I am also solo developer who was dumb enough to develop his dream game on his own...actually, make that 8 dream games all at once...I also started with zero experience and have been working in Unreal engine for two years now. Somehow, against all odds, I actually managed to finish and launch one of them. Then against further odds, that game landed me my dream job, where I get to work from home and develop VR games. Allowing me the freedom to continue developing my dream games when I'm not working on the VR games. Game development is NOT for everyone. You truly have to have an iron will and determination to succeed. You also need to learn how to control immense frustration and not let it drive you to the point of wanting to quit. Because believe me when I say that you WILL encounter problems that will push you to your mental limits. You don't have to be insane like me and develop 8 games and the gameplay systems from scratch, but here is my personal recommendation to you or anyone else who is getting into game development. I actually recommend developing at least two different types of games simultaneously. The reason being is that if you hit a snag or a roadblock with one, you can hop over to the other project and vise versa. This will... A: Prevent burnout on one project B: Allow you to brain storm solutions while still being productive and give you fresh eyes once you get back to solving the problem C: Expand your knowledge base and make you a more rounded developer. You'll learn how to solve completely different issues on each project and will help you in the long run. Extra tips D: Don't make your game multiplayer. I can tell you from personal experience that multiplayer replication is actually the devil. The game that I finished and released was a story-driven, VR, co-op, horror, shooter, and I do not wish the struggle that I went through upon anyone. E: Get yourself a game dev buddy. Someone else who's also in the process of developing their own game. Having someone to banter with and bounce ideas off of and relate to will help keep you sane. My friend wanted to get into game dev, so I became a sort of mentor to him. Now he's been doing it for a year himself and he's improved dramatically. F: Purchase assets. When I say this, I don't mean this in the normal sense of using assets to speed up the process or lighten the workload. I mean it as in purchasing an asset to study and pick apart the code to see how it was put together. You can watch tutorials until your blue in the face, but nothing will help you understand better than being able to poke through a whole constructed system and see how it all connects together. I have purchased several frameworks and didn't even use them. I just used them as a learning tool so that I could build my own that's more customized to my game. G: Developer discord channels, reddit threads and Facebook groups are your friend. UA-cam tutorials will only get you so far. Once you start encountering more specific issues that pertain to your game, you'll need to learn how to be resourceful. Looking for answers or posting and asking questions on these pages is essential AND it gets you involved in the community. H: Share your work, (but have thick skin) Other developers are great to get feedback from, but they can also be the most critical. They will tell you their unfiltered thoughts, but remember to always take it with a grain of salt and remember that they're only seeing a small slice of your full vision for the game. I: Find a balance. Once you get into the thick of game development, it can be very hard to find a work/life balance. This is the thing I struggle with the most. Unfortunately, I have lost a few friends or haven't seen them in a long time because of game development. As much as you want to bring your game to life, it's important to spend time with and maintain relationships with your family and friends. Getting better at this is my new years resolution. J: Believe in yourself. It can be a long and lonely road as an indie dev and depending on who you're surrounded by you may not have much, or any support. So BELIEVE that what you're doing is worth while and that you CAN accomplish your dream and you will go a long way. K: Play video games. It sounds simple enough, but it's easy to forget about when you're making your own game. Playing games similar to the one you're making will help give you inspiration, references, and help you figure out the aspects you like and aspects you don't like. L: Get a huge whiteboard. Often times there are problems you need to solve that are just too complex or to scatterbrained to fit onto a piece of paper. You'll end up with heaps of scattered notes everywhere. Having a white board is an absolute must to write out your thoughts on and help you problem solve. I actually have two whiteboards and my entire games level layout and flow was created on my whiteboard. There's no way I could have figured it out without it. M: Work on optimization, save games, and keep an organized project file from the beginning. If you wait until you're much farther into your games development to address these issues, you'll be in for one hell of a slog trying to work backwards to clean it up. This is a lesson I learned on my first game and I'm sure as hell gonna address it with my other games. N: playtest constantly. Don't wait until later to playtest your game. You want to catch problems as soon as you can and not let them pile up and compound things. Make a build of your game and send it to friends to play. Get their feedback and have them take notes of any issues they find. O: Start creating assets for online platforms early. Having gone through the process of listing my game on online platforms, it is an absolute pain in the ass and in no way a straight forward process. There are several roadblocks and approval processes you will need to go through and it's a bit of a slog to get through. Look at the platforms, research everything you'll need to post on there and make a plan to address them so the process isn't as painful. P: Hire voice actors on Fiverr. You can create the game all on your own, but if you want your characters to be voiced, you'll probably want to hire voice actors. I recommend looking for voice actors on Fiverr. I've found some excellent vooce actors on there and they usually will do it for a reasonable price...Don't you DARE use AI for your voice work or I will go out of my way to roast you lol. I've seen some awesome looking projects absolutely ruined by terrible AI voices. Don't even use it as place holder. Use text boxes instead until you're ready. Q: lastly, get some sleep. If you're a night owl like me, this can be a real problem. You need sleep to function, so don't neglect getting some. Set reminders for yourself if you need to, cayse you don't want to start having bad health issues. I wish you the best of luck!! And congrats to you if you read through all of this 😂🎉 I hope it helps.
Prediction: "#1 rule of solo game development is to do it alone. So today I assembled a team of 125 developers, engineers, artists, etc and we are going to develop a game "
A note: Eric Barone started making Stardew Valley as a quick project to bulk up his CV, which he thought would be done in 6 months. He proceeded to work on it 10-12 hours a day for nearly 2 years. He then worked on it as at a slightly more relaxed pace for another 2 years. Meanwhile, his girlfriend was supporting both of them. Stardew Valley is an incredible game made by an absolute madman.
It's not often I get recommended a smaller channel like this, but I must say the UA-cam algorithm has done right by me today. I'll be sticking around this channel. I hope it goes well!
Planning is my number one rule in game development. Early on, I abandoned many projects due to poor planning, and my biggest mistake was chasing my dream game. After releasing several free mobile games, I felt ready to create a pirate game inspired by Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. However, a year into development, I realized the scope was overwhelming for 1 person, and I had to abandon it. (There was a lot of "I have come so far, can't stop now" throughout that year) With better planning, I would have recognized the unrealistic scope before starting. Unless you’re making games purely for fun, thorough planning is critical. Is the game fun? Is there competition? Marketable? Achievable? Proper planning saves time, energy, and keeps projects alive.
To piggyback on this, it is so unbelievably helpful to practice some project management skills, even on solo projects. If you can keep a prioritized list of things to work on next, you will never run into a moment where you sit down and wonder what to do next. Simply put your brain in coding mode, then pick off the next thing, and do it! Then mark it done (kanban style). Then at other times, you can put your brain into product owner mode and groom the list and make sure you have at least a couple of fleshed-out features on deck. Make sure to make items on this list as small-grained as possible (i.e. too broad would be having a single card that says "The Nether;" much better is a bunch of cards like "Nether world gen," "Glowstone block," "Ghast mob," "Nether portal structure," etc). Items should have just enough detail that you could communicate it to someone else (but not so much detail that your time spend maintaining this list is starting to slow actual progress down to a grinding halt). Getting this balance right is truly an art but is very rewarding.
@@johnwostenberg840 Yep! I personally use and recommend Trello for this. Getting all systems or models onto cards, organizing them into development phases, and setting a clear finish line before starting makes it so much easier to stay focused and actually finish the project, or realize it might be out of scope.
Following your dream as you'd want to is completely admirable! So maybe break a rule here and there, but just so long as you stick to it and follow through, it'll be fun to look back at this in X years and laugh that you actually went for it... you know when you definitely don't back out and complete the game! I'm with ya all the way!
Dude I resonate with this so much. I've been working on my dream game for the past two years and I've made really good progress and I've been really happy working on it. I feel like a lot of the people who are making game dev content are making it for people who hate their job and want to quit and make as much money as soon as possible. For me, I actually like my job and I just work on my game anytime I'm not at work.
"Don't make your dream game as your first game" is rule #2, rule #1 of solo indie dev is "Do not make an an MMORPG". Not even kidding that one is SO clishee and the ppl had to repeat it SO often, it HAS to be number 1 haha. Best of luck with your game, I'm rooting for ya!
A thing that helped me navigate through tutorial hell was saving tutorials that didn't apply to my game in a 'watch later' playlist, and ones that would be useful to my game in a different one. I was able to make my own game, even having a full time job. It just requires a lot of time management and focus, know the road will be slow but it is feasible in case you do have to do what you need to make ends meet. A tip for beginners, after your first tutorial, try to re-create the thing you just made without watching it. How much did you absorb? Always keep trying to remake the thing 'you just learn' to make sure it sticks and remember there won't be a tutorial to make the exact game you're making, so you'll have to pick and choose from other tutorials.
