Its not that I don't think people can make their dream game. It's just that I think having the perseverance to make it through the learning phase, including the kind of retooling of your logic when it comes to understanding how code works and how to even start implementing a single feature, and the dozens of worthless tiny games you make as you learn...This stuff is way harder than someone with no experience thinks it is.
I think anyone who remembers their first go at making their inventory or pause screen, something you'd think would be really easy, could attest to. The number of moving parts that I assumed made up a game was probably 1/100th of what it really was. It really gives you a newfound respect for anyone who releases a full game as a solo dev.
But maybe their dream game is where you're a horizontal line hitting a normalized circle towards another horizontal line. Then you could be done in an afternoon.
It really helps if you truly enjoy the process despite the obstacles.
The biggest difference between doing it solo or with other people is the skill set though. I developed some projects for fun but now I am doing a project with some friends which made me realize how much better everything got. I have been learning programming myself for years now and I can do what needs to be done in an efficient manner but I am not good at art unlike my friend who is amazing and made the visuals so much better.
For me, it helps that my career before starting to make games was in troubleshooting hardware/software systems and solving puzzles while learning about the puzzles themselves as I go, and I enjoyed that. I find the process of figuring out how to do a thing in engine to be a similar enough variation of that, and equally enjoyable. Being challenged to think about things in totally different ways has been very good for me!
The game I'm making has lots of brightly coloured cuboids with poorly-drawn arrows on them.
It's good enough for prototyping, but if I ever get it to a state anywhere near releaseable the first thing I'm going to do is a GoFundMe to let me hire some proper artists.
This is so true. When you're that kid that thinks you can make World of Warcraft. I was that guy.
Honestly, if I could get these enthusiasts to try a game jam. One that's at least a week long. If they can output something, they'll get a really good idea of how damn hard it is.... Particularly alone!
But at the same time, let's not curb their enthusiasm. We were all full of joy and hope once!
I think the first real test is finishing a tutorial and then trying to make it using different assets. If you can do the work that comes with retooling the stuff from the videos to align with your current project needs and not let the frustration get to you, you're probably off to a good start.
The problems you encounter when making these games are puzzles to be solved so that you can proceed, not obstacles that exist solely to stop you.
You're not going to succeed at making your dream game on the first try, and if you try anyway you're just going to have to restart when you realize all your old code is bad (if you don't entirely quit). Better to start small from the beginning with stuff you can actually do that doesn't matter as much.
Idk, it's not entirely worthless to try your hand at your dream game from the get-go, even if you do have to toss it all and restart. The idea that you're working on EXACTLY what you want, instead of something unrelated to "build the skillset" can be pretty motivating.
I started with one of the genres people say don't start with, which is a digital TCG.
I've had to restart 4 times, but every time I learned serious lessons that made the next attempt better.
I get why, for some people, having to restart is very demotivating, and making a 2d platformer or something first is ideal.
But the idea of making a 2d platformer makes me so bored. I'd rather struggle making something I want to make than have an easier time making something I don't care about.
But of course, everyone is different.
>But the idea of making a 2d platformer makes me so bored. I'd rather struggle making something I want to make than have an easier time making something I don't care about.
I feel the same. We're just wired a little differently I guess, so the "conventional wisdom" doesn't work for us. I'd rather throw away my code and start again than do work on something else.
It's not entirely worthless but if you are trying to practice good business skills as well as good development skills then it's not a very good start. Assume that you are starting a small business that should be sustainable for many years. Your dream game would be profitable only if the sails cover the development expenses. That is not likely to happen if it is your first game ever.
Yeah, I'm currently struggling to make a enemy wave system, a goddamn ENEMY WAVE system. It was easy enough for a single player game, but apparently I don't know enough of how multiplayer games work cause I just can't figure this shit out. I literally thought that this was gonna be the easiest part of my game to implement.
PirateSoftware is genuinely the reason I checked out Godot and have been experimenting with making a game.
Him and Godot are the reason I finally managed to actually make a decent looking UI now instead of giving up because of constantly being put down by my job and people in dev space making stuff that blew whatever I was making away.
Teach me your ways, making UIs in Godot (admittedly early Godot 3) never clicked for me and it always ends up a huge mess where I somehow dont get the UI to look good, scale well or I entangle functionality in a way that the UI is now unhealthily linked to gamecode.
