I think this is the biggest difference between people who make games for hobby and people who want to earn money. I enjoy making games as a hobby because the process of creating everything exactly according to my want is so therapeutic. I think I would give up and become less interested in game development as a whole if I were to delegate everything. But now that I have learned the basic for everything, I am more confident and hopefully in a few years time, I can start to delegate things because my needs and wants are already met.
1. If your strength is Programming... Get pre-made assets Focus on mechanics 2. If your strength is Art & style... Get pre-made scripts Focus on Visuals 3. If your strength isn't any... Get both Focus on gameplay
True, spend your time wisely. Once I started buying assets instead of making them myself, things got way better, the quality is way higher, and the pain of making something look good is now gone. I guess it's not a bad idea to make everything yourself when you are just starting out, I think the overall knowledge is worth it, but I'm talking about the basics. An example would be, if you modeled your own models, you would probably have a better understanding of UVs, normals, topology overall, which might not come handy everyday, but maybe sometimes it would be handy.
I feel like making everything yourself when starting out could lead to burn-out from being overwhelmed. In addition to the programming and learning a game engine, making the assets on top of that would lead to a really slow pace of development and might just make new devs quit out of frustration. That's just my opinion though and it's fine if you disagree!
@@dobrx6199 I agree, I think the developers in general experience the burnouts quite often. But there is quite a lot of value even if it can get a bit overwhelming. But hey, no one said game dev is easy 😅
For me I find it hard to buy visual assets because it just doesn’t look as consistent as if I did it all myself, plus performance wise it feels much more satisfying to make a whole environment with one trimsheet rather than use models from different assets that aren’t quite the same and all have differently organized textures
i’ve been a generalist all my life, one of the reasons why i’ve been wanting to get into game dev for so long (and been really enjoying it lately) is because it lets me combine a bunch of different skills. idr when i learned blender, but now i think i’m decently proficient and lately i’ve been using it to generate textures with really complex shaders. i like having a lot of different things to do because if i get bored of one (or frustrated at it not working), i can go do something else and still feel productive.
Love this video. Scope creep, lack of planning, and not knowing what and how to prioritize is some of the biggest project-killers there are. I'm a big advocate for smarter game productions and how they can actually empower the team instead of distracting them from making the game they love. After all, if you're not smart, you're gonna be making games for long. Being smart about scope and priorities for your project is one of the most powerful things you'll ever do!
Whenever I feel bad when someone or something reminds me that a “jack of all trades is master of none”, I remind myself about the second part “…but still better than a master of one”. A lot of apparently useless or inefficient things I learned over years returned back in most unexpected combination of ideas I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t tried to do those little bits of everything.
I am a 36 year of software engineer with a lot of experience in bringing software projects to life in various roles, from pure developer, tech lead, product/project manager. Few months ago I got into game dev after a lot of research, because I believe that there is a huge untapped market in console co op games, based of my personal experience trying to find games to play with my wife, and researching online what we could play. Also it does help that It takes two killed it. I have a game idea that I am pursuing. But my point is, I am not even trying to do graphics, animations, etc. I know I am not great at it. My plan is to focus on what I am good at, that is development, use pre-made free or purchased assets, and focus on creating a good, decent looking but a complete demo, with all core mechanics implemented and working good. Then create a good development and business plan, and pitch it to publishers and/or investors so I can get funds and outsource work.
This one hits me hard. I had 10-12 as a generalist programmer, specifically in Unity. Now I have 2 years managing, feeling burnt out, and I have no backup plan. No one wants to hire a 13-year generalist. It feels like my only hope is to win the lottery... I've been trying to figure out how I would structure my dream game in Unreal or Godot, but I don't know them like I knew Unity. And the older I get the more daunting of a task it seems to start over.
What you are saying here absolutely makes sense. However, hiring people is not an option if being solo is your style. The moment you hire somebody it's not called solo game development anymore. I've been trying to figure out how to handle everything on my own, and the formula I got is to maintain reusability in all the aspects of the workflow. That's why I need to work "smart". No putting garbage under the carpet. Every system must be designed in a modular reusable manner. Even modeling, sound design, whatever, MUST be reusable. This way I'll get more and more free time as I go on. Now this is something I'm working on. We'll see in a few months if I'm onto something, or I'm just wishful thinking...
