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    Tips for solo game developers.

    December 02, 2021

    Tips for solo game developers.

    Tips for solo game developers.

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 03:59 AM PST

    1. Try to spend early morning hours working on your project. This is even more important if you are having other job besides game dev, if your work starts at 8 AM, get up in 6 AM and put an hour or two into your thing, this is the period of the day when you are fresh and have high energy levels. Worst thing you can do is to browse social media and news while you drink your morning coffee.

    2. Every day do at least something related to project. If you make a break for few days or weeks, there is a high chance that you will get out of flow, that your project will become a stranger to you and that it will end up unfinished. Ideally you want to make at least a bit of progress daily. There will be days when you are not into programming, and then you can work on art, and there will be days where you are not into art and then you can watch tutorials, and there will be days when you just want to play your favorite game or watch TV, well you can look for good ideas in your favorite game or dialogue, character ideas from TV show... list goes on. It is important that your project is at least in your head somewhere until you finish it.

    3. Create core document describing what you want to create, this is what game studios often do. This will help you to brush your idea, it will be a reminder of what is your goal and will help you to have easier time explaining to other game developers what your game is about. Here I created a template for you, copy the document and try to fill it out with info about your project. If you are struggling about what to write in one of those areas, it usually means that you need to think more about your vision in that area.

    4. Use assets from asset stores at least for mockup, if nothing else. Even big studios will take assets like nature, terrain or some generic props to fill their game. There are thousands of free ones in unity and unreal asset stores and then you also have places like opengameart. I can share more places if anyone is interested. As solo developers our time is limited and there is no reason to waste 5 days working on ground textures when you can get professional ones for free example. Yes, maybe you want to learn how to do that, but why not to compare your work to something already made by others. Yes, you maybe want to make your game unique, but why not taking existing model and edit it a bit to match your art vision. Save time where you can, you can always return back and rework those assets.

    5. Use version control. There are many options out there but I prefer standard git flow hosted on Azure Devops it is free and it has unlimited storage space. If your project is larger that few GB-s you want to enable GIT LFS also. Why is subversion here if you are solo dev? It allows you to mess up your project while experimenting and to go back. It is soft backup for your project. It let's you to go back into past and compare your project to see all the progress that you made. Maybe one day you will include more people and you will be ready for that, I can go on with reasons. If you are not using any kind of subversion and you spent on project more that few weeks, start using it, trust me.

    6. Separate your project into stories. You can use pen and paper or any online tool available like Jira, Git boards, Azure devops backlog etc. This way when you have an idea you can write it. When you are back to project after few days and do not know from where to start, you can pick a story. If you run into bug and don't want to deal with it now, write it on ticket or on paper and continue working on what you started.

    7. Keep it simple in the start, and do not over engineer it. Make core features to work in a simplest way possible, brute force it and then refactor and improve your solutions. Don't spend full month developing system for your game which you will learn later that you do not need, or even worse that will create more trouble than how much it helps. Build systems that you need right now and keep them simple.

    8. Get a feedback, early and often. As a solo developers we can easily become subjective and spend a lot of time on something which is really a bad idea, even more as project goes on. There are subreddits where you can post your game like /r/destroymygame or subreddit of your engine. It will give you some info are you on good path or not. Show it to your friends or family. Write the feedback down and try to implement what makes sense but, also don't be a slave of it. If one guy does not like your combat system, it is just one guy. If 10 people out 20 give you negative feedback about that combat system, maybe it is a time to rethink it.

    9. Market your game, while developing it. Most of the people will accept it as long as you are providing some relevant content with it. Here are some random examples: You can post it on r/aww if you have cute creature in your game and people will accept it and will ask from which game it is. You can post it on this subreddit as long as you share some of your personal knowledge with community and people will be ok with that. You can use imgur, discords, twitter, instagram, facebook etc. people will accept it as long as you are providing back something interesting to them. Don't underestimate off-line marketing also, talk to friends about your project, and they may talk to their friends and circle can grow. I will be making some interesting marketing stunts in next few months and you can follow how I make those on subreddit of my game. (You see what I done there?) We often do not have a lot of money for adds, so we need to be creative in this area.

    10. Don't chase latest technology. New Unreal/Unity/Godot version is out, should I switch to it? New packages are there, new IDE version, new 3D tools are out, new language library, new rendering pipeline is available... should I switch to it? Only if benefits outweigh the costs of transition. It is often expensive process, you will need to fix bunch of stuff which worked before, what do you get in return? Is it worth?

    11. Don't trust everything you read. You disagree with something I wrote, I may be wrong, write it down in the comments. You disagree with tutorial created by famous content creator? You might be right, maybe he created it like that because he was in hurry, or he wanted to look smart, or he does not know for better, or simply he serve the content which will attract people to watch it. Don't trust everyone, but also question yourself from time to time, more ideas you hear, better decisions you will make, little by little.

