Things you need to hear when you start gamedev
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- Not all topics are big enough to warrant a standalone video. So in this one, I combine 3 different small (but impactful) things you should keep in mind when making videogames.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Nuggets of wisdom
00:28 Game length
03:20 You don't need a company
06:04 Don't blindly listen to me
08:26 Closing
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In writing, they say you have so many bad stories in you, and the sooner you get them out of you, the sooner you can start writing good stories.
My rule of thumb considering time is always; Whatever amount of time you think the game will take to make, multiply it by three. It WILL take longer than you think.
3 is generous 😅😂
To summarize: Make your game! Stop worrying about everything else until you have a game.
Yes, worry only about how to make your game. Or even don't worry for it as well and just do it and be happy. :)
Elite S tier advice you had there tbh: just make your game, dont bother too much with the biz stuff.
100% agree with this one, för reason i cba to write on my phone lol
Still trying to comprehend coding, but I understand where you're coming at.
Thankfully none of my current ideas are over 30 mins of game-play, just got to figure out how to code.
Great video, thank you for your work !
1:29 My all-time favorite game.
The last part is the best part of this video. :)
Liking this video (cause I'm already subscribed) to make Marnix feel validated and happy.
Completely agree on 100% that has been said, very well grounded on reality video
Thanks man!!
I been trying to get into game dev for over a decade self learning was using unity for 4 years just switched to unreal engine. Small is great if you plan to use all the functions in your dream game but I ran into a problem. I make all these games and there never the idea i wanted. I play crafty games mostly now and thinking i should just make a game i know the most about
ok now you need to re-do you game genre tierlist !!!
Marnix still has it out for Construct users :D
Just make my game. On it. Let's goooooo
whats the game that you show there? the action 2d with the girl?
7:08 - Heeeeey, I'm a Construct user! LOL I take that personally! (Not really. I laughed. Still grinning.)
Cool stuff, good advice...especially " you guys are still F tier" lol😂
Is it possible for a single person to make nice looking games with any knowledge of programing ?
An other questing is, are there any tools for Unreal or Unity with that you can build a simple 3d action rpg in just few days or weeks ?
Well, you don't need to know how to program to make art, which will be 90% of what will determine how your game looks.
If using Unity/Unreal, at least Unity you can use templates on the assetstore for a whole bunch of genres, that do a lot of the heavy lifting for you: assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/arpg-project-251134
@@bitemegames Thanks a lot for the link, never thought that so many templates exits that make everything much easier. ^^
What kind of Action RPG? The definition can be stretched quite far.
If speaking classic Diablo-like, but very small in scope, with few abilities, items and enemies, could be somewhat doable, but would probably be very bare-bones, more like a prototype or demo at best.
I'm working on something like that myself, and I spent over 100h just CONCEPTING all the hard gameplay interactions. And I'm not done at all. It'll probably need some iterations during implementation, so I can easily double or triple that.
The story is not that crazy important, but keep in mind, that story-heavy content is basically throw-away content. They play it once and move on, especially when concerning branching paths that some players don't even interact with... Quests are a thing that tends to bloat dev time like crazy with very little pay-off (well, speaking time-wise). Procedural quests help, but they also need to be somewhat sophisticated to not get stale quickly.
If you stretch the definition of ARPG to something like Skyrim... forget it. Even an area of just a tenth the size of such game will take you months, if not years to make.
RPGs, or even just adventures, are basically the hardest genres to begin with.
If you want to get really fast results, better stick to something like puzzles, platformers or stuff that more easily lends itself to repeatable content, maybe with more emphasis on the hack-and-slay, like a 3D shoot em up or something in between.
But like I said, a few weeks is a very steep deadline. Look at Sasquatch B Studios for example. They set out to create a simple rogue like in 3 months and are now what? ... 8 or 9 months in?
Also I'd like to notice that pre-made assets can sometimes feel a bit like a trap.
While it's nice to have production-ready art, but what they don't tell you is how it's been rigged, if at all, what kind of collision and/or pathfinding it uses, if at all, and so on... If an asset has only the slightest code or non-standard component attached to it, it can become a black box, that is hard to decipher, if something goes wrong, especially for a beginner.
This view might be a bit exaggerated, it's just my experience... I ditched some assets, because I didn't understand them. I might work way slower now, but at least I know what exactly is wrong when shit hits the fan.
Look up the story of the developer for 'Dust: An Elysian Tail'
One guy who was primarily an Animator and Artist. He didn't know anything about making games prior to the project and spent 3 years making that game.
They did a damn good job too, in my opinion.
Edit: They did get help in the end for porting to the XBox 360 (and the market) but otherwise they did the whole thing on their own.
🔥🔥
friendly reminder that there's still a game to be made ma man. The redemption ark awaits. It involves tons of kimochiiiiiii iykwim 😏 JFGDS LEGOOOOO !! 🎌⛲👰♀
Someone needs to point out that your first few games will fail. How impactful that is will be determined by your goals; if it's to gain a profit then you need to rethink your choice. But if it's just to learn or build something, go for it.
