Відео

What I find interesting is that when I messaged you on Discord asking if you wouldn't mind being a kind of "producer" or "mentor" or just the guy who gives me feedback and direction once a week on my project, I had NOT yet watched this video. But it's your strategy to re-double your efforts and really make something of 2025 for your project(s) that resonates with me because that's pretty much my goal, too. I've got to focus and I've gotta set aside all my excuses and distractions. I've gotta get this game done!! I can't move forward until I do!

Great message! And the game that you made and showed us in this video looks like a fun game; all made by you just being yourself!! Very cool!!

I'll say you're decent at youtube videos and editing but you need to focus on learning game development as well. I've stopped by your streams a few times and it seems like you don't really know much about Unity or game development. It just seems kinda fake...

I don't know if being me will be enough, but that's all I've got.

You should try making a game from complete scratch or using a game framework like SDL, raylib or sokol. You are going to do everything and build uo everything, you are going to know every line of code running and it can help you with understanding your engine better.

Recently getting lots of game dev vlogs and loving the honesty coming through. If you do anything in unreal, please post about it!

In 2025 I am helping anyone that needs help to finish their game. I am also making a wacky racers physics game to show people how to make profitable games

In 2025, I'm hoping to drop to a 4 day work week (with lower salary of course) to give myself time to work on my game dev journey on my off day and to finish Mischief Motors and maybe start my second game!

I aim to make and publish small games in 2025

I think personalization is the most important advantage we have as indie devs.

As inspiring and motivational as ever, thanks again for the insight, you are a legend!

Looking forward to it!

Got a new mic, and the audio got a little messed up... BUT how are you guys approaching game dev in 2025? Can't wait to hear about it!

We're climbing the same mountain. Programmer is, imo, the most powerful wizard specialization, but I'm convinced that a true jack of all trades (JOAT) is a rare breed. It's the only way for the solo game dev (I guess you can buy assets, but then you have to compromise your vision), but the JOAT can support any facet of a Team project in need. 2D/3D assets, animation, music, vfx, sfx, programming.. the sheer range of expression, even at mid-depth, takes an amazing person. You just realized that you weren't truly JOAT (not yet). Either way, learning programming is the best first step in either direction.

Im still working away at my game as well. 6 years in and i have maybe 5% of my game done.

If you’re not learning you’re doing something wrong. That’s my philosophy anyways. 😂

I'm in exactly the same situation as you were. I've been a software engineer for about 20 years. Since 2013, I've been studying game development. I've taken dozens of courses. I was even a university professor of digital games. I've only participated in a gamejam once, and it was in person for 72 hours. We camped on site and I had a very bad experience with the team. I've never done it again. I have dozens of unfinished prototypes. I was currently working on a workflow for developing a 2D Metroidvania game. I've taken courses in pixel art, marketing, sound design, etc., a lot of things, but I can't finish anything. Everything you said turned a key in my head, the game jam forces you to make small games, it conditions you to do that, today my biggest difficulty is knowing how to make small games, everything you said made sense to me now, my idea now is to start studying game jam games, to see what is possible to do in 3 days, in 1 week, to learn how to make small games before wanting to do something bigger, I need to learn how to finish and publish. Everything you said is making sense to me now, after 10 years studying gamedev and never being able to finish to publish anything. I need to remember this, to embrace imperfection.

We live and we learn. your gonna pivot into something grand just from your learning experience. keep it up king.

The dunning kruger effect is obvious with people who know a combat sport or martial arts. The dummies who don't know anything are the ones who are most eager to start a fight with other people. Those who got punched in the face enough times, are less eager to look for trouble.

Failure is only bad if you don't learn anything from the experience.

I truly relate to this as I've been stuck in tutorial hell for years and been trying to learn blender as well while working full time with wife and kid. Now I'm doing blender 1 day a week. The rest is focused on unity small projects taking bits and pieces from a tutorial and implementing them on my own. It's hard to realize I can't even do a character controller on my own but u need to realize adapt and scale back scope.

look up game juice or game feel, once u add it to the game it will feel like a actual game and not stale bread. Your game needs pizzaaaazz.

Do you really suck at making games or do you just not enjoy your own game because you know too much about it?

