If u are one of the person who does not have much time, then here is timeline u needed 0:26 STARTING WITH THE MASTERPIECE 1:29 RECRUITING UNINTERESTED FRIENDS 2:29 THINKING THE IDEA MATTERS 3:30 EXPECTING TO GET RICH QUICK 4:46 BEING AFRAID OF " WHAT IF" 6:05 SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY 7:00 NOT SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY 8:00 THINKING YOU NEED FUNDING 8:55 WAITING UNTILL YOU'RE READY 10:00 NOT GETTING STARTED
#11 I'd say is getting discouraged when you have to rebuild. Once I settled on a project idea, I'd get a few weeks to a month into development and then realize that I made a HUGE design flaw in a few aspects as I learned more about it and it would cause me to have to start over from scratch. I would get so discouraged cause I lost sooo much time and progress... but it happens. If it happens to you, it is NOT a waste. You learned a lot over the course of that project that will help you in future projects. I'd get discouraged and stop for a few weeks but then it became a struggle to get back into it... mistakes happen, sometimes you'll make decisions that you'll realize later "damn... I was wrong... i could fix it, but it's probably easier to just rebuild..." and there's nothing wrong with that. It's part of the journey. At least it is for me lol... don't get discouraged.
better idea (that I read in an article recently) is probably to release what you have and then make the rebuild as another game. Otherwise you just constantly rebuild and never release anything
Ali's VR Experiments good advice, but what i mean is that my huge design flaw would make it unplayable lol. so id have to start over. if it was just a graphical or small error I'd just fix it but, I'm still in the learning process. so large errors that kill playability are likely. maybe I didn't elaborate well enough but if someone makes that kind of error is when I was meaning to not get discouraged.
I have one that I noticed happens to people just starting. When you make your first game, don't get discouraged because you think the game sucks! I didn't think my first game was good at all (it was for a game development class) but when I saw other people's games and what they did, I realized mine was pretty good for a first shot at it. In my 4th semester, there was a kid who thought his first game sucked but it was pretty damn good and he put a lot into it. If you see that happening to others, in courage them to keep going.
1. Not Finishing a Project (That should be finished) 2. Not Marketing properly/at all 3. Not getting help 4. Not following the KISS principle 5. Not thoroughly testing 6. Not setting timeframes/targets to complete milestones 7. Not sticking to timeframes/targests to complete milestones 8. Scope creep (knowing when to stop!) 9. Going to detailed in the graphics (for a mobile game) - for optimisation rewards/offsets 10. Getting side tracked such as watching your videos (instead of focussing on delivering my creations!) ; p
Really great energy in this video Tim, I like the jump cuts and the fact that you are sitting up and square to the camera makes a big difference. Good improvement overall.
Never stop doing this, Tim. It's much appreciated feom us up and comers. I learn so much from this channel and it really reiterates and solidifies what I learn in the classroom as well.
I love your humor bro, you're so down to earth and it makes your vids so good to glean advice from, it's hard to seriously take advice from someone you don't relate to, it's very easy to accept your advice like you're a friend. That person that you are openly is the person I am inside and I mask it up crazy good. Seeing you be comfortable with your personality is helping me on levels irl
oh yes good advice and I was guilty of many of them. the saddest one for me is not having friends that share your passion to make games. it's funny because then I commit the mistake of waiting for the right moment to get started. I think many of us can relate to all those common mistakes.
I built 5 levels before I fleshed out all my character's abilities, only to find out that I had to rework 2 that didn't mesh well, which completely broke all the puzzles in the 5 levels I built. So I'm fleshing out all the abilities before I finalize any puzzles
Thank you for the confidence buster. I'm currently struggling with the necessary knowledge for understanding blueprints and behaviortree and other things. At least now I know remember that I was doing this for fun. I'm 186 hours in my first project/demo and all that is done is the landscape. I'll just work my way through and keep on going and stop asking my self negative what if question.
The "what if" section was spot on. Great advice. I can tell you are really thinking these things through and speaking from the heart and I appreciate that.
I have to say your recent vids are very well presented,i can feel that positive energy, i use to play your vids like a podcast but now i make sure to watch it properly, more power to you boss
My major mistakes are 1. starting with a software like android studio and unity before I even learned java and c# and when I was 14... (now i'm 17) 2. Asking some of my friends who do not like to play games to play my early day games which were nothing but clicking buttons...
I guess I came into this with the right mindset then because I figured that shouldn't expect to make my dream games that I want, even though I've written them down for future reference so as to remember for future projects when I can do them, but you're right, start small. I'm doing this alone, still learning a lot so I haven't built my first game yet, but it's getting there!
when i was 10 i told myself i need to finish college first and now that im basically done with college, i want to kms LMAO. why didnt i watch this video 10 years ago
One of the best videos I've ever seen in your channel, dude! Congratulations, you rock man. Nice to see you better. Greetings from a brazilian game dev here :D
A video targeting mistake #3 specifically would be extremely beneficial! Take me for example. I’m very new to this. I have a great project idea, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin making it a reality, let alone the steps after.
my biggest downfall is getting so caught up in the details before i finish something that it takes me forever. i need to deal with the big things and work my way down.
