturemultiverse.com. Pretty shameless but after I've put over $1k of hard-earned funds and a ridiculous number of unpaid hours into it, I'd like it to find an audience. IT's a first-person adventure/puzzle game set inside a range of realistic-looking miniature-art worlds, it's a little like a Myst game but if the worlds were all made with explorable O-scale models and the puzzles were a bit simpler. Finally, know when to find help from others to fill in your gaps in skill. I am collaborating with a music composer, and I'm not ashamed to admit I'm using visual-scripting addons for most interactions, as well as a lot of other assets, mainly shaders and the like. I have also made a ton of my own assets for game devs, on matthornb.itch.io if anyone's interested. 1500+ seamless texture maps, 150+ video elements, 100+ 3d assets. All bundled right now with other extras for 89 cents. (93% bundle discount!)
Not finishing is my biggest mistake. I never got anywhere beyond prototypes. Usually I get to a point where I get lazy or my code becomes messy and I try to rewrite it then never finish rewriting it.
Love the side panel outline!
Im one of those who develops an custom engine alongside. However the reason for me is my pursuit in understanding all the underlying tech. This is no fast game development for sure, but developing a game is not my primary goal either. This way im learning a ton about literally every tech aspect, which is what for me, besides game development as a whole, is super exciting
5:53 Love the Final fantasy 9 reference lol
"Always have a build even in the very beginning of development of your game"
"But also make sure the build isn't buggy so you'll have to put a ridiculous amount of time into bug fixing."
I think another mistake (I made it mostly in the beginning) is that the devs just get over-excited, as it is their first-ever project or when they feel that their game is a big success, and with this feeling, they make a tiny mistake, which they can't SIMPLY see how to fix
Number one is big for me because I do game design now, and how many discords and posts have I been in where an opinionated male player tries to tell me how the mechanics are supposed to work in a videogame when I'm literally a game designer (I use Unity). Of course, I don't tell them this, it's in my profile, I just let them talk and realize this is one of the reasons why designers don't listen to players, a lot of players think they know it all about that one game they play and I can understand if they put say, 5 or six years invested into the game, but I've had a new game come out and players try to tell me things about it and I'm like... You have no idea what you're talking about... this is the reason why we don't take them seriously.
So, to combat this, I've been trying to connect players and designers more closely together and taking the time to explain "designer's intent" to them, or break down mechanics, show them how things work in Unity and so on. Hopefully I can tear down this thing between the two and we can live happily ever after, playing games together.
You have to ignore some players because they give contradicting advice.
I listen to the player's who's sensibilities most closely match my vision.
Also, maybe you've already done this.
But I find this super valuable when testing:
1. Silently watch someone play your game.
2. Person gets past level 1 , cannot beat level 2.
3. SAY NOTHING. Take away computer.
4. Make a level 1.5 really quick.
5. They play 1.5 and beat it.
6. What they learned in 1.5 allows them to beat level 2.
ive always struggled with art. Im confident in my ability to program any kind of game as long as I have the enough time. I love coding, I come from a software engineering background, and I feel very proficient with Unity. my biggest issue is I cant draw for shit. I have zero talent in visual arts and it has become such a struggle. having the skills to build a game, but lacking that important part is so heartbreaking to me. I have tried to pull artist into my projects but they all let me down. my ex girlfriend is an amazing artist, but she wouldnt work for free. if only I had some money to hire artists. all I can do is buy assets from online stores, but that doesnt feel right cause most of them while really good are pretty generic.
Well what kind of art style do you need?
the art doesnt need to look great, it just needs to look decent. For example, Touhou is very popular despite the less than stellar art of the characters. However Zun makes up for it with great music and witty dialogue with fun game design.
itch.io and opengameart.org
I am in the same boat as you and those sites are helping a lot even though sometimes you still need to be able to adjust the graphics slightly to work with your game.
If your game prototype if promising enough you can find an artist who will go 50/50 on you with the profits.
Programmers might make the game work, but artists sell the game. The hard part is that any really good artist is likely doing their own thing and can't say yes. Probably the same reason most Indie game devs are solo people. They know other good programmers, but the other good programmers are also working on their vision.