    That is it, hope it was informative.

    submitted by /u/lynxbird
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    How do developers test the minimum system requirements of their games?

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 11:40 AM PST

    Seeing as how most games are developed on high-end workstations, how do game developers determine the oldest and lowest-end PC that can run the game? I am more interested in how indie developers do it rather than triple-A studios with big resources for playtesting. I am thinking of making a game, and apart from a PowerPC Mac and a 1995 Compaq Presario that I don't see much need to support, the slowest computer I have access to is one from 2013. Is there a way to virtualise a low-end system on a faster one and run the game in there?

    submitted by /u/passengerpigeon20
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    How hard is it realistically to learn game coding

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 08:36 AM PST

    I'm new to being a game maker (super super new, I'm barely in high-school and haven't even open unity or any game engines, but I know what I'm gonna do and have made a bit a art asset and ect), but I have no clue if I can even start to learn how to code or if it's extremely hard, so is there any platforms for beginner coders or something along the lines of that.

    submitted by /u/Inside_Sky_3146
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    I Made an in-depth Tutorial on How to Create Your First Store Page on Steam

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 12:45 PM PST

    Can you point me in the right direction?

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 01:34 PM PST

    Hi all,

    I'm wondering if someone could point me to some resources which might help? I'm keen to create a game similar to to Theme Hospital/ Game Dev Tycoon, a sort of economic simulator and a sort of city builder based around a building/ a site that players can develop. I'm planning it for a long-term hobby, so I don't need overnight results.

    I've got some experience with coding, though still have lots to learn, but whenever I try to search for resources to help start me off it doesn't turn up anything.

    A book, some videos, a blog post - anything would help! Do you know any resource that I could use to start?

    Thank you for reading

    submitted by /u/SystemFantastic1090
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    Questions for game designers/narrative designers who have transitioned from other writing mediums.

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 11:47 AM PST

    Little context. Undergrad in theatre. Masters in Writing for Performance. Mainly a playwright (with some film and ttrpg writing as well) with about six years experience. Have got a published play and about seven other pieces with development/production history in that time.

    I've got two questions.

    1)

    For those that started out from a similar angle, how the hell did you set up your CV? I've been using the traditional playwrighting format (Show seperated by length, latest production, and number of developments/seasons) but I'm starting to question how useful this is.

    At this stage I've been trying to get around this by having my portfolio list synopses and writing samples for my best work, along with 5 writing samples (2 plays, 1 film, 2 homebrew designs). Am I somehow shooting myself in the foot? Should I be reworking my CV in another style?

    2)

    I'm pretty confident in my writing ability and given what I've found so far deep diving into GDC talks and Podcasts etc I feel like I'd have an relatively smooth transition into game writing/narrative design. But I'm starting to question whether or not it's more worth my time learning how to create my own game to fatten out my CV as opposed to sending off applications.

    If you had to choose between the two (submitting more job applications vs fattening out the CV), which could you choose?

    Follow up question, are writers/narrative designers of much use in game jams? I'd love to get involved in some of them but I really even find jams with "writer" as a sign up option so I'm often left presuming I'd be dead weight in that situation.

    3)

    Kind of an amorphous question, but what do you feel was the breaking point for your first gig? Did you change your CV up? Rework your portfolio? Or did you just end up nailing that one interview that came up?

    Long questions I know, so thank-you if you've taken the time to read this far. I'm reaching out here because I know so few people in the industry itself, and these questions are constantly gnawing at me whenever I send off another application.

    submitted by /u/H1nzey
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    2.5D game engine

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 01:53 PM PST

    So I want to make a 2.5D game and I'm in a pretty tough situation right now, I'm trying to figure out which engine I should use, I plan on adding a ton of things such as lighting, physics, etc.

    The choices that I've given myself are: Godot, Unity and Unreal.

    I'm having difficulty understanding which one would be the better choice, I know for sure Godot will give me more flexibility and allow me to implement my own coding which will be my final choice depending if any of you guys can't suggest a different engine or any of the suggestions just don't work.

    Anyways a quick run down of what I'm doing is, I'm making a pixel game I'm the same vain of previous projects by other indie devs such as "TimeOut" and "The Last Night" I have most of the graphics, art and writing for my project down but now I just need a proper engine to get all of this stuffed into to make my project a reality, so any help is greatly appreciated.

    submitted by /u/Junny-knoxville
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    How often should I post content on social media in order to promote my game?

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 08:41 AM PST

    I work as a solo game developer and I have project that is going on in development. As we know that it is really important to stay active on the social media in order to gain recognition or to create hype around your product. But at the same time it is also important to give more time to game development.