I feel that, after 3yrs in tutorial hell I finally snapped out of it and started to learn how to do things properly! Very nice devlog, can't wait to see where this is going! 😄
Dude, NO WAY you're making a game like factorio. I love that game! It'd be awesome to see! I also have recently started making a game. I've been also putzing for years with half-finished programs. For me, streaming right now has helped me to be committed. Additionally, I decided on mapping the ENTIRE journey from start to finish to help me feel like I'm actually making me feel like I'm making progress, hence motivation. Good luck on your journey as well. I'll probably just follow you just to see your process!
*PRO TIP:* You can still make your dream game with zero experience! All you have to do is set a goal to create a very short demo. That way, you'll have both a small game and an MVP (minimum viable product) all in one go. The demo will also help you attract investors.
The problem is even if you do that, and even if you manage to somehow finish the demo, you will not have what it takes to finish the actual big dream game yet You will bump onto every single mistake that is only learnt with experience along the way And even if you somehow complete it, it will either take 5-7 years and multiple complete rewrites, or it will just be shit and nobody will buy it That's the sad reality
@@Evoleo Exactly, everyone should dream big, but you have to start small, or it's doomed to fail. He needs to learn before attempting something big or it WILL fail. Nobody has opened a engine without game dev experience and made a big successful game. It's unrealistic to think otherwise.
@@smallcube-zn2mm So make small games first. Make a couple of circles shoot eachother and let the player pick different skills or boosts, level up score etc. Then make another game where you focus on making a game where you can only walk around and maybe interact with a few things and make the world as beutiful as possible with some cutscenes. Break apart the major parts of the game into small games so you learn and gain the experience of errors and problems and get you familiar with the general development process. Following tutorials will be much simpler and you will also know how to improve your systems later for your big game. I swear to you it will be worth in the long run, and it will be a simpler task than diving straight into a big project where you don't know where to start or how to do anything.
Definitely wish you a luck on your journey! I would highly suggest starting smaller and since you said smaller is no fun for you, I think games jams are the best place to begin to learn full game building process and getting feedback from other gamedevs fasts (also content for yt). The thing is that all of the problems and not seeing results you were expecting will make your motivation to dissipate quite fast (no matter how hyped you are at the moment). I hope that does not happen for you, but it is something I learned myself hard way.
That rule about making small games first isn't because your first few games will be bad. That rule exists so that you can get into the habit of actually completing games. I wish I had done that when I started out, because now I'm in a loop of working on a number of different projects that I hop between because I can't stick with just one to completion. I also pick less simple projects as I feel like I'm constantly having to make up for lost time that I've wasted. Game dev is something I love and definitely want to do, but it's difficult to work on creative things when I'm not as motivated as I am with new projects. Though, even with all that said, I'll never give up until I've achieved my goals.
It's also to make smaller systems, to really learn the basics and the common mistakes. If you start with building big and advanced systems right away, you're gonna scratch your head in agony trying to understand why something isn't behaving the way you want. The rule is there for a reason. To gain experience.
I think: The concept for small games is mostly about getting to know how the system works. Big games a lot of the time combine multiple "games". Imagine a (small) gacha game, its basically just that. Have cool UI, make the logic behind gacha, make cool art and clean sounds. Now you know how to do it and how to do it better. Now if you ever make a big game that has gacha, you're kinda ready to go (might be best to have made multiple gacha games before).
My main issue with the advice to not start with your dream game, is that everyone acts like you can't do multiple games at once. Like, imo, the best way to do things would be to work on your dream game for the inspiration, but take time off to work on small games and demos to improve your skills. And if you eventually reach a point where you realize you need to scrap your dream game and restart it with your new knowledge, then that's not a big deal, because you'll still have learned a lot from the journey of the first attempt.
@@peterlewis2178 As long as you don't solely focus on your dream game, because it's unrealistic to think that you can finish a big game without a lot of experience. If you do, it's bound to fail.
@@perssontm1628 To my mind, what's the point in making games if you're not pursuing the games you're passionate about? It shouldn't be about making money. I'd rather focus on my dream game and spend 3 decades making it before finishing it, and have it release with little to no reception, than spend most of my time on small games that I'm not passionate about for the sake of "success". To me, success isn't about how much money a project makes, or how many people buy it. Success is about achieving an artistic vision, and personally being happy with your execution of it. It of course makes sense to try to work out forms of monetization, but that should be secondary to the pure artistic passion. Now, you're right that you likely won't be able to pull off an ambitious game without much experience. But making the game is the experience. It might take way longer if you start from zero, because you'll make a lot of mistakes, and have to scrap a lot and go back to the drawing board as you learn, but that's not a bad thing. Yeah, it might not be the most efficient or monetizable strategy, but it's one that minimizes burnout and gives you the best chance of actually staying passionate about your ideas. Whereas if you just focus on making small games and building up your skills, you might never feel ready to start your dream project(s), and either lose passion and give up, or fall into the corporate trap of just making games for money and abandon your dreams altogether.
You just sparked the small fire I was looking for! An advice from a fellow developer stuck in tutorial hell: Breakdown everything you want in the game as much as possible, from small Items to even smaller items. Helps A lot trust me
Glad I found your channel. Don't give up bro. It'll take some time. Im doing bit by bit myself. But man its fun to see your hard work going somewhere. Hope for your success.
let me say this: Creating your dream game as your first project is generally a poor idea. While you may have a vision-often a grand one, even if it seems manageable-your lack of experience can lead to frustration. Without the necessary knowledge and skills, you may find that the final product falls short of your expectations. This can lead to a "self-destructive" spiral that drives you away from the path of game development. So let me offer you some advice, as a nearly-colleague (I am a software engineer in a country where there is a state exam to obtain the title of engineer, just to avoid misunderstandings), to make your "climb" to the top a bit easier (though not easy): - If you can't envision how to implement a mechanic (what I mean is, if you can't picture a flowchart to manage it, not the actual code), then you're not ready to create it. Gain some experience by creating other mechanics, and only when you have a clear understanding should you move on to creating or researching how to implement it. - The tutorials you find online (as you've seen) on how to implement a mechanic do not teach you how to write efficient code. Don't just copy and paste mechanics as seen in other game dev projects; learn the workflow and implement it yourself. Especially if you're using an engine: many video tutorials utilize legacy/deprecated systems that are maintained in the software for backward compatibility. For basic mechanics, check out the official Unity UA-cam channel or their learning section. - Write the game as a logical proposition of states (essentially like testing kernels). This way, you can reduce bugs related to edge cases. - Before writing any game code, you should have a piece of paper with everything outlined: every single mechanic you want to implement and how it integrates and interacts with the others. Ideally, you could also prepare UML diagrams for each class you want to write to minimize the situations where you’ll need to refactor. - Given that the type of game you want to create is primarily based on "optimizing" processes (for example, in Factorio, the ratio of how many furnaces to conveyor belts is needed to produce a certain material without losses), you should also create a spreadsheet (Excel/Calc/...) in which you set up the game. I know it sounds strange, but often, complex games (like Pokémon, and I'm not joking) are first developed in a spreadsheet, tested, and only then is the code written. This process will save you from having to backtrack many times or going crazy trying to balance the game in the future. I know it may seem like I'm saying you should spend 90% of your time designing the game and only 10% creating it, but unfortunately, that's how it is. If you don't want to waste an infinite amount of time on refactoring to adapt mechanics and their interactions, this is the only method. Cheers!
This is one of the very few times that I actually take time to type out a comment on a UA-cam video because it impressed me! I follow bigger game dev channels and this video turned out to be of great quality and I am impatient to see you thrive and see the future of this game, I hope you luck and success in your journey! I can tell you've got some inspiration from some of them but I really enjoyed the way this video turned out, keep uploading and keep grinding! You just earned a new subscriber awaiting for your next video ^^
Eric Barone released two small scoped games before Stardew Valley, and god only knows how many projects he started and never released to learn everything he needed to make Stardew. Good luck!
Its a generally good rule because as you alluded to 1:05 ,people get distracted easily. Making a thing is different from bringing it to production. Delivering an actual completed game involves lots of testing, solid planning, and tons of compromise. Not only do you need to have a solid plan of what your game actually is beyond just vibes, but you need to be able to stick to that plan and not balloon your game into something that never gets finished. Of course, none of this matters if you just want to _work_ on your dream game and don't really care if it ever gets finished or not.
