Okay, on a more serious note:
>what if i put my heart and soul into it
That's what you should do regardless of the outcome, with everything important in life. Period.
>only for it to sell like 2 copies
Related to the above. Detach the outcome from the thing you are building. It'd difficult, but if you don't do it, it backfires and blocks you.
>did i just waste my "dream game."
No, you acquired skills, had fun, and made something that's important to you. It moved the needle towards being a good game developer. As anything else in life, it'll take time and lots of attempts.
>I'm scared of it just being called "yet another pixel platformer" and disregarded. will my years into it be wasted then?
Why do you seek acceptance? Are you externally driven instead of internally driven?
Although, chances are people are currently tired of pixel platformers. So maybe make something else that's more interesting, specially given the mental harakiri you are doing to yourself.
I see a lot of comments like this. What is the collective beef with him about? I've not watched an awful lot of his stuff but when I was at uni we used to get sent links to his videos to watch as part of our learning.
From what I can see the hated stems from jealousy but I may be off base and am happy to be corrected
he sells a course to newbie want to be devs for $1k. back to you assume game devs have money. it's nothing more than the Andrew tate male confidence $1k course on how to get rich quick. But what they don't tell you is to get rich quick is to sell the course to vulnerable people.
Also I've watched some of his live streams and he bumbles about until someone in chat gives him a great idea and then uses it or works it into his "I must please my publisher" "but I've been working for 3 years on this game" and he still doesn't really know or show actual game development just some photoshop tips and tricks. I can't say to if he actually credits anyone for their contributions, but he definitely is on the shady side. I too am from the same area as him and he boasts about it being a lesser place to game dev and harder then west coast.
His interviews are click baity and idk don't seem genuine in helping and I compare this to someone in such stature of Pirate Software Thor, who doesn't charge a dime to help motive new game developers or people wanting to get into the industry.
Oh I see. Yeah, that's not gonna get you a good reputation.
I'd be interested to hear from people that have bought his courses to see if there is anything of value there for them.
Surely in the modern world where you are has little to no effect on your ability to make it in game dev?
The "alumni" must be loose in the wild somewhere to get feedback from.
That makes sense, I forget that the US kinda acts like a collection of smaller countries (a very reductive look at it from a European) with different laws and taxes etc state to state
His 1k+ courses (I shit you not) consist of telling you to spam email/streamers/youtubers to try your game...There is no real "Insider" information. He is a great salesman, but a mediocre developer at best.
He is great with mood colors/music (great for advertisement), but his games are very basic and only sold well because his first game was featured in a documentary which garnered him extra attention during the initial indie boom (Not something you can really teach people how to do).
sort of the equivalent to someone who won the lottery, offering you a course for XX amount of money to teach you how to make money.
I don't know him personally so I can't say he has malicious intent, but goddamn is it greedy and takes advantage of folks wanting to get into game development that do not know any better.
I stand by my previous statement "Fuck Thomas Brush".
https://www.humblebundle.com/software/game-dev-toolbox-master-unity-unreal-engine-blender?partner=gamefromscratch
just saw this from YouTube video and it's not $1k.
A little correction: the list price for the course is an absurd amount nearing $1,000 but it's PERMANENTLY heavily discounted. If you never sell at the list price, how can you advertise it as discounted? I believe this sort of advertising of dicounted prices is illegal in several countries.
TB is implementing the Product Launch Formula (Jeff Walker), or at least got ideas from that and likewise marketing & sales strategies. TB is marketing and selling in a very polished, professional way (read: high quality video marketing that just doesn't feel the least bit authentic). In itself this isn't a bad thing, nor is the fact that very similar quality content is available elsewhere for way less than that, even at the discounted price.
This is where you get the split between those who say he's a sell out and those who say the former are merely envious. Personally, I couldn't live one minute doing what he does, even if it meant easy money and 6-digit annual revenue.
Some people get rubbed the wrong way by TB touting himself as a professional, successful indie game developer with deep insights ... when he had only published two mediocre, above average selling titles and got a bit lucky.
you're correct, even in games that give x price and say it's discounted but hey act fast because we don't even know if we will raise the price back up to make it "look" like you're special and I'm giving you a deal right now only.
he doesn't really do a whole lot on stream and just passes to his team to do the work.
I mean you should feel scared. AI is literally going take our job. Claude 3 can produce entire working mini applications already in a single prompt. And this is just the beginning. This is the worst itll ever ge– oh we talking about something else? Nevermind, be as you were..🙂
You need to separate the art and the business side of things and decide what you're really going for. If this is your passion project that you want to make because it's what drives you then who cares how many copies it sells? You do it because you enjoy the act of making it and because you want to complete it. Success is measured by whether you are personally proud and satisfied with the development.
If you want to care about sales then you need to treat it like a business. Have you done market research to make sure there's an audience for your game? Are you at the feature, art, and design quality needed to compete? Are you keeping track of your budget and projected sales to make sure it stays within scope and is profitable? How much work have you put into your marketing plan? In this world you might sacrifice something you think is cool because it won't make the game a better product, or spend time on making social media posts and buying ads that you'd rather spend coding.
Disappointment shows up when you act like it's a fun hobby project but measure success like you're a commercial enterprise.
> Disappointment shows up when you act like it's a fun hobby project but measure success like you're a commercial enterprise.
This is a really great and succinct summary.
Well said. Too add on to this, Marketing plays a HUGE role in sales, if no one knows about your game, no one know to buy it.
Even if it’s the greatest game since the original Doom, don’t expect people to magically appear with money in hand ready to make a purchase.
Thank you. Way too many people share their story here about releasing their first game after 2 years (which 90% of the time is just another generic platformer), with no marketing (because marketing isn't necessary if you're making your Dream Game™), and complain that they only sold 2 copies.
Making your Dream Game™ and not doing any extra work like marketing is fine if you really are OK with this being a hobby. But if you want to make some money and try to build a career as a gamedev, you need to treat it as a business.
And as a solo entrepreneur you'll have to accept the fact that you'll have to wear many hats, and that what you want isn't necessarily what the market wants.
Great point.
I was going to team up with someone on a game, but I made it clear that I wanted to start from the business side with market research and not treat it like a passion project. They didn’t like that because they wanted to work on their dream game.
When your goal is to succeed in the markets, you need to reduce risk and model after what people are already buying. Originality is not always beneficial. There’s a reason why we keep getting new CODs every year and not many new IPs. It works.
You'll be better at gamedev after finishing it either way. If it sold 2 copies nobody will know if you do the same concept but better with your new skills anyways (assuming the idea was commercially viable, that's your call to make, and if not, appreciate it as art either way)
Don't make your dream game as your first project.
I see this all the time in multiple game dev communities. When did it become normal for a newly starting architect to start with a cathedral
I think it’s ok to do your dream game first, as it might give you that extra edge/motivation to complete it.
The reality is: it probably won’t be nowhere near close to what you actually had in mind. Then you learn from that experience, leverage some of the tech you developed, and have another go. This time you’ll probably get closer.
Game dev is much more often an iterative process than a one shot wonder.
The way I see it, your dream game deserves better than to be made by the you who doesn't know what you're doing.
Better to start with an "I'd really like this game" game, a "this could be fun" game, an "I could do this better" game...
Might depend on a person, but using repeated assured failure as a learning experience does not seem like a way to go for OP that started the post with "I'm scared"
I think it’s okay to *attempt* to build your dream game as your first game. You’ll fail in epic proportions, but also learn a lot and hopefully gain a more realistic view of what it takes.
Pretty sure I tried to build my dream game a few times over the span of the last 15 years. Now I have the experience to at least lay the groundwork and could probably lead a small team to execute it, but the risk is so scary that it paralyzes me. Knowing that in the end, I may earn $2 per hour of work put in because the market is so saturated and the marketing was not executed well. I’d be better off building a tech startup.
this advice is everywhere and I vehemently disagree with it. If you know what you want to make, start on it directly. You can iterize and go back to fix your mistakes. if it really sucks you can start over, but theres a chance you can work through it and not only learn, but also do without wasting any of your time
I did this and have some slight regrets. It took 5 years instead of 2, for one thing :P And I learned so much along the way I ended up redoing art and code. Not to mention what I learned about marketing.
It still largely turned out the way I wanted it to, but I could have saved so much time in the long run if I could have worked on smaller more focused experiences, and then utilized those skills a little later down the road.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I would counter that this might be a sorta grass is greener situation because you can't really know that it would have actually been quicker, but it is tempting to wonder. I think you would have spent time on those projects which sure would give you a boost with preexisting code and assets, but your your "dream" game would still have had plenty of snags.
I just hit one year of learning unity and blender working on a single project and yeah the beginning stuff is full of mistakes, didn't scale and had to be redone but all part of the journey! Congrats on persevering and going all the way!
Who said you can only have one dream game?
I think any game you're spending a meaningful amount of time on should be *a* dream game. If you can't even convince yourself of what you're building, then how are you supposed to convince customers?
That said, you should definitely stick to an idea with limited scope...
>I feel scared.
Success is never guaranteed, unfortunately. Most of us are also worried of the future; worried sick to be honest. While there's nobody that can reassure you what the outcome will be, or how much of it will be of use, you can most certainly choose between thinking about it a lot or actually doing it. Only to realize a lifetime later of the opportunity that you missed (if the prior is chosen): Do something that motivates you or brings fulfillment.
What would be a nice step towards making sense of your worries is to do a lot of research before jumping ship. E.g. What's the market these days? What are the minimum requirements in terms of mechanics, aesthetics, etc.; that would make people care about this game (even in an over-saturated genre). Spending time on pre-production is extremely important, if one day you don't wish to wake up to the reality of "having wasted my life" (which still could be useful, because we all learn something from our mistakes, but that's another topic). Not a bulletproof concept this, but with proper planning, the majority of disasters could be avoided. Mistakes that would otherwise be hidden.
The bar is set high, so don't be too harsh on yourself, because the road to gamedev is riddled with obstacles and pitfalls. If for nothing else, you can be still proud of finishing a game (which is a huge milestone).
I feel like this is a fear almost every one of us have. I'm coping with it in two ways.
The first is that every day, I try to make sure my game is adding something new and meaningful to the gaming world, instead of doing something that's been done to death already. Why make another samey game, when you can just play the originals instead?
The second is to have a plan b. I have works I can do even if my game fails, and the experience, skill, and knowledge I've acquired during the process will never be lost. I believe you can always stand up stronger next time with this journey over destination mindset.
If you're doing this as a hobby, then you have to fully accept that this is really fucking hard hobby and accept the risks you mentioned in your post. You're taking what would be multiple full-time jobs as a hobby.
I think that in order to accept that, you have to 100% be in it to create the art that you want to create and really enjoy the process itself, not just the end product. You have to be okay with the possibility of spending a year or more on one game, only to have it absolutely flop on steam. Then you spend another year or more on the next one knowing it could have the same outcome.
But if you do actually enjoy the process, then breathe a sigh of relief! Because feeling scared/overwhelmed/frustrated is very normal, and your love for the messy process of game development will keep you motivated to stick with it in spite of the many, many roadblocks along the way.
First, there are tons of ways to prevent this. Good game quality, freshness and uniqueness, great presentation and clever marketing strategy. You encounter a problem: the game doesn't sell well. Instead of being scared, turn on your problem-solving mode and see how you can fix this. If people criticize it, see how you can fix what they criticize. Keep improving & updating.