Your enthusiasm is fresh Don't half arse it Fully dive into the docs for your assets I'm nearly 8 years in now and still learn new stuff every time. Want a bit of solid advice The day you reach the stage of understanding modular scripting And scaleable scripting Start making a backlog of functionality you can rip in and out of a game. So many times I've learnt something, applied the knowledge, created a wonderful loop And then sold it or trashed it a year later Keep those gems you learn. In a database you've got on a small USB stick It's code ylull never fill the stick But it's gonna be so easy for you to remember when pulling your own scripting as a reference rather than when you need something and forgot the syntax Go find it again So many times I've needed a raycast reference through a parents objects front facing direction and coulda used Euler angles Or rigidbody.forward Simple things that you've done a hundred times but always forget next time around cos you spent two months in a ui menu Or learnt metahuman and came back after 3 months Jesus I wish someone told me that years ago That one was free Hit me up if u want more

“And I fully understand everything that is in this project” aaaaand we’re back to square one 😂. /lh

Everything you are sharing is absolutely true :P. My tip? Think of a game genre and even a gameplay style you absolutely hate. And then make a version you like. This will require you to take a much closer look at an area you already don't know much about and train you to be very deliberate because you can't fall back on our biases that we mistake as knowledge.

dont be so hard on yourself

Game dev is like climbing a mountain and once you finally get to the peak, you look around and realize it was a false peak and the real peak is still ahead, but then that peak is also a false peak. I think it's bi-product of how deep the skills are for making games, which sucks, but I also think it's the reason I love making games. Good luck on your journey and thanks for sharing!

some code help: 1) start() happens when the object is first created, but after 'awake()', which is also called when the object is first created. This can be at the start of the game if you have the gameobject in the hierarchy, but also happens when you create/spawn an object in using code. Best coding practices is to use start() for stuff that happens 'at the start' of the objects life... any 'stuff that it does' especially if it interacts with anything outside of itself. Awake() should really only be used to set up stuff locally, like spawning in objects and setting them to fields... this separation between Awake and Start is really really important, because sometimes if you do everything just in start (or everything in awake) you get these dependency nightmares.. (a quick example, you have a HP UI, when that starts it looks at your player's hp stat, but if you didn't setup the player yet, and the hp stuff runs first, then it won't work and you'll get a bunch of really hard to track down and fix errors... an example of how to do it correctly is: if the player needs to be 'set up' so it can be used by other things, then that setup should be done in awake and only the stuff that other people need... anything that uses anything from anyone else should be done in Start...). Update runs on each rendered frame, but I personally like using IEnumerator Start() instead of Update,... you get more control and you have less convolution with variables if you do it that way (update is just a method, so local scoped variables go poof between runs, BUT, if you do an update using ienumerator in start, then you get the same effect as update, but can have local variables that persist... ask for code samples and I can share some). 2) (almost) NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER use any 'find' thing in unity... no searching for gameobjects at runtime, especially with tags or anything else... It is dangerously slow, and gets worse as the project grows. You can get into positions where it costs about a second for it to find the references, and for a game where you normally see 60 frames in that amount of time,... a second might as well be an hour. It is better in 99% of instances to link to the object using the inspector, which is instantaneous in contrast at runtime. The only time to use that feature is when you have no other option. Also having strings as references to things should be avoided, as if the tag gets changed in the editor or you forget to set the tag - it becomes a mess in the code. And with that, welcome to the programmers club. I started out as a programmer and put all my points into that until I maxed that out,... I'm actually getting into art these days and game narratives... being a jack of all trades isn't bad, but I highly recommend first being a king of one trade then branching out. Good luck! ps if you need code examples for any of that, hit me up always happy to help a greenhorn.

In my opinion you don't suck at making games you could just make better ones, I think that goes for everyone, also thanks again it really helps new developers to have honest inspiring content like this channel 🙏

Don't be so hard on yourself. Dreaming big precedes getting down to reality. It doesn't mean that you failed. Secure footing is a great way to make strong leaps.

