5 Mistakes That Kept Me From Game Dev Success (My Solo Dev Experience)
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- čas přidán 19. 07. 2024
- The most important aspect of mistakes is learning from them. But when you’re a Solo Dev, journey becomes much harder. Today I wanted to talk about the 5 mistakes that kept me from moving forward, so that hopefully you can avoid them and find success sooner.
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Timestamps:
00:00 The Struggle
00:40 Mistake One
02:20 Mistake Two
03:50 Mistake Three
06:00 Mistake Four
09:23 Mistake Five
11:42 What About You?
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Thank you everyone for watching! Like I mentioned in the video, I would love to know how to learned from your past game dev mistakes. When we share our journey with others, it can truly make the difference! Keep it up!
My biggest mistake I have to say is thinking I can do this while also cutting on sleep (5-6h every day) while having a full time job, 2 young kids (2 and 5 when I started a year ago) for about a year. Almost fell asleep at the wheel after a while. Taking time to rejuvenate yourself is important. Your mind sees more clearly, your motivation is sturdier.
Thanks for sharing this. I can totally relate-I don’t have a full time 9-5 job but I am a full time dad to two young kids too.
Taking time to rest is something I’m working on too. It makes a difference for sure. Thanks for being here!
I am a beginner and one priceless advice I got is to make systems not games. Later you will develop great skills to make full games
Such great advice. Your off to a great start, keep going!
Overscoping is a big one! Even with many years of experience in big software projects (as a dev), I vastly underestimated all the stuff that has to come together, when you're going solo on a game. I shelved one big project after a year, started from scratch, and am much happier with progres now, 6 months into that new project. But still - it's too big for my first release eveer! So, yeah, game jams are gold. One or two weeks to complete a game. I just spent another two weeks polishing one of the results into something releasable - small, casual, but: it can be released, just to gather experience. And on this scale, gamedev feels the way it should: fun, rewarding, intense, stimulating. If I had one advice for my younger self, it would be: Make the smallest possible game. Make it worth playing. Release. Repeat a few times. THEN go bigger.
Great video! As a solo dev myself (RoadHouse Manager) lot of these points resonated with me.
I think a one of the many mistakes I made was not realizing how important marketing is. I sort of thought/hoped when I started my game that if it was good it would just sort of get noticed automatically. But ya, marketing is almost as important as the game's quality is now, with 20-30 new steam games coming out daily. I also followed some bad advice (in hindsight) from another indie game dev video that said 'get your Steam page up as soon as possible' when I should have waited further into development when all the design details and visuals were more nailed down before launching it.
This is great insight. I’ve definitely found that marketing is so important and necessary.
Thanks for sharing and for being here!
- I don't hate any of my projects
- What makes me stop is my job getting intense
- Every time I teamed up, it was worse than solo. Last time I did it expecting the guy to bail so I wouldn't be mad at him, and it went just like that
- To get rid of "not invented here" syndrome I spent a couple of years using Construct. Finished a game there. Outgrew it into Unity, where I have 3 nearly-finished games that have been in pause for over two years.
It sounds like you've been through a lot with your projects, and because of that, you've learned. Thank you for sharing. Keep pushing forward and don't give up on your passion!
making too big a game and being a perfectionist sums up why I have wasted like 20 yrs of game dev. Ive dailed it back now "paused" a 12 yr game and am trying to make small 6 months projects. Great video and great advice!... keep things simple, dont overcomplicate, and lets make great games yay.
Great advice, I can relate! Thanks for checking out the video.
It's about inviting a player to experience something that you feel to be interesting. That, and also extensibility of the code, proper architecture allows you to continue your development, rather than get tied up in roadblocks.
I'm about to begin a prescription stimulant, and that should help me a lot. My biggest issues are procrastination because of anxiety, procrastination because I think I'll screw up any progress I've made, and procrastination because I genuinely don't have the energy to do it rn. Actively working on the first two with therapy and streaming, but still am getting around 20 when the sleep doctor gives me the test where "if you're above 10, there's a severe problem".
All the issues with perfectionism, and wanting to make an engine, and scope creep, I can't even get to. Because the 0h/d 2h/w model I'm stuck in doesn't let me progress anywhere near those problems.
Really excited for this, and thank you for the video!
Great video and nice game! I have been dreaming of becoming a game developer for years, and have been playing around with Unity and learning pieces here and there for many of those years. I could never complete projects, similarly to you, because of overscoping as well as other factors. Primarily the shiny exciting idea I was working on would become less exciting, while a new idea was much more exciting! A terrible cycle to be in.
