No experience with unity is it possible to make a good game in a week?

Hi guys,

I have no experience whatsoever with unity, but after having my doubts clarified with the mono runtime security, I'm deciding to use this.

So is it unreasonable to expect to write a good game within a week? I'm a fast learner. What do you think?

 

It's unreasonable. Game development ain't like dustin' crops, boy.

 

Well I have watched the ball roll tutorial and space invaders game and pretty much sure I can bang that one out. The 3D games with rigged characters is more of an issue, next week we shall see but I've set myself that goal.

 

It depends on how you define "good game".

 

What is the rush? Why 1 week? Admittedly most of my projects have been 1 to 3 weeks just because I prefer small scope get in get it done and move on projects. It is a great way to push yourself to maximize your design & development speed.

But... it doesn't seem the same to do that at the very beginning before you have kind of foundation to build on.

Is there some deadline like making a game for someone's birthday or something like that?

 

No deadline, I just like to set myself hard tasks to complete

Better than at least 90% of the games posted in the WIP section, they're atrocious

 

Someone could in theory make a good game in a week but most likely it will be S***. Superhot, Receiver, gods will be watching you might be able to make an interesting prototype but thats about it really.

 

So go ahead and do it instead of messing about on forum.

 

Hey I've got a week, that's plenty of time to spare five minutes on this forum

 

You should be making games because you enjoy the process, not because you crave the end result. If you just want to hurry up and get it over with, then you are neither going to enjoy your life over that week, nor produce a very good result.

 

These are fair points, but I like to measure my progress with set goals. It probably is unreasonable to expect to create a good game in a week. But I did look at the tutorials to see what I'm up against. In my head I can see it's possible.

But perhaps that is because I'm a super fast learner.

 

Just work out some ideas, and dive in and make a game. efficiency and speed will come with experience with the api.

 

I'm also a very fast learner, but I don't think you could make a "good" game in a week.

A "decent" game. Maybe, I started with nothing, I've gotten decently far in a short amount of time,
If I hadn't dedicated to a more complex project I could have knocked out a more simple game within a week. However, it would have been somewhat shallow.

You can make something resembling a game in a week, even without knowledge, there's enough documentation to be able to knock something out, but it's going to be shallow. If you want to flesh it out, you need to spend time on it.

 

I can write a good game in about an hour. There would not be much game though

Anyway Ludum Dare proves that Unity is more than capable of producing a good game in a few days. The question is, are you?

 

Well, again, you need to define "good".

For me a good game has depth, which you cannot rush. But others may differ in their opinions and ideals.

 

Tetris is good. A line of sight burglar sim is good. I define good by if I'm enjoying it.

 

If that's true, then why are you here looking for our validation that it is possible? Do like Hippo said and make the game. You may think "5 minutes doesn't matter", but now it's ten minutes. And soon it will be an hour. Forums are a time suck. And a week is a very short time frame unless you have a very loose definition of either the word "good" or the word "game."

I think anyone here with experience will tell you that there is never enough time. You'll be wanting those 10 minutes back. Ignoring the advice that a weeks time table with no experience will likely set you up for disappointment is one thing, but subsequently squandering some of that week trying to convince us (or yourself) otherwise is another thing entirely.

Leave the forums for a week and go make your game. I frequently disappear from here for week or more at a time. If you enjoy hanging around forums more than you enjoy making games, then again, you are going to be in for a rough week.

 

If you look at badass inc thats an incredible game made in 2 days.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=2982

 

Wow if ludumdare's game is what you guys define as good judging by the graphics, put me down as this being 100% possible. Sorry if I offended anyone.

Prototype do you have screenshots, and what exactly was your progress in time.

 

Can't wait to see what you've done by next friday. If it's not very good after your lofty claims, you're to blame

 

If you like to measure progress in terms of set goals, the set goal doesn't have to be the finished game. You can take a game and break it up into parts and measure your progress in terms of completion of those smaller parts. Do that enough times and you'll end up with a finished game.

 

I don't know guys I was expecting you to link me a AAA game, haha, clearly we're on different wavelengths of what you guys define as good.
But yes, next week we shall see, I may look like an idiot

 

Well this was my last video log (everything is my own work but the music, which is nicked from Undertale because F*** that game is amazing). If you look on the channel I've recorded pretty much all changes I've made since I started.

