5 ways to ACTUALLY finish your game
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 тра 2024
- Reason 6: Unity decides to shaft your entire development process, forcing you to switch to a new engine
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:26 Just ship something
02:23 Sick of an idea
04:45 Making assets takes too long
06:46 Scared of bad launch
08:28 Scope creep
10:52 Personal life
13:42 Closing
---
Get our game now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/21...
Join our Discord: / discord
In need of some Unity Assets? Use our affiliate link to support us, it's free, and we get a small kickback: prf.hn/l/wzGa15G
Want to reach out to us? Send us an email at hello@bitemegames.com - Навчання та стиль
I'm one of those who have been making prototypes for the last 4 years. I have no regrets about it, but then again this is a hobby for me. I have learned so much that now I am making a complete game, it has been "mostly" smooth because everything I'm doing now I have done at some point before.
6th Unity runtime fee
Just converted my 2D unity game over to Godot in about 4 days and 1. Found it a very easy process, 2. MY game runs about 5x faster on the godot engine and 3. Development is going faster than ever now. I can highly recommend :)
@@shaunjansaThat's comforting!
This
@@shaunjansadid the visual quality suffer any switching to godot? I went from Unity to Unreal as to not decrease in visuals, but I'm building a hybrid 2d&3d game
@@DanielAttaway Not at all. There is no difference for me at all, but I am working with 2d pixel art... Perhaps if you're working with AAA 3d graphics you might find more tools available for unity, but so far I can't find anything unity can do that godot can't. I've messed around with sprite characters in a 3d environment (like Octopath traveler - sounds like you're doing something similar) and it's very easy to set up....
I just want to say, I really appreciate that when you include clips of game footage from other games you always put the title of that game in the corner. I know it's a small thing in the end result, and I'm sure it takes a good amount of time to add that each time, but it's a really nice touch. I watch a lot of dev logs on UA-cam, and often they will include clips from other games that I'm not familiar with and I'm never sure if I'm looking at their game project or some other game, and it's really frustrating some times. I don't have this issue with your videos, because I've watch enough of your devlogs to know your game when I see it, but it is always nice to be able to see the name of the game in those clips.
Great video as always.
I'm a part time solo indie dev.
About to release my 17th game on Steam called Energy Fighters and have released most of my games for free also on Android.
I only started learning game dev during lock down and when I realised that 'finishing' was a nemesis... I started to simply look to recreate an old arcade games game loop.
I learned a tonne and managed to release a game on Steam every month for 8 months straight adopting a no zero days mentality.
Often only doing between 30 minutes to 2 hours a day.
Just establish the game loop....
Main menu > start game > lose lives to game over or win to next level.
That's essentially a game in its loosest sense.
Out of curiosity, did you take a hit money wise publishing these games? Did any of them make the 100$ fee back? I'm very curious as I'm not planning to publish anything on Steam yet due to that fear of just losing money on my hobby.
@rybek7081 I've made the initial Steam fee back on all the games but because I self publish and do no promotion the sales aren't great. I won't be quitting the day job but to be honest it's such a massive confidence boost to have your games out there.
I always integrate with steam leaderboards (for highscores) and achievements now too, so the initial 100 i think of as paying for those services.
Releasing games on Steam gives you quite a buzz honestly.
I know I'm not likely to make much money but I just love making and releasing games. Great hobby is all I see it as really.
@rybek7081 just launch one...in the long run it may pay back the 100 dolar...you always can advertise that game and update it
That's why I started my Devlog. I thought it might keep me accountable and forces me to produce stuff and work on the game. Also stopping working on it somewhere down the road would be the ultimate failure for me personally, which I could never accept.
We also did the same for our Devlog! Keeps us on track and motivated to finish the game.
Creating rocks ... there is so much wisdom in that! Lots of game development often is spent on the boring rocks and it is hard to wrap our head around the idea that we could purchase the rocks and move onto the cool aspects of our game. Great advice!!
I agree! I like to point out to non-game developers that “just implementing something” isn’t always as simple as it sounds.
Take a door for example, most people would go “oh yeah a door that’s so easy!”, but if you actually go to implement one you have to answer so many questions.
Can you open this door? Who can open it? Which direction is it allowed to open? Can you lock/unlock it? What do you need to do to unlock it? How close do they need to be to interact with it? Etc.
I love rocks... haha.. but environment design is a passion
I finished my first game a few weeks ago! it felt awsome to finish a project, I had a time frame of 13 weeks to work on it, and I felt that helped a lot with not getting burnt out on the project.
Congrats!