About two months ago I decided to switch to Godot and make this channel about learning it by making small games! I only have two videos so far, one a month so far. But it has gone incredibly well so far, statistically speaking. I am doing what you are doing now, where I am not afraid to show stuff with all the flaws! (There are many) I am sticking with small projects and game jams for now, but I am excited for the day when I can start on my first commercial project! I am excited to get up to your current spot, and I hope and pray for success for both of us.
One piece of advice that has helped me is realizing that people who are successful don't rely on motivation. Motivation is awesome, it makes working super fun and productive, but no one is always motivated. You must develop discipline to work regardless of your motivation. I am still working on developing that discipline, but it's a process.
I am also excited to team up with some other small youtubers when I get a little more traction! Glad you talked about teaming up, even though I do plan on being a solo dev for the most part, teaming up on youtube with collabs and some projects will be a big help I think--both for growth on youtube and in gamedev skills!
Good luck to you sir, glad you are working your way up!
Thank you so much for this comment and for checking out the video!
This is all so true. Discipline is definitely something I’m working on in my game dev journey and in life in general-it’s not easy. I’ll be checking out your channel!
perfectionism is a huge burden, i know that because i fight with it every day and that results in taking to much time for just one thing to finish before doing the rest. What helped me is "it works, good enough, can polish it later when the rest is also working."
Definitely can relate to this. We all want our games to be as close to perfect as possible, but it just isn’t always doable if we want to make progress and keep moving!
Stay at home dad who makes games from home sounds like a sweet career. 😊
I'm grateful every day for the opportunity to do what I love while being there for my family. I never thought it would be possible.
From my own experience, I wanted to write remote chemistry labs during covid, but lacked the skill sets...so learn by making games. Paired with a friend who does all the game design, art, direction, I do the coding...3yrs in...many, many false starts...Unity and C#.
That's amazing! Is there anywhere I can play your games?
Still in the prototype stage...it has taken "awhile" to actually learn to code games. I got stuck two years ago. It took me a year to find a solution. I found a tutorial by Code Monkey which solved that problem and I am working through that tutorial now.
czcams.com/video/tq5nQI7iVs8/video.htmlfeature=shared
Some of these I've dodged. Others I'll need to work on. Thank you for the video.
Glad we can help and encourage one another!
Awesome work on both the new game and video! I couldn’t agree more on being solo dev and I also think being able to make mistakes is also some of the best part of this journey. Can’t wait for more content :)
Thanks so much for the support!
Its okay to take 10 years to get to this point as well. Everyone needs to learn lessons at their own pace
Thank you! I need to remind myself of this all the time.
I feel that's video I needed. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
what's helped me is shifting my perspective. idk about anyone else, but at the beginning my main focus was to attract all people with everything possible. Now I'm making a game that I'd want to play. Things have definitely simplified and it's now become my "escape from reality" so to speak. Game dev has changed my life since i shifted perspectives.
This is fantastic. I would also probably say that since your creating something your passionate about, its easier to stay focused, and continue working where some might get burnt out. Great advice here.
Targeting everyone with your game is always a mistake. Define a clear group of one specific type of person and make the best game you can possibly make for them. IE if you're making a game for people that really like speedy action games with intense spectacle and awesome boss fights, do you really need to throw in a fishing minigame?
Perfect! Just the advices I need to start my Godot and Blender journey. Definitely need to balance managing everything and think realistically in the long term.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've already encountered some variation of those mistakes in college, lol. Not saying it's gonna make things easier, but at least I'm getting better and learning something new everyday, and that's what matters most.
Honestly though, I really appreciate this video getting to my recommended feed, so thanks!
So glad it was helpful! I’ve found so many helpful ideas just from hearing about other people’s journeys. Keep going!
As someone that is trying to get into making my own FFT style of game, this video makes that dream seem out of reach. I have some passion, but I'm lacking experience, working a full-time job, and have a newborn...
I wish I had a team of 5-10 experienced devs under my employ haha
Oh man that’s not what I was trying to do at all! Everyone’s skillset and passions are different, but it can all lead to making great games. Experience is the best way to grow, for sure. Don’t quit! And congrats on the newborn! You’re in a wild phase of life. Enjoy that while you’re in it!
seven years? that's nothing 😂
I started game dev as a thirteen year old and released by first commercial game being 34.