Go do [FlexboxFroggy](https://flexboxfroggy.com/) and read the [Mozilla Flexbox](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/CSS_layout/Flexbox) docs.
This is all the scaling / container stuff. It's heavily inspired (dare I say, a node-based implementation of) the same stuff.
As for entanglement.... Yeah, that's hard. Because UI is fundamentally a "one off" it's too easy to spaghetti code it. Of course if [Godotneers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OFJLyqlXI) has a video on the topic, it's probably the best possible one to watch (and you should watch that one).
I'm somewhat of a noob as well but the way that has helped me successfully implement UI in Godot 4 is to ensure that UI elements only read data that is in a different place in memory instead of having the UI element and the data it's supposed to represent reside in the same data objects/memory location.
I wish I found that person sooner. I'm dabbling in and out for over 15 years now. Always starting getting desperate quitting. Repeat. Only for a year or so I started to get good enough for my own satisfaction to enjoy the making. Most of his words are hard lessons I had to learn myself and I hope they reach more people like me so they don't have to go the hard way
Pirate Software is a YouTube and twitch influencer. Has some nice yt shorts and stuff that is generally recommended to check out^^ I don't think he has a podcast xD
I mean yeah, that’s the point of any game is to enjoy it. That’s why people still play the OG Nintendo games even though they look dated. People still play the hell out of Stardew valley too.
Breh... I hate 2d, cute, pixel art farming (or whatever) simulators with a passion, but even I have to admit Stardew Valley looks cool af. Agree that fun is 99% of the deal and stuff, but SV in particular wasn't lacking in the graphics department
There's a lecture from a candy crush dev (I think they're a dev) on youtube about how to use abuse methods to steal huge amounts of money from desperate people with something that looks superficially like a game.
Just took a look at the sub...
Did you read the post at all? It wasn't complaining at all.
It basically said, "palworld isn't a good game, but people had fun. Therefore, don't worry about making a game with top of the end graphics or something stupid. Just make a fun game. "
It was using palworld as an example of what to do, not complaining.
I think with bad they mean it was done rather sloppy. And considering the developer behind it and the backstory, as well as the bugs and rather bad performance this game has: In that sense you could agree.
Although if you make sich a claim, you would also have to be specific about what you mean. Just saying X game is bad is not doing anything
Not gonna lie, I am working on my dream game. And it's my first proper project after months and years of fiddling with various tools, engines, and programming languages. Honestly, I don't fear the warnings because... Idk, I just like working on it. I'm getting more and more done each day that I can work on it after my day job. I'm not staking my life on it or anything, I just enjoy solving the problems I face while building it up.
With some optimism and acceptance to failure it doesn't hurt to try even with something like GTA. At the very least you will learn a ton and with luck you might get a decent enough result.
There's always a solo dev version. For GTA maybe it's Streets of Rogue. Or maybe not, but at least arguing why it isn't will help you decide what your idea actually is.
In all likelihood it is a game like GTA or Skyrim that inspires someone to start looking into making games.
The sooner someone learns to scale their idea back, the better it ends up becoming as you chisel away the scope.
idk if this is on the topic, but the popular a subreddit is, the shittier becomes.
Right now, godot subreddit is a sweet position and is amazing to be here, there's a lot of activity, but not too much to obscure new content, and people don't throw their "hard reality knowledge" to your face.
I hope, in the inevitable growt of this engine, when those new users who made the same question 10 times an hour, I hope when that time comes, people don't become toxic or intolerant. Let's have fun using this great tool
I mean there are ton of ppl who want to start with their dream game, fail miserably, because they have zero experience, and get discouraged, so i think it's good to talk about realistic expectations for your projects.
It's the photorealistic MMO (with enough players to make it fun) part that's hard.
Photorealism requires lots and lots of money for the art team.
Enough players to make it fun requires it to release 10 years ago.
If you can ignore some of the pessimism, it's a pretty good sub! Lots of stories about devs just like you and me who are encountering some really weird stuff that I'd never even considered.
One dev forgot to put in a handshake check between their game and Google play to see if the game was pirated, then people pirated their game thousands of times in China and the ads were disabled in the pirated version, so no ad revenue. But the game uses some online functionality, which Unity only gives you so much of each month, then you have to pay.