    Posting something on social media isn't easy as we think. You have to come up with really good ideas in order to gain some exposure. Moreover creating content for social media also takes time. So if I start posting content every day, I won't be able to give more time to development of our project.

    I just wanna know your opinion guys. How often do you guys post on social media in order to promote your game?

    What if I start posting content once or twice a week? Is it enough for me to promote my game?

    Thanks in advance 👍

    submitted by /u/SAunAbbas
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    Book recs for game directors & their inspirations

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 09:16 AM PST

    What's up! I recently finished the amazing books "Ask Iwata", and "The creative Gene", both which dive into the lives and inspirations of these genius directors. (Kojima, Iwata, Anno, etc)

    I can't seem to find many other books that speak the same theme though.

    I particularly love learning about other people's perspectives, how they came to be where they are and how they were led to see the world the way they do. Kojima did that excellently in "The creative gene". I was immersed in his deep, romanticized descriptions and stories, and it made me appreciate works on a much higher level

    What books do you recommend in this area?

    submitted by /u/damonb8222
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    About tilesets

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 11:23 AM PST

    I have a question about tilesets. Everytime I look into how to make graphics for video games I am told to use tilesets.

    My question is: suppose you are working on a pixel art game with hundreds of unique sprites and detailed background. Do people still use tilesets for that or is there another way to apply pixel art graphics to a game?

    submitted by /u/Boettt
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    Is a romance system necessary in simulation games?

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 02:20 PM PST

    I've noticed that games such as the Harvest moon series, Stardew Valley, and My Time at Portia have the option to have romantic relationships. If similar games didn't have romantic candidates, would it affect the gameplay? Or would the player still be able to enjoy it?

    submitted by /u/TheSodaConnoisseur
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    Any no coding game software that I can export to pc and switch (or other consoles)?

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 02:09 PM PST

    Ive been wanting to make a game for a while but I just can't learn how to code so I've found a few game engines that don't require coding, but they all export to HTML5 which most consoles don't support. Does anyone know any game engine that doesn't require coding and can make games for pc and consoles? Have a nice day.

    submitted by /u/Gloomerax
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    All this time later, do you think the indiepocalypse was real? Or was it an inevitable crash of a hype bubble?

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 01:44 PM PST

    I remember all these years back people talking about the indiepocalypse, and at the time thinking "yeah, downturns in the market suck", but looking back at it now - I'm not sure it was even a downturn. I feel like there was just a few big hits and now the market is a bit more saturated, but overall - nothing is over. Nothing went extinct...

    So what happened then? Did steam just greenlight everything and saturated the market? Did desire for indies or games in general die down? Did indies get boring because they just make platformers over and over? Did the accessibility of new engines like Unity make game dev too easy - and therefore the average quality of an indie game decreased?

    What do you think?

    submitted by /u/Potential_Audience27
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    Alternative environment for low-level game programmers (DirectX 12, Zig/C/C++)

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 07:44 AM PST

    How to start?

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 01:26 PM PST

    Hello everyone,

    ​

    I want to start develop a racing game like F-Zero. I have no experience in game development and don't know where to start. Can someone help me with good beginner tutorial for a game like F-zero. Or something that explains and combines the basics of coding.

    ​

    Thank you all

    submitted by /u/Blauwejas
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    Low Poly 3D Assets of Axes for Free

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 12:52 PM PST

    I made some low poly 3D assets of axes.

    License: You are able to use it for any kind of project that you have (commercial or not) : game, movies etc... or just for prototyping your level.

    Here is the link: https://gorlaks.itch.io/low-poly-axes

    submitted by /u/GorlaksGameDev
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    Is there a market for Pokemon-like games? I want to make a VR Pokemon-inspired game. I was wondering if anyone would want to play a VR game over a pixel art game.

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 05:14 AM PST

    Is there a market for a VR Pokemon like game? Let alone a Pokemon like game at all? I know TemTem is a thing, and it's pretty popular, but it doesn't have VR.

    Would it be better if I made a pixel art game instead of a VR game? What would be more popular, do y'all think?

    I'm looking at this from a business standpoint.

    submitted by /u/MissTF_
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    Where can I find a good sound effect library?

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 12:40 PM PST

    Recently I've been focusing on adding sound effects to my game, but I have no idea about sound design, resulting in a big quality difference between the sound effects and the rest of my game.

    So I wanted to know if there is any library (wether is free or not) to serve as a base from where I can modify and mix the sounds in order to simplify my creative process.

    I'm looking for spells, attacks, hits, footsteps and monster sounds mainly. My game has a cartoony style so the sounds have to match that as well.

    Something else that could be handy is a good sound design course, free or paid. So feel free to include those too.

    Thanks a lot devs!

    submitted by /u/SearchThe7
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    How To Create AI For Your RPG Game In UE4 | Introduction

    Posted: 02 Dec 2021 12:32 PM PST
    Read more
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