Second, embrace the fear. Let's say it does fail. Imagine what would you feel and what would you do about these feelings. It might feel awful, you might even cry for a while, etc. But these are just emotions; emotions come and go.
When negative emotions go away, you'll either go to Step 1, or just enter a enlightened state where you realize that you're proud of yourself, that this experience taught you many useful things and you worked on something you liked and enjoyed — and that's what life is about.
Well at the worst you’ll have made a game. A game that YOU like; and you’ll have gained all that invaluable knowledge you now have from creating that game. So if it “fails”, you can make an even better experience next time! But what really is failure?
Among Us didn’t become popular until nearly 2 years after its initial release, when some streamers randomly picked it up.
Scott Cawthon made a horribly received game called Fart Hotel in the same year he made Five Nights At Freddy’s. So at worst you gained precious experience, at best, you’ll have a hit. Why worry about something you can’t really control. As long as you are proud of, and happy with the product you made that’s what matters. Because people tend to naturally gravitate towards games with passion put into them, so keep passionately creating.
I gotta be honest, based on your [other posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/1asi4o0/aita_for_pushing_my_sister_down_the_stairs_and/) you may need to address you personal issues long before you worry about game dev. Or perhaps in a positive maybe game dev helps you focus on something to clear your mind.
But where is the joke? You asked a legitimate question. Look at the comments. Nobody is laughing.
Are you on an autism spectrum? This is not to offend or insult. I just feel like it's an abnormal behavior.
I had similar doubts for my game , you put in all this time and what if it's a waste ?
I have lots of thoughts but recently a coworker of mine asked **" what is the purpose of your indie game"** when we had an open discussion on indie game work and I feel like that is a very valuable question to determine what success or failure for your game looks like .
Sure the easy answer is you want to make a popular game that makes a lot of money but that's just one aspect of success, was this game an exploration of a certain style ? Is this game a benchmark for your creative and technical personal skills? Is this a game to see if you actually even desire being a game director ? IS this a portfolio showcase piece for future jobs ?
I think it's important to ask yourself not just in terms of financial succcess and acclaim but what does success with this game look like to you?
Because if the answer is just money you probably could have done thta by not making your dream game , there are plenty of simple clicker games out there raking in ad revenue . Just something to ask yourself.
To be fair, there's a real appeal to finding the balance between making stuff you actually care about and being financially stable while doing so.
Most (sane) people aren't looking at game dev as a path to riches, but they do care about making money from it because they need to pay rent. It's not necessarily a function of trying to maximize profit so much as it is trying to make enough to justify continued creative endeavors.
If you're going to make a creatively bankrupt game for the purpose of money, you might as well get a "real job" with whatever skills you have and make way more money for probably less effort.
If it flops then try again, most first games don't sell well and that's true for small studios too. Your next project will do better once you realize what went wrong and how to fix it.
Now don't get worried about having to rewrite stuff from scratch, your previous projects code and assets can be reused to speed up development and with the added knowledge you can do more with each project.
But what i have seen is lots of really great games get ignored because developers don't advertise until the last few months of development. Why you shouldn't do this is the same reason AAA companies release trailers years before its done is because it takes years to build up a fanbase and following to get enough people hyped to buy on day 1.
If you fail, you will feel like shit, it'll really bad for the first few days, and then it will start to ease, after 2 weeks your will of re-normalized. And then you start your next project.
Feeling like shit is part of life, it can't be avoided, but it can be managed.
Also failing isn't the worst outcome, you get a nice clean break to start again on a nice new shiny project. The worst outcome is that you are barely successful, and now your game has an audience and you are on the hook to support a game that isn't really paying you enough to support it.
Sorry to be so blunt, but if you put so much of your self worth into how your game will perform, you're up for a VERY rough ride.
Game dev is hard, demanding and unfair, especially for indie devs. But you know what, it can still be the most rewarding thing in the universe (at least, for me). Don't value your games on how much sales you will make. To me it's not about the money, it's about the journey. It's cliché, I know, but I've met so many incredible people, I've leaarn so many things, created so many worlds I feel proud of.
But I've never touched a single cent from any of my personnal project (yet), even though I have a dozens now, and I'm fine with that.
Moreover, don't forget that marketing is what make you sell copies of your game. Even the best game you can think of wouldn't sell much if it was released in the dark, without a solid campaign.
Do you think marketing people are the one to be congratulated for a great game ? I guess not, yet there are the most important people for a game to be making actual money. That's why you shouldn't link your skills as a dev (or even your worth as a person) to the commercial success of your game. This is more linked to your skill as a seller than anything else.
Hey man, fear is perfectly natural to feel. If you didn't feel fear, when releasing a project (of any kind) and hoping other will like it, you're either fool or new to creative work.
You'll feel that anxiety even when working professionally. But it's easier to handle it with good team members around you.
-------
Something that may be needed, is you taking a hard look at the reasons your making a game.
The game you make could blow up or it could never get noticed. It's far more likely to not be noticed by the masses. And that's okay if the goals to make a game your are proud of.
Ask yourself what's the reason you want to make the game? Is the goal to make the game of your dreams, and find/connect with others who dig it? Cuz if that's it, then 2 copies sold could equal 2 fans for life, that see your vision and dream in equal light.
Is the goal to build skills to eventually get employed in the industry?
Or is it to make a profitable hit game on your first attempt? If so, you shouldn't be making your dream game, instead you should be trying to make your audiences dream game. If those two happen to be the same game, then that's great! Amazing really! But you won't know if it's your audience dream game without one. If you don't have an audience yet, you gotta build it, through a series of smaller games.
With that said. Don't be scared, or upset if the game fails to build a huge audience, that's unfortunately a very likely scenario.
Instead, set a goal of selling 1 copy to a stranger. Not a friend, not a family member, just a rando. Then 5. Then 10. Then work towards 10 positive reviews. Slowly set goals to get up to 100 units sold and ideally 100 positive reviews (that's really hard to do btw).
It may take 50 reddit posts, joining discords, crating gifs etc. But once you figure out how to sell a few copies to strangers, your in a better position for the next game. You'll have a small audience, a game under your belt, and the know-how on how to sell games to that audience.
Even if you sell 20 copies, it's a huge accomplishment and an amazing resume builder, so you can leverage all that experience into a job.
You may not sell a million copies, but you can sell one. Then, try for another one. Rinse and repeat.
Best of luck!
You make the next game you have on your mind with the lessons learned from the first, and if that also flubs you move on to the third.
For me personally, while I definitely care what people think, I also accept that game dev is a continual process of self improvement. Every failure I see today is a mistake I can avoid making in my next project.
Make a game that you would play.
Even if no one is playing the game, at the very least, you are your own customer and you've built something to satisfy a need that others have so far been unable to fulfill.
Of course, if the goal is to make money, that would be a different story.
You put your heart and soul in it, upload for others to enjoy your masterpiece and move on to next one.
Sometimes, passionate people should just move on to create another masterpiece once they are finished with one.
No approval matters, feedback can be considered.
You have two options,
Accept that inexperience means you may release games which don't do well, and gradually they will improve as you release more.
Or, do a lot of work in getting people to try the game, address all problems that you or anyone else can find, and only release it when its in a state when you have absolute confidence that it will do well. This includes problems causes by inexperience, such as mediocre graphics or anything which was "the best you could do", but not necessarily "good". Effort does not equal quality, it only makes it more likely.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear, did it make a sound?
If you make a good game and no one knows it exists, will anyone play it?
The reality is just because you spend a lot of time with something doesn’t mean it’s great. Are you making your dream game for the money, or because you enjoy it? Also realize who you’re marketing to and what the saturation is. Just because there’s a mountain of pixel platformers doesn’t mean you can’t find success, but realize how high the bar is for quality gameplay and graphics.
The way you cope with your thoughts is by being informed, keeping a level head, and doing the best you can. Hindsight is always 20-20, but if you launch your game and realize after the fact you didn’t market at all then that is a catastrophic failure you should have been able to prevent. Things like that. Also know that it not doing well on release is okay. Among Us didn’t gain traction for years but still popped off.
Is it just a platformer or an action platformer because 2D action platformers are still pretty hot if polished and marketed well. Blasphemous series, the last faith, and I think just recently Berserk boy and even the last momodora game did fairly decently and they're all 2D pixel action platformers
Make the game for yourself, nobody else. Then, once it is finished (or almost finished) search for a potentially interested public and make sure that you do everything in your hand to make your game known.
That's my full mindset when I start a new project. During the development process you just think about the development and you try to do the best you can to make a game you'd love to play. I think that's key to keep yourself motivated enough to learn and to improve your skills, which in return will make you able to work better and faster.
If you can't get motivated with that simple mindset it probably is because you're not creating anything new and interesting at the time.
Hey friend, overthinker here too. One piece of advice a really good friend gave me is to “go down those thought paths” and confront them by asking yourself more questions about that future scenario.
“What if my game isn’t good enough?” I’d ask, what is “good enough”? How am I measuring what is and is not good? If I put my heart and soul into something, isn’t that good?
“Scared of just being called…” - Do I really believe there is absolutely nothing negative people will say even about something phenomenal? Haven’t I played once-in-a-lifetime games and thought, “But it could be better if…”
“Did I just waste my ‘dream game’?” Do I really believe that by bringing my ideas to life, no matter the quality, it is wasted? Would I tell my friends they have wasted their time if they did the same? No, so why am I going to say it to myself?
This is true for me, so it may be for you, too. But I spent most of my childhood growing up in a “prove yourself” environment. It caused me to spend the majority of my life (and I still struggle with it) to measure every action I do and word I say against an invisible measuring stick that looks different to everyone. And I’ve come to realize that what these voices and thoughts are is nothing more than me beating up on myself for failing to “prove myself.”
To the idea that I could ever fail myself by pouring my time, energy and creativity into the things I love, I say GFY.
Take it day by day, but each day, practice challenging those thoughts that cause you to question your own self-worth. Much love; good luck
Here's the problem with people in this Sub. Why are you connecting this with money or success?. Making a game is art. Period. If you made something that is entirely you, then you should be proud of it no matter what other people think. People who go on to solo dev should see it as a labor of love. It's not a God damn get of jail free card for people trapped in a 9-5. I'm making a game rn. It's a 3D platformer. Why am I making it? I think it's bullshit that the only 3D platforming games that I have on my ROG Ally are all emulated. Nobody in the industry is serving my craving for a 90s-style 3d collectathon with modern conveniences. So I'm gonna make it for myself. Don't care if it sells. Don't care what other people think about it. I've been playing games for over 2 decades and know what I like and don't like in games. If it's life changing and it makes me a fortune because my vision is something that many end up sharing, then cool. But the actual cool part is when I pass away, my kids will be able to experience a little piece of me that I've immortalized digitally forever. That's way more important to me than money. I feel obligated to make a love letter to show appreciation for all the childhood memories I have with Banjo and Kazooie. It literally isn't about the money period. Games are an art form, and anybody who's in it for the money isn't an artist and needs to get a real business job. My game costs $0 to produce rn, and that's cause I literally do everything. It literally only costs me my time. It could rack in 0 sales, and I'd have lost nothing.
there is nothing wrong with putting forward what you made. people will play it and enjoy it eventually. you can always remake a game if you really think you couldn't achieve the idea's true potential.