I recently figured out that I am so much happier coding engine features than game features. I do undestand that there is practically 0 money in creating an engine yourself but it isn't much worse than the median on steam. While making an engine I also don't get judged by non technical people, most people who give feedback are very nice and supportive which is nice compared to getting told that your game sucks without anything to actually improve
I needed to hear this today. I run my own business and it's so hard to focus on what *needs* doing. It's so easy to focus on the nice shiny distractions.
Very valuable advice. I just striked through a lot of features from my game which I thought were “fun” but instead were just making me feature creep and were making me push the deadline further and further away 😅
Always love these videos this is exactly what I do, You just need to know enough about everything to make adjustments. I do everything in my projects because I'm a solo dev but I mostly enjoy programming. I had to learn a bit of blender because sometimes I need to tweak or separate different parts of models to work better with my code but overall things are alot easier especially in this AI age, cascadeur makes animating easier, Dalle 3 or Mid Journey makes quick logo designing or texturing easy, Luma AI helps with quick 3D models. It's pretty fun not having to depend on anyone to be honest
That sounds good in theory, but the reality of buying assets is that you will always have to learn the basics to fix/edit them (that includes code plugins, 2D/3D art, and sound effects). I realized you have to do smaller and simpler stuff and then make it extra fun, no one cares about large worlds if it's boring and not polished, and sadly big engines market them selfs on how much large and ultra-realistic game you can make in them + devs want to recreate their childhood game. So from the start, you're doomed :D
This happened to me. I graduated and worked as programmer and went to learn Blender, Zbrush and all the skillets related. I ended up enjoying doing art a lot but I agree it's really tiresome. Buying assets sounds great in theory but finding assets that fit your vision is really, really hard. Commissions were also very expensive and I wasted a bit of money on art I didn't use. I don't know, now that I have all this knowledge, it's making more sense to scope down and do simple assets instead
TESTIFY!...You can only do so much. I learned the hard way...being self taught and wanting to do everything. Now it's about balance, priority and reality. About creativity and vision without obsession...or ego.
Yup. I’m a developer and am only I in learning how to game games better. I don’t want to make my art, so I’ve just been buying assets. Even some controllers (car) I’d rather just use a pre made asset and focus my time on the game itself. Good advice!
"I am a rich white man living in Europe where there is free healthcare... So keep that in mind." This is the most honest thing I have ever heard in a video about this topic.
Not everything, but we have been trying out a whole bunch of different artists over the past few weeks, looking at their styles and prices. Mainly character art and animation is what we're looking into right now with our budget. -M
05:24 "if you knew that in three months, i'm gonna die" That is a turn i did not expect. And if for some reason knew that i would die, i would stop eating healthy and bring out the chocolate every day. After three months then, i will wake up as a fatter person and after i wonder for a moment why i am still alive, i will see my now blue face in the mirror and recognize that i mistook "die" and "dye" and then i will spend the happy rest of my life smurfing code. And i will cancel all these life insurences i got and the marching band that was supposed to crash my funeral.
Great talk. I have honed my 2d digital painting skills for over 10 years... (un)fortunately i had to learn code because i couldnt find anyone and what i want is too specific.. i have hardly done art in a long time due to this.. i will say coding is rewarding, and i have an aptitude to it...but i feel it would be far more benificial to focus on my highest skill
This is depressing, the market is oversaturated and the only "indie game devs" that make any $ are the ones who sell tutorials and post clips on youtube rambling for 10-50 min about nothing while attempting to sell a lifestyle/dream to idiots which can only lead to more "indie devs" using the same model only to realize that they're probably making more $ from youtube than the actual game they're working on. ex: Forge industry development began at least 1 year ago and it only made ~4k, an absolute failure.
I think this is the biggest difference between people who make games for hobby and people who want to earn money. I enjoy making games as a hobby because the process of creating everything exactly according to my want is so therapeutic. I think I would give up and become less interested in game development as a whole if I were to delegate everything. But now that I have learned the basic for everything, I am more confident and hopefully in a few years time, I can start to delegate things because my needs and wants are already met.
