I realize I did almost all of these here and there on an intuitive level. But it is always good to have these tools enumerated and using them consciously. 🙂
The algorithm Gods have blessed me before Christmas with this recommendation, and I must say - excellent job Joe (Dr. Baxter?!) #3 really hit home - project scope is such a HUGE and often over aspect of ideation and as you said, people don't know what they don't know. But you see it all the time of indie devs who want to jump into the deep end, especially for their first game where they want to include 30 different mechanics, and end up getting so burnt out it doesn't make it past mechanic 1. Starting with your limitations is a perfect step back before moving forward. Can't wait to binge through your other content. Liked, Subscribed, and followed on BlueSky! ✌✌✌
Thanks! Watched this video 2 times in a row and took notes. These tips are really good for the ideation phase where I feel stuck now. Actually you started my brain rollin' again, cheers!
Great video, very useful, thanks! A good example of r-e-arrange/reverse (21:21) might be Baba Is You, which represents the game rules as blocks the player interacts with to solve the puzzles, and plays with the fundamentals of what the character is as its main hook.
This video actually has some great advice in it! I didn't expect much from some random UA-camr with barely any views and subscribers who popped up in my recommendations. Keep up the good work!
"Eliminate-minimize" is why I replace cards in deck rather than the usual add-remove (in my deckbuilder Forestygian, that you reviewed). This way I try to free "complexity budget" for more complex, tactical combat (my Magnify). In attempt to make a deckbuilder with deeper combat, that humans can play without melting their brains (my problem statement).
Very helpful , thank you for the insight ^^ . I am so new to unity ., and I was getting really discouraged because I'm so new and nothing feels good enough . But at 15:40 made me feel better because it's exactly what I've been doing while making it. Again thank you so much for this video ^^
Ahh, it’s always great to hear when a video has been helpful. Feel free to get back to me if there are other things you could use help with (just not technical tutorials as I am not the best person for that)
A really good example of that "designing for memorable moments" approach is Tunic (semi spoilers btw), the dev Andrew Shouldice has spoken at length in interviews about how he was designing for a "wait you can do that/that was there the whole time?!" kinda feeling and you can see how it informs the way you play all the way from little moments of "I bet there's a secret behind that waterfall ... I knew it!" up to the grand reveal when you 100% the game (which I won't go into detail for here, but suffice it to say imo it's an incredible reveal and probably one of my favourite puzzles in any video game ever)
Again, I thought 'more-relaxing' version of survival genre was stupid, and you helped me consider if it has a underserved market is valid. Subscribed +
@@QuillColor that’s good to hear. Sometimes it’s important to remember that everybody who gives you feedback on something isn’t the target audience. But that still means you need to find who is!
Great list! It got me thinking that one of my challenges might be finding the right balance between keeping things simple but adding complexity throughout the game to keep it fresh and interesting. In my case (an RPG game), it's about ensuring that the start of the game isn't too boring or too confusing/complex.
@@TheUnsupported yeah. Try to think of complexity as something you budget. Most players can’t cope with everything being super deep. There’s also complexity that’s directly exposed to the player (like interfaces) and stuff which might not be (like AI). The stuff the player doesn’t directly think about until they’ve been playing a long time can add a lot of shelf life, but probably isn’t worth worrying about in early stages.
Thanks Rognar! Hard to know what will be most helpful to folks. I always feel a bit cheesy doing a numbered list video, but it also sucks to get "here's 3 things", and you know them all already.
@@IndieGameClinic most helpful thing to folks is that you made this channel and post your videos :D if it helps one game developer it can help many players so don't be too bothered about some videos that haven't gathered much attention In any case thanks again and good luck with anything you do
Hi, I'm a newbie indie developer and I have a question regarding the topic of major changes to the project. I'm developing a side-scrolling horror game called Shadow Pulse (it has a Steam page) and this game is about walking around closed, confusing locations, solving riddles, running away and hiding from monsters. But I often come across the opinion that the game needs weapons, and at least some means of self-defense. Do you think that the ability to shoot monsters will really be a big plus for the game, even if the ammo is extremely small, and the enemies will respawn, and the player will have to use stealth in any case to get through it? For example, Alien Isolation has a similar approach. Now my game is similar to the first Clock Tower or Coma: Recut.