Man this video gave me loads of motivation, I'm a 3D art guy who really doesn't know how to start and what to do... I got some basic Ideas of what kind of game I'd like to make but it all feels so overwhelming and confusing. Just starting to realise that starting too late is not good... !
The very last tip is exactly what I've been struggling with for years. Game dev is what I want to do more than anything in the world, but the fear of financial struggles always holds me back. I went to business school, and I have a lot of work experience, so I always feel like I could make more money in other ways and have a more stable future, but I know they wouldn't fulfill me in the same way.
When I was 7 years old, I stole parts from my dad's old computer parts bin and taught myself how to build a computer (a 286 lol) for the sole purpose of playing shareware games ($2 per game at the dollar store). I'm now 34 years old. I've started making my first game on the simplest engine: RPG Maker MV. I have no artistic ability, so I spent the money to buy all the assets I need (no stock assets). I left my job as a teacher and committed myself full time to the development of a game suited in size and scale to my one man team. Afterwards I will graduate to Game Maker Studio 2. Then maybe Unity. I've watched a bunch of indie game dev advice videos but yours is the first one that resonated with me. I only wish that I had started doing this sooner. Take my like and my subscribe.
Tim !!! give us more like these hard core insights !!! its great that you share your experience with us, helping us not get into these pit falls. we love that stuff, it keeps us move and never stop fulfill our dream to be game developers !!! as always... thanks for the video :)
This video actually helped me thank you. I am actually in the process of my first game, an I’ve been working on it for 9 months. I do regret scaling it to big but I’ve learned a lot.
the best part about programming is that by implementing a new feature you will typically break your code... in the process of breaking it you now have an opportunity to learn at no cost other than your own time.
New game dev here. I'm at the point where I have a bunch of if statements for which sprite to display when and it's really ugly. Is there a widely agreed-upon standard for designing the character display set up? Thanks.
And one more question, Tim, If I joined your patron, can I just ask you some question about gameDev, like e-mail or other social app? Hope can get your reply
For my first (major/legit) project that I've been working on the past couple months, the spending I'm doing is Adobe CC subscription, then for assets, I bought SVG Importer and two audio packages. Not going to lie though, I've had these "Dev Management" days where it was looking through physical products and also managing my workstation such as cables, pc upgrades, etc.. Although, I guess these could be considered my off days as I do work on my project seven days a week even if it's just 10 minutes so that I have something for a blogpost.
I said this before, but meat with no bones cannot stand up. Thus, always start with the bones. Even if you have a plot in mind, you need to know how the game itself is going to run in order to be able to thread that plot around it. If you don't want to, then you should probably write a novel instead.
My game dev fail was to keep working for a year with a good friend, in a game that I didn't like and I was embarrassed to show, now, I try to make thing that I like to show, that's a huge improvement
Subscribed. I haven't started any personal projects yet, I've done level design for my personal use on Quake 3, I've made shaders for it but I don't know how to code in a language yet. I can make 8 bits sprites in Graphics Gale and animate them in Unity but again, without coding all I can do is reskin games right now. I'm getting older and I feel like I don't have time or money for seriously expensive college classes these days, I dropped out of my program some time ago and instead have been using much cheaper online courses to develop my skills and I think that's a strategy that can work if I spend the next couple of years learning from those courses and applying the knowledge in practice projects. I won't have a fancy degree but I am hoping to have portfolio of small but well crafted games that show that I do have those skills in a few years time. I'll be watching your videos from now on as any source of aid on this path is of great use. As for the kind of developer I want to be and my mindset, I want to make the kinds of games that I like and thus my audience will be gamers that like the same genres and features that I do. All I want is to eventually be able to pay the bills with them at some point in my life. I personally don't aim to be rich, just to live comfortably and in peace with a career that doesn't make me feel like my soul is sucked out daily. Although, it may be that I'm too realistic, to the point of becoming somewhat pessimistic. I constantly worry about life passing by as I try to develop these skills. I worry that I won't be able to use these skills to pay bills for a long time and that's a little scary considering I need to find my own place soon and where I live is nightmarishly expensive. Regardless, this is the career that I want. This is the thing I want to do everyday of my life. All worries aside, there's nothing I can do but walk forward until I reach the end of the path. Thanks for providing resources to make it a little easier. Perhaps when I have spare funds and have my skills together enough to make small games I'll join your Patreon as well.
