IMPORTANT*** I don't know if I had the wrong info or if there was an update to the pricing I wasn't aware of, but the Unity pricing in the video is incorrect, here's the corrected info: If you upgrade to Unity 6, as mentioned, you'll need to upgrade from Unity personal to Unity Pro is you make more than $200k. BUT...the runtime Fee/2.5% (lower of) only kicks in when BOTH of these conditions have been met: 1 - you have made $1M in 12 month-trailing revenue, AND 2 - 1,000,000 initial engagements. Apologies for the error in the video, here's the source: unity.com/pricing-updates
I've been in professional game dev for almost 10 years now and one of the easiest game types you can make from the get-go would be something similar to the "I'm On Observation Duty" series. There's not much to them. Static cameras, no pawns to control, but you'll be learning about how to craft systems to react to what the player does, or how long the player has gone without reporting an issue in rooms, rather than the itty bitty pieces of how to move a character forward. Once you've dived into something like this and get an understanding of how your chosen engine works, then you can spread your wings a bit more with animation/art/controlling pawns in certain ways.
I work 12 hour shifts while listening to you on spotify, trying to remember to find you on youtube when i get home but i always forget, randomly found you now lol : ) You have such a satisfying voice to me, instantly recognized it.
Small note, Game maker studio is free to use, but if you want to publish and make money from your game you have to pay a one time fee of 100 dollars and if you want to export to console you need the enterprise subscription. So it's a very viable option if you want to make 2d games.
They were sub-based for a while but it seems they've since changed to a one-time payment if you stay to web, mobile, and PC-based releases. If you want to release to consoles (Switch, Xbox, PS5) then you pay a subscription per month/year in order to compile your game for those which seems to run about $79/month or $799/year. I personally like this set-up. @@Surkk2960 I'm planning to use GameMaker Studio for 2D based games and if I ever look towards 3D games I'd probably pick Unreal Engine, as it stands now.
@@Surkk2960from my understanding they went to a subscription model briefly and then reverted the decision, with the money you invested toward your subscription able to be applied to the updated one-time payment.
Im currently making a game in Godot. Im crazy because this is the only game I wish to make. I don't wish to start small. I know exactly what I want to make and it will take a long time. I come from a background of 0 development experince. But I'm a comic book artist, a musician, a painter, and a sculptor. I have been playing video games since I first played Cosmic Ark on the Atari 2600. I have watched the gaming industry evolve, devolve and then stagnate. I have the will to see my magnum opus to completion, and it's working so far. I have been learning Gdsciprt fast. And it's hard, and I run into road blocks, but I push through. I'm using a bunch of techniques used by professionals in the industry, spanning 50 years. I am not looking for instant gratification. I haven't quit my day job, and I'm not making this game for the money. I hope someday to get supporters though. But I will work for them slowly.
lol. but seriously: i've hired once a young dev aged 14, after he showed me his minecraft clone written in c++. that dev has today an own game company and you know one of his games which became a huge thing on youtube. before you contemplate about game dev, if you are into coding: become a great coder first. clone some other complex game, as a challenge, i.e., minecraft. for some kids the hardest part about coding in their teenage years is... realizing that it is a choice you make. do you want to be a consumer (user, gamer) who wastes his childhood on products other people created, 24/7? or do you want to create finally something own, maybe with a minecraft clone as a first learning step. that's the difference. oh, and do not become a youtuber. youtuber game devs aim for views and likes, but actually, none of them made it so far as an actual commercially successful game dev in the industry.
@@sora_dev brooo.... “A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.” ― Peter Jackson, The Art of The Return of the King
the most soul crushing thing to learning online is to be in tutorial hell with no clear goal for which to strive for. "i want to learn how to make a game" is insanely wide and difficult compared to "i want to make flappy birds" at least in my experience. then again i usually quit out of boredom after a few days so what do i know lol
I'm just like you. I want to make a 3D game, but I feel lost every time I search for UA-cam, I find that the subject has become very difficult and complicated. 👎
@@NihongoWakannai you can't generalize ALL open source software to be less stable than their counterparts, because it's often the reverse - open source being more stable due to people who experience the bugs actually reporting the bugs, or better, fixing the issues themselves.
I actually really liked recreating popular games like flappy bird because it made me learn about things that I wouldn't have necessarily thought about or something regular tutorials don't teach, like object pooling. I was blown away with how something so important could just fly over my head and I would've had no idea about it otherwise.
This is a great video. I especially liked how you called out certain things, like the recommendation to use premade assets. Too many of us get lost in the idea that we have to do everything itself. That's not the case! I would like to see more mention of learning about the "why" of making a game. Depending on the why you can use different paths to get there faster.
Thank you! I love to learn but game dev has always been too overwhelming, preventing me from even starting. Keeping in mind that it's really a lot of basic skills built on top of each other, and reminding myself that it's about the journey, experimenting and having fun along the process is key to keep that motivation.
As someone who started on Unity by using Udemy classes and UA-cam, then later switched to Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine was way easier for me, and not because I knew all that much. The tools were just better.
I was making mods in the 90’s but true start in games industry in 2004. Unreal was literally $1million to license back then. Even for edu they would not give source code access. No steam, no iPhone, very few indies and had to be well connected to even be considered to go on a console. We have so many resources now with the caveat that the markets are all saturated.
I'm in game development for years now, but the last months less and less, I'm going to start learning and using Godot (from Unity), which is why I watched this vid, but I think this video is very helpful, a lot of good tips and advice 💪
I think anyone can have that one idea that gets you to that high level. You just have to learn and work for it. Never miss a day, you don't know when that lucky day comes
2024 is the year i release my game on early access. After learning Houdini and implementing it, learning marvelous designer and mixer, time to let the results speak for themselves and so far the graphics are great on my game
I don't think open source means less stable than proprietary though? You also quoted blender which is open source for example. As for godot, it's growing fast so it might also lead to professional opportunities as well soon enough.