I’m in the same position! I’m making my dream game, even if I don’t finish it it’ll be a lot of fun to try. My one’s the Nausicaa movie/manga except as a game. Anyway a factorio-like sounds doable to me, good luck!
Its good to see someone just going for it, I wish you luck my friend, here's a little advice: when making your game try not to fall into the trap of thinking that you need a 3d model to create a certain mechanic when a simple placeholder box will do, assets are easily swapped in later and art is a very time consuming part of development. bonus tip: naming conventions are your friend (naming assets appropriately will help you understand what they are at a glance a month down the road and you will thank yourself later).
My personal recommendation for anyone wanting to make their dream game is just like make some stuff then make stufd you want to oncd your confident. Also see if you can get someone who can teach you how to make games or jsut explain how to do stuff if you cant figure it out because its super helpful. Also, i agree with this guy, personally making big games is easier for me because they matter more so ill actually work on them
Rule #1 of Game Development (as a game dev): "Maek Gaem". Doesn't matter how big or small, just start doing something. If you need a tutorial, watch it when you need to learn how to do something, not before you even begin the project. (Maybe watch one before to see how the game engine works tho) If you think the project is too big after actually starting it, reduce it, make it smaller. If you know you can make a bigger game, go for it, expand the game. I speak by experience, even though it isn't much, but don't get stuck on tutorials or projecting the entire game, just start doing something after you have a base plan, or you won't even begin making the game before you start planning another project.
Hey. Funnily enough, gamedev tv's tutorial for RPG's actually pretty good, it covers all the escential stuff while also giving you some form of explanation on why something coded the way they are, you might be interested so ill gonna drop this information here. If you wanna start big there might be money involved, but as long as you dont lose track then im sure youll be fine
I've found myself embarking on a very similar journey to you, and I will subscribe so I can follow your progress, while also hopefully motivating me to keep on going. Also a tip I found for avoiding tutorial hell, if any one was interested, is to only watch tutorials for specific features or mechanics that you already wanted to add, when you need it. Don't watch tutorials for world gen, before you even have a moving player character for example. And don't copy tutorials for full projects, you can use them as reference for specific features in that project, but don't copy the whole thing, you won't learn anything like that.
Huge thing that helps me on new projects is a good long walk and voice record. Talking to myself like a maniac. Asking all the questions about what I want with the game and working through what to do why to do how to do.
Wish you the best of luck I'm in a very VERY similar boat but like you and I said just because it's hard doesn't mean it's impossible. You go at it because you enjoy it and ik it'll be a good game
I respect the grind. You might still end up making 'small' games (in the form of early versions) before the final build but this way you'll be more motivated than if you were working on throwaway learning projects. Probably.
4:01 I'm literally playing Satisfactory while watching this video on the other monitor. Me, not making my game while watching a tutorial series which talks about how you can easily get stuck watching tutorial series instead of making your game.
My first game is also my dream game. I've been working on it for nearly 3 years now. But it had really long breaks. Months of me not working on the game. But this year on the month of august, i started to code consistently everyday and I've finally made so much progress.
I personally think it is not impossible to start working on a big game for your first project. Just try not to build everything at once. For example, if you want to make an open world game where dragons can shoot rocket launchers, don't start working on the rocket shooting dragon's AI, controls, texture, model all at the same time. First, just make the default cube/dummy fly, and figure out the flight controls. Then you can try and create/import a model for your dragon, and then you can slap some texture and so on. Now, I am not a game dev, I am mainly a software dev who works on web apps and AI apps, so my experience in this matter is quite limited. But from my experience, whenever I try making multiple aspects of the software at once, it either becomes too complicated, or everything becomes so tangled up, that simply changing the color of a button could end up breaking the software. So instead, I work in small iterative, deliverable steps. That has worked the best for me, and I hope it will help you too.
Its not that its guaranteed to fail, but making you dream game with no experience means that you will have bad coding practices, and the longer you work on it with bad code, the harder it will be, leading to either quitting or refactoring your code, I made the same mistake, had to start from scratch over 5 times before I learned how to properly write clean code, which I could have easily learned if I made 2-3 small games
This is true, but also (not to discredit your warning) some of the most popular indie games end up having pretty laughable code. i.e undertale. it does depend on your final product.
I mean, lets be real here. It's definetely guaranteed to fail. Nobody opens their engine for the first time and creates a big successful game. I do hope he learns and avchieve his dreams though.
Also I find chat gpt very useful for game devs. The key when using chat gpt is not to copy and paste code from it, but rather ask it more intricate questions about your game and get it to breakdown how things work and why they work the way they do. I did this for arrays for example and I now understand how they work rather than how to copy and paste!
Good luck! IMO the biggest problem with following tutorials is that they tell you the exact steps to do exactly one thing. They don't tell you how to think or problem solve or do the R&D you need to make progress. On one hand, yes, you just need to start doing. But if you really want to make progress and not burn out, I think you should try to work on your 'pipeline'. Some people's pipeline is to do random things at random times, and good for them. I would suggest you try to give your self structure in how you will do things. When you research, where are your notes going? When you're adding a feature, where does the code go? What object(s) need that feature attached to it? When you casually find a bug, where are you writing it down to dig into it later? Give yourself structure so you rarely have to ask 'how' when you want to 'do'
I never could explain it but I feel the same, I dont want to make a small game, i always get bored and unmotivated tbh... but This is a great video, and I'm excited to watch more!
Very nice video! Even though you're breaking the No.1 rule with this huuuge undertaking, we think you've actually made a really good decision to go with a sandboxy automation game. Typical Steam player expects 20-40 hours of content from a game, so it's crucial to pick a genre that makes it achievable to do so when working solo. Anyhow, we're definitely going to stick around to see how it goes, good luck!
I am working on a dream game. It is very ambitious and I have some set goals throughout. I am being creative and expanding the scope, but it is a 2D game. I have made plenty of projects and practiced coding for a long time. I know in my mind what I am making is a long term project. I think if you have set goals and create a reasonable scope you can make a great game!
I don’t know any game coding, but i am an audio engineer. One thing i can say is, having a road map is extremely valuable to understanding the fundamentals. Where as with music, you can kinda piece together youtube tutorials over the span of months to gain an overarching understanding of the basics of producing, i think game dev is vastly different. Game development is much more broad and you need to know the fundamentals of many overlapping systems. If i was to start learning game development today, i would just buy a course to streamline the process because guessing and clicking around the internet will cost you way more time than the course is worth i’m sure. That’s just my point of view on it tho.
Well, I had a feeling I was gonna be mentioned lol. I want to make a video exploring the idea of starting out by making your dream game, since that's how I started (and failed), in the beginning you really don't have a reason to make crappy small games, it feels like a boring chore, so maybe going for your dream game gives you that motivation you so desperately need at the start! Great video bro, keep going!!
I don't think that there's anything wrong with jumping straight into you're dream game. I have, and as of right now it's doing just fine. Is it better to do small things first? Probably. Is it as fun? No. This is my dream game and I'm going to do what ever I can to make it succeed. Which is why I believe in you and think you'll do just fine
It's nothing wrong with jumping straight into your dream game, you will still learn a lot. But thinking there won't be MAJOR problems along the way with the big probability of you scrapping your project, is not realistic. And the agony of that will definetely be greater than sitting down and learning for a couple of weeks before attemping such a thing.
Good luck man! I would love to see some survival features that would be solved mid game just to add tension in early game before you damage your brain on complex contractions
The algorithm gods have blessed you, I got recommended this video as did 28 thousand other people. Don't let us down, chase your dream and finish your game!
The "small" games can be systems of a bigger game. Like a 2D shooter where you earn upgrades after a certain amount of kills. Then progress to earning currency for kills which you spend on player chosen upgrades. Then you can add pick ups to the world. And so on. A game doesn't necessarily have to be done! The "first game" can be the first complete version. An action combat game. The "second game" can be the second complete version of that same project. Action Combat game with side missions and semi open world. And so on.
Better having something you are happy to work on as you will pass a lot of hours on it. Also keep in mind your motivation will run out someday, so you need the discipline to back up the grind in those bad days. The macking of the game is a marathon not a speed run. Working at least 1 hour a day to build up this habit works for me. Hope you greatness
For anyone interested in going solo dev, I want to give you my personal advice: There's a hidden requirement no one talks about, You're required to previously possess the following skills: self-confidence, and determination. Lack any of these, and it won't matter how long or hard you try, you will abandon every project you started. This is a sad but true fact, not everyone is good for this.