Im pretty sure the advice is from you. The things you are talking about are relevant to me.. so ive been doing 3 hour challenges- pick an idea, make a game.. if you cant finish, decrease the scope and make something else the next day.. it drills in fundamentals and really helps in many ways.. makes you realise whats possible, realistic, and gets you thinking about making whole product, focused on fun and engaging, instead of complex
I've been through a few projects:
The first one is a mod of CS2D. It was great, it was so fun but then I ran into a net code optimize issue that is too big. I got burn out and quit. Took me 3 months.
After that I decided to pick up an engine and try to make a stand alone game based on my mod. Another big mistake because the scope still too big. I still run into some unsolvable problem or some mechanic that take months to finish. Took me another 3 months but at least I get used to my engine.
Then I make a fighting game like I wasn't learned from the previous two. I thought that I was determine, but then my life get on the way while the idea too vague to realistically do it. This one took me a year but it teach me a lot about UI/UX design.
Then there come a one month game jam. I team up with one kid. He was too busy so I did most of the work while he play test. It was a 2D platform - real time strategy with some automation where spawned soldiers building from blueprint that players place on their way underground while robot on the sky bomb all the way to the bed rock to kill all soldiers. I really like the idea and it was impressive. I only end up mid rank because it had little to no tutorial and the players find it a bit lack of motivation. This project was the first I've ever finish and it taught me the important of having a clear road map and a limited scope.
Now I'm working on a Turn Based Strategy and want it to be my first commercial release within 2-3 years. It had been a month since I started.
"Let your timeline determine your scope, not your scope determine you timeline." I haven't begun developing games yet but I have learned from other areas of my life that if you want to stay motivated to do something, _always_ start with timelines and goals you want to get accomplished within those timelines. The big thing though is that your goals are not there to beat yourself over the head with for not reaching them in time, they are there to give you concrete indicators that you are going to be able to reach your primary goal within the timeframe you are seeking. If you are missing goals then revaluate! Can what you want be accomplished with a bit more time? Maybe your current method of achieving your goals isn't working. Is there a skill that you need to develop or advice you need to get?
Missing goals is great because it provides you an opportunity to look at what happened and figure out how to improve in the future. Without goals, you can spend a ton of time floundering and not making much progress.
I've been working on my game for 6 months and it has been a rough time. A lot of personal stuff got in the way, exams, university, moving homes, etc.
I mainly worked on the backend of the game, the systems, not the actual content for it, so it really felt like I wasn't making any progress and almost gave up. Now, I started to add the content part and progress is so much more visible. I am so thankful that I didn't just leave that Steam page to slowly decay, as I am approaching the release date.
I've released a phone game, a small VR game (more of like a sandbox than a game), and a phone app. All to varying degrees of failure (I think I have less than 20 downloads combined between all those, and $0 actual income). However, I do have about 15-20 prototypes that I have worked on over the years and never finished for many of the reasons you described here.
I find one thing that has helped in the projects that I've finished, is to always keep a task list populated with individual tasks that need to be done, but at the same time to never let that task list get too long. If I have a task list, I can always fall back on it when I finish working on something or I just don't know what I should be working on. But I have to make sure I don't let it get too long (even if there are more things that I need to add to it) so it doesn't become overwhelming.
Great video as always.
I'm at the stage now where I'm just finishing up assets and polishing. It's pretty exciting to be close enough to see the end in sight.
Pressing that launch button is going to be a great feeling! -M
All good stuff... Btw I'm curious about your monitor setup.
Today I realised I don't like enough of your videos. Good job, epic video! ❤ Glad I didn't see my game in the B-roll tho I expected it to be there multiple times xD
The pressure is on! -M
Props for using Daikatana footage for "bad game".
Interesting, thank you so much!
7:07 that. I try to be supportive of others, brainstorm on their ideas, take them seriously... but there's always those people who would talk a lot about an idea, starts it, then give it up 2 weeks later and then they want to talk about their new idea... that they give up 2 weeks later and then when they want to talk about their 11th idea... you kind of don't want to... cause at that point, the problem is definitely not their ideas.
I have just released my first game back in July, after 30 months of work ( Outer Space Shack ), including a Kickstarter campaign 12 months in. This is a paid game, I have had limited success with sales, as the game is really more a 'pre-release' state. I am continuing to improve the game, and hopefully, I can get a wider audience at some point.
My current issue is when I hit a wall and get stuck I get very frustrated. I only have maybe a few hours a to sit down and do anything. But iv been trying to not let it kill my game dev journey
I think my thing is mainly I went straight into making games. I didn't know anything about Unreal or anything to do with game development and I still mainly work off of youtube tutorials. If i want a mechanic the only way I can put it in my project is if theres a youtube tutorial or if i use money to pay for it. I have zero ability to build these things from the ground up. So i am thinking of taking a step back and just learning the programming language (blueprints) and whatever else i need to just start building from the ground up instead of mashing already made pieces together.