1. If your strength is Programming... Get pre-made assets
Focus on mechanics
2. If your strength is Art & style... Get pre-made scripts
Focus on Visuals
3. If your strength isn't any...
Get both
Focus on gameplay
3. If your strength isn't any...
learn some
True, spend your time wisely. Once I started buying assets instead of making them myself, things got way better, the quality is way higher, and the pain of making something look good is now gone. I guess it's not a bad idea to make everything yourself when you are just starting out, I think the overall knowledge is worth it, but I'm talking about the basics. An example would be, if you modeled your own models, you would probably have a better understanding of UVs, normals, topology overall, which might not come handy everyday, but maybe sometimes it would be handy.
I feel like making everything yourself when starting out could lead to burn-out from being overwhelmed. In addition to the programming and learning a game engine, making the assets on top of that would lead to a really slow pace of development and might just make new devs quit out of frustration. That's just my opinion though and it's fine if you disagree!
@@dobrx6199 I agree, I think the developers in general experience the burnouts quite often. But there is quite a lot of value even if it can get a bit overwhelming. But hey, no one said game dev is easy 😅
For me I find it hard to buy visual assets because it just doesn’t look as consistent as if I did it all myself, plus performance wise it feels much more satisfying to make a whole environment with one trimsheet rather than use models from different assets that aren’t quite the same and all have differently organized textures
Definitely something I needed to hear. Motivation isn't my obstacle, it is figuring out how to best use my time
i’ve been a generalist all my life, one of the reasons why i’ve been wanting to get into game dev for so long (and been really enjoying it lately) is because it lets me combine a bunch of different skills. idr when i learned blender, but now i think i’m decently proficient and lately i’ve been using it to generate textures with really complex shaders. i like having a lot of different things to do because if i get bored of one (or frustrated at it not working), i can go do something else and still feel productive.
also i have no income or savings so i literally couldn’t pay someone if i wanted
Love this video. Scope creep, lack of planning, and not knowing what and how to prioritize is some of the biggest project-killers there are. I'm a big advocate for smarter game productions and how they can actually empower the team instead of distracting them from making the game they love.
After all, if you're not smart, you're gonna be making games for long.
Being smart about scope and priorities for your project is one of the most powerful things you'll ever do!
Whenever I feel bad when someone or something reminds me that a “jack of all trades is master of none”, I remind myself about the second part “…but still better than a master of one”.
A lot of apparently useless or inefficient things I learned over years returned back in most unexpected combination of ideas I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t tried to do those little bits of everything.
Your recent videos, specifically the one about velocity, has really boosted my progress and reinvigorated my effort towards my game. Thanks!
I am a 36 year of software engineer with a lot of experience in bringing software projects to life in various roles, from pure developer, tech lead, product/project manager.
Few months ago I got into game dev after a lot of research, because I believe that there is a huge untapped market in console co op games, based of my personal experience trying to find games to play with my wife, and researching online what we could play. Also it does help that It takes two killed it.
I have a game idea that I am pursuing.
But my point is, I am not even trying to do graphics, animations, etc. I know I am not great at it.
My plan is to focus on what I am good at, that is development, use pre-made free or purchased assets, and focus on creating a good, decent looking but a complete demo, with all core mechanics implemented and working good.
Then create a good development and business plan, and pitch it to publishers and/or investors so I can get funds and outsource work.
This one hits me hard. I had 10-12 as a generalist programmer, specifically in Unity. Now I have 2 years managing, feeling burnt out, and I have no backup plan. No one wants to hire a 13-year generalist. It feels like my only hope is to win the lottery... I've been trying to figure out how I would structure my dream game in Unreal or Godot, but I don't know them like I knew Unity. And the older I get the more daunting of a task it seems to start over.
What you are saying here absolutely makes sense.
However, hiring people is not an option if being solo is your style. The moment you hire somebody it's not called solo game development anymore.
I've been trying to figure out how to handle everything on my own, and the formula I got is to maintain reusability in all the aspects of the workflow. That's why I need to work "smart". No putting garbage under the carpet. Every system must be designed in a modular reusable manner. Even modeling, sound design, whatever, MUST be reusable.
This way I'll get more and more free time as I go on. Now this is something I'm working on. We'll see in a few months if I'm onto something, or I'm just wishful thinking...
I recently figured out that I am so much happier coding engine features than game features. I do undestand that there is practically 0 money in creating an engine yourself but it isn't much worse than the median on steam.
While making an engine I also don't get judged by non technical people, most people who give feedback are very nice and supportive which is nice compared to getting told that your game sucks without anything to actually improve
Super useful insight and information! Thanks so much! Keep up the great work!