Good for you my guy! Can't wait to see your progress. You've picked the right genre. Keep your scope down but make your game big. Very smart. My biggest advice as someone who went through this recently is to take your game design document seriously and break your game up into manageable chunks. Don't just go and make one megaproject file, make several mini proof of concepts. Make a project with a character controller that feels how you want it. Then make a project with a world that you can interact with. Then make a project where you can test the crafting system. Another project for your UI, menus, scene transitioning, etc, etc. Don't put it all together until you've explored how each system will work on its own. Then think through how you can structure it all to work together well. It sounds like you're kind of doing this already which is great. Don't stop. And don't just build it up one thing at a time. Don't add an interactive world to your good player controller then add the crafting system to that. Make a crafting system without even having a player character. Make a player character without a world. Make a world without an advanced player controller. You can even make a debug character that just flies around testing things in the game to make testing and debugging easier. Finally. You mentioned not worrying about art yet. Again, I think that's smart. Prototype and grey box until you know how your systems will work. But... Don't then go and slap on some art. Stop and decide on your art style and prototype that as well. Then go back to your design document and consider how that gets embedded into your systems. A lot of new developers make the mistake of thinking that the art of their game doesn't influence the gameplay or systems of their game. It does. Massively. Consider abstract ideas not just how it all looks together. Think about the scale of your world, players and assets. How will you do lighting? What shaders will you use? If you're going to do your dream game don't underestimate it. All those people at the start of your video are right. It will be harder than you ever imagined. Complexity builds and your working memory can only hold so much. But best of luck.
I love it. Break all the rules of game dev and build what you want. I get so tired of game dev advice. Game Jam? Don’t get me started. We should all think like this. I’ll probably get heat for my comments but for me it’s either work on my game or play Diablo 4. Level balancing? Don’t get me started. lol . Anyway , best of luck my friend. You are an inspiration to all of us who dream too big and overscope! 😊
I think the small game/game jam advice is still valuable, just not at the expense of your dream game. Imo it's something that you should use to supplement your main project, as a way of improving your skills.
This entire video made me feel like Matthew Mcconaughey slamming on the glass in that one interstellar meme. I made the exact same mistake with a multiplayer skyrim game. Best of luck man.
Just you wait, a whole world of "Oh, right I need to learn culling" and "What even is a pool anyway?" awaits you my friend! Enjoy the ride, it's boring, fun, frustrating, and rewarding, all while you obsess over things the players will never even notice, disregard things that are major for the user experience, and accidentally stumble upon way better ideas than you could have plan for.
Factory games remind me of programming so much, it's the same input, processing, and output cycle as a program lmao. The programmer programmed an allegory for programming.
I myself have been learning game dev on and off for like 10 years lol I only really started sticking to learning everything within the last year because ngl it's usually when I gotta make my own models that I end up giving up because I realize ALL the crap that goes into being a solo dev... I completely understand why most devs are balding way before they even hit 30. I've come to the conclusion that making my dream game will never happen as a solo dev, no matter how much I dumb down the core game mechanics or even if I can find all the assets in the Unity store I need to save me some time. So I started getting into remaking basic simulators or old games I enjoyed playing just to see how certain things work or were achieved until I'm ready to make my own game. Nothing crazy, but it has definitely helped me focus on learning fundamentals of all aspects of game dev on a smaller more manageable scale until I get to a point that I can come up with an idea and not have to watch or read a crap ton of tutorials to get it to work or like you mentioned being less productive getting stuck in a loop of watching all those other devs. So anyone reading this and wanting to learn game development, try this method to see if it helps you learn faster and feel less overwhelmed. I actually got this advice from piratesoftware and it helped me greatly! Don't worry about the graphics or animation, only focus on making something work even if you use nothing but cubes and capsules. Which can be replaced later with actual models after you learn the basics of lowpoly modeling in blender, which is actually a lot simpler than people think cause it's all basic shapes you put together to make something. Think of it like Minecraft, only you aren't restricted to a 1x1 or .5x.5m block when you create something.
Hey man just keep going, don't let the failures distract you. I have made a bunch of games and none of them were really successful, but that's because i didn't go all in for them.
I mean, Norther Journey worked, you can watch devlogs. Was his first game, was game that he wanted to make, released on steam and reviewed by Mandalore Gaming.
It's also very... hard to find a "small" idea that both has legs and hasn't been done before. Even when I have a "small" project idea it winds up ballooning into something very complicated because if it doesn't have a lot of moving parts it's just not going to grab my attention, and if it doesn't grab my attention, who else's attention will be grabbed? I'd say the best possible option is to pick a genre you're intimately familiar with, so that the process of learning to make it will sustain you. Pick an engine that will best mesh with it and play to its strengths. But I'd say the biggest thing is to pick something less systems-driven for a first project while you learn how everything works. I had toyed with the idea of an arcade flying shooter before settling on making a stealth action game for my first "real" project. I've mostly been trying to focus on individual features with the broader goal being somewhat in the background while I just get my basics down.
Don't forget to Join the community and hang out on Discord: discord.gg/SxGgEHwWnx Support the channel and get early access and more on Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/Nova_Code
Hey, also just started to learn an engine. I chose ue5. Want to recreate the magic of Tanki Online. Was also thinking of starting to record that project. This is inspiring man!
Funny I came to the same conclusion couple of days ago, small projects just weren't motivating me. I also dropped playing video games completely to free my focus and freetime for game development / learning music. My dream game is a retro resident evil clone with diablo style loot system. I'm not bothered about failure or anything. If the first iteration of my game fails, be prepared for the sequel.
Nah the best way to push yourself to learning something the most effective way is to do exactly thing one YOU want. You might learn the hard way with forums and thousands of tutorials but instead of copying step by step of someone else’s project, you actually learn the mechanics of how the tools work and can be used. If you just make tutorial projects and crap you don’t care about, you’ll quickly stop enjoying the process cause you have confused goals. Motivation is the #1 path to learning and success
This is 100% true. It's why every programming book worth its salt heavily recommends that you type every line, every character of code in yourself (no copy-pasting), and you really take the time to fully understand everything about that line (what each method call does, why you're casting here but not there, etc), before moving onto the next part. It helps you gain the situational understanding you really need to extrapolate to new unfamiliar scenarios for which there is no tutorial (which is what programming is all about).
I recommend RUSH the prototype since breaking the number one rule in this case ( from personal experience ) means that you will end up with a big blob of code that will scale really hard. Just be ready to rewrite the super simple prototype. Good luck
yeah i cant work on projects i know will be crap, so instead of one small game at a time, im working slowly on three or four dream games that i hope i will one day finish.
As an indie game dev the problem is never the coding or implementing the mechanics the main problem is I get bored with the ideas easily which made me scrap very great games too
I am also solo developer who was dumb enough to develop his dream game on his own...actually, make that 8 dream games all at once...I also started with zero experience and have been working in Unreal engine for two years now. Somehow, against all odds, I actually managed to finish and launch one of them.
Then against further odds, that game landed me my dream job, where I get to work from home and develop VR games. Allowing me the freedom to continue developing my dream games when I'm not working on the VR games.
Game development is NOT for everyone. You truly have to have an iron will and determination to succeed. You also need to learn how to control immense frustration and not let it drive you to the point of wanting to quit. Because believe me when I say that you WILL encounter problems that will push you to your mental limits.
You don't have to be insane like me and develop 8 games and the gameplay systems from scratch, but here is my personal recommendation to you or anyone else who is getting into game development. I actually recommend developing at least two different types of games simultaneously. The reason being is that if you hit a snag or a roadblock with one, you can hop over to the other project and vise versa. This will...
A: Prevent burnout on one project
B: Allow you to brain storm solutions while still being productive and give you fresh eyes once you get back to solving the problem
C: Expand your knowledge base and make you a more rounded developer. You'll learn how to solve completely different issues on each project and will help you in the long run.
Extra tips
D: Don't make your game multiplayer. I can tell you from personal experience that multiplayer replication is actually the devil. The game that I finished and released was a story-driven, VR, co-op, horror, shooter, and I do not wish the struggle that I went through upon anyone.
E: Get yourself a game dev buddy. Someone else who's also in the process of developing their own game. Having someone to banter with and bounce ideas off of and relate to will help keep you sane. My friend wanted to get into game dev, so I became a sort of mentor to him. Now he's been doing it for a year himself and he's improved dramatically.