Man, you have some great content. I felt quite hit by the argument of not spending enough money, because I'm trying to learn to draw so I don't waste money on sprites and backgrounds. But you're absolutely right in that it's better to buy some top-quality art for cheap than to waste a huge amount of time learning to draw, at least in my case. Thanks man, appreciate it and hope you make more great videos like this ;)
My 3 biggest advices and the only 3 I would actually be confident enough to dare to advice: 1. Make something reasonably small that you can schedule and finish in reasonable amount of time. 2. Make something you legit care about. What does it matter if you have a super innovative idea for a mobile game that you think is going to make people spend tons of money in microtransactions, if you can't get it done? It's hard enough to get trough your "darkest times" if you do love what you are making, if you don't give a shit about the game and are making it just because you think it's going to make you a lot of money, well: first, it will be hard to find the motivation to keep going. Second, it might not even make you a lot of money and then you just wasted your time working in something you hate. In short: make a game you want to play. 3. Arguably the most important: Focus and work, forget the world outside, forget the internet, the social media, all this BS. Focus and work, have discipline, this is the most important thing in getting a game done when you are working alone or in a small team. 4. (I know I said 3). But on a side note: try to do things with quality, quality games are successful games, nobody wants to pay for "shitie" (unfinished, unpolished, bugged) games, strive for quality, you don't need to be a perfectionist, but try to make nice things. In the end, in the "word of mouth", this is what counts, if your game is good a player can recommend to his friend, and on and on, if it is bad, well. Then it's like a billion other games now flooding the market.
I 100% agree with you I want to make my 3rd person shooting game and now is a first person but its like an eternal game im making the same mistakes we all do how can I make I design document
Mine.. taking too much time deciding which engine was better than the other. In the end it doesn't matter that much.. just if you're new to gamedev it's better to choose something kinda popular so there are more tutorials out there.
yea a good friend said...."well how much is your time worth to you not to pay someone else?" i do everything myself but he made me stop and think...guy had a really good point.
A great example of execution over idea is all of the attempts to make a flappy-bird clone that sucked. The idea was so simple but capturing the execution of the original was so elusive.
Ed McMillen and Tommy (the programmer for Super Meat Boy) are 2 of my favorite devs. Anyone who thinks development is easy needs to watch "Indie Game: The Movie" to see the development hell they went through.
Yo Tim, awesome content, just subscribed! Do you know if you can make a 2D platform game that has layers of depth, foreground, background etc that move at different speeds along the screen according to how far they are from the camera, in a 2D Unity game build? tyrying to get started but also trying to figure out how to set it all up so it looks 3D, Thanks!
Man, I feel you! We have kinda the same story: When I was in college I was starting a game with a friend (which now he is a game developer) but we tried to creare something massive (big mistake). We quit, we didn't believe in ourselves and I moved to the web development world, my friend encourage me to keep pushing but I gave up (big mistake again). After 10 years of that experience my friend has his own development studio and I after talking to him I had a reality check slap in my face. Right now I am switching to game development again and doing the best I can to get an opportunity so I can do what I really love and I was denying it for a long time. I have to admit that I am scared because I am a 33 years old programmer so I do not what to expect, one of my main goals is to contribute to the game development industry in my country so it can be more studios, more jobs and great products created here. Sometimes I could go all in and with determination get an opportunity in a great studio to create the next Doom lol. Thank you for your videos and the knowledge you share with us!
Yeah I've done all ten of these. Also, those last three are just adaptations of the toolbox fallacy. I saw this video by Passion of the Nerd that explains it pretty well.
I have a feeling I should re-make a game similar to what I want to make. If I can clone the game, I will learn everything I need to do it the way they did it and then can make my own version of the game. I'm just afraid of wasting my time with it, since I would not be allowed to distribute a game that is a cloned version of a copyright game. The benefit to cloning a game, is that you don't have to be creative. All graphics, music, level design, controls, enemies, bosses, menus, credits, and so on, have already been done.
I feel "Not starting now" is the most crucial point. Why? Because developing a game is figuring out problem solutions. I put it off because I felt I wasn't skilled enough. Instead I just jumped in. Problem after problem, you end up solving or getting assistance. So start get to work and learn
Concerning spending money on premade resources, I think that for new game developers specifically, it'd be more beneficial to take that time to make it yourself. If you're new to the craft, I think gaining experience is more important than saving time.
The game I'm developing is inspired by the old yu gi oh gba games, its teaching me a lot of important things about programming :p So far I havent been too bothered about finishing a game.. so the past 4 "games" ive made were incredibly unpolished. I havent finished the video yet but I think it's really important to finish your games you will end up learning sooo much more I found I always moved on to the next project when the current one got too difficult to progress in, so I never ended up learning anything.
Let's see... Mistake 1: Done that! Mistake 2: Yup! Mistake 3: Dodged that. Mistake 4: T_T Mistake 5: Been there. Mistake 6: All I want is a second Monitor so dodged that(kinda) Mistake 7: I want to make my own stuff. The assets from the Unreal Market Place aren't really the kind I want. I have the Advanced Locomotion system and that's pretty dope. Mistake 8: Thought about it and almost fell for it. Mistake 9: I figured this out when I made my first app about which I had no idea about and didn't even know where to start. Mistake 10: Yup, took me like 2 years to start.
My mistake was using the technology that's popular instead of what's optimal for my purposes. Using Unity to learn 2D game program wasn't a good idea. I switched to MonoGame, which had less support and resources but it felt so much better. I'm "waiting 'til I'm ready" in the sense that I want to clone 20 games before making my main game that I want to sell. But I'm okay with that where I don't think that is a mistake.