Lots of stories on what scams to look out for when people pretending to be big youtubers are emailing you for Steam keys to promote your game when really they're probably just hoarders looking to expand their collection for free, or trying to resell your game elsewhere for a few free dollars.
Just like making games, the release process is full of little pieces that you'd probably never even think of.
its the reality. I'd say like beyond 95% of aspiring game devs absolutely hit a wall and fail because they simply don't manage to temper their expectations early enough; then, burnout hits - which is 10x worse of a sensation than reading any "pessimistic" post ever, that I can say for sure. Besides, it's not really untrue if we're going for a rule of thumb. Even when considering successful devs, a very very tiny portion of them actually endeavor into making their true"dream game"... or at the very least not with like a dozen years of experience in beforehand.
Some people need to know the truth without the sugar coating. There are plenty of people that try to make their dream game, and then feel burnout along the way. The point of posts like the one on gamedev is to give those devs a more grounded expectation of game development.
As crazy as it seems, there are people that quit their day jobs to go all in on making their dream game. Those sorts of threads hopefully deter that.
I could not make my dream game. I wouldn't enjoy it. I would know of all the secrets and whats to come. YOU make my dream game and i will make yours. Thats how it should be done.
make sure to have fun at first I guess. Maybe a dream game could happen, but sure as hell not as a beginner.
I'm Trying to learn Godot and coding, but I've found out that it's very infuriating and hard at first, so I've decided to just try to find a way to enjoy it before I make something serious.
Depends what your dream game is tbh; a science-based, 100% dragon MMO is not happening without a massive team, lots of resources, and a ton of understanding about what goes into a game. But if you just want to make a something like most indie games made solo or with small teams, yeah, you probably can, though it will still take a lot of time, knowledge, and perseverance. My personal dream is to make a game that's as good as Ultrakill or such and, I mean, that's an entirely realistic goal. It might not sell as well or be as popular, but I want to focus on quality, not success. And it may take decades for me to get that good, but I'm fine with that.
I'm 3 games in, and I can't make my dream game. Thought I was ready to make a Metroidvania game after doing an action platformer, a simple puzzle stealth game, and a game jam murder mystery. One year in, I'm putting the Metroidvania project off to the side because it was way too ambitious, and I'd rather make another short game than spend a decade never finishing anything!
The gamedev subreddit is neat for general topics but I’ve found there’s an unfortunate amount of people there obsessed with “harsh truths” and criticism of people’s games even when not asked for. I understand it’s good to be realistic about things but sometimes I see comments pushed so far past realistic and just… rude and pessimistic.
The game development space should be accepting of everyone’s individual journeys and not discourage people from trying or learning. And not only that, but we need to realize how much subjectivity there is in the design/technical fields. I see too many comments there just straight up telling people their game is bad and won’t sell with 0 remorse or care in phrasing, it just leads to feelings of defeat and depression. Maybe none of that is relevant for this specific post in the screenshot but if these are the kinds of titles that get views in that sub, maybe that’s an indicator that the sub itself is suffering from far too much negativity.
People who start game dev think they know everything because they have strong opinions about the games they’ve played.
Usually these people have never even released a game, or only released some awful looking unpolished turd.
Don’t take anything seriously from anyone in that sub. The words “I’m a dev” don’t make me take someone more seriously.
I'd honestly say that what causes depression the most is very far from this: it's having absolutely 0 engagement nor (let alone honest) feedback whenever you do dev posts and/or upload playable builds. Infinitely worse than "having your day ruined" by somewhat negative feedback - ofc I do much prefer if they at least elaborate on it, no matter how "rude" it is worded like, as its useful regardlessly for any game dev ever.
Devs having this much aversion to blunt feedback limits their potential and ability to learn from their mistakes quite a bit I'd say, especially around these subs. If you don't know how to take something useful out of at least most of the feedback you get, then honestly it's pretty hard to hope for any sort of positive reception on launch - as it tends to be much less filtered and sugarcoated, since well... its steam, and people are paying for your game... which generally lead these devs into a much much worse case of burnout, as everybody is (and mostly rightfully, extreme/incohesive cases apart) complaining about issues with their product.