F: Purchase assets. When I say this, I don't mean this in the normal sense of using assets to speed up the process or lighten the workload. I mean it as in purchasing an asset to study and pick apart the code to see how it was put together. You can watch tutorials until your blue in the face, but nothing will help you understand better than being able to poke through a whole constructed system and see how it all connects together. I have purchased several frameworks and didn't even use them. I just used them as a learning tool so that I could build my own that's more customized to my game.
G: Developer discord channels, reddit threads and Facebook groups are your friend. UA-cam tutorials will only get you so far. Once you start encountering more specific issues that pertain to your game, you'll need to learn how to be resourceful. Looking for answers or posting and asking questions on these pages is essential AND it gets you involved in the community.
H: Share your work, (but have thick skin) Other developers are great to get feedback from, but they can also be the most critical. They will tell you their unfiltered thoughts, but remember to always take it with a grain of salt and remember that they're only seeing a small slice of your full vision for the game.
I: Find a balance. Once you get into the thick of game development, it can be very hard to find a work/life balance. This is the thing I struggle with the most. Unfortunately, I have lost a few friends or haven't seen them in a long time because of game development. As much as you want to bring your game to life, it's important to spend time with and maintain relationships with your family and friends. Getting better at this is my new years resolution.
J: Believe in yourself. It can be a long and lonely road as an indie dev and depending on who you're surrounded by you may not have much, or any support. So BELIEVE that what you're doing is worth while and that you CAN accomplish your dream and you will go a long way.
K: Play video games. It sounds simple enough, but it's easy to forget about when you're making your own game. Playing games similar to the one you're making will help give you inspiration, references, and help you figure out the aspects you like and aspects you don't like.
L: Get a huge whiteboard. Often times there are problems you need to solve that are just too complex or to scatterbrained to fit onto a piece of paper. You'll end up with heaps of scattered notes everywhere. Having a white board is an absolute must to write out your thoughts on and help you problem solve. I actually have two whiteboards and my entire games level layout and flow was created on my whiteboard. There's no way I could have figured it out without it.
M: Work on optimization, save games, and keep an organized project file from the beginning. If you wait until you're much farther into your games development to address these issues, you'll be in for one hell of a slog trying to work backwards to clean it up. This is a lesson I learned on my first game and I'm sure as hell gonna address it with my other games.
N: playtest constantly. Don't wait until later to playtest your game. You want to catch problems as soon as you can and not let them pile up and compound things. Make a build of your game and send it to friends to play. Get their feedback and have them take notes of any issues they find.
O: Start creating assets for online platforms early. Having gone through the process of listing my game on online platforms, it is an absolute pain in the ass and in no way a straight forward process. There are several roadblocks and approval processes you will need to go through and it's a bit of a slog to get through. Look at the platforms, research everything you'll need to post on there and make a plan to address them so the process isn't as painful.
P: Hire voice actors on Fiverr. You can create the game all on your own, but if you want your characters to be voiced, you'll probably want to hire voice actors. I recommend looking for voice actors on Fiverr. I've found some excellent vooce actors on there and they usually will do it for a reasonable price...Don't you DARE use AI for your voice work or I will go out of my way to roast you lol. I've seen some awesome looking projects absolutely ruined by terrible AI voices. Don't even use it as place holder. Use text boxes instead until you're ready.
Q: lastly, get some sleep. If you're a night owl like me, this can be a real problem. You need sleep to function, so don't neglect getting some. Set reminders for yourself if you need to, cayse you don't want to start having bad health issues.
I wish you the best of luck!! And congrats to you if you read through all of this 😂🎉 I hope it helps.
This is insanely valuable and inspirational-your journey and advice are pure gold. Definitely deserves to be pinned so more people can see it!
You’re awesome. Good on you for getting your dream job. Now I hope you can manage to stabilize that social life soon!
What about RSTUVWXY and Z ? Joking, thanks for the feedback :) good lessons :)
Prediction: "#1 rule of solo game development is to do it alone. So today I assembled a team of 125 developers, engineers, artists, etc and we are going to develop a game "
I predicted wrong
not disappointed tho
Would be funny if you were right though
@@CardboardRaiderlol real
Ex bioware guy did that and he went bankrupt and had to shutdown
A note: Eric Barone started making Stardew Valley as a quick project to bulk up his CV, which he thought would be done in 6 months. He proceeded to work on it 10-12 hours a day for nearly 2 years. He then worked on it as at a slightly more relaxed pace for another 2 years. Meanwhile, his girlfriend was supporting both of them. Stardew Valley is an incredible game made by an absolute madman.
My favorite flavor of procrastination is watching people achieve their dreams whilst failing my own!
As Artindi says the easiest way to fail is to never try, but if you never try can you really fail?
It's not often I get recommended a smaller channel like this, but I must say the UA-cam algorithm has done right by me today.
I'll be sticking around this channel. I hope it goes well!
same
The algorithms been really good about recommending small gems lately
Planning is my number one rule in game development. Early on, I abandoned many projects due to poor planning, and my biggest mistake was chasing my dream game. After releasing several free mobile games, I felt ready to create a pirate game inspired by Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. However, a year into development, I realized the scope was overwhelming for 1 person, and I had to abandon it. (There was a lot of "I have come so far, can't stop now" throughout that year)
With better planning, I would have recognized the unrealistic scope before starting. Unless you’re making games purely for fun, thorough planning is critical. Is the game fun? Is there competition? Marketable? Achievable? Proper planning saves time, energy, and keeps projects alive.
To piggyback on this, it is so unbelievably helpful to practice some project management skills, even on solo projects. If you can keep a prioritized list of things to work on next, you will never run into a moment where you sit down and wonder what to do next. Simply put your brain in coding mode, then pick off the next thing, and do it! Then mark it done (kanban style). Then at other times, you can put your brain into product owner mode and groom the list and make sure you have at least a couple of fleshed-out features on deck.
Make sure to make items on this list as small-grained as possible (i.e. too broad would be having a single card that says "The Nether;" much better is a bunch of cards like "Nether world gen," "Glowstone block," "Ghast mob," "Nether portal structure," etc). Items should have just enough detail that you could communicate it to someone else (but not so much detail that your time spend maintaining this list is starting to slow actual progress down to a grinding halt). Getting this balance right is truly an art but is very rewarding.
@@johnwostenberg840 Yep! I personally use and recommend Trello for this. Getting all systems or models onto cards, organizing them into development phases, and setting a clear finish line before starting makes it so much easier to stay focused and actually finish the project, or realize it might be out of scope.
@@thedeveIoper 100%! You can get pretty far with Trello.
@@thedeveIoper HacknPlan is the one I use, it's designed specifically for game devs. Very cool site!
Following your dream as you'd want to is completely admirable! So maybe break a rule here and there, but just so long as you stick to it and follow through, it'll be fun to look back at this in X years and laugh that you actually went for it... you know when you definitely don't back out and complete the game! I'm with ya all the way!
As someone else who's looking at game dev and going "I can't do the mini games" - thanks for taking the leap for the rest of us
Dude I resonate with this so much. I've been working on my dream game for the past two years and I've made really good progress and I've been really happy working on it. I feel like a lot of the people who are making game dev content are making it for people who hate their job and want to quit and make as much money as soon as possible. For me, I actually like my job and I just work on my game anytime I'm not at work.
"Don't make your dream game as your first game" is rule #2, rule #1 of solo indie dev is "Do not make an an MMORPG". Not even kidding that one is SO clishee and the ppl had to repeat it SO often, it HAS to be number 1 haha. Best of luck with your game, I'm rooting for ya!
A thing that helped me navigate through tutorial hell was saving tutorials that didn't apply to my game in a 'watch later' playlist, and ones that would be useful to my game in a different one.
I was able to make my own game, even having a full time job. It just requires a lot of time management and focus, know the road will be slow but it is feasible in case you do have to do what you need to make ends meet.
A tip for beginners, after your first tutorial, try to re-create the thing you just made without watching it. How much did you absorb? Always keep trying to remake the thing 'you just learn' to make sure it sticks and remember there won't be a tutorial to make the exact game you're making, so you'll have to pick and choose from other tutorials.
I feel that, after 3yrs in tutorial hell I finally snapped out of it and started to learn how to do things properly!
Very nice devlog, can't wait to see where this is going! 😄
Dude, NO WAY you're making a game like factorio. I love that game! It'd be awesome to see!
I also have recently started making a game. I've been also putzing for years with half-finished programs. For me, streaming right now has helped me to be committed. Additionally, I decided on mapping the ENTIRE journey from start to finish to help me feel like I'm actually making me feel like I'm making progress, hence motivation. Good luck on your journey as well. I'll probably just follow you just to see your process!