I got started with Godot about 4 months ago and I've got a few different projects started either for just practicing something or an actual idea (all around the same genre)
As a Dev that's released two games thus far, my biggest advice is set a timeframe and deadline. Give yourself 3 months to prototype the mechanics and three months to polish, then just ship it. Deadlines are my best friend. lol
I'm definitely in the scope creep catagory but I'm coming out of it. I've started & stopped a ton of projects that went like this:
First game idea: 3D shooter
Second: 2d platformer
Third: Visual Novel + Simulator
Fourth (and current): Word Puzzle game
With the current project I definitely feel like the scope is within reach within a few months so I feel I've finally exited the scope creep era. Now I just need to finish this game & release it so I can slowly work my way back up the list.
Sounds like an improvement in scope already! Good luck!
-T
Good video! And oh boy I feel called out, im one of those devs that are spending 5 years on a project, I kinda disagree with some points but my opinion is kinda invalid until I release my game, Im pretty confident in my game and thankfully im one of the lucky ones that could afford working on it for that long. My biggest mistake tho is deffinitely overscoping and under estimating some parts of game dev.
I released 7 or 8 tiny mobile games back in 2021-22. Then stopped for a year. And now have been working on a proper full game for the past 2 months. I decided a problem with me is that I write jank code, and I get tired of it and want to release quickly to get the project off my chest. This time around Im better at planning, taking my time and doing it proper without rush. It will take longer, but will be a better product overall that I will be happy with in the end.
Prototyping is great if you want to test new mechanics. Staying there forever can be a problem if you don't put it to use.
I'm working on my first prototype for 1.5 month already. I'm planning publish some kind of nice demo by November. So, I've never was in a prototype hell since that's my first project, but I already had to cut some really giant ideas...
For me the greatest problem is assets, a couple of weeks trying to consider if I should pay 100 bucks(which I actually may need to eat some food) for nice visuals and animations. That basically slows me down, at least because I need some proper visuals to prototype and understand both what I'd like to see and how to do that stuff).
I'm on a games course and trying to finish my final project, a complete game. What helps, a spec that I have to work to, I know what I *must* do. But I think for me, I'm quite the perfectionist and am trying to get in good coding practice at the same time, and that slows things down (in the short term). I actually wrote the 1st version of it in about 8 full days when I was recuperating, but I'm into my 6th month of doing it properly! Life is a lot to do with the time stretch, I have a full time job and I'm a carer. Whilst I do agree about getting it shippable first, Carmac suggests that approach too, I can get a block sometimes with modding stuff that's kind of working - a fear of breaking stuff? I dunno, feels more like a sign of me not getting the code written well in the first place, but I could be very wrong about that.
I’m part of the 40%. Started working on a game a few months ago, got the base mechanics working, A main menu and even some animations. Had to put the project on hold once I discovered how difficult it is to setup multiplayer for a VR project especially when you don’t start the project with multiplayer.
Hey! nice video, I can really relate, I have a game that I have been adding or remaking stuff like for 3 years now. Probably because I feel insecure about it, and feel that I need to add stuff to make it good.
First time I see your channel, it certainly sounds very familiar.
I literally just released my game, Cash Crusade, on IOS and Android. I've been working on it for 3 years, but entirely in my free time, I'm a full time game programmer so it's not always easy to find the time. But now that it's out, I'm stuck with what I should do next. I could improve it further, add localisation, or release it on PC but all of those cost money and I haven't really earned anything yet. Add to this the new Unity costs, and while they don't take effect on me, they put a damper on the opportunity that was previously available. So now I'm considering just starting fresh in a new engine with no experience at all.
currently I am part of the "unfinished games" faction. But since august I dive into the full-time game dev experience and now I'm developing my first game that will be finished. It's such an awesome experience I got in the last months. And now I stay at the "mental breakdown point" of gamedev. The alpha phase is nearly finished and now only thing that counts is to add more and more content to the game and getting the marketing work. That's the part which is not the funniest for me, but still needs to be done. And in November I can hopefully say "I am in the finished games faction" :-)
In regards to what keeps me motivated.
I have a goal that every Friday I post a playable update, currently on itch. The rule being that I have improved the game experience in some during that week. I also write at least a short devlog and though I hate editing videos I'm working towards posting a youtube update every week.