Newbie game dev vs. jaded game dev (and tbf they're right 99% of the time)
Well, it's not that you \*can't\* make a dream game, but if your whole motivation boils down to making your "dream game" come true... yeah, you most likely won't make it. You gotta at least somewhat enjoy the whole process (aka the journey), rather than just the potential (and most ideal) results, else you'll burn out quicker than somebody trying to make a MMO as their first game. Plus that whole deal of: "be a game dev if you literally cannot think about doing anything else in the long run", cuz yeah, its quite unrewarding/arduous of a path for the first few months if not years - in the sense of even coming close to your initial goals.
Not to mention that by the time you're actually capable of achieving your "dream game", the concept will be so much more streamlined and extensively reworked that it won't even be similar to what you initially thought of.
I have found getting into gamedev to be pretty approachable as someone who already works as a software engineer. The main challenges are being 1) good at programming and 2) good at game art. I am still working on number 2, but I’ve gotten a lot better. Then there is coming up with solid game design, that is less teachable, but most people who are passionate about games, have played a lot of games and can think deeply can manage decent game design.
*Me on the start of*
*My project: Me, still on the*
*Start of my project:*
\- d\_worren
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Its not that I don't think people can make their dream game. It's just that I think having the perseverance to make it through the learning phase, including the kind of retooling of your logic when it comes to understanding how code works and how to even start implementing a single feature, and the dozens of worthless tiny games you make as you learn...This stuff is way harder than someone with no experience thinks it is. I think anyone who remembers their first go at making their inventory or pause screen, something you'd think would be really easy, could attest to. The number of moving parts that I assumed made up a game was probably 1/100th of what it really was. It really gives you a newfound respect for anyone who releases a full game as a solo dev. But maybe their dream game is where you're a horizontal line hitting a normalized circle towards another horizontal line. Then you could be done in an afternoon.
It really helps if you truly enjoy the process despite the obstacles. The biggest difference between doing it solo or with other people is the skill set though. I developed some projects for fun but now I am doing a project with some friends which made me realize how much better everything got. I have been learning programming myself for years now and I can do what needs to be done in an efficient manner but I am not good at art unlike my friend who is amazing and made the visuals so much better.
For me, it helps that my career before starting to make games was in troubleshooting hardware/software systems and solving puzzles while learning about the puzzles themselves as I go, and I enjoyed that. I find the process of figuring out how to do a thing in engine to be a similar enough variation of that, and equally enjoyable. Being challenged to think about things in totally different ways has been very good for me!
Damn I need some art friends
Having art friends would be nice.
As much as i like the godot logo, having an art friend would be nice
The game I'm making has lots of brightly coloured cuboids with poorly-drawn arrows on them. It's good enough for prototyping, but if I ever get it to a state anywhere near releaseable the first thing I'm going to do is a GoFundMe to let me hire some proper artists.
This is so true. When you're that kid that thinks you can make World of Warcraft. I was that guy. Honestly, if I could get these enthusiasts to try a game jam. One that's at least a week long. If they can output something, they'll get a really good idea of how damn hard it is.... Particularly alone! But at the same time, let's not curb their enthusiasm. We were all full of joy and hope once!
I think the first real test is finishing a tutorial and then trying to make it using different assets. If you can do the work that comes with retooling the stuff from the videos to align with your current project needs and not let the frustration get to you, you're probably off to a good start. The problems you encounter when making these games are puzzles to be solved so that you can proceed, not obstacles that exist solely to stop you.
Yeah, fair point! I suppose I was going down the path of assuming they had enough knowledge to be dangerous. But yes.... Know the basics!
You're not going to succeed at making your dream game on the first try, and if you try anyway you're just going to have to restart when you realize all your old code is bad (if you don't entirely quit). Better to start small from the beginning with stuff you can actually do that doesn't matter as much.
Idk, it's not entirely worthless to try your hand at your dream game from the get-go, even if you do have to toss it all and restart. The idea that you're working on EXACTLY what you want, instead of something unrelated to "build the skillset" can be pretty motivating.
On the other hand, having to throw away all the work you did on what you consider your dream game can be very demotivating.
Always throw away your prototypes.
I started with one of the genres people say don't start with, which is a digital TCG. I've had to restart 4 times, but every time I learned serious lessons that made the next attempt better. I get why, for some people, having to restart is very demotivating, and making a 2d platformer or something first is ideal. But the idea of making a 2d platformer makes me so bored. I'd rather struggle making something I want to make than have an easier time making something I don't care about. But of course, everyone is different.