I fell into the masterpiece trap for sure. The the biggest mistake is thinking that If I wasn't feeling inspired to working on my game that I was doing something wrong, when really it's more of a test of your discipline.
These more recent videos have been as smooth as butter - It’s like the information just pours into my eye-holes Also, an important thing to note about buying code: A lot of those 40 games that Edmund made, wouldn’t have been made unless he perfected his craft like you said. So before you go off and buy a bunch of code and Frankenstein it together, you should realize that sometimes you need the experience, not the result Just thought I’d reiterate for the impatient; Copy/Pasting code is how you become digital homicide 😷
how or where do i publish my simple game? and how can i monitor on how many people downloaded my game? where can i ask this kinds of questions with a high experience developer and help me? can i get any cash on my free games? i wish to ask more but im afraid of making mistakes
My first thing would be: Accept that your first game won't look exactly how you want it. You can't develop good enough writing skills, art skills, programming skills, sound-design skills (and SO MANY MORE) to make that _one beautiful, perfectly-translated game_ in the course of making your first game. Instead of thinking: this game is going to be excellent when it's finished, think: I am going to be so much closer to making an excellent game when this game is finished. Otherwise you'll get so discouraged you'll end up fridging it. Also: play lots of so-called "shitty" pre-indie games on itch.io and etc. You'll find a few you absolutely adore, in spite of a lack of technical proficiency. This in particular has helped with my not-good-enough issues a whole lot. x
I'd only disagree with #3 as ideas can be very powerful and shouldn't be downplayed, and I'm not talking about the seed idea such as "I want to make a minecraft game in space", I mean idea as in what ends up shining through your work, what you're saying with it - that thing can potentially elevate your business, and the medium of video games to new heights... also the idea is what ends up informing how to execute, what gets you up in the morning and excited about your project. So I'm not trying to downplay the importance of execution, but when I hear the sentiment that ideas are worthless I sense people are defining ideas in a limited way, and one can potentially miss out on what makes ideas so powerful and important. Cherish your ideas, nurture them, explore them - and of course find awesome ways to execute on them.
I love game development, I'm on my way trying to make a game, something that means a lot to me, you know? I guess it's quite hard to overcome the feeling that even if I'm doing my best, choosing where to start is really hard. First off, I've attempted to start with a 3D semi-linear psychological themed game, based in my own view of this world, but damn it's hard to acchieve something I can see and be proud of. Sorry about that venting, I guess I just needed to do so, real thing is and what matters for your video's topic is the following: My personal worse mistake and deepest failure is aiming to be proud of my creation. Even if it sounds stupid, I've been trying to make myself proud, to say 'My story is deeply reflected in this game', it's really hard to see something created by yourself, or even, in development, with a message to be heard and just staring at it with blank eyes, feeling it's absolutelly empty, the story can be well written and all, but after a while it's just like looking at something dead. Sadly, being quite a perfectionist, I tend to expect too much from myself and my work and it stops me from advancing, it stops everything around me until I feel it's good enough, bottomline is: the only way to look at your creation (in my opinion at least) is like a child, you just brought new life to this world, so mainly, it's gonna mean something for some and nothing for others...Is it possible for it to be loved by yourself? That's the question I'm asking myself nowdays as I develop my first indie game, 'Can I fall inlove with something that should be as close to a child as it is possible?' And that'd be my main mistake, I guess, not realizing how connected I am to the project itself.
If u are one of the person who does not have much time, then here is timeline u needed
0:26 STARTING WITH THE MASTERPIECE
1:29 RECRUITING UNINTERESTED FRIENDS
2:29 THINKING THE IDEA MATTERS
3:30 EXPECTING TO GET RICH QUICK
4:46 BEING AFRAID OF " WHAT IF"
6:05 SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY
7:00 NOT SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY
8:00 THINKING YOU NEED FUNDING
8:55 WAITING UNTILL YOU'RE READY
10:00 NOT GETTING STARTED
Thanks for putting my workflow in writing
welcome bro😉
Thank you!
great advice thanks.
you seems more active and your videos are having much more energy now, getting better Sir, congrats.
Ashwin Saharawat yah I see it ti
#11 I'd say is getting discouraged when you have to rebuild. Once I settled on a project idea, I'd get a few weeks to a month into development and then realize that I made a HUGE design flaw in a few aspects as I learned more about it and it would cause me to have to start over from scratch. I would get so discouraged cause I lost sooo much time and progress... but it happens. If it happens to you, it is NOT a waste. You learned a lot over the course of that project that will help you in future projects. I'd get discouraged and stop for a few weeks but then it became a struggle to get back into it... mistakes happen, sometimes you'll make decisions that you'll realize later "damn... I was wrong... i could fix it, but it's probably easier to just rebuild..." and there's nothing wrong with that. It's part of the journey. At least it is for me lol... don't get discouraged.
better idea (that I read in an article recently) is probably to release what you have and then make the rebuild as another game. Otherwise you just constantly rebuild and never release anything
Ali's VR Experiments good advice, but what i mean is that my huge design flaw would make it unplayable lol. so id have to start over. if it was just a graphical or small error I'd just fix it but, I'm still in the learning process. so large errors that kill playability are likely. maybe I didn't elaborate well enough but if someone makes that kind of error is when I was meaning to not get discouraged.
