When someone who has never made a game before wants to attempt to make their first, its usually some kind of terribly ambitious grandiose MMO, an open world RPG or some other dream title. Seasoned developers with the power of hindsight are often quick to jump in with their own thoughts about starting small, making Flappy Bird or Tetris clones, learning how to polish and release in a short space of time etc. These are all very sensible suggestions, and logically and practically sound advice. My head agrees with these, but I feel that my heart does not. I offer (my perhaps controversial) opinions on this. Based on my own experience in game making. - My advice? If youve got a massive ambitious idea like building an MMO or open world RPG, I say GO FOR IT. Dont waste your time building little casual games if youre really passionate about your dream project. Sure you will most likely fail the first time. And the second. And probably the tenth. And you will hate yourself for it. Itll carry on like this for years. But thats OK. Seriously. Its fine. Every time you fail, you will learn something new. And each time youll take that one step closer to your dream goal. - Making and releasing small casual polished games IS a great way to learn quickly. Dont get me wrong. But if your heart isnt into it, dont force yourself. Itll quickly become a chore. Youll stop enjoying the creative process and youll hate game development. - Do what comes naturally to you. After spending six months trying to get somewhere with your dream game, eventually youll hate it and will want to move on to something else. Thats fine. Youll most likely get the urge to work on something small, and that will come automatically to you, not because someone is shouting advice at you to do so. Maybe youll participate in game jams, or you decide you WANT to make a small casual game, because thats instant gratification as a developer. When youve scratched that itch, youll suddenly get motivated again to work on the big project again. - Its not about quickly releasing as many games you can. Its not about taking the quickest most efficient path to your goal. In my opinion you shouldnt be making games for other people either. Make games for yourself. Do what inspires you, and make games you want to play yourself. Its all about keeping that initial passion that inspired you in the first place. - Following my advice, this will take you years. Maybe even decades. But the process is fun! And if you keep it at, it DOES work. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I encourage all experienced devs to give advice to those starting out. But you have to let them make their own mistakes so that they can learn from them. Most devs will say start small and simple, polish and release early etc... but how many (experienced) developers have got to the stage of their careers and expertise following this advice themselves? Thank you for reading. Apologies for no TL;DR
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 12:25:57 +0000
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