It really depends. Godot is kind of at a rapid development phase, where new features are going to be coming in hot, which could break compatibility. At least for me, coming from an enterprise background, open source is great, but projects sometimes get into a phase of development where there are too many hands in the kitchen and not enough oversight/control. It's by no means a universal problem, and open source makes it easy to get older builds, but things can spiral out of control fast if the core team doesn't run a tight ship.
The whole stability aspect of open source is a common myth started by commercial software companies, along with things like the license from the software being tied to the assets you make with the product. The latter is allegedly used by Autodesk to prevent people from using Blender in schools and places like that.
@@adamleblanc5294 each released version of Godot is a stable version, you can freeze your development on one of those no problem. You don't really want to develop on the "latest" which is what you're suggesting here.
This is great. One thing I would add about the engine choice (as someone who uses both Godot and Unity) is console exports. For 2D this used to be the one thing that held me back from Godot since it didn't have official support for exporting to Switch, Xbox and PS5 (at least not without a lot of expensive customisation of the engine or getting an expensive consultant to do it). This was due to complications with licensing and the open source nature of Godot. That's going to change pretty quick with W4 Games, who recently announced relatively competitive pricing for console exports with Godot 4. W4 is the incorporated side of Godot, backed by the founder and does not have the same issues with licensing. Their model is priced like pre-Unity 6 but cheaper.
I have been building websites since the 90s Now I am Starting to learn Unreal Engine. When I started Game Dev about 2012 I got Unity a couple weeks later was my first Ludum Dare, I did the solo 48 hr and got a game running and published for the Jam. I did It's Not Portal 3. I made 2 short levels and got all the parts working, a few sound effects and the graphics were just the Unity prefab capsules and cubes. Most of the 48 hr was pushing my self to solve the coding or learning how to do the next function.
Wow for some reason I was very skeptical at the beginning of video, idk why whenever I find channels giving advice I am really weary of like bs sounding happy go lucky but this was incredibly practical and a really high quality video with lots of great advice. thanks so much keep going!!!
Wow, I'm currently trying to finally create my first game and you have no idea how much you helped me and my friends with this video! You won another subscriber :D
I wished someone would do a tutorial about the work that had to be done BEFORE you dip into a game engine. A game engine is where all the work comes to life. But there’s a ton of work that has to be done beforehand.
Iv picked Unreal Engine and C++. Currently have a project where i'm learning the engine and its features. Recently I'v stopped watching Tutorials on how things are done and started doing my own way on the C++ side.
@@DylanWasTaken_ Great. Learning curve was hard to adjust too but iv gotten the hang of it. It does help having some experience with programming with C++. But practice does make perfect ur won't know everything but u can learn as u go or learn what u want then go. That how iv taken my approach to game development
I'm one week into my journey. Have about a dozen ideas. Focusing on one, want to go through the motions. I am (normally) a "Backend Engineer" by day. I'm plenty strong in the programming front. My primary goals are: 1. I want to be able to say I've delivered a game. 2. Something to add to my resume - there's several game adjacent companies I'm interested in. They all require some game engine experience. 3. Some minor income would be nice.
For 2D assets you mentioned Photoshop which is a paid subscription, Aseprite is a one time 15 dollar fee. Only good if you’re planning on pixel art but still an option.
2:30 That's not entirely true because Unity added an extra clause behind everyone's back before the tax change which allows them to retroactively apply changes starting from Unity 2023, meaning you don't have to necessarily be tied to Unity 6 for those to happen. 3:46 Unity is famous for being unstable and not having a single finalized feature, as all of their stuff is either in alpha or deprecated. 4:37 Unreal's Blueprints are way more powerful than Unity's visual scripting because Blueprints are essentially C++ code under the hood and Unreal allows you to use both C++ and Blueprints if you want. And since Unreal exposes all the engine code for you, you have way more options down to making your own plugins and modifying how the engine works for your project. 8:07 And this is one place where Unity is superior. Their documentation is excellent and they have a ton of in-house learning material and courses which used to be paid, but were made all free during and after the pandemic.
Doing game jams, especially such short ones where you only have 2 days (especially if you have to work at the same time), just sounds a good way to be hyper stressed lol
I feel it's a great way to learn in a hurry and realize what truly is necessary in the initial prototyping stages. Clever solutions can be found under pressure when you have to take every shortcut imaginable.
But if you fail to complete a game that's fine too. It'll teach you your limitations at the time and what you might need to work on as far as productivity goes. Don't be afraid of failure.
Correction on Unity pricing, once you get to $200K you need to get Pro. However Runtime Fee only kicks in per game once that game reaches both $1M in Revenue (for last 12 months) and 1M downloanloads. Only once all criteria are satisfied, then and only then does the Runtime Fee kick in and you then self report your revenue and pick either pay per download or revenue share (whichever is cheaper)
Hey! Your video is amazing. I'm not sure whether you are saying it's Godot's native language as gDevelop at 5:27 & 5.38. It's GDscript right? gDevelop is a separate 2D event based engine. 5:38
I’ve been following the 20 games challenge by SDG Games and it’s been really helpful. Essentially it has you remaking games starting out with pong and eventually making more and more complex games but in manageable timeframes. I’m learning a lot from it and it’s a fantastic way to learn.
I only want to program as a hobby and to make something for my daughters to use. Every time I settle on an app, I'm pulled into game dev with videos like this then I wanna make a game and I really don't know what to do :( I don't live and breath coding, I just dabble now and then which makes the decision even harder.
Unreal and Unity (as well as some others) have visual scripting which you, as a hobbyist, might find to be what you need. It's like "drag and drop coding".
If they’re old enough, you can try to include your daughters into the process by programming in Scratch. GDevelop is a more complex version that uses similar visual scripting.
Don't make it harder than it needs to be. Just pick Unity or Unreal. Find a tutorial for beginners that makes an entire game in a reasonable time (like a 2 to 4 hours tutorial). Complete the tutorial. Now find another one. That allows you to actually create a fully functioning game, even if it's just a simple tutorial game. You can expand on what you made or start from scratch after that. Personally I picked Unreal because I like the visual style of creating the game (using Unreal Blueprints).