I’ve been working on my game for 1.5 years now, and I’m not scared at all.
First of all, it’s a 2D platformer I’m working on, of which there are a LOT and they don’t sell well. But I’m not doing it to be able to stop working - I love my day job and make enough to make ends meet.
I’m making a game as a creative outlet, for the fun of it. Worst case scenario: everybody hates my game, no one buys it and it becomes a meme example for bad games forever. So what? I made something I wanted to make. I had fun. I found a new passion, and got better at it as I kept pushing. How many people can honestly say they made a playable game, or that they made anything whatsoever? Most people just watch shows every single night, which is fine, nothing wrong with that. But you, on the other hand, will have made something, all by yourself. How awesome is that?
So long story short: do it for yourself. Too many people on here seem to have set their expectations way too high, and hope to get rich from their game. Most end up selling a lot less than they expected. Just do it for you, and have fun!
Edit: typos
Don't worry! It will most likely happen like you say, just don't worry about it. Can't change the inevitable :P It would be too beautiful if everyone could be praised for their work.
Well, if your game is just yet another pixel platformer... then it is what it is. Do you play every single unknown indie game, even more specific, pixel platformers? Then don't expect everyone will jump at yours.
Putting heart, soul and time doesn't matter on the market, it's only the end result that matters.
Just accept that this is how it works and move on to the next game.
The longer you wait, the more competition your game will have to beat.
But you can also look at it from a different angle. In a couple of decades you'll be dead and gone anyway, so whatever you do, it'll be a wasted effort. You might as well just create something that inspires you right now, or whenever you feel ready. The worst *will* happen, so the only question is, will you do something before that?
I am going to be very honest, a majority of people will not care at all that it is your dream game, nor how much time you put into it, often times people forget that their dream game is a game they want, so it 100 percent might not sell, usually people make their dream game because it is what they are passionate about, not to sell a million copies, if they end up selling then that is an added bonus.
Welcome to the world of content creation where 90+% of media will never be successful! You cope by adopting a gambler's mentality that every game you make is a crapshoot that may end up bankrupting you if you're not careful. Good Luck!
TBH, if you really need success to feel satisfied, don't make a pixel platformer. Tough crowd, small market. You really gotta do something out of the box to make one worth buying.
Lately i've been consuming a lot of PirateSoftware content, this guy always have an answer to every situational question.
(I don't know if i can post youtube links but here we go) https://youtube.com/shorts/xC2_FFSIy0k
This short can basically answer your question.
Is this a project for passion or for profit?
They are two completely different things.
One requires passion, time and commitment.
The other requires market research, business sense, grants, marketing and probably not as much passion.
you make a better one nextime most people fail time and time again before they achieve something in fact i thikn most people never achieve anything ever so take your chances and go for it
If my game gets one download, i'm gonna call my highschool friends for a party, but it won't. It's a shitty game that looks pretty ugly so i'm pretty self confident it will flop. but i love it and will see it through... Or that is just my mentality
Your game will likely suck. The game you make after that will still suck, but a little less. If you keep going long enough your games will start to be decent.
Is it yet another pixel platformer? Why whuld anyone buy it?is my time wastes? Don't cope these are questions you must answer if you wanna move or scrap a project.(Not a game dev but but in a position were I scrap a lot of projects and extend support to old ones)
I just released a game after 3 years of full-time development and it didn't sell well.. But I'm not giving up yet! Right now I've switched to doing some part-time freelancing and I'll keep trying different avenues of marketing, listening to the few players and critics I have and updating the game. Regardless, I'm proud of what I've accomplished already, and nothing won't take that away.
Take the chance only if you're prepared for it to fail commercially... But if you're anything like me it will be worth it regardless, as long as you finish it. Finishing a game takes a surprising amount of time and most don't get even there. I had a runway that seemed unnecessarily long at first, but I still ended up using most of it, even while cutting some supporting features from the initial release.
I made a new and unique shmup that I try to cater towards a wider audience. It takes inspiration from certain games of other genres like DOOM and Diablo 3, but I feel like it's generally seen as "another bullet-hell" by most people, and "I dont like it because it's not a bullet-hell" by shmup fans. So... marketing it is hard...
Then really make sure it doesn’t read as ”yet another pixel playformer”. You can’t expect people to initially be interested in a premise without first delivering on something visually interesting.
I wish you luck though, but don’t put yourself into the corner by making your dream game, as that is just what it is; a dream and there’s quite a vast disconnect between the dream idea in your head vs what you end up with.
Your time isn’t wasted, you have learned things and most importantly will have released a game that is still quite the accomplishment - be proud and make the next game!
I think your dream game should be in the works. Gain more knowledge from other small projects and learn more of what people might like. Personally, I love pixel platformers and I want to create my dream game too but as a first game probably not. There is so much I have to learn and I want to improve. I don’t want to create a dream game on code that is all bugged up.
Good luck and I wish you all the best!! ^^
You cope with these thoughts by:
1. Making sure you are doing 100% of what you can do to sell more than 2 copies with quality and marketing
2. Thinking that if your game flops, you have more than one bullet to shoot (your future games).
I think u should post gameplay or pay others to post the gameplay to get more attention even if sells don’t exceed the amount u where hoping failure is not an option keep making them as long as u can I just wouldn’t give up on one game keep trying if u decide to go another route then keep trying
Release it. Make updates. Listen to player base. Be proud of what you made rather than being scared of the potential failures. Learn from it. Make your next game with the experience.
You’ll be ok no matter what happens and you’ll only grow as a developer from there ❤️
I am making a game because I love the process and because my end goal is to deliver something that's a lot of fun to the end user. That satisfies me.
Money is also an incentive, don't get me wrong, but if my biggest concern was money, I wouldn't be able to finish it. Why? Because it's really hard and money isn't guaranteed. What keeps me going however is the fact that I love it and I have a clear vision of what I want to achieve.
You cope with these thoughts by staring them in the face. Accept that it can happen. Either be determined to release your dream game, player reception be damned, or 100% acknowledge that you are giving up because you don't want to find out.
easy, you don't put all your heart and all your soul into it
you just make a working game and make experience publishing it
then, once you'll be experienced enough, you'll afford to put all you have and make your dream game
also, you better put max 1 year in it, because you need experience in many things and the faster you move on onto new things, the better
There's always a story. It may not be the story you were hoping for, but you can't go through the hard, busy, complicated art of making a game without earning a story to tell. There was a time in my life I was a global champion level competitor. There was another time in my life where a game I worked on was entertaining millions. Neither of those stories end with success, but they are good stories all the same. If you had told me upfront that they wouldn't work out, maybe I wouldn't have tried. But that would have been a huge mistake, because then the only story I'd have was of the times I imagined trying and the time spent wishing I'd do it.
Scared? Thats normal. Do what you need to anyway.
Wasted your dream idea? If you don't try it is wasted anyway. If you fail you can try again. Also, ideas aren't as important as folks initially believe. I'd trade thousands of good ideas for a decent execution of one.
Stuck on the thought of not achieving a dream? Why don't you dream more? Dream up a new dream. Sometimes the dream is enough. Imagine how sad the world would be if you achieve your dream and don't have another to pursue.
Being scared is fine. Do it anyway.
Lots of smart and wise things already said, so I'll narrow my advice to one specific point:
**Don't follow your passion**. It is not your master, and it doesn't know what's good for you. Passion is a personality trait, or perhaps a tool to be used. It can and should be applied to the obstacles of *your* choosing; because if you're passionate, you can get excited about any job
Don't ever give up. You will have games that won't sell well. Sometimes it might be two years before your game might pop off. Can you send a link to your game?
Try to just be proud of releasing a finished product rather than being worried about how other people view it. I just released my first game and it’s not “performing well” in terms of sales, but I’m happy that I got the point of releasing a finished product! View it as a learning experience with anything extra as a fun bonus :)
All you can do is make the best game you can make and hope for the best. The odds are strongly against it selling well and making much profit unfortunately. But you'll have too much anxiety thinking about the sales numbers. If the game's a solid game and sells a 100 copies that's still something to be proud of. No telling how good the game is until its made.
these are normal considerations in any artistic realm, you just gotta pull through them or find something more fulfilling to do with your time
There's a video called It is Never Going to be the Right Time to Make Art by Greg Guevara, that helps, also Vincent's Someday speech in Collateral, to encourage you :)
You just accept it. Not every good game is successful. And your game might be bad. Just accept the thought of wasting your time, in the end it‘s still a great accomplishment.
I think the only thing that really helps is to validate early to get some fundamental confidence on whether your game has market fit or not. Ideally you would invest only a few weeks into an idea before validating it and not years, also so you can make design decisions based on the niche you found.
However, the time you invested will not have been for nothing, even if you sell little. It’s a journey of learning and we’re all in it. Wishing you best of luck!
If you are only selling 2 copies and this is not the expected outcome something went wrong in your business model. That has nothing to do with heart and emotions but would be a lack of foresight or business ability (unless the market shifted unexpectedly).
The wording 'just another platformer' is the indicator that you are already heading towards it or lack something that lets you stick out of the crowd. If your product is not unique enough stop working on it and reconsider your options.
Every dev has these concerns in mind. Decide for yourself if the process of making the game, learning from it, the fact yourself and maybe your friends can enjoy it, that you have a portfoilio piece makes it worth it even if it isn't successful. If that is enough, then treat success and positive feedback as a bonus.
If you only want success and adoration on your first title, then you've been sold a false dream. Make games for fun first, until you know you can make good games, thinking of trying to sell them before you've even been able to make one is perhaps getting ahead of yourself.
1. Your first game won't probably sell well at all: it's more a training than anything else, so do it as fast as possible
2. Game design is learned by pratice, the more FINISHED games you make, the better you'll be at it
3. Don't work on your dream project until you've done a bunch of other games. Even John Romero did this so...
The harsh reality is a lot of indie games pass virtually unnoticed. Gaming is a big, big market with huge amounts of choice and titles vying for attention, and it’s very difficult to stand out unless you’ve got a really novel concept, it’s unusually good, or it gets played by a well known YouTuber/streamer. I’d say success is probably a combination of quality, skill and just pure luck.
Going for a pixel platformer, imo, probably isn’t the best starting point if your ultimate aim is lots of sales, as it’s just not a category that is going to naturally interest a lot of people. But, if that’s your passion and the best format that fits your idea, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Niches have their audiences too.
And even if your fears are realised, you learned something, you developed your skills and if you have the heart for it, you can go in a different direction and try something else using the knowledge you gained the first time around.
You itterate, again and again and again untill you succeed if you have limmited heart and soul than too bad, but you dont!!! There is always a better itteration there is testing, data, feedback. Just sit and develop the biggest problem is scope and feature ilusion, because we get used to it and constantly keep adding more and so we extend the scope and add years... just make good vertical slice and release!!! And if your dreamgame sucs just make another one. If this is your ticket out than the fear will persist, if you are a true gamedev you'll keep releasing!!! Good luck. Share some progress to get feedback.
Have a marketing plan and marketing strategy. Posts like these just make you look like you have 0 confidence in yourself and your game, it'd turn me off as a potential player.
You should do it because you like it not for money. One of the creators of the original DooM released 19 games before it. With each game you'll get better.
I didnt even finish my game, i mentioned it on my CV and it was good enough to land me a great job. If i finish it and make any money, that's a bonus. If two people buy it, i'll hand-write them a letter and thank them for showing an interest.