I have one that I noticed happens to people just starting. When you make your first game, don't get discouraged because you think the game sucks! I didn't think my first game was good at all (it was for a game development class) but when I saw other people's games and what they did, I realized mine was pretty good for a first shot at it. In my 4th semester, there was a kid who thought his first game sucked but it was pretty damn good and he put a lot into it. If you see that happening to others, in courage them to keep going.
1. Not Finishing a Project (That should be finished)
2. Not Marketing properly/at all
3. Not getting help
4. Not following the KISS principle
5. Not thoroughly testing
6. Not setting timeframes/targets to complete milestones
7. Not sticking to timeframes/targests to complete milestones
8. Scope creep (knowing when to stop!)
9. Going to detailed in the graphics (for a mobile game) - for optimisation rewards/offsets
10. Getting side tracked such as watching your videos (instead of focussing on delivering my creations!) ; p
Nice one! :D
Straight to the point. I like the editing and music cuts
Really great energy in this video Tim, I like the jump cuts and the fact that you are sitting up and square to the camera makes a big difference. Good improvement overall.
Never stop doing this, Tim. It's much appreciated feom us up and comers. I learn so much from this channel and it really reiterates and solidifies what I learn in the classroom as well.
Much better dude,
A lot better than the other day :)
I love your humor bro, you're so down to earth and it makes your vids so good to glean advice from, it's hard to seriously take advice from someone you don't relate to, it's very easy to accept your advice like you're a friend. That person that you are openly is the person I am inside and I mask it up crazy good. Seeing you be comfortable with your personality is helping me on levels irl
oh yes good advice and I was guilty of many of them. the saddest one for me is not having friends that share your passion to make games. it's funny because then I commit the mistake of waiting for the right moment to get started. I think many of us can relate to all those common mistakes.
Online game dev friend ?
I built 5 levels before I fleshed out all my character's abilities, only to find out that I had to rework 2 that didn't mesh well, which completely broke all the puzzles in the 5 levels I built.
So I'm fleshing out all the abilities before I finalize any puzzles
Thank you for the confidence buster. I'm currently struggling with the necessary knowledge for understanding blueprints and behaviortree and other things. At least now I know remember that I was doing this for fun. I'm 186 hours in my first project/demo and all that is done is the landscape. I'll just work my way through and keep on going and stop asking my self negative what if question.
The "what if" section was spot on. Great advice. I can tell you are really thinking these things through and speaking from the heart and I appreciate that.
You're the fucking best. Thanks brother
I have to say your recent vids are very well presented,i can feel that positive energy, i use to play your vids like a podcast but now i make sure to watch it properly, more power to you boss
My major mistakes are
1. starting with a software like android studio and unity before I even learned java and c# and when I was 14... (now i'm 17)
2. Asking some of my friends who do not like to play games to play my early day games which were nothing but clicking buttons...
I guess I came into this with the right mindset then because I figured that shouldn't expect to make my dream games that I want, even though I've written them down for future reference so as to remember for future projects when I can do them, but you're right, start small. I'm doing this alone, still learning a lot so I haven't built my first game yet, but it's getting there!
when i was 10 i told myself i need to finish college first and now that im basically done with college, i want to kms LMAO. why didnt i watch this video 10 years ago
Because the video wasn't released 10 yesrs ago
Wow been here since 2.5k subs... I believe that was back last july... Great to see you doing well. :D
One of the best videos I've ever seen in your channel, dude! Congratulations, you rock man. Nice to see you better. Greetings from a brazilian game dev here :D
A video targeting mistake #3 specifically would be extremely beneficial! Take me for example. I’m very new to this. I have a great project idea, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin making it a reality, let alone the steps after.
my biggest downfall is getting so caught up in the details before i finish something that it takes me forever. i need to deal with the big things and work my way down.
Man this video gave me loads of motivation, I'm a 3D art guy who really doesn't know how to start and what to do... I got some basic Ideas of what kind of game I'd like to make but it all feels so overwhelming and confusing. Just starting to realise that starting too late is not good... !
After almost an year and a half, I am here to say thank for the inspiration! This video pushed me forward and helped me a lot to finish my game!
Tip 10 hit me hardest, I always wanted to make games but thought it was impossible for me to understand.
The very last tip is exactly what I've been struggling with for years. Game dev is what I want to do more than anything in the world, but the fear of financial struggles always holds me back. I went to business school, and I have a lot of work experience, so I always feel like I could make more money in other ways and have a more stable future, but I know they wouldn't fulfill me in the same way.