@@slandshark Yeah I think that's probably the best advice tbh. Now I'm over my sickness, I'm going to jump into one I found the other day! Thank you :)
@@BadRPGPlayerGlad you are feeling better! I'm a total noob as well at the moment, but ended up creating a kind of roadmap for learning that I'm going to stick with (based on the suggestion of various other successful indie devs). It looks like this: 1) Watch and complete 1 to 3 tutorials on how to make an entire game (This is where I started, almost done with it: /watch?v=zt13VcimeyI ) . Make sure they are different genres of games and not longer than 3'ish hours for the tutorial video. Then move to step 2 below. 2) Create 3 to 5 extremely simple games, just copy from existing games. Like recreating tetris or pacman or pong, etc. Try to make each game a different genre if possible. 3) Now you can work on your own idea/game from scratch. But the big caveat is to make sure it's a simple game. This is where a lot of game devs fail, they try to make their big dream game right from scratch and burn out after awhile. So instead make a small'ish game, and be careful of feature creep. The next stuff I'm write is more about the step by step approach you should take when making your own ideas/games, more stuff I gathered from other game devs. 1) Get the absolute basics of the game mechanics down for just 1 level or '15 minutes of gameplay' of your game. Don't worry about graphics, AI, animations, etc. They can all be bare bones stuff just so it works at a basic level. And don't try and build the entire game, just focus on 1 level or 15 minutes of gameplay. 2) Test your game in this state, play it, have friends play it, etc. Ask the question: Is this game fun even without all the fluffy/fancy graphics/animations/audio/etc? Is the core gameplay loop interesting? Does it have a good 'hook'? Once you've found and created an idea that is fun even without all the fancy stuff then move onto step 3. 3) Now take that single level or '15 minutes of gameplay' section of your game and polish it so it's dang near perfect. Don't worry about the rest of the game, just focus on that 15 minutes or 1 level of your game. Polish the sound, animations, graphics, game mechanics (you don't need to include ALL the game mechanics, only what's necessary for that 15 minutes), get it all done as best you possibly can. 4) You've basically just created your demo/showcase. That's what you can use for putting on your steam store page or sending to game journalists...or send to publishers to help get funding, whatever your goal is. You now have a completed section of your game. Show people the quality they can expect from the rest of the game. This is what will get people to wishlist your game when they see it for the first time. 5) Now build out the rest of your game using your polished 15 minutes as the template. It should be much easier now to simple copy/paste what's you've made and apply it to other levels, etc (I'm generalizing here, but you get the idea). You can also now add in any other gameplay mechanics that are relevant for the rest of your game. A lot of devs get stuck trying to polish 100% of their entire game before showing it off...which means they are very likely to burn or now always be in a 'it's not good enough' state and nobody will ever learn of the game. I honestly think that's where Sasquatch B Studios is stuck. I also took some advice from a youtuber who's made almost an entire MMO in 1 year. This is my daily routine right now, keep in mind I'm a father of 4 (oldest is 10 and youngest is 1), husband, and have a full time career...so my time is limited. I'm not expecting to get a lot done every day and I will not compare my progress/speed to others who can focus on game dev all day long. Keeping that in mind makes it less stressful for me. 1) No Zero Days! Every single day I'm doing SOMETHING towards completing my games/tutorials or whatever I'm working on related to game dev. 2) Post a dev blog (I'm using wordpress) every single day, even if you got almost nothing done, post about it anyway. This allows me to look back and see that I'm actually making progress and that every day I'm one step ahead of the previous day. 3) Backup my code changes (I use Github) AND update my project management tasks every single day. This helps keep me on track and focus without getting sidetracked. I'm using github projects to keep track of tasks, but will likely switch to Trello in the near future. I hope the advice helps! It's the advice I'm following right now. I'd love to see what you create once you get into it. Please let me know!
The one big issue with Godot is the lack porting to consoles. This is due to copyright issues and stuff smarter people can explain but it pretty much forces you to remake your game in an engine that supports consoles or pay to get it done. I still plan on doing my next project in Godot but it bums me out a bit that my nephew won't be able to play it on his switch.
Not to add to the confusion but as I understand it Unity doesnt charge the up to 2.5% fee for revenue under 1 million $ for PRO users. So the expected path is make between 200k and 1 million get the pro license. Make over that then get the pro license and pay per install unless its a free to play mobile game because thats really the only way the install fee is going to be greater than the 2.5%.
Yo , i used Django for backend for about 4 5 months but it wasn't fun for me so i decided to change my field , recently i've started learning Unreal engine 5 , im on the last year of high school and my goal is to become a junior game dev until 2025, Mark my comment!
Exciting! Video fully viewed. I have a Mac and my dream is to make a science/history video game. I was wondering if Unreal Engine installs on Mac, and what other 3D animation software is possible on Mac?
I truly feel that Game Maker should’ve been on the list as well as a fourth (free) alternative. Just because of their visual scripting and the way everything is set up is so streamlined. Getting objects to interact is incredibly simple and can be done in minutes if you know what you’re doing. But I’m huge proponent of Godot and only an intermediate solo game dev
I also need to mention I can import things from procreate (free, but iPad exclusive) extremely easy I can drop it straight to my email and put in my godot under 1 minute after completing the drawing.
I really don't get all the hate on the Unity side, at least after they took back the install-fee BS. 2.5% of your revenue is nothing compared to the workforce you need to create such a capable engine - even if you just program the features you need yourself. Will stick to Unity for now, since I've learned a lot. My job is C/C++ embedded programmer, so switching to Unreal won't be difficult on the language side. But learning all the traits of an engine is so time consuming, I won't get through this again while I'm not done with my current project.
I don't trust them not to fuck something else up next. They only took it back because of backlash, and it might not be enough next time. I can't blame you for not wanting to switch to another engine, though - especially since you have an ongoing project.
@RandomNoob1124 Dude, I started game dev back in early 2023. I was going to use Unity until I found out who the CEO (at the time) was and immediately deleted it off my computer and found something better for me to work with. And with the BS they tried to pull, recently with those install fees doesn't make me want to reconsider.