@@AmateurGameDeveloper there are lots of different subgenres of horror. If people are asking for weapons, it might just be that they need more to do. A horror game where you can “fight back” in different ways like barricading doors etc is probably not going to get the “I need weapons” type of comment so much, I think. It’s very hard to say without more context. Sometimes players tell you a solution to a problem they have but they don’t really understand the problem (eg thinking they want combat when some other mechanic might be better)
@@IndieGameClinic I was thinking about how to express my concerns, and I came to the conclusion that there are several problems here. The setting of the game is post-apocalyptic. People expect from such settings that there should be some kind of weapon. Even if it is useless. And I think it's alienating a large audience. Quest fans don't like post-apocalypse, post-apocalypse fans don't like quests. And now the game is more of a stealth quest. Now the game also has a problem in that the stealth is primitive enough, and the enemies are demonstratively stupid for the limited stealth to work. There is no other way to interact with enemies. I thought about sound baits, traps, but in a one-dimensional space where there is only right and left, there is no maneuver to play from traps and control the attention of monsters. Also, I feel like I literally have nothing to show in the trailer except walking and running from monsters. It's like there is no roller coaster peak for a nice visual.
Sir ! Doctor! Would you review a "conception dossier" (or the analyst's folder of files) for a game project, ever? Or is that something you would not see any worth in reviewing? Cuz that would be the kind of duocument I'd be submitting for review as i take notes of all the recommendations you offer viewers in those amazing videos !!!
@@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914 ooh that sounds interesting! Really it comes down to how time consuming it would be to do. But if you’d be happy for it to be channel content then I’d 100% be up for experimenting with that?
@@IndieGameClinic i've been thinking how to break down a full RPG action adventure game into small games for every complex part of programming building blocks of a game/program, as you mentionned... so I'll start with a concept document for the "name your character" game or the menu options choosing game ... yeah these are normal things, naming a thing and choosing in a menu, but it can be broken down as games in themselves. YOU Doctor made me think of it !!! Thanks so much for this great channel!
@@IndieGameClinic I made a sh*tty video about my experience of breaking the Messenger's Surf minigame high score counter. Now I'm building the portfolio to get a job in game testing, but will work on a conception dossier anyways (i must have the dilligence and put the work in to motivate myself as a developper making my 1st indie game) dropping it to learn to code with the software would not be right now possible as I look for the new job.
Late to the party, but i have one: Play horrible games. Or watch others play horrible games on youtube, if you don't want to spend money on those. The worst shovelware, mobile slop, abandoned patreon-bait, that sort of thing. And try to think up ways how those concepts or those mechanics could've been made into a decent game.
What do you mean by successful ? For my sucsfull game is game the people who play enjoy the game. Or game that achieve the gole you try to get. However some people it may think that sucsfull is getting a lot of profit.
@@watercat1248 those things are rarely mutually exclusive. Most of the Failed Indie stories on here ultimately come down to games which no one wants to play, which weren’t play tested, which have no unique appeal compared to better games in their genre. If people who play your game enjoy it more than something similar, it probably has all of the ingredients to be financially successful. If they just think it’s ok but would rather not play it again, the game probably wasted their time.
@@IndieGameClinic this not nessery true. Just because people play the game it doesn't necessarily mean it's funasly sucsfull. For example let's say someone spend a lot of money to create game event if the people who play enjoy it it may not make enough money 💰 in the order to have funasly sucsfull. Or if the game is free to play or you have to pay some form of server or service if the depth are higher for your incomes you're game it may be successful. Even if people enjoying the game you make it doesn't necessarily mean it's funasly sucsfull. To be fer those are hypothetical scenarios. But on the games I'm working I tried to enjoble experience not funasly sucsfull.