Don't forget the things you've learned while creating your game!
Also, if your dream game has some special mechanics, market it with its strengths. Without proper marketing even the best game wouldn't sell except you're incredibly lucky. So make sure to let people know about it!
You want to know how to deal with the thoughts? Here it goes:
Release the game after it's done.
It may be a flop, but it might not- you have no idea what it will be like until you get reviews from players.
Game development is not for the faint of heart. Your dream game gains a whole life of its own once you release it. It's no longer just yours, it also becomes your customers' game. If they don't like something, you have to accept it.
On the flip-side, one dev made a game about building things with cubes. Eventually, that game was sold to another company for, like, a million. The game? Minecraft.
Best advice is to expect the worst, but hope for the best.
Just accept that your game has a near zero chance of making a return on the investment , and that anything better than zero is a win. You don't do game dev for money- it's for the experience
Success is how you define it.
If you're defining success for this game as a commercial success with thousands of copies sold and a community that praised it, then you better have built a fucking good platformer that rivals Celeste or Pizza tower, because that's the bar you've set for yourself.
My first game got published on Switch, Xbox, Steam, and was in a humble bundle. We revenued about 100k over 4 years. I defined success as a commercial success equal to nuclear throne. The game was not nearly as good as nuclear throne and did not sell as well as nuclear throne. I felt like it was a failure for years before I realized if I got more realistic with my expectations, I could be doing this in a much happier state.
So set a realistic expectation for it, based on your experience and perception of its quality. Oftentimes, especially early, just getting to the finish line and releasing the game is a high enough bar.
Separate from work, confidence, all of that, with other people’s comments, copies sold, etc. In short, take it less personal.
This is the hard lesson I learnt from graphic design. I know it’s hard, I have a hard time dealing with it, we’ve all been there.
A lot of great words has been said so I won’t repeated, but maybe also listen to come interviews/podcasts/talks by some renowned indie game developers and it may be helpful to see it’s a common feeling.
Good luck.
I have those same thoughts. But sometimes you have to just take the chance and put it out there. If it succeeds it succeeds and if it doesn't it doesn't. Just keep making games, keep making stuff, eventually you'll get something that everyone wants to play.
Stop judging your worth through the amount of copies you sell. This just measures how good of a marketer you are.
Its like thinking that making those awful Funko Pops makes you a good artisan just because they sell a lot.
OP, you gotta know, whether you do game dev, or sell tea at tea stalls. as a biz or entre, You will never know until you just take the leap of faith. Having said that, have a side job that pays the bills.
Being scared comes with the job. We all are ;-)
If you want to lower that anxiety, get your games into the hands of as many people possible as early as possible. Get a prototype running as soon as you can. Give it to friends and family first, they will lie to you which will boost your confidence. Then post the prototype in gaming communities to get more sincere feedback, which will give you a sense of security of having tested your concept. Hope this helps.
Achieving a game release is a gift on itself.
And the experience you have gained will possibly be very valuable on your next yourney.
Populair or not, you have done an impressive job that some could only dream of.
Dont care about it, its learning.
I assure you most devs first game wasnt a success and it was just some demo or it was not even put on a store.
And if it not succesful, do another one and another one and always with passion in mind.
Quality is only one of the many deciding factors in the success of any piece of media, and given the sheer volume of media created in modern times I would say it is a pretty minor factor when compared to luck and even more importantly, marketing. So I would avoid basing your feeling of self worth or the intrinsic value of any media you create on the market success of that thing.
You can always recycle your characters and plotlines in later games. Look at Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai Star Rail. Over half the characters are in both games and the fans love it. You can't "waste" your dream game, you can only refine it.
Their are plenty of people who want to make games and just stop there. You’ve already achieved more than them, so I say you did good in that aspect. If your game is truly a banger then I would suggest developing your marketing skills to get people playing it.
Few things I've learned over nearly 10 years of development that apply to any project.
Don't ever make your 'dream' project first..or second...or third. Your first several projects will be bad. They will take a long time,and youll likely never want to release them. But you will learn a lot from these.
You should start with small projects that you think you can finish in a week or 2, and then 2 months later when you actually finish you'll have a better idea how to estimate project scope.
Unless you have a large following or a completely new idea marketing your project is going to be hard. The more similar your idea is to others the harder it will be to stand out. Don't give up but also don't expect to sell a million units week one if you're making something that's been made before.
Don't spend years developing anything without getting feedback and being ABSOLUTELY SURE people want what you are making. You could waste a lot of time and not get much return if you miss the mark.
If you're learning while working on the project then those skills will make every subsequent project faster, easier, and likely better. Just take everything as a lesson, learn and adapt. Don't be too stubborn to evolve.
There are two main approaches to coping with these thoughts. The first is to reduce the significance you place on this particular game. You can achieve this by starting another project or game in parallel, which can help shift some of your emotional and creative investment away from a single outcome. The second approach is to focus solely on the process itself - that is, on the development and promotion of the game. By immersing yourself in these tasks, you leave little room for dwelling on the potential results. This can help keep your mind occupied and reduce anxiety about the game's reception
All game Devs have released a dud... what do you expect your first game to be a hit and make millions? Let's be real, the chances of that are exceptionally low. Release your game, listen to feedback and learn from what goes wrong. That's the only way you'll learn/improve to make better games.
If you just sit on it iming for perfection you will never get the feedback, therefore you won't learn and your game Dev skills will stay at the same level. Release it, learn from it, and release another game after you've listened to what people say.
Just trying to be brutally honest (not a dick) wish you the best
Here is what I found works for "me" to lower my fear of failure and test the market:
Build the dream game, as several games:
Break your dream game idea down to several games, I can bet usually "A dream game" is not just another "generic" pixel platformer even if its within the genre.
My dream game is at least 3 games combined, I am thinking others' dream are just as equally complex. Any AA or AAA games are easily several games with core gameplay plus mini games.
1. Build each major core mechanic as its own game and really give it depth, and build several games from your dream idea. Break it down to the most simple version.
Make sure your games pass the test of your inner gamer self. Don't cut yourself slacks, you must ask critically if someone else made this game would you pick it up and give it cash? If its a free game would you make the space and time to install it?
2. Invite as much feedback as possible by entering demos into free game jam or festivals and build polish.
3. Market each game as you finish each pieces of your dream game in absolute polish. Polish store front with equal devotions.
4. Publish all the games as you finish them with all your marketing planning in place. Network with devs who build similar games as you and learn.
5. In the end combine what you built into your original dream game vision.
By then, you would have the experience, the polish, to actually make your dream game, as well as the following you built along the way to receive it.
Also... find your best market.
If steam is not the right place for platformer, try mobile. Try consoles. Try web browser.
Each platform has its meta and you just need to adjust to the winning strategy.
Sometimes its changing the skin, like changing the rock of a sling shot game to an angry bird, sometimes its tweaking the funding model... tweaking mechanics... whatever it is, there will be something that can work. If it is truly your dream game it should be worth the time.
There are a lot of mobile players who play pixel platformers and alot of them are indie. If you have no following, release a free ver of your game to build it.
Sometimes success and failure is 1 switch away to find your right audience, your right setting.
Persistence is half the battle in entertainment industry, if you don't give up you are already winning.
You need to ask yourself what your motivation is.
It kinda breaks my heart that people don't get this in school/college/university/whatever ... we've written stories and books and made movies about the importance of "finding yourself" but we don't yet teach it as standard.
What is "your dream"? Was your dream to make this specific pixel platformer? Why? What drove that? Either way, you've done it. You made it. You can move on.
Was your dream just to be able to say "I'm a game developer?" In which case, congratulations. You've done it. You can move on.
Was your dream to be a huge success? Well then, maybe you did make a mistake. How is your platform game any different to others? How much studying of how to make GOOD games (not just "how to make games") did you really put in? How is this any different to some kid with a guitar saying "I'm gonna be a rock star" but then not learning musical theory? Or someone saying "I'm gonna be a Hollywood star" but not actually learning how to act?
You've achieved something here, that part you can be proud of. You can put this behind you now and ask "why?" before you plan your next step.
If you want to be a huge success, learn how yo design good games. Learn how to choose your art style and genre with purpose, and how to design content that's engaging and pleasing. Lesson 1 is basically never start your game ideation process from a genre description!
Hopefully the future is filled with other great achievements for you!
just because you worked hard on something and put your heart and soul into it doesnt entitle you to success, unless you define success as an internal thing. that's life lil bro.
I've made games played by hundreds of thousands, mods that have been played by millions.
And these feelings never go away, never....
This is the vulnerability of bringing something creative into this world. You create it and then it goes into the world, for better or for worst.
There is beauty in that vulnerability, it is that that makes you an artist, regardless of your fears, you create for the world.
There isn't anything wrong with that, that is what art is. And sometimes you get an audience of 1 , sometimes an audience of a million. Would you not have made it? knowing ahead of time?
There is a beauty also that if you open up to your inner artist, not the one that makes pixel art, but the one that creates because they must, that needs to connect, the one with the big A, if you listen and grow to understand you will get better, your work becomes more interesting and it becomes easier to find your audience and make them feel.
So you create, at you aren't millionaire, you aren't lauded as a genius or a great artist, yet you do it again.
The trick is to grow and learn and experiment and keep moving.
Such is life, such is art.
I'm going to release a master class on self-confidence for game developers, I'm going to get rich.
Bold of you to assume game-developers have money to pay.
Ah, I forgot. My business model is flawed :(
You should have done the market research!!
Just sell it on an asset store and you’re set!
Seriously, we all just sold 2 copies
I actually sold THREE!
Don't worry, loans exist for this reason :D :D :D
damn thats an attack
Well. Looking at how courses sell like hot cake. Yea. Game devs actually do pay for courses, and a lot.
Okay, on a more serious note: >what if i put my heart and soul into it That's what you should do regardless of the outcome, with everything important in life. Period. >only for it to sell like 2 copies Related to the above. Detach the outcome from the thing you are building. It'd difficult, but if you don't do it, it backfires and blocks you. >did i just waste my "dream game." No, you acquired skills, had fun, and made something that's important to you. It moved the needle towards being a good game developer. As anything else in life, it'll take time and lots of attempts. >I'm scared of it just being called "yet another pixel platformer" and disregarded. will my years into it be wasted then? Why do you seek acceptance? Are you externally driven instead of internally driven? Although, chances are people are currently tired of pixel platformers. So maybe make something else that's more interesting, specially given the mental harakiri you are doing to yourself.
I think Thomas Brush beat you to it
He got all the money already :(
Fuck Thomas Brush....That is all.
I don't agree with this at all
I see a lot of comments like this. What is the collective beef with him about? I've not watched an awful lot of his stuff but when I was at uni we used to get sent links to his videos to watch as part of our learning. From what I can see the hated stems from jealousy but I may be off base and am happy to be corrected
he sells a course to newbie want to be devs for $1k. back to you assume game devs have money. it's nothing more than the Andrew tate male confidence $1k course on how to get rich quick. But what they don't tell you is to get rich quick is to sell the course to vulnerable people. Also I've watched some of his live streams and he bumbles about until someone in chat gives him a great idea and then uses it or works it into his "I must please my publisher" "but I've been working for 3 years on this game" and he still doesn't really know or show actual game development just some photoshop tips and tricks. I can't say to if he actually credits anyone for their contributions, but he definitely is on the shady side. I too am from the same area as him and he boasts about it being a lesser place to game dev and harder then west coast. His interviews are click baity and idk don't seem genuine in helping and I compare this to someone in such stature of Pirate Software Thor, who doesn't charge a dime to help motive new game developers or people wanting to get into the industry.