@@nsgames24 most people aren’t going to make a game where those fees apply anyways lmao. That’s the funny thing…especially if you started game dev last year….now if you actually had a game that was near production and that happened, makes sense to say fuck Unity, but if you didn’t, you’re bothered for no reason reslly. Unity is a great place to start and to understand graphics programming through shaders and graphics APIs such as Vulcan and OpenGL. If you’re just starting Game dev…you’re far far far from releasing a game to production anyways so the fees really don’t matter. Instead…look at the tools Unity offers as one of the most mature game engines currently and learn from them, then apply that to whatever engine you decide to use when you’re 100% confident you’re going to actually make a game to production stages.
this helped a lot, the info about unity especially made me change my idea, i was going to change engine and use Unreal by learning C++ but since i now understand how the new pricing will work i don't see that happening any time soon and i will stick to unity, thanks!
"They aren't open source so they are more stable" Being open source vs closed source has absolutely nothing to do with stability. They are tons of unstable closed source software, and tons of stable open source software. I'd say about the same amount of both. Very odd take here
@@ADarnSmore not sure exactly what you mean XD Many would say one or the other is unstable. Dunno if you're agreeing or disagreeing lol, not trying to be rude or anything
@@ADarnSmore i certainly agree. I have seen Windows and Mac people say Linux is less stable because it's open source, but that's just people who are ignorant of how it works
I bet y'all would like "The biggest lie in video games" by the game dev youtuber AIA. He goes through some of what he has experienced in his own project
Best game engine is software engineering programmer mentality and make everything you need, theres alot more info out there and the freedom is infinitely greater. You get to do many crappy projects and a few good ones and one or two will get traction and you will never be negatively impacted by this. Also every bit of knowledge acquired is useable on other areas of programming and that alone makes you a exponentially more valuable powerhouse compared to senior gamedevs that always relied on game engine+single scripting language and cap out on knowledge and creativity and get much less traction due to saturation and need to overcompensate with originality which is hard to make up for the market disinterest in game engine based games. The big difference is: in the same amount of learning time, programmers can be gamedevs if they chose to and many other things whilst pure gamedevs from the start can only be gamedevs and will struggle to go the alternate route once they hit the cap.
Update to the Unity pricing: I'm honestly not sure if my information was incorrect or if there was a pricing update again at some point, but here's the latest: So if you made more than 200K (after upgrading to Unity 6) then your Unity personal will need to be upgraded to Unity Pro as mentioned. BUT...you will not be charged the runtime fee/2.5% rev share until BOTH of the following have happened: 1 - You've earned $1M (trailing 12 months) 2 - 1,000,000 initial engagements. Once both of those have happened then the runtime fee/2.5% rev share kicks in. Cheers!
my game engine:unity(free) assets:2d draw by myself no tutorial i used to make game in this engine before(mix visual script for basic movement and c# with more complex thing) make my own silly game(and weird, cute) but fun
IMPORTANT***
I don't know if I had the wrong info or if there was an update to the pricing I wasn't aware of, but the Unity pricing in the video is incorrect, here's the corrected info:
If you upgrade to Unity 6, as mentioned, you'll need to upgrade from Unity personal to Unity Pro is you make more than $200k.
BUT...the runtime Fee/2.5% (lower of) only kicks in when BOTH of these conditions have been met:
1 - you have made $1M in 12 month-trailing revenue, AND
2 - 1,000,000 initial engagements.
Apologies for the error in the video, here's the source:
unity.com/pricing-updates
And another correction - Unity canceled their Fee, but raised their prices.
I'm now in charge of Elden Ring 2. Thank you for the help!
Congrats!! Can you please make it come out for N64
AWESOME
There is gunna be a part 2? I heard they were done with Elden Ring after DLC I was hoping they just meant the base game and would still have a sequal.
Can’t tell if this is a joke or not but I’m happy for you if it isn’t
@@Blinkers2007GameDev It's real. He's my boss, and I'm the head for Elden Ring second DLC.
Thank you bro I now am the head developer on the Last of Us part 3
2030 hang tight@@ipodgolfer13
🤨🤨🤨
Awesome video, B! It's very refreshing to see this new wave of devs on youtube being so honest and open about the dev process, it truly helps!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Pirate software for the win
@@jchappy1889 +1
I've been in professional game dev for almost 10 years now and one of the easiest game types you can make from the get-go would be something similar to the "I'm On Observation Duty" series.
There's not much to them. Static cameras, no pawns to control, but you'll be learning about how to craft systems to react to what the player does, or how long the player has gone without reporting an issue in rooms, rather than the itty bitty pieces of how to move a character forward. Once you've dived into something like this and get an understanding of how your chosen engine works, then you can spread your wings a bit more with animation/art/controlling pawns in certain ways.
I work 12 hour shifts while listening to you on spotify, trying to remember to find you on youtube when i get home but i always forget, randomly found you now lol : ) You have such a satisfying voice to me, instantly recognized it.
Small note, Game maker studio is free to use, but if you want to publish and make money from your game you have to pay a one time fee of 100 dollars and if you want to export to console you need the enterprise subscription. So it's a very viable option if you want to make 2d games.
I thought GMS went paid service? I was gonna use that engine, but I overheard they went that direction and switched to Unity/Godot.
@@Surkk2960 yeah they switched recently to this one time fee if you want to publish, and subscription for console.
They were sub-based for a while but it seems they've since changed to a one-time payment if you stay to web, mobile, and PC-based releases. If you want to release to consoles (Switch, Xbox, PS5) then you pay a subscription per month/year in order to compile your game for those which seems to run about $79/month or $799/year. I personally like this set-up. @@Surkk2960
I'm planning to use GameMaker Studio for 2D based games and if I ever look towards 3D games I'd probably pick Unreal Engine, as it stands now.
@@Surkk2960from my understanding they went to a subscription model briefly and then reverted the decision, with the money you invested toward your subscription able to be applied to the updated one-time payment.