When I was 7 years old, I stole parts from my dad's old computer parts bin and taught myself how to build a computer (a 286 lol) for the sole purpose of playing shareware games ($2 per game at the dollar store). I'm now 34 years old. I've started making my first game on the simplest engine: RPG Maker MV. I have no artistic ability, so I spent the money to buy all the assets I need (no stock assets). I left my job as a teacher and committed myself full time to the development of a game suited in size and scale to my one man team. Afterwards I will graduate to Game Maker Studio 2. Then maybe Unity. I've watched a bunch of indie game dev advice videos but yours is the first one that resonated with me. I only wish that I had started doing this sooner. Take my like and my subscribe.
Excellent advice, I have been guilty of alot of these and have started to get my ball rolling. Very inspiring and motivating!
Tim !!!
give us more like these hard core insights !!! its great that you share your experience with us, helping us not get into these pit falls.
we love that stuff, it keeps us move and never stop fulfill our dream to be game developers !!!
as always... thanks for the video :)
This video actually helped me thank you. I am actually in the process of my first game, an I’ve been working on it for 9 months. I do regret scaling it to big but I’ve learned a lot.
This is my favorite out of these last three experiments with your format. Keep it up!
the best part about programming is that by implementing a new feature you will typically break your code... in the process of breaking it you now have an opportunity to learn at no cost other than your own time.
Much better formatting now Tim! Great job!
Mistake #9 is my #1. Thanks Tim!
New game dev here. I'm at the point where I have a bunch of if statements for which sprite to display when and it's really ugly. Is there a widely agreed-upon standard for designing the character display set up? Thanks.
Great video man! You look happy and motivated again! That's awesome
Great advice in this video! I'm a retail scrub. I made a game and published it myself. If I can do it so can you. JUST START NOW!
I’m loving this boost in quality. keep it up!
That last one was literally me to the T! But for some reason now It seems way easier than I used to think
I feel that 10th one. Same story here, I let the world stop me for about 10 years, and I'm getting started again. Wish me luck!
Definitely had the same issue with recruiting friends to a new team.
And one more question, Tim, If I joined your patron, can I just ask you some question about gameDev, like e-mail or other social app? Hope can get your reply
For my first (major/legit) project that I've been working on the past couple months, the spending I'm doing is Adobe CC subscription, then for assets, I bought SVG Importer and two audio packages.
Not going to lie though, I've had these "Dev Management" days where it was looking through physical products and also managing my workstation such as cables, pc upgrades, etc.. Although, I guess these could be considered my off days as I do work on my project seven days a week even if it's just 10 minutes so that I have something for a blogpost.
I said this before, but meat with no bones cannot stand up. Thus, always start with the bones. Even if you have a plot in mind, you need to know how the game itself is going to run in order to be able to thread that plot around it. If you don't want to, then you should probably write a novel instead.
My game dev fail was to keep working for a year with a good friend, in a game that I didn't like and I was embarrassed to show, now, I try to make thing that I like to show, that's a huge improvement
Subscribed.
I haven't started any personal projects yet, I've done level design for my personal use on Quake 3, I've made shaders for it but I don't know how to code in a language yet.
I can make 8 bits sprites in Graphics Gale and animate them in Unity but again, without coding all I can do is reskin games right now.
I'm getting older and I feel like I don't have time or money for seriously expensive college classes these days, I dropped out of my program some time ago and instead have been using much cheaper online courses to develop my skills and I think that's a strategy that can work if I spend the next couple of years learning from those courses and applying the knowledge in practice projects.
I won't have a fancy degree but I am hoping to have portfolio of small but well crafted games that show that I do have those skills in a few years time.
I'll be watching your videos from now on as any source of aid on this path is of great use.
As for the kind of developer I want to be and my mindset, I want to make the kinds of games that I like and thus my audience will be gamers that like the same genres and features that I do. All I want is to eventually be able to pay the bills with them at some point in my life. I personally don't aim to be rich, just to live comfortably and in peace with a career that doesn't make me feel like my soul is sucked out daily.
Although, it may be that I'm too realistic, to the point of becoming somewhat pessimistic. I constantly worry about life passing by as I try to develop these skills. I worry that I won't be able to use these skills to pay bills for a long time and that's a little scary considering I need to find my own place soon and where I live is nightmarishly expensive.
Regardless, this is the career that I want. This is the thing I want to do everyday of my life. All worries aside, there's nothing I can do but walk forward until I reach the end of the path.
Thanks for providing resources to make it a little easier. Perhaps when I have spare funds and have my skills together enough to make small games I'll join your Patreon as well.
Just starting out, thanks for the list.
Man, you have some great content. I felt quite hit by the argument of not spending enough money, because I'm trying to learn to draw so I don't waste money on sprites and backgrounds. But you're absolutely right in that it's better to buy some top-quality art for cheap than to waste a huge amount of time learning to draw, at least in my case. Thanks man, appreciate it and hope you make more great videos like this ;)
My 3 biggest advices and the only 3 I would actually be confident enough to dare to advice:
1. Make something reasonably small that you can schedule and finish in reasonable amount of time.
2. Make something you legit care about. What does it matter if you have a super innovative idea for a mobile game that you think is going to make people spend tons of money in microtransactions, if you can't get it done? It's hard enough to get trough your "darkest times" if you do love what you are making, if you don't give a shit about the game and are making it just because you think it's going to make you a lot of money, well: first, it will be hard to find the motivation to keep going. Second, it might not even make you a lot of money and then you just wasted your time working in something you hate. In short: make a game you want to play.