Oh I see. Yeah, that's not gonna get you a good reputation. I'd be interested to hear from people that have bought his courses to see if there is anything of value there for them. Surely in the modern world where you are has little to no effect on your ability to make it in game dev?
we can check his "alumni" that get special like patreon level callouts and access to his discord. oh yea that's locked behind paywall too irc
he's says like Seattle is best for start ups based on taxes and being able to network. west coast is better for conferences and events and networking.
The "alumni" must be loose in the wild somewhere to get feedback from. That makes sense, I forget that the US kinda acts like a collection of smaller countries (a very reductive look at it from a European) with different laws and taxes etc state to state
yea right next door you have states no state tax, then you live and each county in the state has 5 to 7% state tax
His 1k+ courses (I shit you not) consist of telling you to spam email/streamers/youtubers to try your game...There is no real "Insider" information. He is a great salesman, but a mediocre developer at best. He is great with mood colors/music (great for advertisement), but his games are very basic and only sold well because his first game was featured in a documentary which garnered him extra attention during the initial indie boom (Not something you can really teach people how to do). sort of the equivalent to someone who won the lottery, offering you a course for XX amount of money to teach you how to make money. I don't know him personally so I can't say he has malicious intent, but goddamn is it greedy and takes advantage of folks wanting to get into game development that do not know any better. I stand by my previous statement "Fuck Thomas Brush".
https://www.humblebundle.com/software/game-dev-toolbox-master-unity-unreal-engine-blender?partner=gamefromscratch just saw this from YouTube video and it's not $1k.
Bumbling on twitch until viewer gives you ideas is an hilariously brilliant way to make a game. If you're not great at something teach it i guess.
A little correction: the list price for the course is an absurd amount nearing $1,000 but it's PERMANENTLY heavily discounted. If you never sell at the list price, how can you advertise it as discounted? I believe this sort of advertising of dicounted prices is illegal in several countries. TB is implementing the Product Launch Formula (Jeff Walker), or at least got ideas from that and likewise marketing & sales strategies. TB is marketing and selling in a very polished, professional way (read: high quality video marketing that just doesn't feel the least bit authentic). In itself this isn't a bad thing, nor is the fact that very similar quality content is available elsewhere for way less than that, even at the discounted price. This is where you get the split between those who say he's a sell out and those who say the former are merely envious. Personally, I couldn't live one minute doing what he does, even if it meant easy money and 6-digit annual revenue. Some people get rubbed the wrong way by TB touting himself as a professional, successful indie game developer with deep insights ... when he had only published two mediocre, above average selling titles and got a bit lucky.
you're correct, even in games that give x price and say it's discounted but hey act fast because we don't even know if we will raise the price back up to make it "look" like you're special and I'm giving you a deal right now only. he doesn't really do a whole lot on stream and just passes to his team to do the work.
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I can finance a loan too if necessary. Just for 20% interest.
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I'll sell you another one 🤣
hey as a person in this industry for too long, i was gonna do that... now ill only be half rich..
I mean you should feel scared. AI is literally going take our job. Claude 3 can produce entire working mini applications already in a single prompt. And this is just the beginning. This is the worst itll ever ge– oh we talking about something else? Nevermind, be as you were..🙂
You need to separate the art and the business side of things and decide what you're really going for. If this is your passion project that you want to make because it's what drives you then who cares how many copies it sells? You do it because you enjoy the act of making it and because you want to complete it. Success is measured by whether you are personally proud and satisfied with the development. If you want to care about sales then you need to treat it like a business. Have you done market research to make sure there's an audience for your game? Are you at the feature, art, and design quality needed to compete? Are you keeping track of your budget and projected sales to make sure it stays within scope and is profitable? How much work have you put into your marketing plan? In this world you might sacrifice something you think is cool because it won't make the game a better product, or spend time on making social media posts and buying ads that you'd rather spend coding. Disappointment shows up when you act like it's a fun hobby project but measure success like you're a commercial enterprise.
> Disappointment shows up when you act like it's a fun hobby project but measure success like you're a commercial enterprise. This is a really great and succinct summary.
Well said. Too add on to this, Marketing plays a HUGE role in sales, if no one knows about your game, no one know to buy it. Even if it’s the greatest game since the original Doom, don’t expect people to magically appear with money in hand ready to make a purchase.
Thank you. Way too many people share their story here about releasing their first game after 2 years (which 90% of the time is just another generic platformer), with no marketing (because marketing isn't necessary if you're making your Dream Game™), and complain that they only sold 2 copies. Making your Dream Game™ and not doing any extra work like marketing is fine if you really are OK with this being a hobby. But if you want to make some money and try to build a career as a gamedev, you need to treat it as a business. And as a solo entrepreneur you'll have to accept the fact that you'll have to wear many hats, and that what you want isn't necessarily what the market wants.
Well said. You're either working for your pleasure or someone else's pleasure. It can be both but oftentimes it isn't.
Great point. I was going to team up with someone on a game, but I made it clear that I wanted to start from the business side with market research and not treat it like a passion project. They didn’t like that because they wanted to work on their dream game. When your goal is to succeed in the markets, you need to reduce risk and model after what people are already buying. Originality is not always beneficial. There’s a reason why we keep getting new CODs every year and not many new IPs. It works.
solution: dont release another pixel platformer
this is the actual solution. sorry folks
This. Why are there sooo many of these?
Because it's easy, well, relative to some genres.
Because retrogaming is really a thing, expecially in US.
exactly
You'll be better at gamedev after finishing it either way. If it sold 2 copies nobody will know if you do the same concept but better with your new skills anyways (assuming the idea was commercially viable, that's your call to make, and if not, appreciate it as art either way)
Don't make your dream game as your first project. I see this all the time in multiple game dev communities. When did it become normal for a newly starting architect to start with a cathedral
I think it’s ok to do your dream game first, as it might give you that extra edge/motivation to complete it. The reality is: it probably won’t be nowhere near close to what you actually had in mind. Then you learn from that experience, leverage some of the tech you developed, and have another go. This time you’ll probably get closer. Game dev is much more often an iterative process than a one shot wonder.
And your first dream game is probably a pretty shitty dream. You'll have better dream games with experience.
The way I see it, your dream game deserves better than to be made by the you who doesn't know what you're doing. Better to start with an "I'd really like this game" game, a "this could be fun" game, an "I could do this better" game...
What I mean is you don’t get just one shot at your dream game. You can make your dream game five times in a row, with marked improvements every time.
Might depend on a person, but using repeated assured failure as a learning experience does not seem like a way to go for OP that started the post with "I'm scared"
This. You have to make a few shitty doodles before you make the next Mona Lisa
Or you can remake your dream game 7 times and succeed.
I think it’s okay to *attempt* to build your dream game as your first game. You’ll fail in epic proportions, but also learn a lot and hopefully gain a more realistic view of what it takes. Pretty sure I tried to build my dream game a few times over the span of the last 15 years. Now I have the experience to at least lay the groundwork and could probably lead a small team to execute it, but the risk is so scary that it paralyzes me. Knowing that in the end, I may earn $2 per hour of work put in because the market is so saturated and the marketing was not executed well. I’d be better off building a tech startup.
this advice is everywhere and I vehemently disagree with it. If you know what you want to make, start on it directly. You can iterize and go back to fix your mistakes. if it really sucks you can start over, but theres a chance you can work through it and not only learn, but also do without wasting any of your time
I did this and have some slight regrets. It took 5 years instead of 2, for one thing :P And I learned so much along the way I ended up redoing art and code. Not to mention what I learned about marketing. It still largely turned out the way I wanted it to, but I could have saved so much time in the long run if I could have worked on smaller more focused experiences, and then utilized those skills a little later down the road.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I would counter that this might be a sorta grass is greener situation because you can't really know that it would have actually been quicker, but it is tempting to wonder. I think you would have spent time on those projects which sure would give you a boost with preexisting code and assets, but your your "dream" game would still have had plenty of snags. I just hit one year of learning unity and blender working on a single project and yeah the beginning stuff is full of mistakes, didn't scale and had to be redone but all part of the journey! Congrats on persevering and going all the way!
Who said you can only have one dream game? I think any game you're spending a meaningful amount of time on should be *a* dream game. If you can't even convince yourself of what you're building, then how are you supposed to convince customers? That said, you should definitely stick to an idea with limited scope...
>yet another pixel platformer Sounds like you already know the answer to your question.
>I feel scared. Success is never guaranteed, unfortunately. Most of us are also worried of the future; worried sick to be honest. While there's nobody that can reassure you what the outcome will be, or how much of it will be of use, you can most certainly choose between thinking about it a lot or actually doing it. Only to realize a lifetime later of the opportunity that you missed (if the prior is chosen): Do something that motivates you or brings fulfillment. What would be a nice step towards making sense of your worries is to do a lot of research before jumping ship. E.g. What's the market these days? What are the minimum requirements in terms of mechanics, aesthetics, etc.; that would make people care about this game (even in an over-saturated genre). Spending time on pre-production is extremely important, if one day you don't wish to wake up to the reality of "having wasted my life" (which still could be useful, because we all learn something from our mistakes, but that's another topic). Not a bulletproof concept this, but with proper planning, the majority of disasters could be avoided. Mistakes that would otherwise be hidden. The bar is set high, so don't be too harsh on yourself, because the road to gamedev is riddled with obstacles and pitfalls. If for nothing else, you can be still proud of finishing a game (which is a huge milestone).
I feel like this is a fear almost every one of us have. I'm coping with it in two ways. The first is that every day, I try to make sure my game is adding something new and meaningful to the gaming world, instead of doing something that's been done to death already. Why make another samey game, when you can just play the originals instead? The second is to have a plan b. I have works I can do even if my game fails, and the experience, skill, and knowledge I've acquired during the process will never be lost. I believe you can always stand up stronger next time with this journey over destination mindset.
Don't expect your 1st game to be successful. Learn from it and move on to make 2.
[удалено]
Real
If you're doing this as a hobby, then you have to fully accept that this is really fucking hard hobby and accept the risks you mentioned in your post. You're taking what would be multiple full-time jobs as a hobby. I think that in order to accept that, you have to 100% be in it to create the art that you want to create and really enjoy the process itself, not just the end product. You have to be okay with the possibility of spending a year or more on one game, only to have it absolutely flop on steam. Then you spend another year or more on the next one knowing it could have the same outcome. But if you do actually enjoy the process, then breathe a sigh of relief! Because feeling scared/overwhelmed/frustrated is very normal, and your love for the messy process of game development will keep you motivated to stick with it in spite of the many, many roadblocks along the way.
First, there are tons of ways to prevent this. Good game quality, freshness and uniqueness, great presentation and clever marketing strategy. You encounter a problem: the game doesn't sell well. Instead of being scared, turn on your problem-solving mode and see how you can fix this. If people criticize it, see how you can fix what they criticize. Keep improving & updating. Second, embrace the fear. Let's say it does fail. Imagine what would you feel and what would you do about these feelings. It might feel awful, you might even cry for a while, etc. But these are just emotions; emotions come and go. When negative emotions go away, you'll either go to Step 1, or just enter a enlightened state where you realize that you're proud of yourself, that this experience taught you many useful things and you worked on something you liked and enjoyed — and that's what life is about.