@@Surkk2960 its back to normal baby
Im currently making a game in Godot. Im crazy because this is the only game I wish to make. I don't wish to start small. I know exactly what I want to make and it will take a long time. I come from a background of 0 development experince. But I'm a comic book artist, a musician, a painter, and a sculptor. I have been playing video games since I first played Cosmic Ark on the Atari 2600. I have watched the gaming industry evolve, devolve and then stagnate. I have the will to see my magnum opus to completion, and it's working so far. I have been learning Gdsciprt fast. And it's hard, and I run into road blocks, but I push through. I'm using a bunch of techniques used by professionals in the industry, spanning 50 years. I am not looking for instant gratification. I haven't quit my day job, and I'm not making this game for the money. I hope someday to get supporters though. But I will work for them slowly.
I believe you can do it!!
What do I do if I started game dev in 2013?
U must be a pro now
I started in 2008
Dang that's a long time, good for you!
I didn't say I was good. 😎 @@sasquatchbgames
lol. but seriously: i've hired once a young dev aged 14, after he showed me his minecraft clone written in c++. that dev has today an own game company and you know one of his games which became a huge thing on youtube. before you contemplate about game dev, if you are into coding: become a great coder first. clone some other complex game, as a challenge, i.e., minecraft. for some kids the hardest part about coding in their teenage years is... realizing that it is a choice you make. do you want to be a consumer (user, gamer) who wastes his childhood on products other people created, 24/7? or do you want to create finally something own, maybe with a minecraft clone as a first learning step. that's the difference. oh, and do not become a youtuber. youtuber game devs aim for views and likes, but actually, none of them made it so far as an actual commercially successful game dev in the industry.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
copy-pasted the top comment under Brackey's new video I see...
@@sora_dev brooo....
“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”
― Peter Jackson, The Art of The Return of the King
the most soul crushing thing to learning online is to be in tutorial hell with no clear goal for which to strive for. "i want to learn how to make a game" is insanely wide and difficult compared to "i want to make flappy birds" at least in my experience. then again i usually quit out of boredom after a few days so what do i know lol
I'm just like you. I want to make a 3D game, but I feel lost every time I search for UA-cam, I find that the subject has become very difficult and complicated. 👎
funny how i saw your podcast on spotify BEFORE even seeing you on youtube, and i gotta say! its sooo uplifting and helpful. thanks man.
seriously good advice, nobody else has put out such simple steps to follow for such a daunting task
Your advice on how to escape tutorial hell is actually the best one I have heard so far.
>they are not open source so they're more stable
I have not laughed that hard in my entire life, thank you lol
tbh godot is extremely unstable, I experienced way more bugs in a couple months of using godot compared to 6 years of unity.
@@NihongoWakannai you can't generalize ALL open source software to be less stable than their counterparts, because it's often the reverse - open source being more stable due to people who experience the bugs actually reporting the bugs, or better, fixing the issues themselves.
@@YouHaveTrouble you're right, it's not unstable BECAUSE it's open source.
I actually really liked recreating popular games like flappy bird because it made me learn about things that I wouldn't have necessarily thought about or something regular tutorials don't teach, like object pooling. I was blown away with how something so important could just fly over my head and I would've had no idea about it otherwise.
"fly over my head" -- I see what you did there xD
This is a great video. I especially liked how you called out certain things, like the recommendation to use premade assets. Too many of us get lost in the idea that we have to do everything itself. That's not the case!
I would like to see more mention of learning about the "why" of making a game. Depending on the why you can use different paths to get there faster.
To clarify, using assets that you paid for the rights to use commercially isn't stealing. You don't need to make your own art for your game release.
yeah but who wants to buy a game and see stock art?
Thank you! I love to learn but game dev has always been too overwhelming, preventing me from even starting.
Keeping in mind that it's really a lot of basic skills built on top of each other, and reminding myself that it's about the journey, experimenting and having fun along the process is key to keep that motivation.
5:09 oh wow that's me
You are right lad
I am a visual designer who has zero game dev experience but I am about to dive all in.
As someone who started on Unity by using Udemy classes and UA-cam, then later switched to Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine was way easier for me, and not because I knew all that much. The tools were just better.
I never noticed how close i was to being good enough thanks for helping me see that. I will keep learning
I was making mods in the 90’s but true start in games industry in 2004. Unreal was literally $1million to license back then. Even for edu they would not give source code access.
No steam, no iPhone, very few indies and had to be well connected to even be considered to go on a console. We have so many resources now with the caveat that the markets are all saturated.
This was the most comprehensive video i have watched on how to get the ball rolling in starting game development.
Thank you for this❤
Concise and without bloat. Much appreciated.
What a great realistic and informative video. I have not even taken the first step but you have helped inspire me to at least try it out for a bit.
I'm in game development for years now, but the last months less and less, I'm going to start learning and using Godot (from Unity), which is why I watched this vid, but I think this video is very helpful, a lot of good tips and advice 💪
I think anyone can have that one idea that gets you to that high level. You just have to learn and work for it. Never miss a day, you don't know when that lucky day comes
I am learning UE5 because, although I do want to make and ship my own game, I dream of making a game as a team some day.
Plus it just looks so clean!
2024 is the year i release my game on early access. After learning Houdini and implementing it, learning marvelous designer and mixer, time to let the results speak for themselves and so far the graphics are great on my game
What game engine you use for your game?
@@flamart9703 unreal engine 5 and i use C++
I don't think open source means less stable than proprietary though? You also quoted blender which is open source for example. As for godot, it's growing fast so it might also lead to professional opportunities as well soon enough.
If anything open source is more stable. No surprises, bugs reported openly, patches can be made easily.
It really depends. Godot is kind of at a rapid development phase, where new features are going to be coming in hot, which could break compatibility. At least for me, coming from an enterprise background, open source is great, but projects sometimes get into a phase of development where there are too many hands in the kitchen and not enough oversight/control. It's by no means a universal problem, and open source makes it easy to get older builds, but things can spiral out of control fast if the core team doesn't run a tight ship.
The whole stability aspect of open source is a common myth started by commercial software companies, along with things like the license from the software being tied to the assets you make with the product. The latter is allegedly used by Autodesk to prevent people from using Blender in schools and places like that.
@@adamleblanc5294 each released version of Godot is a stable version, you can freeze your development on one of those no problem. You don't really want to develop on the "latest" which is what you're suggesting here.