Wouldnt a good way to get Feedback, Support and Assets be to go Crowdfunding? Like Kilstarter. Do a Trailer of your current Game, or just show what u want ur game to be, whats ur vision, and tell the people what u need and why u need it. And u can let them experience the game via the demo. That way ull get faster to your goal
When I was trying to create my thesis project at USC I didn't have a good test plan and that was a big mistake! Fortunately I had time and created one! Thanks for the video!
Why would you try building a whole heckling engine... when I first started, I looked for every shortcut possible... so maybe I'm the lazy one
to know how everything works internally, it helps you to understand engine you are using
I have seen many hobby programmers get stuck in forever iterating on their own engine. Its like honey for nerds.
Thank you for the video!
But I’m a little sad now.
But it’s ok.
i like how one of the points was don't use engines like unity, then to cap the video off he's like , play this neat game, it was made with unity. before i take any advice from this guy i need to know what he has worked on.
Who's in your profile photo ??
@@user-jd1hy9bg1d I believe it's Apollo Justice from the Phoenix Wright games.
@@LockedOnStudios right on, thank you, I need to find the designer now, he makes the best designs for capcom ^^
wow didn't expect to find you here
That last one, yep, that's me alright.
This channel is like Game Dev Kurzgesagt
I think having source control is a no brainer. Git and GitHub are free. It takes a couple hours to learn and saves you so much time.
The more tricks of the trade that are given out, the more flooded the market gets.
The higher the bar raises. Now everyone must meet that bar or you get nowhere.
But that's where innovation get to breed and tested.
nah, the bar barely moves. why? the more tricks of the trade that get handed out, the more entitled the average beginner feels and the less they try, but the more entitled they feel the more they expect to get from their game. the outcome? tons of very bad games going into the market with prices on them that should not even exist to begin with, and the lower the bar gets as AAA developers lower the quality of their games and begin producing near exact replicas of previous games that company has made, just with a slight change to the art style.
what that all means? the amount of talented game developers is drastically decreasing, meaning the more possibility for new talented developers to come into their own. I would tell you all day long, the developers of the original DOOM game, were so much more talented than the developers that worked on the latest call of duty. why? it takes a genius and someone with incredible ingenuity to create something like DOOM with the technology they had at the time. but it only takes a non-talented robot with no ability to think to assemble another call of duty repainted game into the market
Nah. The market is already flooded and it always will be. The golden age was flash. Unity and Unreal are great for making game development accessible to everyone. But because of that, the market will forever be flooded now.
How do you have so many idea about game development and how haven't you guys had any game yet that is successful?
Just because you know how to drive a car, doesn't mean you're good at driving
Bandit Leader, yes but if you know how to drive you have the skill to become a driver and therefore you can improve to become better
@@notesmade9536 then why ask how they havent made a successful game?
Bandit Leader because they have the knowledge to give to new game developers but they don't have a game that we know off, they are capable of making a really well made game but they decide not to
_"Decided not to"_
hey, at least, i see i've actually planned some in advance !
i mean, i'm an artist with some programming knowlege so the bad art is checked
i know i'll need feed back from friend and familly (my dads plays a lot, my mom and sis less) so i can get the game more intuitive
i'll use unity
i already know at which point i'll make a playable demo
the rest, i'm sure i'll avoid them but at least, knowing i'm on a good start
Just imagine if more games would be finnished than started
I think some big studios could still learn a thing or two from this video... For example, Valve - see #8.
Oh God the "6 - Bad Art" hit me hard
#6 hit me hard. It was great to see Braid with ugly prototype art. Gives me hope! Solid mechanics and play are the key.
Sure a game can get a long way without good art during development. But at one point it must look presentable or have at least a coherent art style. Thats where assets packs or very minimalistic art styles come in.
If you have good gameplay , you'll be able to convince an artist to work with you. Because artists, like programmers, can envision the final product without needing the flashy graphics.
Unfortunately , impressing the general public, not so much. I am pretty sure when people look at my tech demos they just see squares. But I see a highly optimized revolutionary way to store and render tilemaps.
I could also be delusional.
8 Game Developer Mistakes:
4x Never Working in a IT Project
Well, that solved many problems for me. I'm still bad at art :D
It's okay to be bad at art, luckily there are lots of good artists who want their work in games. But you have to either pay the artist(s) or buy their art assets. So far, I've found that the keys are to (A) learn as much as possible about both the technical & aesthetic aspects of game art, and (B) have a very clear aesthetic & tech pipeline in mind *before* you buy or contract anything. No point buying art and then finding it doesn't work with your engine, or nothing looks like it belongs together.