Which is a hell of a lot more than I expected to accomplish over this time, started in the back end of September (worked during my spare time, which I don't get a lot of, not taking into account procrastination XP). So far I've been more focused on building the framework that I may one day make a game out of than actually make a full game. But when I started I knew literally nothing, I didn't even think it would be possible to do anything. With enough work, I think it can be done.

I haven't exactly been working on this solid though, this is what I do in my downtime whilst working towards my Chemical Engineering degree, so my progress over time is a little inconsistent.

 

Ah OK so these are the type of games you guys define as 'good'. Prototype that looks good.
Well done. I enjoyed watching, same with aiursrage.

However, I'm setting the bar much, much higher than this.

 

No. If you have no previous experience with the engine, give it 4 to 6 weeks. And that's assuming you have art assets ready - all of them, the game is fairly simple and you're good at programming.

 

This may be true but only time will tell. Getting used to unity and c# will be my biggest issue no doubt.

No offence but clearly we're different pages, what you define as damn good is soo far away from my ideas.

 

How many years of experience do you have as an artist? That is going to play a big role in your success as well. Given that statement, I'm assuming you aren't starting from scratch in all aspects of game development.

 

I would say I've fooled around no professional training, just self taught. But unity and c#, nil experience. Anyway time for bed. Thanks guys at least that in my mind has told me what I know is possible now.

 

Do you have any programming background?

Look, in one week without experience the best you'll be able to make snake or tetris, and it will be buggy and unfinished.

If you have "ideas", please tell people what kind of game you expect to be able to finish in one week with fresh start. I'm sure someone will gladly provide you correct time estimation for this kind of project.

Unless you're loaded with cash and can, say, hire 200 folks to work for you for one week, or buy half of the asset store, you won't be creating anything decent in one week.

 

He's probably young and ambitious.

Don't be too hard on him. He's about to get a good dose of reality.

 

Hey, I'm 20 and ambitious. I want to become world championship track runner. Can I do it in a week? No prior running experience, beyond a weekly five mile trot. /s

It's funny in a way - creative fields are the only fields that get these types of questions. Doesn't matter if it's writing or art. Well, except for music. Nobody would claim to be able to play a guitar well in a week, coming from nowhere. But that may be because people have more direct experience with making sounds.

 

Thanks for sharing this. Never seen it before. It is an excellent example of the power of interaction. All of the interaction (although simplistic) makes the tiny game world feel rather huge because there is so much to do.

 

Some demos you can tell right away that they have something.
Off the top of my head ludumdare- mcpixel, gods will be watching, titan souls, bad ass inc, party hard (from indiesvspewdiepie), superhot (7 Day FPS). Theres another luddum dare coming up in a week who knows maybe he will make the next "great game".
http://ludumdare.com/compo/2013/04/29/gods-will-be-watching/
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=2982
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=7984
http://gamejolt.com/games/party-hard/38699
http://ludumdare.com/compo/2012/07/01/mcpixel-the-ludum-dare-story/

 

I think this somewhat of an indicator of development speed playing a factor in success. There are many examples of games from Ludum Dare and other short competitions turning into successful Steam or mobile games. And it does make sense if there are people who can knock out these games in a weekend (figure what... maybe 40 hours max of development time for the 2-day jam?) that shows they certainly have the skills to create some very good games.

I'm also a big believer that pushing yourself with short time frames for game projects (or anything really) really helps you to improve significantly. You learn how to streamline everything as much as possible. How to focus on the important stuff. And just get things done. So after you've done that several times (maybe even a dozen times) imagine what you can make if you spend 3 months or 6 months or 1 year instead of only 2 to 3 days.

 

Most likely you'll suffer from severe burnout and create nothing interesting in that scenario.
There's a reason why speed coding competitions are almost completely useless when it comes to real programming.

Development of a product is not a sprint. It is a marathon. You need to outlast every single issue you encounter.
Sure you can create a prototype really quickly. However, then you'll need to polish every single thing in it. And THAT part will take 10 times longer, it will be also harder, because compared to intial fun prototyping thing will feel like they're moving very slowly.