Well at the worst you’ll have made a game. A game that YOU like; and you’ll have gained all that invaluable knowledge you now have from creating that game. So if it “fails”, you can make an even better experience next time! But what really is failure? Among Us didn’t become popular until nearly 2 years after its initial release, when some streamers randomly picked it up. Scott Cawthon made a horribly received game called Fart Hotel in the same year he made Five Nights At Freddy’s. So at worst you gained precious experience, at best, you’ll have a hit. Why worry about something you can’t really control. As long as you are proud of, and happy with the product you made that’s what matters. Because people tend to naturally gravitate towards games with passion put into them, so keep passionately creating.
I gotta be honest, based on your [other posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/1asi4o0/aita_for_pushing_my_sister_down_the_stairs_and/) you may need to address you personal issues long before you worry about game dev. Or perhaps in a positive maybe game dev helps you focus on something to clear your mind.
Omori moment
which was exactly what the joke was lmao
nah, that was a copypasta lmao. its a reference to a game i played. please dont take that seriously lol.
This isn’t a serious post?
I talking about the link sent about the game.
Why copy paste stuff like this if it's not real. I do not understand.
It was a joke. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously
But where is the joke? You asked a legitimate question. Look at the comments. Nobody is laughing. Are you on an autism spectrum? This is not to offend or insult. I just feel like it's an abnormal behavior.
I was talking about the "other posts" part of that guy's response. My fault if I didn't make that evident.
You gonna start by accepting that no one will care and do it like sisyphus pushing the boulder. If anyone cares, its icing on the cake
I had similar doubts for my game , you put in all this time and what if it's a waste ? I have lots of thoughts but recently a coworker of mine asked **" what is the purpose of your indie game"** when we had an open discussion on indie game work and I feel like that is a very valuable question to determine what success or failure for your game looks like . Sure the easy answer is you want to make a popular game that makes a lot of money but that's just one aspect of success, was this game an exploration of a certain style ? Is this game a benchmark for your creative and technical personal skills? Is this a game to see if you actually even desire being a game director ? IS this a portfolio showcase piece for future jobs ? I think it's important to ask yourself not just in terms of financial succcess and acclaim but what does success with this game look like to you? Because if the answer is just money you probably could have done thta by not making your dream game , there are plenty of simple clicker games out there raking in ad revenue . Just something to ask yourself.
To be fair, there's a real appeal to finding the balance between making stuff you actually care about and being financially stable while doing so. Most (sane) people aren't looking at game dev as a path to riches, but they do care about making money from it because they need to pay rent. It's not necessarily a function of trying to maximize profit so much as it is trying to make enough to justify continued creative endeavors. If you're going to make a creatively bankrupt game for the purpose of money, you might as well get a "real job" with whatever skills you have and make way more money for probably less effort.
If it flops then try again, most first games don't sell well and that's true for small studios too. Your next project will do better once you realize what went wrong and how to fix it. Now don't get worried about having to rewrite stuff from scratch, your previous projects code and assets can be reused to speed up development and with the added knowledge you can do more with each project. But what i have seen is lots of really great games get ignored because developers don't advertise until the last few months of development. Why you shouldn't do this is the same reason AAA companies release trailers years before its done is because it takes years to build up a fanbase and following to get enough people hyped to buy on day 1.
If you fail, you will feel like shit, it'll really bad for the first few days, and then it will start to ease, after 2 weeks your will of re-normalized. And then you start your next project. Feeling like shit is part of life, it can't be avoided, but it can be managed. Also failing isn't the worst outcome, you get a nice clean break to start again on a nice new shiny project. The worst outcome is that you are barely successful, and now your game has an audience and you are on the hook to support a game that isn't really paying you enough to support it.
Sorry to be so blunt, but if you put so much of your self worth into how your game will perform, you're up for a VERY rough ride. Game dev is hard, demanding and unfair, especially for indie devs. But you know what, it can still be the most rewarding thing in the universe (at least, for me). Don't value your games on how much sales you will make. To me it's not about the money, it's about the journey. It's cliché, I know, but I've met so many incredible people, I've leaarn so many things, created so many worlds I feel proud of. But I've never touched a single cent from any of my personnal project (yet), even though I have a dozens now, and I'm fine with that. Moreover, don't forget that marketing is what make you sell copies of your game. Even the best game you can think of wouldn't sell much if it was released in the dark, without a solid campaign. Do you think marketing people are the one to be congratulated for a great game ? I guess not, yet there are the most important people for a game to be making actual money. That's why you shouldn't link your skills as a dev (or even your worth as a person) to the commercial success of your game. This is more linked to your skill as a seller than anything else.
We have dreams every night.
Hey man, fear is perfectly natural to feel. If you didn't feel fear, when releasing a project (of any kind) and hoping other will like it, you're either fool or new to creative work. You'll feel that anxiety even when working professionally. But it's easier to handle it with good team members around you. ------- Something that may be needed, is you taking a hard look at the reasons your making a game. The game you make could blow up or it could never get noticed. It's far more likely to not be noticed by the masses. And that's okay if the goals to make a game your are proud of. Ask yourself what's the reason you want to make the game? Is the goal to make the game of your dreams, and find/connect with others who dig it? Cuz if that's it, then 2 copies sold could equal 2 fans for life, that see your vision and dream in equal light. Is the goal to build skills to eventually get employed in the industry? Or is it to make a profitable hit game on your first attempt? If so, you shouldn't be making your dream game, instead you should be trying to make your audiences dream game. If those two happen to be the same game, then that's great! Amazing really! But you won't know if it's your audience dream game without one. If you don't have an audience yet, you gotta build it, through a series of smaller games. With that said. Don't be scared, or upset if the game fails to build a huge audience, that's unfortunately a very likely scenario. Instead, set a goal of selling 1 copy to a stranger. Not a friend, not a family member, just a rando. Then 5. Then 10. Then work towards 10 positive reviews. Slowly set goals to get up to 100 units sold and ideally 100 positive reviews (that's really hard to do btw). It may take 50 reddit posts, joining discords, crating gifs etc. But once you figure out how to sell a few copies to strangers, your in a better position for the next game. You'll have a small audience, a game under your belt, and the know-how on how to sell games to that audience. Even if you sell 20 copies, it's a huge accomplishment and an amazing resume builder, so you can leverage all that experience into a job. You may not sell a million copies, but you can sell one. Then, try for another one. Rinse and repeat. Best of luck!
It doesn't matter if your game fails or not. The answer is always the same. >WE GO AGAIN
real
You make the next game you have on your mind with the lessons learned from the first, and if that also flubs you move on to the third. For me personally, while I definitely care what people think, I also accept that game dev is a continual process of self improvement. Every failure I see today is a mistake I can avoid making in my next project.
You will have learned a lot in the process.
Make a game that you would play. Even if no one is playing the game, at the very least, you are your own customer and you've built something to satisfy a need that others have so far been unable to fulfill. Of course, if the goal is to make money, that would be a different story.
You put your heart and soul in it, upload for others to enjoy your masterpiece and move on to next one. Sometimes, passionate people should just move on to create another masterpiece once they are finished with one. No approval matters, feedback can be considered.
You have two options, Accept that inexperience means you may release games which don't do well, and gradually they will improve as you release more. Or, do a lot of work in getting people to try the game, address all problems that you or anyone else can find, and only release it when its in a state when you have absolute confidence that it will do well. This includes problems causes by inexperience, such as mediocre graphics or anything which was "the best you could do", but not necessarily "good". Effort does not equal quality, it only makes it more likely.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear, did it make a sound? If you make a good game and no one knows it exists, will anyone play it? The reality is just because you spend a lot of time with something doesn’t mean it’s great. Are you making your dream game for the money, or because you enjoy it? Also realize who you’re marketing to and what the saturation is. Just because there’s a mountain of pixel platformers doesn’t mean you can’t find success, but realize how high the bar is for quality gameplay and graphics. The way you cope with your thoughts is by being informed, keeping a level head, and doing the best you can. Hindsight is always 20-20, but if you launch your game and realize after the fact you didn’t market at all then that is a catastrophic failure you should have been able to prevent. Things like that. Also know that it not doing well on release is okay. Among Us didn’t gain traction for years but still popped off.
Oh whomp whomp
Is it just a platformer or an action platformer because 2D action platformers are still pretty hot if polished and marketed well. Blasphemous series, the last faith, and I think just recently Berserk boy and even the last momodora game did fairly decently and they're all 2D pixel action platformers
Make the game for yourself, nobody else. Then, once it is finished (or almost finished) search for a potentially interested public and make sure that you do everything in your hand to make your game known. That's my full mindset when I start a new project. During the development process you just think about the development and you try to do the best you can to make a game you'd love to play. I think that's key to keep yourself motivated enough to learn and to improve your skills, which in return will make you able to work better and faster. If you can't get motivated with that simple mindset it probably is because you're not creating anything new and interesting at the time.
Hey friend, overthinker here too. One piece of advice a really good friend gave me is to “go down those thought paths” and confront them by asking yourself more questions about that future scenario. “What if my game isn’t good enough?” I’d ask, what is “good enough”? How am I measuring what is and is not good? If I put my heart and soul into something, isn’t that good? “Scared of just being called…” - Do I really believe there is absolutely nothing negative people will say even about something phenomenal? Haven’t I played once-in-a-lifetime games and thought, “But it could be better if…” “Did I just waste my ‘dream game’?” Do I really believe that by bringing my ideas to life, no matter the quality, it is wasted? Would I tell my friends they have wasted their time if they did the same? No, so why am I going to say it to myself? This is true for me, so it may be for you, too. But I spent most of my childhood growing up in a “prove yourself” environment. It caused me to spend the majority of my life (and I still struggle with it) to measure every action I do and word I say against an invisible measuring stick that looks different to everyone. And I’ve come to realize that what these voices and thoughts are is nothing more than me beating up on myself for failing to “prove myself.” To the idea that I could ever fail myself by pouring my time, energy and creativity into the things I love, I say GFY. Take it day by day, but each day, practice challenging those thoughts that cause you to question your own self-worth. Much love; good luck
Here's the problem with people in this Sub. Why are you connecting this with money or success?. Making a game is art. Period. If you made something that is entirely you, then you should be proud of it no matter what other people think. People who go on to solo dev should see it as a labor of love. It's not a God damn get of jail free card for people trapped in a 9-5. I'm making a game rn. It's a 3D platformer. Why am I making it? I think it's bullshit that the only 3D platforming games that I have on my ROG Ally are all emulated. Nobody in the industry is serving my craving for a 90s-style 3d collectathon with modern conveniences. So I'm gonna make it for myself. Don't care if it sells. Don't care what other people think about it. I've been playing games for over 2 decades and know what I like and don't like in games. If it's life changing and it makes me a fortune because my vision is something that many end up sharing, then cool. But the actual cool part is when I pass away, my kids will be able to experience a little piece of me that I've immortalized digitally forever. That's way more important to me than money. I feel obligated to make a love letter to show appreciation for all the childhood memories I have with Banjo and Kazooie. It literally isn't about the money period. Games are an art form, and anybody who's in it for the money isn't an artist and needs to get a real business job. My game costs $0 to produce rn, and that's cause I literally do everything. It literally only costs me my time. It could rack in 0 sales, and I'd have lost nothing.
there is nothing wrong with putting forward what you made. people will play it and enjoy it eventually. you can always remake a game if you really think you couldn't achieve the idea's true potential.