About to comment this.
This is great. One thing I would add about the engine choice (as someone who uses both Godot and Unity) is console exports.
For 2D this used to be the one thing that held me back from Godot since it didn't have official support for exporting to Switch, Xbox and PS5 (at least not without a lot of expensive customisation of the engine or getting an expensive consultant to do it). This was due to complications with licensing and the open source nature of Godot.
That's going to change pretty quick with W4 Games, who recently announced relatively competitive pricing for console exports with Godot 4. W4 is the incorporated side of Godot, backed by the founder and does not have the same issues with licensing. Their model is priced like pre-Unity 6 but cheaper.
Gdevelop is a separate engine, Godot's native scripting is called gdscript
Blender is not only free, but it is also fantastic
I just got my first laptop yesterday. The most coding I’ve ever done is scratch😂. So far I’ve made a moving cube with wasd in unity.
Great vid, a lot of useful info, great pace and no beating around the bush. This helped me a lot. Thank you!
I have been building websites since the 90s Now I am Starting to learn Unreal Engine. When I started Game Dev about 2012 I got Unity a couple weeks later was my first Ludum Dare, I did the solo 48 hr and got a game running and published for the Jam. I did It's Not Portal 3. I made 2 short levels and got all the parts working, a few sound effects and the graphics were just the Unity prefab capsules and cubes. Most of the 48 hr was pushing my self to solve the coding or learning how to do the next function.
Wow for some reason I was very skeptical at the beginning of video, idk why whenever I find channels giving advice I am really weary of like bs sounding happy go lucky but this was incredibly practical and a really high quality video with lots of great advice. thanks so much keep going!!!
Wow, I'm currently trying to finally create my first game and you have no idea how much you helped me and my friends with this video! You won another subscriber :D
I wished someone would do a tutorial about the work that had to be done BEFORE you dip into a game engine.
A game engine is where all the work comes to life.
But there’s a ton of work that has to be done beforehand.
Iv picked Unreal Engine and C++. Currently have a project where i'm learning the engine and its features. Recently I'v stopped watching Tutorials on how things are done and started doing my own way on the C++ side.
Iv also picked Unreal and how has the c + + been going?
@@DylanWasTaken_ Great. Learning curve was hard to adjust too but iv gotten the hang of it. It does help having some experience with programming with C++.
But practice does make perfect ur won't know everything but u can learn as u go or learn what u want then go. That how iv taken my approach to game development
I've also just recently done the same! It's going to be a long ride but hopefully a rewarding one.
Update?
@@fgrimes1946 had to step away from it for awhile and redo think the scope of my game.
I'm one week into my journey. Have about a dozen ideas. Focusing on one, want to go through the motions. I am (normally) a "Backend Engineer" by day. I'm plenty strong in the programming front.
My primary goals are:
1. I want to be able to say I've delivered a game.
2. Something to add to my resume - there's several game adjacent companies I'm interested in. They all require some game engine experience.
3. Some minor income would be nice.
For 2D assets you mentioned Photoshop which is a paid subscription, Aseprite is a one time 15 dollar fee. Only good if you’re planning on pixel art but still an option.
You can also download their source code and compile it for free
There also alternatives like Piskel and Pixelorama. Pixelorama being made with Godot.
2:30 That's not entirely true because Unity added an extra clause behind everyone's back before the tax change which allows them to retroactively apply changes starting from Unity 2023, meaning you don't have to necessarily be tied to Unity 6 for those to happen.
3:46 Unity is famous for being unstable and not having a single finalized feature, as all of their stuff is either in alpha or deprecated.
4:37 Unreal's Blueprints are way more powerful than Unity's visual scripting because Blueprints are essentially C++ code under the hood and Unreal allows you to use both C++ and Blueprints if you want. And since Unreal exposes all the engine code for you, you have way more options down to making your own plugins and modifying how the engine works for your project.
8:07 And this is one place where Unity is superior. Their documentation is excellent and they have a ton of in-house learning material and courses which used to be paid, but were made all free during and after the pandemic.
This was very informative as a aspiring game dev this was really helpful thank you!
Doing game jams, especially such short ones where you only have 2 days (especially if you have to work at the same time), just sounds a good way to be hyper stressed lol
Just to potentially get slaughtered at the end 😂 no thanks
I feel it's a great way to learn in a hurry and realize what truly is necessary in the initial prototyping stages. Clever solutions can be found under pressure when you have to take every shortcut imaginable.
But if you fail to complete a game that's fine too. It'll teach you your limitations at the time and what you might need to work on as far as productivity goes.
Don't be afraid of failure.
Some of the greatest games ever made were done under a strict time limit.
Correction on Unity pricing, once you get to $200K you need to get Pro. However Runtime Fee only kicks in per game once that game reaches both $1M in Revenue (for last 12 months) and 1M downloanloads. Only once all criteria are satisfied, then and only then does the Runtime Fee kick in and you then self report your revenue and pick either pay per download or revenue share (whichever is cheaper)
Perfect video for starting to game dev to be honest
Thank you for taking the time to make this video! Do you know of any resources to find projects/ get connected to mentors?
Closed Source != More Stable
Appreciate this video so much. I've been lost on where to start and this has really helped
Hey! Your video is amazing. I'm not sure whether you are saying it's Godot's native language as gDevelop at 5:27 & 5.38. It's GDscript right? gDevelop is a separate 2D event based engine. 5:38
"They're not open source so they are more stable" holy non-sequitur batman!
I started with unity and ran into so much bloat and errors. Now I use Godot and absolutely love it. It just makes sense, and it is so clean
Congratulations
You're the first person I've seen mention Open Game Art
I’ve been following the 20 games challenge by SDG Games and it’s been really helpful.
Essentially it has you remaking games starting out with pong and eventually making more and more complex games but in manageable timeframes. I’m learning a lot from it and it’s a fantastic way to learn.
thank you so much as I'm trying to get into game development and im gonna admit im stuck in tutorial hell so its really helpful this vidoe
I’m thinking of using Unity because I know C# and it’s so easy to work with.