*PRO TIP:* You can still make your dream game with zero experience! All you have to do is set a goal to create a very short demo. That way, you'll have both a small game and an MVP (minimum viable product) all in one go. The demo will also help you attract investors.
pro tip:
use OOP languages (object oriented programming)
it will save your life, one day.
The problem is even if you do that, and even if you manage to somehow finish the demo, you will not have what it takes to finish the actual big dream game yet
You will bump onto every single mistake that is only learnt with experience along the way
And even if you somehow complete it, it will either take 5-7 years and multiple complete rewrites, or it will just be shit and nobody will buy it
That's the sad reality
@@Evoleo Exactly, everyone should dream big, but you have to start small, or it's doomed to fail. He needs to learn before attempting something big or it WILL fail. Nobody has opened a engine without game dev experience and made a big successful game. It's unrealistic to think otherwise.
I am thinking to make a story based rpg game about a Nuclear engineer's life choices in a post WW3 world.
But I have 0 experience about game dev.
@@smallcube-zn2mm So make small games first. Make a couple of circles shoot eachother and let the player pick different skills or boosts, level up score etc.
Then make another game where you focus on making a game where you can only walk around and maybe interact with a few things and make the world as beutiful as possible with some cutscenes.
Break apart the major parts of the game into small games so you learn and gain the experience of errors and problems and get you familiar with the general development process. Following tutorials will be much simpler and you will also know how to improve your systems later for your big game.
I swear to you it will be worth in the long run, and it will be a simpler task than diving straight into a big project where you don't know where to start or how to do anything.
Goodluck, looking forward to following your journey!
Definitely wish you a luck on your journey! I would highly suggest starting smaller and since you said smaller is no fun for you, I think games jams are the best place to begin to learn full game building process and getting feedback from other gamedevs fasts (also content for yt). The thing is that all of the problems and not seeing results you were expecting will make your motivation to dissipate quite fast (no matter how hyped you are at the moment). I hope that does not happen for you, but it is something I learned myself hard way.
This video is great! Can’t wait to follow grind! Keep it up man I believe in you!
That rule about making small games first isn't because your first few games will be bad. That rule exists so that you can get into the habit of actually completing games. I wish I had done that when I started out, because now I'm in a loop of working on a number of different projects that I hop between because I can't stick with just one to completion. I also pick less simple projects as I feel like I'm constantly having to make up for lost time that I've wasted. Game dev is something I love and definitely want to do, but it's difficult to work on creative things when I'm not as motivated as I am with new projects. Though, even with all that said, I'll never give up until I've achieved my goals.
It's also to make smaller systems, to really learn the basics and the common mistakes. If you start with building big and advanced systems right away, you're gonna scratch your head in agony trying to understand why something isn't behaving the way you want. The rule is there for a reason. To gain experience.
So glad i found your channel. Especially this early on. Excited to watch the journey.
At least you see how crazy this is X) More power to ya, you got this!
Welcome to game dev brother. never give up keep trying and practicing then next thing you know you can build a whole game very quickly
I think: The concept for small games is mostly about getting to know how the system works. Big games a lot of the time combine multiple "games".
Imagine a (small) gacha game, its basically just that. Have cool UI, make the logic behind gacha, make cool art and clean sounds. Now you know how to do it and how to do it better. Now if you ever make a big game that has gacha, you're kinda ready to go (might be best to have made multiple gacha games before).
My main issue with the advice to not start with your dream game, is that everyone acts like you can't do multiple games at once. Like, imo, the best way to do things would be to work on your dream game for the inspiration, but take time off to work on small games and demos to improve your skills. And if you eventually reach a point where you realize you need to scrap your dream game and restart it with your new knowledge, then that's not a big deal, because you'll still have learned a lot from the journey of the first attempt.
@@peterlewis2178 As long as you don't solely focus on your dream game, because it's unrealistic to think that you can finish a big game without a lot of experience. If you do, it's bound to fail.
@@perssontm1628 To my mind, what's the point in making games if you're not pursuing the games you're passionate about? It shouldn't be about making money. I'd rather focus on my dream game and spend 3 decades making it before finishing it, and have it release with little to no reception, than spend most of my time on small games that I'm not passionate about for the sake of "success".
To me, success isn't about how much money a project makes, or how many people buy it. Success is about achieving an artistic vision, and personally being happy with your execution of it. It of course makes sense to try to work out forms of monetization, but that should be secondary to the pure artistic passion.
Now, you're right that you likely won't be able to pull off an ambitious game without much experience. But making the game is the experience. It might take way longer if you start from zero, because you'll make a lot of mistakes, and have to scrap a lot and go back to the drawing board as you learn, but that's not a bad thing. Yeah, it might not be the most efficient or monetizable strategy, but it's one that minimizes burnout and gives you the best chance of actually staying passionate about your ideas. Whereas if you just focus on making small games and building up your skills, you might never feel ready to start your dream project(s), and either lose passion and give up, or fall into the corporate trap of just making games for money and abandon your dreams altogether.
You just sparked the small fire I was looking for! An advice from a fellow developer stuck in tutorial hell: Breakdown everything you want in the game as much as possible, from small Items to even smaller items. Helps A lot trust me
Glad I found your channel. Don't give up bro. It'll take some time. Im doing bit by bit myself. But man its fun to see your hard work going somewhere.
Hope for your success.
yesss bro automation games can be soooo good, was hoping someone would make a devlog on one. definitely subbing!
let me say this:
Creating your dream game as your first project is generally a poor idea. While you may have a vision-often a grand one, even if it seems manageable-your lack of experience can lead to frustration. Without the necessary knowledge and skills, you may find that the final product falls short of your expectations.
This can lead to a "self-destructive" spiral that drives you away from the path of game development. So let me offer you some advice, as a nearly-colleague (I am a software engineer in a country where there is a state exam to obtain the title of engineer, just to avoid misunderstandings), to make your "climb" to the top a bit easier (though not easy):
- If you can't envision how to implement a mechanic (what I mean is, if you can't picture a flowchart to manage it, not the actual code), then you're not ready to create it. Gain some experience by creating other mechanics, and only when you have a clear understanding should you move on to creating or researching how to implement it.
- The tutorials you find online (as you've seen) on how to implement a mechanic do not teach you how to write efficient code. Don't just copy and paste mechanics as seen in other game dev projects; learn the workflow and implement it yourself. Especially if you're using an engine: many video tutorials utilize legacy/deprecated systems that are maintained in the software for backward compatibility. For basic mechanics, check out the official Unity UA-cam channel or their learning section.
- Write the game as a logical proposition of states (essentially like testing kernels). This way, you can reduce bugs related to edge cases.
- Before writing any game code, you should have a piece of paper with everything outlined: every single mechanic you want to implement and how it integrates and interacts with the others. Ideally, you could also prepare UML diagrams for each class you want to write to minimize the situations where you’ll need to refactor.
- Given that the type of game you want to create is primarily based on "optimizing" processes (for example, in Factorio, the ratio of how many furnaces to conveyor belts is needed to produce a certain material without losses), you should also create a spreadsheet (Excel/Calc/...) in which you set up the game. I know it sounds strange, but often, complex games (like Pokémon, and I'm not joking) are first developed in a spreadsheet, tested, and only then is the code written. This process will save you from having to backtrack many times or going crazy trying to balance the game in the future.
I know it may seem like I'm saying you should spend 90% of your time designing the game and only 10% creating it, but unfortunately, that's how it is. If you don't want to waste an infinite amount of time on refactoring to adapt mechanics and their interactions, this is the only method.
Cheers!
This is one of the very few times that I actually take time to type out a comment on a UA-cam video because it impressed me!
I follow bigger game dev channels and this video turned out to be of great quality and I am impatient to see you thrive and see the future of this game, I hope you luck and success in your journey!
I can tell you've got some inspiration from some of them but I really enjoyed the way this video turned out, keep uploading and keep grinding!
You just earned a new subscriber awaiting for your next video ^^
Eric Barone released two small scoped games before Stardew Valley, and god only knows how many projects he started and never released to learn everything he needed to make Stardew.
Good luck!
one of best youtubers i see in my hold life
the concept so far sounds intriguing, can't wait to play it on release somewhere in 2030
Its a generally good rule because as you alluded to 1:05 ,people get distracted easily. Making a thing is different from bringing it to production. Delivering an actual completed game involves lots of testing, solid planning, and tons of compromise. Not only do you need to have a solid plan of what your game actually is beyond just vibes, but you need to be able to stick to that plan and not balloon your game into something that never gets finished. Of course, none of this matters if you just want to _work_ on your dream game and don't really care if it ever gets finished or not.