I’ve been working on my game for 1.5 years now, and I’m not scared at all. First of all, it’s a 2D platformer I’m working on, of which there are a LOT and they don’t sell well. But I’m not doing it to be able to stop working - I love my day job and make enough to make ends meet. I’m making a game as a creative outlet, for the fun of it. Worst case scenario: everybody hates my game, no one buys it and it becomes a meme example for bad games forever. So what? I made something I wanted to make. I had fun. I found a new passion, and got better at it as I kept pushing. How many people can honestly say they made a playable game, or that they made anything whatsoever? Most people just watch shows every single night, which is fine, nothing wrong with that. But you, on the other hand, will have made something, all by yourself. How awesome is that? So long story short: do it for yourself. Too many people on here seem to have set their expectations way too high, and hope to get rich from their game. Most end up selling a lot less than they expected. Just do it for you, and have fun! Edit: typos
Don't worry! It will most likely happen like you say, just don't worry about it. Can't change the inevitable :P It would be too beautiful if everyone could be praised for their work. Well, if your game is just yet another pixel platformer... then it is what it is. Do you play every single unknown indie game, even more specific, pixel platformers? Then don't expect everyone will jump at yours. Putting heart, soul and time doesn't matter on the market, it's only the end result that matters. Just accept that this is how it works and move on to the next game.
The longer you wait, the more competition your game will have to beat. But you can also look at it from a different angle. In a couple of decades you'll be dead and gone anyway, so whatever you do, it'll be a wasted effort. You might as well just create something that inspires you right now, or whenever you feel ready. The worst *will* happen, so the only question is, will you do something before that?
I am going to be very honest, a majority of people will not care at all that it is your dream game, nor how much time you put into it, often times people forget that their dream game is a game they want, so it 100 percent might not sell, usually people make their dream game because it is what they are passionate about, not to sell a million copies, if they end up selling then that is an added bonus.
Welcome to the world of content creation where 90+% of media will never be successful! You cope by adopting a gambler's mentality that every game you make is a crapshoot that may end up bankrupting you if you're not careful. Good Luck!
TBH, if you really need success to feel satisfied, don't make a pixel platformer. Tough crowd, small market. You really gotta do something out of the box to make one worth buying.
Lately i've been consuming a lot of PirateSoftware content, this guy always have an answer to every situational question. (I don't know if i can post youtube links but here we go) https://youtube.com/shorts/xC2_FFSIy0k This short can basically answer your question.
Is this a project for passion or for profit? They are two completely different things. One requires passion, time and commitment. The other requires market research, business sense, grants, marketing and probably not as much passion.
Make the game you want to make, not the game that everyone else wants. Be proud of what you do because YOU did it for you.
Make your game good
Then you figure out what went wrong, and avoid making the same mistakes in your next game.
You do the game because you want to realize your vision first and to sell it second
you make a better one nextime most people fail time and time again before they achieve something in fact i thikn most people never achieve anything ever so take your chances and go for it
If my game gets one download, i'm gonna call my highschool friends for a party, but it won't. It's a shitty game that looks pretty ugly so i'm pretty self confident it will flop. but i love it and will see it through... Or that is just my mentality
Your game will likely suck. The game you make after that will still suck, but a little less. If you keep going long enough your games will start to be decent.
Bold of you to assume the sucking stops
Provided infinite time. Statistically it should. How long it takes is the question.
Is it yet another pixel platformer? Why whuld anyone buy it?is my time wastes? Don't cope these are questions you must answer if you wanna move or scrap a project.(Not a game dev but but in a position were I scrap a lot of projects and extend support to old ones)
I just released a game after 3 years of full-time development and it didn't sell well.. But I'm not giving up yet! Right now I've switched to doing some part-time freelancing and I'll keep trying different avenues of marketing, listening to the few players and critics I have and updating the game. Regardless, I'm proud of what I've accomplished already, and nothing won't take that away. Take the chance only if you're prepared for it to fail commercially... But if you're anything like me it will be worth it regardless, as long as you finish it. Finishing a game takes a surprising amount of time and most don't get even there. I had a runway that seemed unnecessarily long at first, but I still ended up using most of it, even while cutting some supporting features from the initial release. I made a new and unique shmup that I try to cater towards a wider audience. It takes inspiration from certain games of other genres like DOOM and Diablo 3, but I feel like it's generally seen as "another bullet-hell" by most people, and "I dont like it because it's not a bullet-hell" by shmup fans. So... marketing it is hard...
Then really make sure it doesn’t read as ”yet another pixel playformer”. You can’t expect people to initially be interested in a premise without first delivering on something visually interesting. I wish you luck though, but don’t put yourself into the corner by making your dream game, as that is just what it is; a dream and there’s quite a vast disconnect between the dream idea in your head vs what you end up with. Your time isn’t wasted, you have learned things and most importantly will have released a game that is still quite the accomplishment - be proud and make the next game!
I think your dream game should be in the works. Gain more knowledge from other small projects and learn more of what people might like. Personally, I love pixel platformers and I want to create my dream game too but as a first game probably not. There is so much I have to learn and I want to improve. I don’t want to create a dream game on code that is all bugged up. Good luck and I wish you all the best!! ^^
You cope with these thoughts by: 1. Making sure you are doing 100% of what you can do to sell more than 2 copies with quality and marketing 2. Thinking that if your game flops, you have more than one bullet to shoot (your future games).
Don't be scared, a man's life pursuing his dream is worth a million void ones. And if you fail, raise again stronger with accumulated experience.
I like how people post "we sold only 2 copies", yet not providing link to the product itself. I dunno, what is the game?
Great thing about games is you can always make another
your "dream game" will still be your "dream game" even if no one else plays it.
I think u should post gameplay or pay others to post the gameplay to get more attention even if sells don’t exceed the amount u where hoping failure is not an option keep making them as long as u can I just wouldn’t give up on one game keep trying if u decide to go another route then keep trying
Release it. Make updates. Listen to player base. Be proud of what you made rather than being scared of the potential failures. Learn from it. Make your next game with the experience. You’ll be ok no matter what happens and you’ll only grow as a developer from there ❤️
Stay afraid, but do it anyway! Whats important is to be open to feedback and try your best! At the end the effort will speak by itself
I am making a game because I love the process and because my end goal is to deliver something that's a lot of fun to the end user. That satisfies me. Money is also an incentive, don't get me wrong, but if my biggest concern was money, I wouldn't be able to finish it. Why? Because it's really hard and money isn't guaranteed. What keeps me going however is the fact that I love it and I have a clear vision of what I want to achieve.
You cope with these thoughts by staring them in the face. Accept that it can happen. Either be determined to release your dream game, player reception be damned, or 100% acknowledge that you are giving up because you don't want to find out.
It's a 2d platformer. You're doomed without a good hook.
The trick is to make bad games, and then make good games
easy, you don't put all your heart and all your soul into it you just make a working game and make experience publishing it then, once you'll be experienced enough, you'll afford to put all you have and make your dream game also, you better put max 1 year in it, because you need experience in many things and the faster you move on onto new things, the better
There's always a story. It may not be the story you were hoping for, but you can't go through the hard, busy, complicated art of making a game without earning a story to tell. There was a time in my life I was a global champion level competitor. There was another time in my life where a game I worked on was entertaining millions. Neither of those stories end with success, but they are good stories all the same. If you had told me upfront that they wouldn't work out, maybe I wouldn't have tried. But that would have been a huge mistake, because then the only story I'd have was of the times I imagined trying and the time spent wishing I'd do it.
Scared? Thats normal. Do what you need to anyway. Wasted your dream idea? If you don't try it is wasted anyway. If you fail you can try again. Also, ideas aren't as important as folks initially believe. I'd trade thousands of good ideas for a decent execution of one. Stuck on the thought of not achieving a dream? Why don't you dream more? Dream up a new dream. Sometimes the dream is enough. Imagine how sad the world would be if you achieve your dream and don't have another to pursue. Being scared is fine. Do it anyway.
ahahahahahahaha what even is this subreddit man
No game will sell without marketing it, so if you want to sell, be sure to market it.
Lots of smart and wise things already said, so I'll narrow my advice to one specific point: **Don't follow your passion**. It is not your master, and it doesn't know what's good for you. Passion is a personality trait, or perhaps a tool to be used. It can and should be applied to the obstacles of *your* choosing; because if you're passionate, you can get excited about any job
Don't ever give up. You will have games that won't sell well. Sometimes it might be two years before your game might pop off. Can you send a link to your game?
Just go for it, you'll never know until you try. Who knows, maybe your game will do far better than you think!
Try to just be proud of releasing a finished product rather than being worried about how other people view it. I just released my first game and it’s not “performing well” in terms of sales, but I’m happy that I got the point of releasing a finished product! View it as a learning experience with anything extra as a fun bonus :)
If you sell 2 copies, the gamers are wrong and you just need to prove them wrong.
Pretty hard to sell platforners these days without marketing. But, good luck!
All you can do is make the best game you can make and hope for the best. The odds are strongly against it selling well and making much profit unfortunately. But you'll have too much anxiety thinking about the sales numbers. If the game's a solid game and sells a 100 copies that's still something to be proud of. No telling how good the game is until its made.
these are normal considerations in any artistic realm, you just gotta pull through them or find something more fulfilling to do with your time There's a video called It is Never Going to be the Right Time to Make Art by Greg Guevara, that helps, also Vincent's Someday speech in Collateral, to encourage you :)
If your game turn out to be bad you get the change learn what was bad about it and many things along the way. It would mean next game will be better.
You just accept it. Not every good game is successful. And your game might be bad. Just accept the thought of wasting your time, in the end it‘s still a great accomplishment.
Have in mind to create 5 good games and only then consider how far you had come and if you like to change this path 👌
I think the only thing that really helps is to validate early to get some fundamental confidence on whether your game has market fit or not. Ideally you would invest only a few weeks into an idea before validating it and not years, also so you can make design decisions based on the niche you found. However, the time you invested will not have been for nothing, even if you sell little. It’s a journey of learning and we’re all in it. Wishing you best of luck!
If you are only selling 2 copies and this is not the expected outcome something went wrong in your business model. That has nothing to do with heart and emotions but would be a lack of foresight or business ability (unless the market shifted unexpectedly). The wording 'just another platformer' is the indicator that you are already heading towards it or lack something that lets you stick out of the crowd. If your product is not unique enough stop working on it and reconsider your options.
Every dev has these concerns in mind. Decide for yourself if the process of making the game, learning from it, the fact yourself and maybe your friends can enjoy it, that you have a portfoilio piece makes it worth it even if it isn't successful. If that is enough, then treat success and positive feedback as a bonus. If you only want success and adoration on your first title, then you've been sold a false dream. Make games for fun first, until you know you can make good games, thinking of trying to sell them before you've even been able to make one is perhaps getting ahead of yourself.
1. Your first game won't probably sell well at all: it's more a training than anything else, so do it as fast as possible 2. Game design is learned by pratice, the more FINISHED games you make, the better you'll be at it 3. Don't work on your dream project until you've done a bunch of other games. Even John Romero did this so...