7:37 can't believe you forgot about the hit classic frogger
It was an excellent idea to bring this amazing series and do this amazing analysis, thanks Thiago and keep doing the good work!
Such a great video, commenting for the algorithm
W
👏 Thank you for the great advice. Seems like really solid stuff here. Appreciated!
I started game dev in 2025… I just don’t know it yet.
It's 2024 and time machines don't exist, so HOW can you start game dev in 2025?
I like how you said breaking things into small googlable chunks
I only want to program as a hobby and to make something for my daughters to use. Every time I settle on an app, I'm pulled into game dev with videos like this then I wanna make a game and I really don't know what to do :( I don't live and breath coding, I just dabble now and then which makes the decision even harder.
Unreal and Unity (as well as some others) have visual scripting which you, as a hobbyist, might find to be what you need. It's like "drag and drop coding".
If they’re old enough, you can try to include your daughters into the process by programming in Scratch. GDevelop is a more complex version that uses similar visual scripting.
Don't make it harder than it needs to be. Just pick Unity or Unreal. Find a tutorial for beginners that makes an entire game in a reasonable time (like a 2 to 4 hours tutorial). Complete the tutorial. Now find another one.
That allows you to actually create a fully functioning game, even if it's just a simple tutorial game. You can expand on what you made or start from scratch after that.
Personally I picked Unreal because I like the visual style of creating the game (using Unreal Blueprints).
@@slandshark Yeah I think that's probably the best advice tbh. Now I'm over my sickness, I'm going to jump into one I found the other day! Thank you :)
@@BadRPGPlayerGlad you are feeling better!
I'm a total noob as well at the moment, but ended up creating a kind of roadmap for learning that I'm going to stick with (based on the suggestion of various other successful indie devs). It looks like this:
1) Watch and complete 1 to 3 tutorials on how to make an entire game (This is where I started, almost done with it: /watch?v=zt13VcimeyI ) . Make sure they are different genres of games and not longer than 3'ish hours for the tutorial video. Then move to step 2 below.
2) Create 3 to 5 extremely simple games, just copy from existing games. Like recreating tetris or pacman or pong, etc. Try to make each game a different genre if possible.
3) Now you can work on your own idea/game from scratch. But the big caveat is to make sure it's a simple game. This is where a lot of game devs fail, they try to make their big dream game right from scratch and burn out after awhile. So instead make a small'ish game, and be careful of feature creep.
The next stuff I'm write is more about the step by step approach you should take when making your own ideas/games, more stuff I gathered from other game devs.
1) Get the absolute basics of the game mechanics down for just 1 level or '15 minutes of gameplay' of your game. Don't worry about graphics, AI, animations, etc. They can all be bare bones stuff just so it works at a basic level. And don't try and build the entire game, just focus on 1 level or 15 minutes of gameplay.
2) Test your game in this state, play it, have friends play it, etc. Ask the question: Is this game fun even without all the fluffy/fancy graphics/animations/audio/etc? Is the core gameplay loop interesting? Does it have a good 'hook'? Once you've found and created an idea that is fun even without all the fancy stuff then move onto step 3.
3) Now take that single level or '15 minutes of gameplay' section of your game and polish it so it's dang near perfect. Don't worry about the rest of the game, just focus on that 15 minutes or 1 level of your game. Polish the sound, animations, graphics, game mechanics (you don't need to include ALL the game mechanics, only what's necessary for that 15 minutes), get it all done as best you possibly can.
4) You've basically just created your demo/showcase. That's what you can use for putting on your steam store page or sending to game journalists...or send to publishers to help get funding, whatever your goal is. You now have a completed section of your game. Show people the quality they can expect from the rest of the game. This is what will get people to wishlist your game when they see it for the first time.
5) Now build out the rest of your game using your polished 15 minutes as the template. It should be much easier now to simple copy/paste what's you've made and apply it to other levels, etc (I'm generalizing here, but you get the idea). You can also now add in any other gameplay mechanics that are relevant for the rest of your game.
A lot of devs get stuck trying to polish 100% of their entire game before showing it off...which means they are very likely to burn or now always be in a 'it's not good enough' state and nobody will ever learn of the game. I honestly think that's where Sasquatch B Studios is stuck.
I also took some advice from a youtuber who's made almost an entire MMO in 1 year. This is my daily routine right now, keep in mind I'm a father of 4 (oldest is 10 and youngest is 1), husband, and have a full time career...so my time is limited. I'm not expecting to get a lot done every day and I will not compare my progress/speed to others who can focus on game dev all day long. Keeping that in mind makes it less stressful for me.
1) No Zero Days! Every single day I'm doing SOMETHING towards completing my games/tutorials or whatever I'm working on related to game dev.
2) Post a dev blog (I'm using wordpress) every single day, even if you got almost nothing done, post about it anyway. This allows me to look back and see that I'm actually making progress and that every day I'm one step ahead of the previous day.
3) Backup my code changes (I use Github) AND update my project management tasks every single day. This helps keep me on track and focus without getting sidetracked. I'm using github projects to keep track of tasks, but will likely switch to Trello in the near future.
I hope the advice helps! It's the advice I'm following right now. I'd love to see what you create once you get into it. Please let me know!
The one big issue with Godot is the lack porting to consoles. This is due to copyright issues and stuff smarter people can explain but it pretty much forces you to remake your game in an engine that supports consoles or pay to get it done. I still plan on doing my next project in Godot but it bums me out a bit that my nephew won't be able to play it on his switch.
From what I hear Godot console support is coming. Its gonna support xbox, ps and switch
Missed a great chance to mention Procreat for making 2D assets.
Not to add to the confusion but as I understand it Unity doesnt charge the up to 2.5% fee for revenue under 1 million $ for PRO users. So the expected path is make between 200k and 1 million get the pro license. Make over that then get the pro license and pay per install unless its a free to play mobile game because thats really the only way the install fee is going to be greater than the 2.5%.
Thanks, your video makes the path seems clearer❤
Thanks, now I can make Silksong myself because Team Cherry takes too long
Yo , i used Django for backend for about 4 5 months but it wasn't fun for me so i decided to change my field , recently i've started learning Unreal engine 5 , im on the last year of high school and my goal is to become a junior game dev until 2025, Mark my comment!