@@watercat1248 He said "probably has", which suggest exceptions. If your goal is to have more money, the popularity of the game usually helps reaching that goal. A popular game might not be financially successful, but popularity and financial success are correlated. But you said it's not necessarily true. Taken literally, it means popular games can't be financially successful. I'm pretty sure you didn't mean that, though. You said the costs could be higher than the money you receive from a game. But that was implied from how "probably" was used. May you clarify what you disagreed here?
@@littleowlgaming-unity-tutorial I have a PhD in media and cultural studies, based on a research thesis into the history of hobbyist game development. My full time job is currently as a contracting senior designer, and I spent 2018-2022 teaching game design. Before that I worked as a designer as well.
The answer the last question about time, to be honest - not a lot! Which is why, for now, I’m focusing on giving my expertise to other people, rather than tinkering with my own backlog of designs.
We have to support this channel at all costs
@@MarioCola thank you Mario!
I'm a comp. sci./game design student and this content is gold.
I realize I did almost all of these here and there on an intuitive level. But it is always good to have these tools enumerated and using them consciously. 🙂
Excellent. There are definitely more ways, I just tried to focus on the things that new devs might find most helpful.
This should be required viewing for all aspiring game devs
The algorithm Gods have blessed me before Christmas with this recommendation, and I must say - excellent job Joe (Dr. Baxter?!)
#3 really hit home - project scope is such a HUGE and often over aspect of ideation and as you said, people don't know what they don't know. But you see it all the time of indie devs who want to jump into the deep end, especially for their first game where they want to include 30 different mechanics, and end up getting so burnt out it doesn't make it past mechanic 1.
Starting with your limitations is a perfect step back before moving forward.
Can't wait to binge through your other content. Liked, Subscribed, and followed on BlueSky! ✌✌✌
Dont forget the ultimate strategy for game success. Ideating where to put the dwarven woodwind bangers.
A really solid numbered list! I dig how each number got bigger than the one before. And then you really blew it up at the end 💥
Thanks! Watched this video 2 times in a row and took notes. These tips are really good for the ideation phase where I feel stuck now. Actually you started my brain rollin' again, cheers!
@@Madve27 great to hear!
Very impressed Joe. Well done mate. Subscribed
Great video, very useful, thanks! A good example of r-e-arrange/reverse (21:21) might be Baba Is You, which represents the game rules as blocks the player interacts with to solve the puzzles, and plays with the fundamentals of what the character is as its main hook.
Great example - infuriating game but I did love it (until I rage quit)
This video actually has some great advice in it! I didn't expect much from some random UA-camr with barely any views and subscribers who popped up in my recommendations. Keep up the good work!
@@De_Wouter takes a while to grow subs. Only been on here for 2
months (working in games for a decade and teaching for a chunk of that).
@@De_Wouter thanks!
"Eliminate-minimize" is why I replace cards in deck rather than the usual add-remove (in my deckbuilder Forestygian, that you reviewed). This way I try to free "complexity budget" for more complex, tactical combat (my Magnify). In attempt to make a deckbuilder with deeper combat, that humans can play without melting their brains (my problem statement).
Very helpful , thank you for the insight ^^ . I am so new to unity ., and I was getting really discouraged because I'm so new and nothing feels good enough . But at 15:40 made me feel better because it's exactly what I've been doing while making it. Again thank you so much for this video ^^
Ahh, it’s always great to hear when a video has been helpful. Feel free to get back to me if there are other things you could use help with (just not technical tutorials as I am not the best person for that)
A really good example of that "designing for memorable moments" approach is Tunic (semi spoilers btw), the dev Andrew Shouldice has spoken at length in interviews about how he was designing for a "wait you can do that/that was there the whole time?!" kinda feeling and you can see how it informs the way you play all the way from little moments of "I bet there's a secret behind that waterfall ... I knew it!" up to the grand reveal when you 100% the game (which I won't go into detail for here, but suffice it to say imo it's an incredible reveal and probably one of my favourite puzzles in any video game ever)
This is a great example - thanks!
I'm so curious what you would think of our game. I feel like we hit all points in the video to varying degrees naturally. Great video!
