A (very) comprehensive journey making video games
Set up for greatness, it’s time to try out some game mechanics. Let’s make sure something is fun before spending to much time on it. Prototype. Ideas are cheap. Worthless without execution.But fully executing shitty ideas is even worse. Let’s not do that.
Work has started. Local changes were made. Changes history needs to be saved and pushed to a remote repository. Congrats. You’re versioning now. This is where you make the switch between what’s saved and what you just did. This is also where you usually break things.
Going from game concept to playable takes planning. Prioritized lists of estimated things. All very acidic above-the-shoulders mustard shit. I can’t predict the future. Nor can you. So stop pretending. Start estimating. The right way.
Just created an asset. Don’t know how to name it…Don’t know where to put it… So it’s a naming convention that you need. A good search bar is enough you say? Still. A good folder structure would help. And naming assets consistently won’t hurt.
Failing Faster involves failing. Breaking things along the way. Then doing some damage control. Or at least Version Control. Free or cheap Backup code & assets Work offline Easy to use Console and GUI Git / Git LFS / SourceTree / Bitbucket Now you can break everything. And turn back time. As if nothing ever happened.
Free or cheap Professional grade Code in C# Code offline Great auto-completion Powerful debugging Integration with Unity Visual Studio Code It’s free. Say thank you, Microsoft.
A state of the art tool. Powerful enough to create a whole game. Used by professional game developers. Game devs, start your game engines! Free or cheap Professional grade Lots of tutorials Active community Fast prototyping Easy to learn Unity I know what you’re thinking. Why not go with Unreal Engine 4? I get it. …
List everything about the game in one place. Prioritize each item. Define related tasks. Sounds like a Product Backlog. Free or cheap Easy to use Fast set up Great UX Lightweight = Atlassian Jira Software If you are to do good work, you need to focus on what’s important. Because everything can be done. Just …
Make sure your game concept is well defined. And that you’re ready to throw it away. Because it’s going to fail. Just fail faster and don’t get attached. Heard of Fail Faster? No? Then go look it up. Yes, now.
You have an idea for a video game. And you feel like you should make it happen. Congrats, you’re a game developer now. Welcome to the games industry. But remember. It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.