Exciting! Video fully viewed. I have a Mac and my dream is to make a science/history video game. I was wondering if Unreal Engine installs on Mac, and what other 3D animation software is possible on Mac?
I truly feel that Game Maker should’ve been on the list as well as a fourth (free) alternative. Just because of their visual scripting and the way everything is set up is so streamlined. Getting objects to interact is incredibly simple and can be done in minutes if you know what you’re doing. But I’m huge proponent of Godot and only an intermediate solo game dev
I also need to mention I can import things from procreate (free, but iPad exclusive) extremely easy I can drop it straight to my email and put in my godot under 1 minute after completing the drawing.
I really don't get all the hate on the Unity side, at least after they took back the install-fee BS.
2.5% of your revenue is nothing compared to the workforce you need to create such a capable engine - even if you just program the features you need yourself.
Will stick to Unity for now, since I've learned a lot.
My job is C/C++ embedded programmer, so switching to Unreal won't be difficult on the language side. But learning all the traits of an engine is so time consuming, I won't get through this again while I'm not done with my current project.
i think i am just going to stick to the current version, so i dont even have to bother with the install fees/revenue addition
I don't trust them not to fuck something else up next. They only took it back because of backlash, and it might not be enough next time.
I can't blame you for not wanting to switch to another engine, though - especially since you have an ongoing project.
Most people hating on the unity side aren’t actual developers just opinion havers
@RandomNoob1124
Dude, I started game dev back in early 2023.
I was going to use Unity until I found out who the CEO (at the time) was and immediately deleted it off my computer and found something better for me to work with.
And with the BS they tried to pull, recently with those install fees doesn't make me want to reconsider.
@@nsgames24 most people aren’t going to make a game where those fees apply anyways lmao. That’s the funny thing…especially if you started game dev last year….now if you actually had a game that was near production and that happened, makes sense to say fuck Unity, but if you didn’t, you’re bothered for no reason reslly. Unity is a great place to start and to understand graphics programming through shaders and graphics APIs such as Vulcan and OpenGL. If you’re just starting Game dev…you’re far far far from releasing a game to production anyways so the fees really don’t matter. Instead…look at the tools Unity offers as one of the most mature game engines currently and learn from them, then apply that to whatever engine you decide to use when you’re 100% confident you’re going to actually make a game to production stages.
this helped a lot, the info about unity especially made me change my idea, i was going to change engine and use Unreal by learning C++ but since i now understand how the new pricing will work i don't see that happening any time soon and i will stick to unity, thanks!
"They aren't open source so they are more stable"
Being open source vs closed source has absolutely nothing to do with stability. They are tons of unstable closed source software, and tons of stable open source software. I'd say about the same amount of both. Very odd take here
easy comparison; windows vs linux
@@ADarnSmore not sure exactly what you mean XD
Many would say one or the other is unstable. Dunno if you're agreeing or disagreeing lol, not trying to be rude or anything
@@FrostKing104 linux is way more stable, and this is something that i've never seen even people who dislike linux try to dispute.
@@ADarnSmore i certainly agree. I have seen Windows and Mac people say Linux is less stable because it's open source, but that's just people who are ignorant of how it works
I’v used gamemaker for a 3 yrs now but i recently tried unity to make 3D
Thanks bro! This video was super helpful.
Most useful video I've ever watched in my life, thanks
Awesome video! Really informative and helpful!
3:40 "They aren’t open source, so they are more stable.” OUCH !
Great video I'm gonna start it soon inshAllah subbed.
Godot is perfect for small games with cartoonish or stylish visual, whereas Unreal is good for large open-world games with realistic visual
I bet y'all would like "The biggest lie in video games" by the game dev youtuber AIA. He goes through some of what he has experienced in his own project
It isn't stealing if you're given permission to use the assets.
Ive been listening to the podcats for a while and as soon i clicked on this video i recognized the voice 😅
First time here 🙋♂️ but im a follower in audible ❤
Best game engine is software engineering programmer mentality and make everything you need, theres alot more info out there and the freedom is infinitely greater. You get to do many crappy projects and a few good ones and one or two will get traction and you will never be negatively impacted by this. Also every bit of knowledge acquired is useable on other areas of programming and that alone makes you a exponentially more valuable powerhouse compared to senior gamedevs that always relied on game engine+single scripting language and cap out on knowledge and creativity and get much less traction due to saturation and need to overcompensate with originality which is hard to make up for the market disinterest in game engine based games.
The big difference is: in the same amount of learning time, programmers can be gamedevs if they chose to and many other things whilst pure gamedevs from the start can only be gamedevs and will struggle to go the alternate route once they hit the cap.
I have never thought about making a game or I plan to now (mostly cuz idk how to code) but i still watched the whole video
Godot now has a visual scripting plugin called Orchestrator that is said to be better than the old built is VS system.
Update to the Unity pricing:
I'm honestly not sure if my information was incorrect or if there was a pricing update again at some point, but here's the latest:
So if you made more than 200K (after upgrading to Unity 6) then your Unity personal will need to be upgraded to Unity Pro as mentioned.
BUT...you will not be charged the runtime fee/2.5% rev share until BOTH of the following have happened:
1 - You've earned $1M (trailing 12 months)
2 - 1,000,000 initial engagements.
Once both of those have happened then the runtime fee/2.5% rev share kicks in.
Cheers!
4 minutes in it was confirmed, had a strong feeling this was a unity guy lol
been in tutorial hell for years! I am using unity and just building!
Godot recently brought back its revamped version of Visual Scripting.
Excellent video, thanks so much!!
im more hands on rather than the listening or reading guides that only talk about the basics until i fall asleep.
my game
engine:unity(free)
assets:2d draw by myself
no tutorial i used to make game in this engine before(mix visual script for basic movement and c# with more complex thing)
make my own silly game(and weird, cute) but fun
Absolutely killing it! Fantastic VID! 🔥😍
As a game dev, I found it too funny that when making far cry primal ubisoft just reused all of the far cry 3 animations