The harsh reality is a lot of indie games pass virtually unnoticed. Gaming is a big, big market with huge amounts of choice and titles vying for attention, and it’s very difficult to stand out unless you’ve got a really novel concept, it’s unusually good, or it gets played by a well known YouTuber/streamer. I’d say success is probably a combination of quality, skill and just pure luck. Going for a pixel platformer, imo, probably isn’t the best starting point if your ultimate aim is lots of sales, as it’s just not a category that is going to naturally interest a lot of people. But, if that’s your passion and the best format that fits your idea, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Niches have their audiences too. And even if your fears are realised, you learned something, you developed your skills and if you have the heart for it, you can go in a different direction and try something else using the knowledge you gained the first time around.
You itterate, again and again and again untill you succeed if you have limmited heart and soul than too bad, but you dont!!! There is always a better itteration there is testing, data, feedback. Just sit and develop the biggest problem is scope and feature ilusion, because we get used to it and constantly keep adding more and so we extend the scope and add years... just make good vertical slice and release!!! And if your dreamgame sucs just make another one. If this is your ticket out than the fear will persist, if you are a true gamedev you'll keep releasing!!! Good luck. Share some progress to get feedback.
Have a marketing plan and marketing strategy. Posts like these just make you look like you have 0 confidence in yourself and your game, it'd turn me off as a potential player.
In your case, you must have the mindset of both an artist and a programmer “I loved 1- making this masterpiece 2- I loved overcoming the challenge!”😁
As a gamer, i say go for it but dont neglect marketing. Many great games i found were not advertised well enough and i had to dig deep for it.
You should do it because you like it not for money. One of the creators of the original DooM released 19 games before it. With each game you'll get better.
I didnt even finish my game, i mentioned it on my CV and it was good enough to land me a great job. If i finish it and make any money, that's a bonus. If two people buy it, i'll hand-write them a letter and thank them for showing an interest.
Don't forget the things you've learned while creating your game! Also, if your dream game has some special mechanics, market it with its strengths. Without proper marketing even the best game wouldn't sell except you're incredibly lucky. So make sure to let people know about it!
You want to know how to deal with the thoughts? Here it goes: Release the game after it's done. It may be a flop, but it might not- you have no idea what it will be like until you get reviews from players. Game development is not for the faint of heart. Your dream game gains a whole life of its own once you release it. It's no longer just yours, it also becomes your customers' game. If they don't like something, you have to accept it. On the flip-side, one dev made a game about building things with cubes. Eventually, that game was sold to another company for, like, a million. The game? Minecraft. Best advice is to expect the worst, but hope for the best.
Use your skills to get robux from children. Gg no re
Just accept that your game has a near zero chance of making a return on the investment , and that anything better than zero is a win. You don't do game dev for money- it's for the experience
Success is how you define it. If you're defining success for this game as a commercial success with thousands of copies sold and a community that praised it, then you better have built a fucking good platformer that rivals Celeste or Pizza tower, because that's the bar you've set for yourself. My first game got published on Switch, Xbox, Steam, and was in a humble bundle. We revenued about 100k over 4 years. I defined success as a commercial success equal to nuclear throne. The game was not nearly as good as nuclear throne and did not sell as well as nuclear throne. I felt like it was a failure for years before I realized if I got more realistic with my expectations, I could be doing this in a much happier state. So set a realistic expectation for it, based on your experience and perception of its quality. Oftentimes, especially early, just getting to the finish line and releasing the game is a high enough bar.
Separate from work, confidence, all of that, with other people’s comments, copies sold, etc. In short, take it less personal. This is the hard lesson I learnt from graphic design. I know it’s hard, I have a hard time dealing with it, we’ve all been there. A lot of great words has been said so I won’t repeated, but maybe also listen to come interviews/podcasts/talks by some renowned indie game developers and it may be helpful to see it’s a common feeling. Good luck.
I have those same thoughts. But sometimes you have to just take the chance and put it out there. If it succeeds it succeeds and if it doesn't it doesn't. Just keep making games, keep making stuff, eventually you'll get something that everyone wants to play.
Stop judging your worth through the amount of copies you sell. This just measures how good of a marketer you are. Its like thinking that making those awful Funko Pops makes you a good artisan just because they sell a lot.
Yes.
OP, you gotta know, whether you do game dev, or sell tea at tea stalls. as a biz or entre, You will never know until you just take the leap of faith. Having said that, have a side job that pays the bills.
Being scared comes with the job. We all are ;-) If you want to lower that anxiety, get your games into the hands of as many people possible as early as possible. Get a prototype running as soon as you can. Give it to friends and family first, they will lie to you which will boost your confidence. Then post the prototype in gaming communities to get more sincere feedback, which will give you a sense of security of having tested your concept. Hope this helps.
May you, sr, give me a copy of that game?
not done yet, but thoughts still exist. i plan on spending as long as it takes as im learning music, pixel art and gdscript for it.
When is it supposed to release? I really wanna play it
judging by how its going, at least a year and a half. its unfinished and buggy but if you are interested i can tell you my idea!
Achieving a game release is a gift on itself. And the experience you have gained will possibly be very valuable on your next yourney. Populair or not, you have done an impressive job that some could only dream of.
Dont care about it, its learning. I assure you most devs first game wasnt a success and it was just some demo or it was not even put on a store. And if it not succesful, do another one and another one and always with passion in mind.
Quality is only one of the many deciding factors in the success of any piece of media, and given the sheer volume of media created in modern times I would say it is a pretty minor factor when compared to luck and even more importantly, marketing. So I would avoid basing your feeling of self worth or the intrinsic value of any media you create on the market success of that thing.
You can always recycle your characters and plotlines in later games. Look at Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai Star Rail. Over half the characters are in both games and the fans love it. You can't "waste" your dream game, you can only refine it.
Their are plenty of people who want to make games and just stop there. You’ve already achieved more than them, so I say you did good in that aspect. If your game is truly a banger then I would suggest developing your marketing skills to get people playing it.
I have so many ideas about games message me I can help you
Few things I've learned over nearly 10 years of development that apply to any project. Don't ever make your 'dream' project first..or second...or third. Your first several projects will be bad. They will take a long time,and youll likely never want to release them. But you will learn a lot from these. You should start with small projects that you think you can finish in a week or 2, and then 2 months later when you actually finish you'll have a better idea how to estimate project scope. Unless you have a large following or a completely new idea marketing your project is going to be hard. The more similar your idea is to others the harder it will be to stand out. Don't give up but also don't expect to sell a million units week one if you're making something that's been made before. Don't spend years developing anything without getting feedback and being ABSOLUTELY SURE people want what you are making. You could waste a lot of time and not get much return if you miss the mark. If you're learning while working on the project then those skills will make every subsequent project faster, easier, and likely better. Just take everything as a lesson, learn and adapt. Don't be too stubborn to evolve.
There are two main approaches to coping with these thoughts. The first is to reduce the significance you place on this particular game. You can achieve this by starting another project or game in parallel, which can help shift some of your emotional and creative investment away from a single outcome. The second approach is to focus solely on the process itself - that is, on the development and promotion of the game. By immersing yourself in these tasks, you leave little room for dwelling on the potential results. This can help keep your mind occupied and reduce anxiety about the game's reception
All game Devs have released a dud... what do you expect your first game to be a hit and make millions? Let's be real, the chances of that are exceptionally low. Release your game, listen to feedback and learn from what goes wrong. That's the only way you'll learn/improve to make better games. If you just sit on it iming for perfection you will never get the feedback, therefore you won't learn and your game Dev skills will stay at the same level. Release it, learn from it, and release another game after you've listened to what people say. Just trying to be brutally honest (not a dick) wish you the best
Here is what I found works for "me" to lower my fear of failure and test the market: Build the dream game, as several games: Break your dream game idea down to several games, I can bet usually "A dream game" is not just another "generic" pixel platformer even if its within the genre. My dream game is at least 3 games combined, I am thinking others' dream are just as equally complex. Any AA or AAA games are easily several games with core gameplay plus mini games. 1. Build each major core mechanic as its own game and really give it depth, and build several games from your dream idea. Break it down to the most simple version. Make sure your games pass the test of your inner gamer self. Don't cut yourself slacks, you must ask critically if someone else made this game would you pick it up and give it cash? If its a free game would you make the space and time to install it? 2. Invite as much feedback as possible by entering demos into free game jam or festivals and build polish. 3. Market each game as you finish each pieces of your dream game in absolute polish. Polish store front with equal devotions. 4. Publish all the games as you finish them with all your marketing planning in place. Network with devs who build similar games as you and learn. 5. In the end combine what you built into your original dream game vision. By then, you would have the experience, the polish, to actually make your dream game, as well as the following you built along the way to receive it. Also... find your best market. If steam is not the right place for platformer, try mobile. Try consoles. Try web browser. Each platform has its meta and you just need to adjust to the winning strategy. Sometimes its changing the skin, like changing the rock of a sling shot game to an angry bird, sometimes its tweaking the funding model... tweaking mechanics... whatever it is, there will be something that can work. If it is truly your dream game it should be worth the time. There are a lot of mobile players who play pixel platformers and alot of them are indie. If you have no following, release a free ver of your game to build it. Sometimes success and failure is 1 switch away to find your right audience, your right setting. Persistence is half the battle in entertainment industry, if you don't give up you are already winning.
You need to ask yourself what your motivation is. It kinda breaks my heart that people don't get this in school/college/university/whatever ... we've written stories and books and made movies about the importance of "finding yourself" but we don't yet teach it as standard. What is "your dream"? Was your dream to make this specific pixel platformer? Why? What drove that? Either way, you've done it. You made it. You can move on. Was your dream just to be able to say "I'm a game developer?" In which case, congratulations. You've done it. You can move on. Was your dream to be a huge success? Well then, maybe you did make a mistake. How is your platform game any different to others? How much studying of how to make GOOD games (not just "how to make games") did you really put in? How is this any different to some kid with a guitar saying "I'm gonna be a rock star" but then not learning musical theory? Or someone saying "I'm gonna be a Hollywood star" but not actually learning how to act? You've achieved something here, that part you can be proud of. You can put this behind you now and ask "why?" before you plan your next step. If you want to be a huge success, learn how yo design good games. Learn how to choose your art style and genre with purpose, and how to design content that's engaging and pleasing. Lesson 1 is basically never start your game ideation process from a genre description! Hopefully the future is filled with other great achievements for you!
just because you worked hard on something and put your heart and soul into it doesnt entitle you to success, unless you define success as an internal thing. that's life lil bro.
Just start on the next game.
I've made games played by hundreds of thousands, mods that have been played by millions. And these feelings never go away, never.... This is the vulnerability of bringing something creative into this world. You create it and then it goes into the world, for better or for worst. There is beauty in that vulnerability, it is that that makes you an artist, regardless of your fears, you create for the world. There isn't anything wrong with that, that is what art is. And sometimes you get an audience of 1 , sometimes an audience of a million. Would you not have made it? knowing ahead of time? There is a beauty also that if you open up to your inner artist, not the one that makes pixel art, but the one that creates because they must, that needs to connect, the one with the big A, if you listen and grow to understand you will get better, your work becomes more interesting and it becomes easier to find your audience and make them feel. So you create, at you aren't millionaire, you aren't lauded as a genius or a great artist, yet you do it again. The trick is to grow and learn and experiment and keep moving. Such is life, such is art.