How to not suck at game development.

I sucked a lot all this while. Here's my experience/ plan of action. Putting it up here in the hope that this'll guide the thousand drifting souls that find it too difficult to make their first game. I haven't made mine yet, but i'm definitely not stationary now like i've been all this time. I'm moving forward. It's excruciating, this speed. But i'm doing something atleast.

I am a programmer by profession. Been writing code(read BUGS ) for 4 years now, mostly stuff that runs on Embedded Linux units like the music system in your cars. Doing anything other than my indie project now bores me to be honest, and i'd quit if i could. But it has helped me a lot. Script writing in Unity comes easy to me because of my background, and the only stuff that i need is the reference manual open. Organizing your code is an art according to me. Making meaningful modules out of the endless instructions. Incorporating a breathing space so to say, into your code, to allow future extensions and easy isolation of issues. And then there might be times where there's a decision to be made. More than one ways to do a task. Choosing the optimal one(there's no such thing as best) is an art. It can be daunting at first and it's important/ imperative that you fail at-least a couple of times before you come up with a design that makes sense to you.

Modelling used to scare the pants off of me. I remember watching endless YouTube videos on blender car modelling, blender for noobs, and then end up sitting there for hours just staring at the blender interface. It's not easy thing to learn by yourself, especially when you are a procrastinator. I've still only gotten as far as making cartoon-y objects in blender, but I've learnt more in the past week than the past 6 months. God bless that self organised intervention. lol.

Stuff that haunts every noob like i am -

1. Begin small. I cannot emphasize enough on this. Don't think of an FPS before you can play your own version of flappy bird/ pong. Also don't get carried away when you make your first terrain in Unity. It's deceptively simple. Everything else is not. Do not come in too hot. Manage your expectations. If you think you have the idea for the next AAA title, park it. Gauge yourself first with a small project.
2. Tackle one thing at a time. Don't be a jack of all trades. Organize concentrated sessions where you focus on specific stuff like OOPS, artwork pipeline, optimization. Get work done faster once you are well versed with stuff.
3. You are learning. Act like a student, be humble, be open and be receptive to criticism. Read a lot. Bookmark the forum and the blogs on here. Register at forums like Gamasutra and other indie resource sites.
3. Don't get addicted to Video tutorials. For a very long time i found myself watching endless tutorials on how to do stuff, and that had rendered me dependent on trying to find everything i wanted, instead of trying to do anything myself. Having ready made tutorials is a good thing, but don't overdo it.
4. Make a schedule. Many of you may not do this full time. Or you may. Discipline is necessary when learning something new. Failures are only going to weigh you down. It will depress you, and make you feel you can only play games and not create them. It is important that you KEEP AT IT, NO MATTER WHAT.
5. There's more to making a game than programming and artwork. There's resource management, version control, financials, publicity, legalities. As much as you can, collaborate. Don't go it alone. Asset store is a great place to do that. Buy stuff that is time consuming. Time > Money. Make resalable modules that can fund your rigs/ licenses.

Holla if you've gone through any of the above..

Regards,
manrock

 

Nice reading!
Thanks for sharing.

 

Very true ...answer to many questions on this forum.

 

Thanks for the post

The most challenging thing, for me anyways, is keeping with a schedule. I feel like true progress really only gets made when there are deadlines involved. That is what all the game jams are about right? They give you a deadline (the weekend, 10 hours, 1 month, etc.) to make a game. Problem with this is you just get small little games, but I am more interested in creating something more substantial and with more depth. I've already had plenty of practice creating clones of various small games, now I want to do something more interesting. The challenge becomes then breaking that larger project up into smaller pieces and creating deadlines for the pieces that you will be motivated to achieve consistently...

 

Agreed with points 2,3 and 4. However on point 1 I would say to keep motivated you need to choose a project that means something to you, so that you may actually finish it. Grabbing at low hanging fruit is no guarantee of this. You learn more with complex projects, but do not choose anything involving multiplayer as your first projects, that will just depress you.

 

According to me the challenge is much bigger than that. For instance, how do you measure completeness. My day job is driven by requirements and there is a distinct module to finish, and with detailed requirements describing what the end product should look and behave like. Your game is just an idea in your head and its constantly evolving and so are the requirements.(at-least for me) When do you consider it done. And how do you follow a plan amidst a dynamic environment like this.

 

Well said!

 

Thanks for your experience