Going back to OP question, the issue here is not that he wants to make a game within a week, the problem is that he expects to do that without prior experience and possibly even without programming experience. That kind of thing simply isn't happening.

 

I haven't found that to be true in my own experience. I work best when I am pushing hard against a deadline working in short sprints. It is how I have worked at jobs most of my life and I always excelled moving to the top of the ranks. By continually developing as quickly as possible I have been able to find dead-ends faster, prototype faster, polish faster, etc.

You are right that it definitely tires you out and immensely sometimes. My normal day consists of me developing at a maniacal pace for a couple of hours then stopping for a break for about 10 minutes or so. Then diving back in for another round. Sometimes it is for 2 to 3 hours straight. Other times it is for 30 minutes. It all depends on how fast I am working. By taking short breaks I recharge and can dive right back in.

And it has been very effective. Earlier in my career at one company I started shortly after 3 other devs had left. The company never hired new people to replace those people because I was developing faster than those 3 had together. Instead they gave me a heck of a raise. Although of course it was a big savings for them it was a huge pay raise for me.

Maybe it is just that some people work best that way under pressure always pushing as fast as they can.

However, I must say that yes by this time of year I am pretty mentally burnt out. I am in holiday mode and not working like a maniac now. I also schedule most of my vacation this time of the year. In fact, I am looking forward to my Christmas break and then New Year break to recharge my battery for the next year so it can all start again. lol

 

I made and published my first Unity game within 24 hours of downloading the editor. It sucked. I think I've managed to purge all records of the game from the Internet. I may have missed a copy or two.

I can now bang up a prototype for a new idea within a week or two. But the ideas that get kept still take months of further development to bring to publication. Most of them don't make it.

Guilty as charged.

 

I find that the forums tend to be more interesting when I am trying to work than they are when I am trying to goof off. I'm pretty sure you guys are conspiring against me. ;-)

Another issue is that sometimes I just get in a funk and would rather browse the forum than do anything that could be remotely considered productive. Right now, the only productive things I'm trying to do is watch some Houdini tutorials. But I still keep pausing it to come back here and see if anyone has replied to anything. Soon enough I'll snap out of the funk and disappear for a week or so again.

 

Currently game dev is goofing off for me. So it makes little difference if I good off with unity open, or if I goof off in the forums.

 

I finally have some money in the bank, so I at least don't have to feel horrible about goofing off. Still, considering I haven't even opened my development laptop for several days now, I probably shouldn't even consider watching a Houdini tutorial as legitimately work related. One of the things I'm working on is a VR game, so I'm sure when my OSVR HDK gets here the motivation will return. Then again, I figured I'd play around with the Kinect I bought for motion capture and I haven't even plugged that in yet. For now, I think I'll abandon the forums and the tutorial and watch the Brent Morin special on Netflix. Sometimes you just have to accept that you can't fight the funk.

 

You want to know what happens when you rush into something thinking you can do it, without the proper training?

 

In game dev? Absolutely nothing. This whole industry could cease to exist and the world would continue on pretty much unchanged. That's what made it attractive to me as a contrast to my day job. Nobody dies if I mess up here.

 

There's always the possibility you piss off some tumblrette. Them bitching can make you wish you were dead.

 

People even take Tumblr seriously anymore?

And by people I mean anyone over the age of 12.

 

Well, you talked about "long sprint" in your previous post. ("imagine if you could go for months or several" or something)
And working in the "sprint mode" for a month (or several) is different from working in sprint mode for few days or a week.

Mental overwork is a thing, results aren't very pleasant.
It is very easy to get fired up about some idea and "sprint" for a day, 3 days, maybe for a week. Beyond that it turns into "marathon"" mode and should be approached differently.

Also, sometimes you can't get fired up.

You learn bunch of new stuff, that's what.

IIRC there were several project that used "pissed off social justice warriors" as free marketing team. You could try the same.

 

Tsk, one week is easy man. Let's talk when you can do it in one day

 

Sure what's your skype

Just downloadding the unity development suite now. Wish me luck guys, thanks for everyone's input.

 

Half a day gone and you are just getting the editor? My money is on fail.

Good luck.

 

What about spending a week bying UFE UFPS and readymade models?