I'm all in to watch indie game dev beginners. Got a sub from me. Good luck with the project!
I’m in the same position! I’m making my dream game, even if I don’t finish it it’ll be a lot of fun to try. My one’s the Nausicaa movie/manga except as a game. Anyway a factorio-like sounds doable to me, good luck!
Its good to see someone just going for it, I wish you luck my friend, here's a little advice: when making your game try not to fall into the trap of thinking that you need a 3d model to create a certain mechanic when a simple placeholder box will do, assets are easily swapped in later and art is a very time consuming part of development. bonus tip: naming conventions are your friend (naming assets appropriately will help you understand what they are at a glance a month down the road and you will thank yourself later).
Very chill and relatable video!
I'm hyped for the next update. Can't wait to see what you come up with 🤩🔥
My personal recommendation for anyone wanting to make their dream game is just like make some stuff then make stufd you want to oncd your confident. Also see if you can get someone who can teach you how to make games or jsut explain how to do stuff if you cant figure it out because its super helpful. Also, i agree with this guy, personally making big games is easier for me because they matter more so ill actually work on them
Rule #1 of Game Development (as a game dev): "Maek Gaem".
Doesn't matter how big or small, just start doing something.
If you need a tutorial, watch it when you need to learn how to do something, not before you even begin the project. (Maybe watch one before to see how the game engine works tho)
If you think the project is too big after actually starting it, reduce it, make it smaller. If you know you can make a bigger game, go for it, expand the game.
I speak by experience, even though it isn't much, but don't get stuck on tutorials or projecting the entire game, just start doing something after you have a base plan, or you won't even begin making the game before you start planning another project.
Hey. Funnily enough, gamedev tv's tutorial for RPG's actually pretty good, it covers all the escential stuff while also giving you some form of explanation on why something coded the way they are, you might be interested so ill gonna drop this information here.
If you wanna start big there might be money involved, but as long as you dont lose track then im sure youll be fine
I've found myself embarking on a very similar journey to you, and I will subscribe so I can follow your progress, while also hopefully motivating me to keep on going.
Also a tip I found for avoiding tutorial hell, if any one was interested, is to only watch tutorials for specific features or mechanics that you already wanted to add, when you need it. Don't watch tutorials for world gen, before you even have a moving player character for example. And don't copy tutorials for full projects, you can use them as reference for specific features in that project, but don't copy the whole thing, you won't learn anything like that.
Huge thing that helps me on new projects is a good long walk and voice record. Talking to myself like a maniac. Asking all the questions about what I want with the game and working through what to do why to do how to do.
same
Wish you the best of luck I'm in a very VERY similar boat but like you and I said just because it's hard doesn't mean it's impossible. You go at it because you enjoy it and ik it'll be a good game
Good luck man hope it goes well
I respect the grind. You might still end up making 'small' games (in the form of early versions) before the final build but this way you'll be more motivated than if you were working on throwaway learning projects. Probably.
keep learning gamedev, and keep making games
4:01 I'm literally playing Satisfactory while watching this video on the other monitor.
Me, not making my game while watching a tutorial series which talks about how you can easily get stuck watching tutorial series instead of making your game.
My first game is also my dream game. I've been working on it for nearly 3 years now. But it had really long breaks. Months of me not working on the game. But this year on the month of august, i started to code consistently everyday and I've finally made so much progress.
Consistency is key! Good luck!👏
With this quality, I'd think you'd have 10+k subs! And I did think that!
Heavily underrated yter
Looking forward to play your game in the future👍
this video really blew up! hoping you get thousands more views, subscribers, and likes!
I personally think it is not impossible to start working on a big game for your first project. Just try not to build everything at once. For example, if you want to make an open world game where dragons can shoot rocket launchers, don't start working on the rocket shooting dragon's AI, controls, texture, model all at the same time. First, just make the default cube/dummy fly, and figure out the flight controls. Then you can try and create/import a model for your dragon, and then you can slap some texture and so on.
Now, I am not a game dev, I am mainly a software dev who works on web apps and AI apps, so my experience in this matter is quite limited. But from my experience, whenever I try making multiple aspects of the software at once, it either becomes too complicated, or everything becomes so tangled up, that simply changing the color of a button could end up breaking the software. So instead, I work in small iterative, deliverable steps. That has worked the best for me, and I hope it will help you too.
Its not that its guaranteed to fail, but making you dream game with no experience means that you will have bad coding practices, and the longer you work on it with bad code, the harder it will be, leading to either quitting or refactoring your code, I made the same mistake, had to start from scratch over 5 times before I learned how to properly write clean code, which I could have easily learned if I made 2-3 small games
This is true, but also (not to discredit your warning) some of the most popular indie games end up having pretty laughable code. i.e undertale. it does depend on your final product.
I mean, lets be real here. It's definetely guaranteed to fail. Nobody opens their engine for the first time and creates a big successful game. I do hope he learns and avchieve his dreams though.
Also I find chat gpt very useful for game devs. The key when using chat gpt is not to copy and paste code from it, but rather ask it more intricate questions about your game and get it to breakdown how things work and why they work the way they do. I did this for arrays for example and I now understand how they work rather than how to copy and paste!
Good luck!
IMO the biggest problem with following tutorials is that they tell you the exact steps to do exactly one thing.
They don't tell you how to think or problem solve or do the R&D you need to make progress.
On one hand, yes, you just need to start doing.
But if you really want to make progress and not burn out, I think you should try to work on your 'pipeline'.
Some people's pipeline is to do random things at random times, and good for them.
I would suggest you try to give your self structure in how you will do things.
When you research, where are your notes going? When you're adding a feature, where does the code go? What object(s) need that feature attached to it?
When you casually find a bug, where are you writing it down to dig into it later?
Give yourself structure so you rarely have to ask 'how' when you want to 'do'
I never could explain it but I feel the same, I dont want to make a small game, i always get bored and unmotivated tbh... but This is a great video, and I'm excited to watch more!
Very nice video! Even though you're breaking the No.1 rule with this huuuge undertaking, we think you've actually made a really good decision to go with a sandboxy automation game. Typical Steam player expects 20-40 hours of content from a game, so it's crucial to pick a genre that makes it achievable to do so when working solo. Anyhow, we're definitely going to stick around to see how it goes, good luck!
You're in for a great time my friend.
I am working on a dream game. It is very ambitious and I have some set goals throughout. I am being creative and expanding the scope, but it is a 2D game. I have made plenty of projects and practiced coding for a long time. I know in my mind what I am making is a long term project. I think if you have set goals and create a reasonable scope you can make a great game!
This might be the first time I thank the youtube algorithm
I don’t know any game coding, but i am an audio engineer. One thing i can say is, having a road map is extremely valuable to understanding the fundamentals. Where as with music, you can kinda piece together youtube tutorials over the span of months to gain an overarching understanding of the basics of producing, i think game dev is vastly different. Game development is much more broad and you need to know the fundamentals of many overlapping systems. If i was to start learning game development today, i would just buy a course to streamline the process because guessing and clicking around the internet will cost you way more time than the course is worth i’m sure. That’s just my point of view on it tho.
Well, I had a feeling I was gonna be mentioned lol. I want to make a video exploring the idea of starting out by making your dream game, since that's how I started (and failed), in the beginning you really don't have a reason to make crappy small games, it feels like a boring chore, so maybe going for your dream game gives you that motivation you so desperately need at the start! Great video bro, keep going!!
I don't think that there's anything wrong with jumping straight into you're dream game. I have, and as of right now it's doing just fine. Is it better to do small things first? Probably. Is it as fun? No. This is my dream game and I'm going to do what ever I can to make it succeed. Which is why I believe in you and think you'll do just fine
It's nothing wrong with jumping straight into your dream game, you will still learn a lot. But thinking there won't be MAJOR problems along the way with the big probability of you scrapping your project, is not realistic. And the agony of that will definetely be greater than sitting down and learning for a couple of weeks before attemping such a thing.
Im here before you go big🎉Love the vid
I'll be waiting for the next video. good luck
Man i wanted to start gamedev,and somehow youtube recommended me your video and you have saved me from falling into tutorial hell
Thanks alot
11:57 My first thoughts was "MILITARY SERVICE" LMAO
Good luck man! I would love to see some survival features that would be solved mid game just to add tension in early game before you damage your brain on complex contractions
The algorithm gods have blessed you, I got recommended this video as did 28 thousand other people. Don't let us down, chase your dream and finish your game!
The "small" games can be systems of a bigger game.