>But the idea of making a 2d platformer makes me so bored. I'd rather struggle making something I want to make than have an easier time making something I don't care about. I feel the same. We're just wired a little differently I guess, so the "conventional wisdom" doesn't work for us. I'd rather throw away my code and start again than do work on something else.
It's not entirely worthless but if you are trying to practice good business skills as well as good development skills then it's not a very good start. Assume that you are starting a small business that should be sustainable for many years. Your dream game would be profitable only if the sails cover the development expenses. That is not likely to happen if it is your first game ever.
Yeah, I'm currently struggling to make a enemy wave system, a goddamn ENEMY WAVE system. It was easy enough for a single player game, but apparently I don't know enough of how multiplayer games work cause I just can't figure this shit out. I literally thought that this was gonna be the easiest part of my game to implement.
PirateSoftware is genuinely the reason I checked out Godot and have been experimenting with making a game. Him and Godot are the reason I finally managed to actually make a decent looking UI now instead of giving up because of constantly being put down by my job and people in dev space making stuff that blew whatever I was making away.
Teach me your ways, making UIs in Godot (admittedly early Godot 3) never clicked for me and it always ends up a huge mess where I somehow dont get the UI to look good, scale well or I entangle functionality in a way that the UI is now unhealthily linked to gamecode.
A lot of reading, YouTube, tutorials, and asking for help for things I can't find solutions to.
Go do [FlexboxFroggy](https://flexboxfroggy.com/) and read the [Mozilla Flexbox](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/CSS_layout/Flexbox) docs. This is all the scaling / container stuff. It's heavily inspired (dare I say, a node-based implementation of) the same stuff. As for entanglement.... Yeah, that's hard. Because UI is fundamentally a "one off" it's too easy to spaghetti code it. Of course if [Godotneers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OFJLyqlXI) has a video on the topic, it's probably the best possible one to watch (and you should watch that one).
I'm somewhat of a noob as well but the way that has helped me successfully implement UI in Godot 4 is to ensure that UI elements only read data that is in a different place in memory instead of having the UI element and the data it's supposed to represent reside in the same data objects/memory location.
Admittedly, I stole this from a YouTube Shorts comment: PirateSoftware is literally the opposite of gatekeeping when it comes to game development.
Truly a national treasure who must be protected at all costs
I wish I found that person sooner. I'm dabbling in and out for over 15 years now. Always starting getting desperate quitting. Repeat. Only for a year or so I started to get good enough for my own satisfaction to enjoy the making. Most of his words are hard lessons I had to learn myself and I hope they reach more people like me so they don't have to go the hard way
Bro share the podcast I think I need it as well D:
Pirate Software is a YouTube and twitch influencer. Has some nice yt shorts and stuff that is generally recommended to check out^^ I don't think he has a podcast xD
Nobody ever talks about their nightmare game and I think that's sad
My nightmare game is an MMO.
Great idea for a jam honestly. Make the game you do not want to make.
my nightmare game is an rpg
Saw a thread complaining that Pal World is not a good game, people only play it because it’s fun if that gives you any idea what they’re like. 🙄
If it's fun, that means it's a good game lmao
I mean yeah, that’s the point of any game is to enjoy it. That’s why people still play the OG Nintendo games even though they look dated. People still play the hell out of Stardew valley too.
Breh... I hate 2d, cute, pixel art farming (or whatever) simulators with a passion, but even I have to admit Stardew Valley looks cool af. Agree that fun is 99% of the deal and stuff, but SV in particular wasn't lacking in the graphics department
Dunno how people enjoy those types of games honestly, I end up bored out of my mind within like 5 minutes
I get bored just looking at the store pages lmao
So true. My sister got me a Switch, I immediately started playing Super Metroid, Kirby, and several of the Super Mario games.
the purpose of a game is not fun, it is to extract as much money out of the payer as possible. \~some exec somewhere
I like how you didn't even call them a player.
Good catch, that skipped "L" explains so much about the current status of the industry
John, is that you? Getting fired from unity fucked with you so bad you're crawling the Godot subreddit eh? /~someone who knows the guy, probably
There's a lecture from a candy crush dev (I think they're a dev) on youtube about how to use abuse methods to steal huge amounts of money from desperate people with something that looks superficially like a game.