I needed to hear this today. I run my own business and it's so hard to focus on what *needs* doing. It's so easy to focus on the nice shiny distractions.
Very valuable advice.
I just striked through a lot of features from my game which I thought were “fun” but instead were just making me feature creep and were making me push the deadline further and further away 😅
You can always add features later, or make a new game that includes them later. Hope you end up happy with your results. Good luck
When I started watching you I thought you are from Poland :'D because u have similar polish english accent. Great content, thank you for this video :)
Always love these videos this is exactly what I do, You just need to know enough about everything to make adjustments. I do everything in my projects because I'm a solo dev but I mostly enjoy programming. I had to learn a bit of blender because sometimes I need to tweak or separate different parts of models to work better with my code but overall things are alot easier especially in this AI age, cascadeur makes animating easier, Dalle 3 or Mid Journey makes quick logo designing or texturing easy, Luma AI helps with quick 3D models. It's pretty fun not having to depend on anyone to be honest
That sounds good in theory, but the reality of buying assets is that you will always have to learn the basics to fix/edit them (that includes code plugins, 2D/3D art, and sound effects).
I realized you have to do smaller and simpler stuff and then make it extra fun, no one cares about large worlds if it's boring and not polished, and sadly big engines market them selfs on how much large and ultra-realistic game you can make in them + devs want to recreate their childhood game. So from the start, you're doomed :D
As the saying goes, just because you could, doesn't mean you should.
*dips cheeseburger in milkshake* Your scientists only asked if they could, without answering if they should
This happened to me. I graduated and worked as programmer and went to learn Blender, Zbrush and all the skillets related. I ended up enjoying doing art a lot but I agree it's really tiresome.
Buying assets sounds great in theory but finding assets that fit your vision is really, really hard. Commissions were also very expensive and I wasted a bit of money on art I didn't use.
I don't know, now that I have all this knowledge, it's making more sense to scope down and do simple assets instead
TESTIFY!...You can only do so much. I learned the hard way...being self taught and wanting to do everything. Now it's about balance, priority and reality. About creativity and vision without obsession...or ego.
Yup. I’m a developer and am only I in learning how to game games better. I don’t want to make my art, so I’ve just been buying assets. Even some controllers (car) I’d rather just use a pre made asset and focus my time on the game itself. Good advice!
"I am a rich white man living in Europe where there is free healthcare... So keep that in mind." This is the most honest thing I have ever heard in a video about this topic.
damn. but I enjoy everything in the craft
Does this mean you're outsourcing the art for you next game?
Not everything, but we have been trying out a whole bunch of different artists over the past few weeks, looking at their styles and prices. Mainly character art and animation is what we're looking into right now with our budget. -M
05:24 "if you knew that in three months, i'm gonna die"
That is a turn i did not expect.
And if for some reason knew that i would die, i would stop eating healthy and bring out the chocolate every day.
After three months then, i will wake up as a fatter person and after i wonder for a moment why i am still alive, i will see my now blue face in the mirror and recognize that i mistook "die" and "dye" and then i will spend the happy rest of my life smurfing code.
And i will cancel all these life insurences i got and the marching band that was supposed to crash my funeral.
I would not say I am great at programming but I am certainly better at it than my art.
Great talk. I have honed my 2d digital painting skills for over 10 years... (un)fortunately i had to learn code because i couldnt find anyone and what i want is too specific.. i have hardly done art in a long time due to this.. i will say coding is rewarding, and i have an aptitude to it...but i feel it would be far more benificial to focus on my highest skill
what if i have ADHD? where I keep shifting from one game to another and abandoning the projects.
2:58 Did someone make a game called "Hey, let's shoot Bambi's mother!" ? 😱
On the other hand, if it sells, 💰 good pitch I guess
Just make sure you get some good advertising help if you have a game of great value.
This is depressing, the market is oversaturated and the only "indie game devs" that make any $ are the ones who sell tutorials and post clips on youtube rambling for 10-50 min about nothing while attempting to sell a lifestyle/dream to idiots which can only lead to more "indie devs" using the same model only to realize that they're probably making more $ from youtube than the actual game they're working on.
ex: Forge industry development began at least 1 year ago and it only made ~4k, an absolute failure.
Split at least 2 ways 😬