3. Arguably the most important: Focus and work, forget the world outside, forget the internet, the social media, all this BS. Focus and work, have discipline, this is the most important thing in getting a game done when you are working alone or in a small team.
4. (I know I said 3). But on a side note: try to do things with quality, quality games are successful games, nobody wants to pay for "shitie" (unfinished, unpolished, bugged) games, strive for quality, you don't need to be a perfectionist, but try to make nice things. In the end, in the "word of mouth", this is what counts, if your game is good a player can recommend to his friend, and on and on, if it is bad, well. Then it's like a billion other games now flooding the market.
I 100% agree with you I want to make my 3rd person shooting game and now is a first person but its like an eternal game im making the same mistakes we all do
how can I make I design document
Mine.. taking too much time deciding which engine was better than the other. In the end it doesn't matter that much.. just if you're new to gamedev it's better to choose something kinda popular so there are more tutorials out there.
My masterpiece is two games away.......Tim Ruswick for M****R F*****G President.
yea a good friend said...."well how much is your time worth to you not to pay someone else?" i do everything myself but he made me stop and think...guy had a really good point.
Love the videos keep them coming, always helps my focus
A great example of execution over idea is all of the attempts to make a flappy-bird clone that sucked. The idea was so simple but capturing the execution of the original was so elusive.
Ed McMillen and Tommy (the programmer for Super Meat Boy) are 2 of my favorite devs. Anyone who thinks development is easy needs to watch "Indie Game: The Movie" to see the development hell they went through.
Love the way you explain the concepts/views you have!
Thank you Tim, seems like you hit the nail on the head with this video! Thank you very much!
Thanks for this video. Great boost of encouragement to the indie Game developers... like me.
Yo Tim, awesome content, just subscribed!
Do you know if you can make a 2D platform game that has layers of depth, foreground, background etc that move at different speeds along the screen according to how far they are from the camera, in a 2D Unity game build? tyrying to get started but also trying to figure out how to set it all up so it looks 3D, Thanks!
Definitely lack of focus for me, nice video thanks.
I would say (now I have no experience in game development so I could be completely wrong) mistake 3 doesn’t apply if you have a complicated idea.
Man, I feel you! We have kinda the same story:
When I was in college I was starting a game with a friend (which now he is a game developer) but we tried to creare something massive (big mistake). We quit, we didn't believe in ourselves and I moved to the web development world, my friend encourage me to keep pushing but I gave up (big mistake again). After 10 years of that experience my friend has his own development studio and I after talking to him I had a reality check slap in my face. Right now I am switching to game development again and doing the best I can to get an opportunity so I can do what I really love and I was denying it for a long time.
I have to admit that I am scared because I am a 33 years old programmer so I do not what to expect, one of my main goals is to contribute to the game development industry in my country so it can be more studios, more jobs and great products created here. Sometimes I could go all in and with determination get an opportunity in a great studio to create the next Doom lol.
Thank you for your videos and the knowledge you share with us!
Yeah I've done all ten of these.
Also, those last three are just adaptations of the toolbox fallacy. I saw this video by Passion of the Nerd that explains it pretty well.
Great tips, I found some that I did myself few years ago
Thanks you for this video. Extra points on Number 9.
I love that ending.
I have a feeling I should re-make a game similar to what I want to make. If I can clone the game, I will learn everything I need to do it the way they did it and then can make my own version of the game. I'm just afraid of wasting my time with it, since I would not be allowed to distribute a game that is a cloned version of a copyright game. The benefit to cloning a game, is that you don't have to be creative. All graphics, music, level design, controls, enemies, bosses, menus, credits, and so on, have already been done.
I feel "Not starting now" is the most crucial point.
Why? Because developing a game is figuring out problem solutions. I put it off because I felt I wasn't skilled enough. Instead I just jumped in. Problem after problem, you end up solving or getting assistance. So start get to work and learn
11. Stay true to your idea, don't let other people change your idea to fit their needs.
Great sincere content! Bravo.
Concerning spending money on premade resources, I think that for new game developers specifically, it'd be more beneficial to take that time to make it yourself. If you're new to the craft, I think gaining experience is more important than saving time.
The game I'm developing is inspired by the old yu gi oh gba games, its teaching me a lot of important things about programming :p
So far I havent been too bothered about finishing a game.. so the past 4 "games" ive made were incredibly unpolished.
I havent finished the video yet but I think it's really important to finish your games
you will end up learning sooo much more
I found I always moved on to the next project when the current one got too difficult to progress in, so I never ended up learning anything.
Glad I found your channel :)
Let's see...
Mistake 1: Done that!
Mistake 2: Yup!
Mistake 3: Dodged that.
Mistake 4: T_T
Mistake 5: Been there.