We are problem solvers and we need to have trial and error in order to succeed. 😊

So, things did NOT turn out the way you hoped. You had this amazing momentum and things were growing. Dude, you've had more growth in the last few years than I've had 10+ years since I started this journey! But, that's not to diminish the fact that it's disheartening to feel like a failure. But, honestly, I don't think you failed. I think you simply succeeded in LEARNING something that you didn't plan on. You took a risk, you made a decision, and you learned the costs of doing game dev a certain way. You learned about the ups and downs of the BUSINESS aspect of game dev. You learned about a weakness you have that needs strengthening (you also learned that your team is LOYAL even though you lacked on being an involved director). Yes, this success came at a cost, but you successfully LEARNED something. You experienced some setbacks compared to the past years, but you were humble, you reflected, and you resolved to do better to reach the same - and HIGHER - goals as before. As for what I've learned... Well, that's hard to summarize... I think I'm learning to strengthen my own resolve. How to improve my focus when the ONLY one holding me accountable...is ME. I am trying to work in a schedule that I keep myself on (this is difficult for a variety of reasons, but that's for a different lengthier comment). I am learning how to work in live stream sessions to build a community (and Discord as well). I am still coming to grips with the fact that I have not been consistent in learning new skills (eg: Unreal, C++, marketing, etc). And more than ever, I know I cannot move forward as well as I hope until I find a dedicated group of people who want to make games and are willing to push themselves to grow as I am.

game dev is super hard, it's easier to be motivated for small game jam projects than bigger projects that have no end date given by jam organizers. I've also participated to 3 jam this year and struggling with my bigger curent project

You didn’t fail or anything, you just got closer to success but you don’t yet know or notice that!

I'm getting tired of working on my game. At this point, the main boss might just be me sitting on a throne of untested code, throwing bugs at the player like a villain who gave up halfway through development. Plot twist: the final quest is to finish the game for me.

Of course you're gonna fail if you put more effort into being a youtuber than an actual dev

Im 33 yo and I feel behind in making games. It seems like most people I see on YT by the time they are my age they already have a couple games under their belt and have a pretty decent understanding of how to Code. But I am now 2 months into it with having NO experience with coding or anything like that.

Hi, i'm hobby gamedev. Trying to work but losing to procrastination a lot xD. I understand your struggle. Play different games, old ones especially to get ideas. Good luck.

I relate to your leadership struggles Very nice and honest reflection on your year, never seen your channel before this but subbed :)

Hey, thee points. 1. I feel you. I have many projects and they are nothing but failure (or rather, I didn´t allow them to fail yet - analysis paralisis, I suppose). 2. Making a big money (or any money at all) can't be in an indie gamemaker's profile/first intention. We are the explorers, the pioneeers. Sometimes we succeed, but most times we fail/die. It's worth in either result in th grand scheme. 3. How the hell do you get in my reccommendations? Seeems like a tangible strategy. What is the price tag?

This is a long term journey and the fact that you're taking the time to analyze what went right and what went wrong means you're on the right path! Best of luck in 2025!

Got this in my recommendations. Nothing you've said here is a "failure" my man. It sounds like you guys are shifting focus to other important aspects of game dev (Discord growth, Subscriber growth, Streaming etc) Putting out 7-8 games a year is unsustainable. 500 people playing your gamejam game is a huge positive. It means you're starting to keep people connected into your development teams ecosystem. Keep on keeping on, man. You guys got this!

I see no problem why you would say your 2024 was a mess. You took on a challenge with the goal of making money from your game, that worked out. You found out that you need to work on some stuff, but that will always be present in a new role. I have seen other game devs try this and they either quit the business/leadership part al together amd let someone else do it. Or they burn-out and stop doing game dev for multiple years or quit altogether. You are still a game dev in 2025, you even hired a new person for your team, so you are growing, which is what the game industry needs atm. You are doing fine, your current journey is an example of success, not failure in my eyes.

Dont quit your day job people.

Everyone here is crying in a high level. STFU, at least you are all creating something & have skills & passion. Most people won't ever get there. Crying from an ivory tower.

Maybe make a game instead of dreaming of making a game.

So I'm nude game Dev, but when I see the most is individuals would rather spend 5 years working on a game in their spare time for no money and learn every skill, then get really good at one thing and work on a team. So that's why it seems like game dead fail because they just shoot themselves in the foot.

Hmm, something about this video seems super familiar. 😉 😉 For reals though, good video and good information. Loves these videos, looking forward to the next one!

A gamedev hobbyist here, first time hearing/seeing you, but sharing your struggles. I've been running a digital design studio for 17 years. Started as a designer/developer, doing boring CEO duties nowadays. The one thing I'd suggest is not to try balance/juggle things you love and things you hate long term. It will feel like a lifelong struggle, and you won't be happy, or good at it. Think of it like this - would you promote a highly creative employee that contributes to the growth into a business role? My answer is no. He will not contribute, and should stick to elevating things he's good at, staying on top of his game. So why do it to yourself?