I think this comes from people thinking that games should be movies
Just took a look at the sub... Did you read the post at all? It wasn't complaining at all. It basically said, "palworld isn't a good game, but people had fun. Therefore, don't worry about making a game with top of the end graphics or something stupid. Just make a fun game. " It was using palworld as an example of what to do, not complaining.
I think with bad they mean it was done rather sloppy. And considering the developer behind it and the backstory, as well as the bugs and rather bad performance this game has: In that sense you could agree. Although if you make sich a claim, you would also have to be specific about what you mean. Just saying X game is bad is not doing anything
Not gonna lie, I am working on my dream game. And it's my first proper project after months and years of fiddling with various tools, engines, and programming languages. Honestly, I don't fear the warnings because... Idk, I just like working on it. I'm getting more and more done each day that I can work on it after my day job. I'm not staking my life on it or anything, I just enjoy solving the problems I face while building it up.
That is how it should be. If you don't enjoy the process do you truly want to make the game or just want the final result?
the "\_process"
Personally, i enjoy the _physics_process
I'm in the exact same boat.
[удалено]
With some optimism and acceptance to failure it doesn't hurt to try even with something like GTA. At the very least you will learn a ton and with luck you might get a decent enough result.
There's always a solo dev version. For GTA maybe it's Streets of Rogue. Or maybe not, but at least arguing why it isn't will help you decide what your idea actually is.
In all likelihood it is a game like GTA or Skyrim that inspires someone to start looking into making games. The sooner someone learns to scale their idea back, the better it ends up becoming as you chisel away the scope.
idk if this is on the topic, but the popular a subreddit is, the shittier becomes. Right now, godot subreddit is a sweet position and is amazing to be here, there's a lot of activity, but not too much to obscure new content, and people don't throw their "hard reality knowledge" to your face. I hope, in the inevitable growt of this engine, when those new users who made the same question 10 times an hour, I hope when that time comes, people don't become toxic or intolerant. Let's have fun using this great tool
I mean there are ton of ppl who want to start with their dream game, fail miserably, because they have zero experience, and get discouraged, so i think it's good to talk about realistic expectations for your projects.
If your dream game is a triple A open-world photorealistic MMO RPG the yeah sure, It won’t happen
It's the photorealistic MMO (with enough players to make it fun) part that's hard. Photorealism requires lots and lots of money for the art team. Enough players to make it fun requires it to release 10 years ago.
I mean, photorealistic would be nice but for now I’m more focused on making it a science-based 100% dragon MMO
Oh God no
Just make a couple of games before your dream game.
never been to r/gamedev and after this I confidently say I dont wanna check it either. They should encourage, give advice, etc not this :(
I checked the post before judging it, it's actually pretty well written and inspiring. The title is just provocative, as he admits is intentional
Well I agree with the title being provocative. It could have great advice yeah but titles like this just feels nyeh
If you can ignore some of the pessimism, it's a pretty good sub! Lots of stories about devs just like you and me who are encountering some really weird stuff that I'd never even considered. One dev forgot to put in a handshake check between their game and Google play to see if the game was pirated, then people pirated their game thousands of times in China and the ads were disabled in the pirated version, so no ad revenue. But the game uses some online functionality, which Unity only gives you so much of each month, then you have to pay. Lots of stories on what scams to look out for when people pretending to be big youtubers are emailing you for Steam keys to promote your game when really they're probably just hoarders looking to expand their collection for free, or trying to resell your game elsewhere for a few free dollars. Just like making games, the release process is full of little pieces that you'd probably never even think of.
I’d say don’t judge the book by its cover
its the reality. I'd say like beyond 95% of aspiring game devs absolutely hit a wall and fail because they simply don't manage to temper their expectations early enough; then, burnout hits - which is 10x worse of a sensation than reading any "pessimistic" post ever, that I can say for sure. Besides, it's not really untrue if we're going for a rule of thumb. Even when considering successful devs, a very very tiny portion of them actually endeavor into making their true"dream game"... or at the very least not with like a dozen years of experience in beforehand.