@@mandisaw bUt WhAt AbOuT *e* X *p* O *s* U *r* E?.???.?periodquestionmark?.?
I'm guilty of #8 in spades
and we aren't even talking games here; basically, any project ends up unfinished
I feel like the last point needs a video on its own,
Any tipps on how to finish a game?
I feel like the most reasons for not finishing a game already come from bad starts,
like not organisign the game structure and getting overwelmed by the ammount of stuff going on,
or not having a solid plan on where to go in the game after the basic mechanics are implemented,
or because the creation alread ate tons of hours and after letting other test the game, they dont like it,
but you already put so much work into it that you cant change its core.
Major companies tend to worry more about shipping at all, then any semblance of code quality. “Look at how the professionals do it” may not align exactly with what this video advocates. Ideals are just ideals - at the end of the day, _you have to ship_.
Imo, though, the real issues at these studios is being overambitious or feature creep. Yes, you have to ship, so _plan accordingly_. Minimize your goal more than you bloat it.
Also, on another note, feedback is extremely important. Get as much of it as you can, early and often. Solo devs aren’t really solo - you’ll always have your friends and family.
major companies often ship bugged games because they HAVE to ship the game no matter the state it is in. they have messured budget they cant spend more than what they are given. after the game sells then they patch things up. cant do that in the indie world tho, you have to released a bug free game otherwise your reputation will be forever stained.
Thanks for this content i was waiting on this for a long time
I think sfml is best for newbie coders for learn code and game dev but for making good games it can be pain. But you will learn very good skills.
I can't do music or art, but I know for a fact that I can put the game play and probably the rest of the features together, I know what I want but I don't know how to go about finding the people to help complete it, or even how to communicate what that idea is, and I don't really have money to just outright hire someone
The prototype that you are building into the final game should communicate the idea. Make it impressive enough gameplay wise and you can convince an artist to go 50/50 with the profits.
If you lurk around twitch you could probably find some game dev servers to find people.
Caught that FFIX reference. Hah! Thanks for this. As a definite “ideas guy” I find this very useful.
Really late, but caught the subtle FF9 reference. Nice one.
"with one hardware error they could lose all of their hard work and files", Not if I have the build saved onto a hard drive!
Sometimes you can get everything right and still be unsuccessful, because people don't know about your game 😔.
Show it to your friends, family, co workers. Good to get feedback before millions of people play ;)
Once my game is finished I will go out on the streets with a cardboard sign and stand on the edge of the highway if I have to to get people to know about it. I once scared some random guy in downtown seattle because I too eagerly approached him with my laptop to get him to test my game.
Your videos have helped me so much to make my game
I just watched this for the nostalgy of times I was working on my games solo not actually knowing what I am doing back then. It's literally years of life sort of wasted, I have never finished anything :D
It took me a "while" to be able to more realistically estimate the proportions of problems and challenges and I am still not good and at micromanaging my task priorities. Years of doing things wrong without any feedback just learns you how not to do things (and you subconsciously keep doing what you have 'learned') .. it's very hard to unlearn bad mind processes and practices that leads to failure.
There wasn't so much information out there back then compared what is available today. Also because of my solo game dev. past I have such a bad mid. 30s crisis now after all those years lost I feel like I sacrificed way too much and it just didn't pay off. The lesson learned are valuable but not worth of so many years lost.
What about this fundamental one I think you have missed: there was no market research, so the game idea is basically nothing new, actually it makes no sense to develop it at the first place as it does not have its place on the market.
as someone who doesn't like coding, from my experience engines with no code are very limited
I don't know how to thank you.
You should make a video about that..
0:57 I don't know the quote. (I think it was someone at Ubisoft).
But the idea was. If you're looking for ideas, don't look at successful games, look at B-games.
Games that could be good but aren't.
For example, Trouble in Terrorist Town. It does not suck, but it's not really good either.
It has lot of flaws, that could be fixed, by polishing flaws. (For example, how to handle spawning, in a way that does not benefit Innocent Players.)
Or Sexy Hiking, which turned into Getting Over It. Good games don't inspire you to do something better, bad games do.
Upvoted only 1/2 way through - very good advice for many types of software projects, not just games!
Finally a new video! I love ur vids!
Thanks Pigster!