It's just like the importance of having a good game loop. If you don't have that loop you don't have something to come back to.
working on my first game, have a main 9-5 job as a dev, been following advice from everywhere i can, so to avoid the classic pit falls of a beginner, and i stumbled recently on your channel, i really appreciate how direct and matter of fact you are and its definitely really good advice, also noticed that this is the second time in two different videos that you mention climbing a mountaing when you want some space from your game, are you a climber by any chance, i m a climber myself and love that advice, doesnt matter how much i love programming, being surrounded by nature is the perfect reset button.
Not a climber, more a hiker. It's a bit of a weird story, when I was in Japan, I didn't always have a set, but the videos had to keep going, thus I spawned the idea of walking up a mountain, and talking about gamedev along the way.
There's a dedicated playlist with those videos. -M
I am a guy who hasn't released any games, and have only made one prototype, can't say the proto is doing very well either, very hard to keep focus on it even though I still have work to do on it.
haven't released any paid games, but a whole lot of jam games. have 2 games that were commercial potential games, however one has to big of a scope and the other didn't have a good hook (or in my mind enough content), to go commercial.
The one that got done (just not enough content) got done with a full on kanban board, time tracking, etc. to the point were I think any non-trivial game needs all of those things.
The one that got dropped due to scope, did get quite a bit of interest in the places I shared it around and if I had the time (and probably team), I think it could have gone somewhere.
#1 you'll go bankrupt if your game is installed a lot
I usually get stumped by something i can't figure out and can't find a solution so i give up
I have a weird solution for this. I have my main project, like the Unreal 3D complicated one. But on the side I have what I call "Relaxing" game dev, usually small RPG maker games or something simple. When I get tired of one, I'll work on the other to keep things fresh. Nobody likes to eat the same thing for dinner every single day right?
my only problem is that when i start making a game, about in one week my brain starts thinking that maybe the idea is not good as i thought in the beggining, do i really want to spend time on this? and just deleting project :D record is 2 week on single project
I have released 8 games, but none have been on Steam. Mostly because I was a minor without money. Currently I am just going through ideas where I only give myself 3-7 days to make a prototype and I hate the fact that I cannot come up with anything that I want to pursue
good advice, im so close to release! im code freezing in like 2 days but i have been adding and adding for 6 months. it stops now!
If you're actually doing a code freeze, you're doing better than us already! Good job! -M
For the one that said quality always
forget that game can always be updated...its not like a product or movie that needs to remake...
Just post your stupid game and update it to be quality game when you have the skills...
Just put it out you always can update it later..
Game dev is unique not like other industry that need to remake to a new one in order to update...
Game always can be changed later go for it..
Your skills now is shiet compared to years later...so no matter How High Quality the best you can do is still shiet compared to years later..
Make it fast, put it fast, fail fast, improve fast, and remake it when you already have enough resources
This is definitely what we did partially as well. Whilst the game was playable, there were still some major bugs we fixed in the month after, being transparent about it all. -M
A bunch of itch games. Still need to release that first Steam game. One day perhaps! 😅
Cool idea but imma keep my big scope.
I am a man of many prototypes. And even worse, they're in various engines.
Love it! Kick in the pants #2!!
I'm in the very beginning stages of my first game
To me, It's not about reinventing the wheel. I think it's about communication. I'm just looking for a new way to tell stories. Been working in film for the last few years but I want a better way to tell my stories and I think think GD is a great option for me. I want to pull the audience into the story. I think it's a great way to build empathy and can emphasize the point of the story through it. It's a powerful tool...And fun too. I'm on my first game. And hopefully it won't be my last.
For me, reinvent the wheel give me more motivation and inspiration, don't know why.
After watching this video I can confirm that I’ve simply “pretended” to be a game developer. I have spent years on and off on my first project (learning to code as well) on a silly little game that two 19 year olds came up with 5 years ago (my buddy and I).
I finish it by next month, no excuses 😤
I expect an update next month! -M
@@bitemegames You got it!
If your game is bad still release it you will probably be disappointed but you will get great feedback do small updates
I have infinite prototypes of infinite prototypes of infinite prototypes...
Took a break and said “fuck it, time to finish this game”, then unity told me to go fuck myself
What is the game at 2:12?
Portal Seekers, a game from some fellow Belgian devs, but they don't have a steam page up 🤦-M
@@bitemegames Thank you very much Martin! :)
The reason I can't finish my game is because I don't have the confidence/motivation to start my game, lol.
I am just a window cleaner
we need a game about cleaning windows please ^-^
I like to make rocks! :D
You rock! -M
Because I’m spending too much time watching UA-cam videos about how to finish my games
Unity got me pregnant
that's actually kinda funny