Again, I thought 'more-relaxing' version of survival genre was stupid, and you helped me consider if it has a underserved market is valid. Subscribed +
@@QuillColor that’s good to hear. Sometimes it’s important to remember that everybody who gives you feedback on something isn’t the target audience. But that still means you need to find who is!
This is really great advice, and I hope it will be useful for assessing my tabletop game design!
Great list! It got me thinking that one of my challenges might be finding the right balance between keeping things simple but adding complexity throughout the game to keep it fresh and interesting. In my case (an RPG game), it's about ensuring that the start of the game isn't too boring or too confusing/complex.
@@TheUnsupported yeah. Try to think of complexity as something you budget. Most players can’t cope with everything being super deep.
There’s also complexity that’s directly exposed to the player (like interfaces) and stuff which might not be (like AI). The stuff the player doesn’t directly think about until they’ve been playing a long time can add a lot of shelf life, but probably isn’t worth worrying about in early stages.
Just the first one earned my sub.
thanks for a lot of good tips!
although i've used some of them before, now i know some more to use in future
Thanks Rognar! Hard to know what will be most helpful to folks. I always feel a bit cheesy doing a numbered list video, but it also sucks to get "here's 3 things", and you know them all already.
@@IndieGameClinic most helpful thing to folks is that you made this channel and post your videos :D
if it helps one game developer it can help many players so don't be too bothered about some videos that haven't gathered much attention
In any case thanks again and good luck with anything you do
This was beyond helpful!
P in scamper can also be used to repurpose a mechanic, for example using shooting as a mechanic to solve puzzles rather than kill
Great video by the way
There are so many uses for “P” when you really put your mind to it
Have you ever seen the Noah’s Ark Wolfenstein mod/game ua-cam.com/video/Cp3iHTE7ZVM/v-deo.htmlsi=Aq6kK44N9bbksSSL
@@IndieGameClinic haha heard about it but never saw in it action. Just epic...
Intelligent and entertaining. Your videos are really good.
@@Roomie_Ulrik thanks Roomie, it’s comments like this that are keeping me going!
The last part can be applied to different arts. The Scamper thing. Thank you
@@UltraBebo yep! It comes from general product design and is not something specific to games.
nice video, thanks!
8:00 How the zoo guards viewed Harambe.
Hi, I'm a newbie indie developer and I have a question regarding the topic of major changes to the project. I'm developing a side-scrolling horror game called Shadow Pulse (it has a Steam page) and this game is about walking around closed, confusing locations, solving riddles, running away and hiding from monsters.
But I often come across the opinion that the game needs weapons, and at least some means of self-defense. Do you think that the ability to shoot monsters will really be a big plus for the game, even if the ammo is extremely small, and the enemies will respawn, and the player will have to use stealth in any case to get through it?
For example, Alien Isolation has a similar approach. Now my game is similar to the first Clock Tower or Coma: Recut.
@@AmateurGameDeveloper there are lots of different subgenres of horror. If people are asking for weapons, it might just be that they need more to do.
A horror game where you can “fight back” in different ways like barricading doors etc is probably not going to get the “I need weapons” type of comment so much, I think. It’s very hard to say without more context. Sometimes players tell you a solution to a problem they have but they don’t really understand the problem (eg thinking they want combat when some other mechanic might be better)
@@IndieGameClinic I was thinking about how to express my concerns, and I came to the conclusion that there are several problems here. The setting of the game is post-apocalyptic. People expect from such settings that there should be some kind of weapon. Even if it is useless. And I think it's alienating a large audience.
Quest fans don't like post-apocalypse, post-apocalypse fans don't like quests. And now the game is more of a stealth quest.
Now the game also has a problem in that the stealth is primitive enough, and the enemies are demonstratively stupid for the limited stealth to work. There is no other way to interact with enemies. I thought about sound baits, traps, but in a one-dimensional space where there is only right and left, there is no maneuver to play from traps and control the attention of monsters.