I’m 31, I also started doing this as a child, but never released anything :D
You can make a big game as a solo dev but you need one thing... experience. That's what I learned the hard way as my projects now grow bigger.
So true. Experience means so much, especially if you’re trying to make something specific.
Good luck on your latest projects! I’d love to hear more about them.
Experience or a long term, itterative plan towards an end goal. If you have a particularly complex game in mind then you can plan smaller releases which include mechanics to be reused in the final project. The overall development time will be longer but you'll have very refined gameplay by the end due to releasing prototypes along the way as stand-alone titles.
@@KryyssTV What I meant is you with experience you'll eventually be able to tackle bigger projects with a much better knowledge and organizational skills needed to not get overwhelmed early on in development. Making smaller games when you're beginning can be good skill building for later on. Getting a feel for engines and understand good workflow. Having a long term plan is good too. Many smaller ideas for early games can definitely be translated and improved upon for bigger projects.
My biggest takeaway is teaming up.
Like I said, teaming up changed everything for me. I seriously can’t recommend it enough. Thanks for being here!
I think you didn't finish your projects because you didn't have a good architecture, and kept encountering roadblocks which eventually piled up and tied your hands. Proper architecture is difficult and requires thorough thought process, but it is the extensibility that allows to push forward.
Good insight! Thanks for sharing.
Can you discuss the data challenges you have with game dev? I heard some studios saying that don’t have enough data to improve their game but that sounds so vague
That does sound vague. Honestly, I’m not sure what they mean by that. Which dev said that?
I just hit my 10 years like 2 months ago. I just realized that the first 6 years were not fully dedicating in gamedev because I was still in the uni. Then I just started a little something around 2020 and made a big decision shifting from unity to unreal in 2021. So it's like I'm just starting for a little over 3 years. Not yet publishing my game but I'm confident that I'll be able to publish it soon. I mean at least I see that I could finish the game contrary to the past 10 years. Right think about it, I'm just fully dedicating to gamedev early this year so it's not even a year since I started for real
🤣
Congrats on hitting 10 years! There’s so much that you learn over time. Keep going! Thanks for being here.
It's a more than a year already since I started my game dev journey. Still very far from completing my goal... 😅
Keep at it! Goals don’t always get achieved fast. You got this!
Omg Katana Zero thumbnail
The best!
My only mistake is I am trying to be a jack of all trades but actually I have no skills in any of the needed topics. I do have tries and often making something out of curiosity and following tutorials for improvements but because I lack of skills I cannot basically done anything from scratch because the lack of knowledge. I am a visual type of person and need to see how others doing something to be able to make. I have ideas on what kind of games I would want to make but most of the games are not soloable and required at least 5-10 person. Actually trying to do some godot tutorial and check if I can improve some stuff without knowledge.
If tutorial games matters I did 3 finished one but if commercial games then nothing yet.
One of the most important things I always talk about is figuring out what you can do and what you’re not as passionate about, and then teaming up with others to help fill the gaps. It’s not easy to do everything alone!
Tutorial games count! And they give you experience for future commercial games. Keep up the work!
Thanks for your sharing. Could you share me the Discord channel for Unity?
Are you looking for a specific Discord Server, or just one that has Unity users?
@@SoulEngineDev I just need some Unity community to spend my time on. My dev life is boring.
If you found me in 10 years, we would produce quality games together) it's not too late)
Basically everything here can be boiled down to one piece of advice - be humble.
Don't do game dev because of some personal quest for fame and recognition else you'll become so hung up on making something, which you think will rocket you to stardom, but will in fact result in you either never finishing it or you're going to become a slave to your ambition which ultimately makes you ill, miserable or both.
Being humble is great advice. I’ve found that when we’re there for each other as devs, it’s a huge benefit to every one of us, for sure.
You are not going to get rich and famous off of game development, statistically, and especially if you're not in it out of love and passion. For two reasons.
One: people will know that you're in it for the wrong reasons. Your game won't be beloved even if it is successful, how are your fans going to be passionate if you're not?
Two: Fame is a fleeting motivator. Once you've released 4-5 games and gotten only a little traction on each, the idea that your games will bring you fame and fortune will crumble. You need a deeper reason to work to fall back on once the illusion wears off. Learn to appreciate the small things like the fact that you even finished a game in the first place, not a whole lot of people manage that
From Unity's data, the median game dev's income is $500/ yr. Lol! Almost no indie company makes any money. If game dev is your addiction, at least its not illegal. Keep on working cuz you can't not be a game dev!