Like a 2D shooter where you earn upgrades after a certain amount of kills.
Then progress to earning currency for kills which you spend on player chosen upgrades.
Then you can add pick ups to the world.
And so on.
A game doesn't necessarily have to be done!
The "first game" can be the first complete version. An action combat game.
The "second game" can be the second complete version of that same project. Action Combat game with side missions and semi open world.
And so on.
Better having something you are happy to work on as you will pass a lot of hours on it. Also keep in mind your motivation will run out someday, so you need the discipline to back up the grind in those bad days. The macking of the game is a marathon not a speed run. Working at least 1 hour a day to build up this habit works for me. Hope you greatness
For anyone interested in going solo dev, I want to give you my personal advice: There's a hidden requirement no one talks about,
You're required to previously possess the following skills: self-confidence, and determination. Lack any of these, and it won't matter how long or hard you try, you will abandon every project you started. This is a sad but true fact, not everyone is good for this.
انطلق! أنا معاك في نفس المشوار
You speak Arabic, right?
بالتوفيق لينا كلنا ♥️
Good for you my guy! Can't wait to see your progress.
You've picked the right genre. Keep your scope down but make your game big. Very smart.
My biggest advice as someone who went through this recently is to take your game design document seriously and break your game up into manageable chunks. Don't just go and make one megaproject file, make several mini proof of concepts. Make a project with a character controller that feels how you want it. Then make a project with a world that you can interact with. Then make a project where you can test the crafting system. Another project for your UI, menus, scene transitioning, etc, etc. Don't put it all together until you've explored how each system will work on its own. Then think through how you can structure it all to work together well. It sounds like you're kind of doing this already which is great. Don't stop. And don't just build it up one thing at a time. Don't add an interactive world to your good player controller then add the crafting system to that. Make a crafting system without even having a player character. Make a player character without a world. Make a world without an advanced player controller. You can even make a debug character that just flies around testing things in the game to make testing and debugging easier.
Finally. You mentioned not worrying about art yet. Again, I think that's smart. Prototype and grey box until you know how your systems will work. But... Don't then go and slap on some art. Stop and decide on your art style and prototype that as well. Then go back to your design document and consider how that gets embedded into your systems. A lot of new developers make the mistake of thinking that the art of their game doesn't influence the gameplay or systems of their game. It does. Massively. Consider abstract ideas not just how it all looks together. Think about the scale of your world, players and assets. How will you do lighting? What shaders will you use?
If you're going to do your dream game don't underestimate it. All those people at the start of your video are right. It will be harder than you ever imagined. Complexity builds and your working memory can only hold so much. But best of luck.
I love it. Break all the rules of game dev and build what you want. I get so tired of game dev advice. Game Jam? Don’t get me started. We should all think like this. I’ll probably get heat for my comments but for me it’s either work on my game or play Diablo 4. Level balancing? Don’t get me started. lol . Anyway , best of luck my friend. You are an inspiration to all of us who dream too big and overscope! 😊
I think the small game/game jam advice is still valuable, just not at the expense of your dream game. Imo it's something that you should use to supplement your main project, as a way of improving your skills.
This entire video made me feel like Matthew Mcconaughey slamming on the glass in that one interstellar meme. I made the exact same mistake with a multiplayer skyrim game. Best of luck man.
I’m shocked at the quality of this video compared to your subscriber count. I’d love to see you keep going!
Just you wait, a whole world of "Oh, right I need to learn culling" and "What even is a pool anyway?" awaits you my friend! Enjoy the ride, it's boring, fun, frustrating, and rewarding, all while you obsess over things the players will never even notice, disregard things that are major for the user experience, and accidentally stumble upon way better ideas than you could have plan for.
Factory games remind me of programming so much, it's the same input, processing, and output cycle as a program lmao. The programmer programmed an allegory for programming.
I myself have been learning game dev on and off for like 10 years lol I only really started sticking to learning everything within the last year because ngl it's usually when I gotta make my own models that I end up giving up because I realize ALL the crap that goes into being a solo dev... I completely understand why most devs are balding way before they even hit 30. I've come to the conclusion that making my dream game will never happen as a solo dev, no matter how much I dumb down the core game mechanics or even if I can find all the assets in the Unity store I need to save me some time. So I started getting into remaking basic simulators or old games I enjoyed playing just to see how certain things work or were achieved until I'm ready to make my own game. Nothing crazy, but it has definitely helped me focus on learning fundamentals of all aspects of game dev on a smaller more manageable scale until I get to a point that I can come up with an idea and not have to watch or read a crap ton of tutorials to get it to work or like you mentioned being less productive getting stuck in a loop of watching all those other devs. So anyone reading this and wanting to learn game development, try this method to see if it helps you learn faster and feel less overwhelmed. I actually got this advice from piratesoftware and it helped me greatly! Don't worry about the graphics or animation, only focus on making something work even if you use nothing but cubes and capsules. Which can be replaced later with actual models after you learn the basics of lowpoly modeling in blender, which is actually a lot simpler than people think cause it's all basic shapes you put together to make something. Think of it like Minecraft, only you aren't restricted to a 1x1 or .5x.5m block when you create something.
Start small on a big project. People get overwhelmed because they think of the big picture which overwhelms them.
I am also starting my solo dev journey! I’m hoping to have my demo out by next December, at least that’s the goal
Hey man just keep going, don't let the failures distract you. I have made a bunch of games and none of them were really successful, but that's because i didn't go all in for them.
I mean, Norther Journey worked, you can watch devlogs. Was his first game, was game that he wanted to make, released on steam and reviewed by Mandalore Gaming.
very well made video, deservs more likes and views
You got this supernova ✅
I think I speak for 94.44443% of us game devs when I say "Dooooooo it!" 👍
It's also very... hard to find a "small" idea that both has legs and hasn't been done before. Even when I have a "small" project idea it winds up ballooning into something very complicated because if it doesn't have a lot of moving parts it's just not going to grab my attention, and if it doesn't grab my attention, who else's attention will be grabbed?
I'd say the best possible option is to pick a genre you're intimately familiar with, so that the process of learning to make it will sustain you. Pick an engine that will best mesh with it and play to its strengths. But I'd say the biggest thing is to pick something less systems-driven for a first project while you learn how everything works. I had toyed with the idea of an arcade flying shooter before settling on making a stealth action game for my first "real" project. I've mostly been trying to focus on individual features with the broader goal being somewhat in the background while I just get my basics down.
Don't forget to Join the community and hang out on Discord: discord.gg/SxGgEHwWnx
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How do you not have way more subs
Did the Discord invite expire?
@@ez4pz huh, thats weird.
It should be working now.
idc about financial success i just wanna make games that iiiii would want to play. i have specific tastes!
Hey, also just started to learn an engine. I chose ue5. Want to recreate the magic of Tanki Online. Was also thinking of starting to record that project. This is inspiring man!
Funny I came to the same conclusion couple of days ago, small projects just weren't motivating me. I also dropped playing video games completely to free my focus and freetime for game development / learning music. My dream game is a retro resident evil clone with diablo style loot system. I'm not bothered about failure or anything. If the first iteration of my game fails, be prepared for the sequel.
rooting for you, bro
Good luck To ur journey bro , New subscriber
I like this because you are honest
Nah the best way to push yourself to learning something the most effective way is to do exactly thing one YOU want. You might learn the hard way with forums and thousands of tutorials but instead of copying step by step of someone else’s project, you actually learn the mechanics of how the tools work and can be used. If you just make tutorial projects and crap you don’t care about, you’ll quickly stop enjoying the process cause you have confused goals. Motivation is the #1 path to learning and success
This is 100% true. It's why every programming book worth its salt heavily recommends that you type every line, every character of code in yourself (no copy-pasting), and you really take the time to fully understand everything about that line (what each method call does, why you're casting here but not there, etc), before moving onto the next part. It helps you gain the situational understanding you really need to extrapolate to new unfamiliar scenarios for which there is no tutorial (which is what programming is all about).
thank you, you are awesome bro
I recommend RUSH the prototype since breaking the number one rule in this case ( from personal experience ) means that you will end up with a big blob of code that will scale really hard. Just be ready to rewrite the super simple prototype. Good luck
yeah i cant work on projects i know will be crap, so instead of one small game at a time, im working slowly on three or four dream games that i hope i will one day finish.
Do the unity learn courses! They are amazing I learned so much, they are so well put together and you do the projects along with the videos.
As an indie game dev the problem is never the coding or implementing the mechanics the main problem is I get bored with the ideas easily which made me scrap very great games too