Also, I feel like I literally have nothing to show in the trailer except walking and running from monsters. It's like there is no roller coaster peak for a nice visual.
Sir ! Doctor! Would you review a "conception dossier" (or the analyst's folder of files) for a game project, ever? Or is that something you would not see any worth in reviewing? Cuz that would be the kind of duocument I'd be submitting for review as i take notes of all the recommendations you offer viewers in those amazing videos !!!
@@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914 ooh that sounds interesting! Really it comes down to how time consuming it would be to do. But if you’d be happy for it to be channel content then I’d 100% be up for experimenting with that?
@@IndieGameClinic i've been thinking how to break down a full RPG action adventure game into small games for every complex part of programming building blocks of a game/program, as you mentionned... so I'll start with a concept document for the "name your character" game or the menu options choosing game ... yeah these are normal things, naming a thing and choosing in a menu, but it can be broken down as games in themselves. YOU Doctor made me think of it !!! Thanks so much for this great channel!
@@IndieGameClinic I made a sh*tty video about my experience of breaking the Messenger's Surf minigame high score counter. Now I'm building the portfolio to get a job in game testing, but will work on a conception dossier anyways (i must have the dilligence and put the work in to motivate myself as a developper making my 1st indie game) dropping it to learn to code with the software would not be right now possible as I look for the new job.
Очень качественное и интересное видео! Жаль, что так мало просмотров
1k in a day is not bad for me, at all! We’ll get there eventually. Thanks for the support.
what is that soccer game called at 9:44 ?
Behold: The Kickmen!
Late to the party, but i have one:
Play horrible games. Or watch others play horrible games on youtube, if you don't want to spend money on those. The worst shovelware, mobile slop, abandoned patreon-bait, that sort of thing. And try to think up ways how those concepts or those mechanics could've been made into a decent game.
@@harleyqueen6219 oh yeah, great idea! There are no bad ideas, just ideas that are more or less easy to execute well!
What do you mean by successful ?
For my sucsfull game is game the people who play enjoy the game.
Or game that achieve the gole you try to get.
However some people it may think that sucsfull is getting a lot of profit.
@@watercat1248 those things are rarely mutually exclusive. Most of the Failed Indie stories on here ultimately come down to games which no one wants to play, which weren’t play tested, which have no unique appeal compared to better games in their genre. If people who play your game enjoy it more than something similar, it probably has all of the ingredients to be financially successful. If they just think it’s ok but would rather not play it again, the game probably wasted their time.
@@IndieGameClinic this not nessery true.
Just because people play the game it doesn't necessarily mean it's funasly sucsfull.
For example let's say someone spend a lot of money to create game event if the people who play enjoy it it may not make enough money 💰 in the order to have funasly sucsfull.
Or if the game is free to play or you have to pay some form of server or service if the depth are higher for your incomes you're game it may be successful.
Even if people enjoying the game you make it doesn't necessarily mean it's funasly sucsfull.
To be fer those are hypothetical scenarios.
But on the games I'm working I tried to enjoble experience not funasly sucsfull.
Im having a stroke @@watercat1248
@@watercat1248 He said "probably has", which suggest exceptions. If your goal is to have more money, the popularity of the game usually helps reaching that goal. A popular game might not be financially successful, but popularity and financial success are correlated.
But you said it's not necessarily true. Taken literally, it means popular games can't be financially successful. I'm pretty sure you didn't mean that, though.
You said the costs could be higher than the money you receive from a game. But that was implied from how "probably" was used.
May you clarify what you disagreed here?
Dr. of what? and if you are a doctor how the hell do you have time for game design?
@@littleowlgaming-unity-tutorial I have a PhD in media and cultural studies, based on a research thesis into the history of hobbyist game development. My full time job is currently as a contracting senior designer, and I spent 2018-2022 teaching game design. Before that I worked as a designer as well.
The answer the last question about time, to be honest - not a lot! Which is why, for now, I’m focusing on giving my expertise to other people, rather than tinkering with my own backlog of designs.
gen-z viewers: couldn't focus because the microphone is not comically small - 0/10 unwatchable