I think more devs would be content if they were honest about the likely success for their first few titles. But it usually starts with an unrealistic dream/expectation, and then disappointment once reality hits.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next video :) -M
Meanwhile I'm making a game as a first time solo dev with projected 40+ hours because I'm going to make my dream game and nothing's going to stop me... Doesn't mean it's not suffering incarnate 😅
I agree with him, do not subject yourself to this hell. Especially do not worry about making your game mod-able, I just lost 3 months trying to make my systems mod-able when I really should've just spent that making the actual game... Or the original idea I had of making a horror game. God I regret not just making that quick and easy horror game, I need the money. Oh, I say LOST 3 months because it's still not mod-able AND non-functional to boot! But, hey! 3 months experiencing the absolute limits of what you can do in Unreal. I'm half tempted to make a UA-cam channel mocking Unreal's rigidity.
"Quick" run down of things YOU CANNOT DO in Unreal:
-Do NOT try to use Maps or Sets within Blueprint Interfaces.
-Do NOT try to use Maps or Sets within Thread Safe Functions of any kind.
-Do NOT use Structs if you intend to change any of it's values later on, use Instanced Structs, side note: they are not thread-safe and will tank your performance.
-Do NOT try to make a voxel engine with Nanite. It's a nightmare. It will haunt your dreams.
-Do NOT try to layer more than 2 Functions within each other and then use Array Loop nodes within the inner most function. It won't work.
-Do NOT use hard references unless the hard reference is TINY and you're going to make very few changes to it. How-To videos constantly tell you to do it, DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM. You will corrupt your project file and lose EVERYTHING.
-Do NOT delete anything with a Reference to it. Replacing References scans EVERYTHING and replaces values even if it has nothing to do with the replaced item; you will break everything by using the automated Replace functionality.
-Do NOT delete variables that are referenced. They will become ghosts because the automated Replace will change your other variables and STILL fail to delete references. You will have ghost references that will corrupt your project file.
-Do NOT reference Structs within Structs. Structs corrupt each other by simply changing a single value.
-Do NOT use the default Landscape system. It is horribly inefficient.
-Do NOT try to make your own Terrain System unless you're highly skilled in C++ and you have zero intention of having cell gaps.
-Do NOT use functionality Addons. Exclusively use the Asset Packs. Addons with code break ALL THE TIME and you'll find it very difficult to modify them to suit your purpose unless you know exactly how to make the Addon pack, but then, if you know how to make it why are you bothering?
-Do NOT update to the latest Unreal unless every Addon you have is also updated. I don't know why, but even art assets struggle to cross over to a newer version.
-Do NOT try to future proof. It is futile.
-Do NOT leave Execution branches leading to nothing. ALWAYS add Log String or Print String with the exact Function and Object it is contained within as well as context for what it's doing. This will save you the worst heart ache possible as well as saving HALF YOUR DEVELOPMENT TIME. Your code WILL BREAK.
After reading this entire comment..., you good? -M
I don't even want to think about how many of those involved loosing days/weeks of work.
Hope you can get your game functional again without too much pain.
I've been putting function names in print statements too, so I can track down what is generating the log/popup message when it's time to disable it.
Definitely worth making a video/blog from your do NOT list, especially for those who have no idea what caused their Unreal project to corrupt itself.
@@bitemegames I'm good, I'm use to worse suffering than this so my attitude right now is BRING IT ON!!!
I'm half way through rewriting my Ability Framework. Considering it took me 2 months to initially write the dang thing and I started yesterday? I'm feeling pretty good actually. I'm glad I assumed I would take a year to learn Unreal before getting any progress done because it's looking like I'll need the full year.
I swear by my own engine 😅
As long as it's not construct 3 :) -M
pushing out small games is wrong imo. small games for learning yes. do not stain Steam with your unfinished games. if you do what everyone does you will fail. if you have the marketing budget you can do whatever you want. otherwise, you have to make a difference.
Unfinished and small are not the same. Little to the left and Unpacking for example have 7k+ and 25k+ reviews (both seem like their first steam releases so maybe their 1st games). U can totally make finished small scale game that caters towards certain audience and not flood steam with low effort trash. Just make good content rich small game. Horror games, puzzle games ,cozy games and card games can have enough interesting parts to make them unique.
@@samamies88 agreed
you'll drop dead somewhere along the way lmao
"Don't do gamedev"
honestly mixed feelings about this nugget of wisdom. for most people it's gonna be an attempt at a career that should have stayed as a hobby but most of us also think we have what it takes to make it in a very competitive industry. in the end only time and outcome and your own ability to self-evaluate will prove whether or not your confidence was well-placed
in the end success in any creative endeavor is gonna be challenging. but whereas making any single piece of art may take hours or days or weeks, making a game takes months and years
so if you are taking that long on your project, the time you spent should generate some return or else what was the point of it all? or just make unpolished game jam prototypes forever?
yeah idk. if we all had 1000 year lifespans maybe this would be less of an issue. in the end we are all just trying to feed ourselves and find fun ways to spend our time until we abandon this mortal coil 💀
This advice is just plain &%#@
Game dev is fun. You learn a lot while doing it. Even if you have no background at all, just simple games can make you feel happy already. And the more you do it, the bigger can be the next project.
Considering how many games are out there and how hard it is to get even an ounce of visibility "just don't" might actually be a good advice.
The advice nobody wants to see, but it's more relevant than anything else in my honest opinion.
Game dev is ruthless, the barrier to entry is paper thin, and you don't make a single cent until you've actually released.
But even after release, you can continue to make no money while spending years of effort on a project.
It has to be a worse career choice than being an artist at this point, at least you can sell individual art pieces. But game dev is literally hoping that a random market will not only look at your game, but bother to play it among the sea of other cheap games.