Mistake 6: All I want is a second Monitor so dodged that(kinda)
Mistake 7: I want to make my own stuff. The assets from the Unreal Market Place aren't really the kind I want. I have the Advanced Locomotion system and that's pretty dope.
Mistake 8: Thought about it and almost fell for it.
Mistake 9: I figured this out when I made my first app about which I had no idea about and didn't even know where to start.
Mistake 10: Yup, took me like 2 years to start.
Straight wisdom, dude!
Awesome video!
talking about the instagram and facebook bit i recommend watching the social network, should be on netflix
Run and jump. Mario vs. Mirror's Edge. Same idea, different execution. :)
gosh number 9 and ten are really inspiring!
I wasnt able to differentiate you and the fox game guy
My mistake was using the technology that's popular instead of what's optimal for my purposes. Using Unity to learn 2D game program wasn't a good idea. I switched to MonoGame, which had less support and resources but it felt so much better. I'm "waiting 'til I'm ready" in the sense that I want to clone 20 games before making my main game that I want to sell. But I'm okay with that where I don't think that is a mistake.
Great video, Tim. You're awesome
I love your videos, you are a great teacher for me
I think one of my major mistakes is not updating a game when I had an updated build ready (I never made that build public)
I fell into the masterpiece trap for sure. The the biggest mistake is thinking that If I wasn't feeling inspired to working on my game that I was doing something wrong, when really it's more of a test of your discipline.
These more recent videos have been as smooth as butter - It’s like the information just pours into my eye-holes
Also, an important thing to note about buying code: A lot of those 40 games that Edmund made, wouldn’t have been made unless he perfected his craft like you said.
So before you go off and buy a bunch of code and Frankenstein it together, you should realize that sometimes you need the experience, not the result
Just thought I’d reiterate for the impatient; Copy/Pasting code is how you become digital homicide 😷
Great piece.
how or where do i publish my simple game?
and how can i monitor on how many people downloaded my game?
where can i ask this kinds of questions with a high experience developer and help me?
can i get any cash on my free games?
i wish to ask more but im afraid of making mistakes
Omg, this tips are the masterpiece! Thank you Tim!
My first thing would be: Accept that your first game won't look exactly how you want it. You can't develop good enough writing skills, art skills, programming skills, sound-design skills (and SO MANY MORE) to make that _one beautiful, perfectly-translated game_ in the course of making your first game. Instead of thinking: this game is going to be excellent when it's finished, think: I am going to be so much closer to making an excellent game when this game is finished. Otherwise you'll get so discouraged you'll end up fridging it.
Also: play lots of so-called "shitty" pre-indie games on itch.io and etc. You'll find a few you absolutely adore, in spite of a lack of technical proficiency. This in particular has helped with my not-good-enough issues a whole lot. x
I'd only disagree with #3 as ideas can be very powerful and shouldn't be downplayed, and I'm not talking about the seed idea such as "I want to make a minecraft game in space", I mean idea as in what ends up shining through your work, what you're saying with it - that thing can potentially elevate your business, and the medium of video games to new heights... also the idea is what ends up informing how to execute, what gets you up in the morning and excited about your project. So I'm not trying to downplay the importance of execution, but when I hear the sentiment that ideas are worthless I sense people are defining ideas in a limited way, and one can potentially miss out on what makes ideas so powerful and important. Cherish your ideas, nurture them, explore them - and of course find awesome ways to execute on them.
Wow, this sounds like my story only I’m a few chapters behind.
thank you so much!
I couldnt agree more with #10, jsut get started guys!
#6 I need a bad pc: I'm developing a game with a simple graphic, but I want to be sure that my game actually doesn't need a 1000$ pc to work well, LoL
I love game development, I'm on my way trying to make a game, something that means a lot to me, you know?
I guess it's quite hard to overcome the feeling that even if I'm doing my best, choosing where to start is really hard. First off, I've attempted to start with a 3D semi-linear psychological themed game, based in my own view of this world, but damn it's hard to acchieve something I can see and be proud of.
Sorry about that venting, I guess I just needed to do so, real thing is and what matters for your video's topic is the following: My personal worse mistake and deepest failure is aiming to be proud of my creation. Even if it sounds stupid, I've been trying to make myself proud, to say 'My story is deeply reflected in this game', it's really hard to see something created by yourself, or even, in development, with a message to be heard and just staring at it with blank eyes, feeling it's absolutelly empty, the story can be well written and all, but after a while it's just like looking at something dead. Sadly, being quite a perfectionist, I tend to expect too much from myself and my work and it stops me from advancing, it stops everything around me until I feel it's good enough, bottomline is: the only way to look at your creation (in my opinion at least) is like a child, you just brought new life to this world, so mainly, it's gonna mean something for some and nothing for others...Is it possible for it to be loved by yourself? That's the question I'm asking myself nowdays as I develop my first indie game, 'Can I fall inlove with something that should be as close to a child as it is possible?'
And that'd be my main mistake, I guess, not realizing how connected I am to the project itself.
This is helpful, good advice! Thanks for the video :)
You're amazing man :D
Thank you so much.