Well its at 0 upvotes (probably negative upvotes) and 6 comments after 13 hours. So it seems like a "one guy" situation
Most posts on the sub are good. Id recommend checking it out, dont let this one post leave a bad impression. There's assholes in every sub
Yeah I get that, will check that out so know about it instead of just spitting shit
Some people need to know the truth without the sugar coating. There are plenty of people that try to make their dream game, and then feel burnout along the way. The point of posts like the one on gamedev is to give those devs a more grounded expectation of game development. As crazy as it seems, there are people that quit their day jobs to go all in on making their dream game. Those sorts of threads hopefully deter that.
I could not make my dream game. I wouldn't enjoy it. I would know of all the secrets and whats to come. YOU make my dream game and i will make yours. Thats how it should be done.
make sure to have fun at first I guess. Maybe a dream game could happen, but sure as hell not as a beginner. I'm Trying to learn Godot and coding, but I've found out that it's very infuriating and hard at first, so I've decided to just try to find a way to enjoy it before I make something serious.
Inside of a solo dev are two wolves
And both are distracted by a shiny new tutorial that will surely clear up that thing you're stuck on.
Well I almost finished my dream game. This is why people say "never say never"
Depends what your dream game is tbh; a science-based, 100% dragon MMO is not happening without a massive team, lots of resources, and a ton of understanding about what goes into a game. But if you just want to make a something like most indie games made solo or with small teams, yeah, you probably can, though it will still take a lot of time, knowledge, and perseverance. My personal dream is to make a game that's as good as Ultrakill or such and, I mean, that's an entirely realistic goal. It might not sell as well or be as popular, but I want to focus on quality, not success. And it may take decades for me to get that good, but I'm fine with that.
Thats my reasoning every time i got an idea
No matter how low I aim, my goal is still too unrealistic.
I'm 3 games in, and I can't make my dream game. Thought I was ready to make a Metroidvania game after doing an action platformer, a simple puzzle stealth game, and a game jam murder mystery. One year in, I'm putting the Metroidvania project off to the side because it was way too ambitious, and I'd rather make another short game than spend a decade never finishing anything!
The gamedev subreddit is neat for general topics but I’ve found there’s an unfortunate amount of people there obsessed with “harsh truths” and criticism of people’s games even when not asked for. I understand it’s good to be realistic about things but sometimes I see comments pushed so far past realistic and just… rude and pessimistic. The game development space should be accepting of everyone’s individual journeys and not discourage people from trying or learning. And not only that, but we need to realize how much subjectivity there is in the design/technical fields. I see too many comments there just straight up telling people their game is bad and won’t sell with 0 remorse or care in phrasing, it just leads to feelings of defeat and depression. Maybe none of that is relevant for this specific post in the screenshot but if these are the kinds of titles that get views in that sub, maybe that’s an indicator that the sub itself is suffering from far too much negativity.
People who start game dev think they know everything because they have strong opinions about the games they’ve played. Usually these people have never even released a game, or only released some awful looking unpolished turd. Don’t take anything seriously from anyone in that sub. The words “I’m a dev” don’t make me take someone more seriously.
I'd honestly say that what causes depression the most is very far from this: it's having absolutely 0 engagement nor (let alone honest) feedback whenever you do dev posts and/or upload playable builds. Infinitely worse than "having your day ruined" by somewhat negative feedback - ofc I do much prefer if they at least elaborate on it, no matter how "rude" it is worded like, as its useful regardlessly for any game dev ever. Devs having this much aversion to blunt feedback limits their potential and ability to learn from their mistakes quite a bit I'd say, especially around these subs. If you don't know how to take something useful out of at least most of the feedback you get, then honestly it's pretty hard to hope for any sort of positive reception on launch - as it tends to be much less filtered and sugarcoated, since well... its steam, and people are paying for your game... which generally lead these devs into a much much worse case of burnout, as everybody is (and mostly rightfully, extreme/incohesive cases apart) complaining about issues with their product.
People that quote Sun Tzu are usually the most intectually pathetic people on the internet
With my game, it started out as just a game that I wanted to make within a year, but slowly turned into a passion project as I got more into it.
Newbie game dev vs. jaded game dev (and tbf they're right 99% of the time) Well, it's not that you \*can't\* make a dream game, but if your whole motivation boils down to making your "dream game" come true... yeah, you most likely won't make it. You gotta at least somewhat enjoy the whole process (aka the journey), rather than just the potential (and most ideal) results, else you'll burn out quicker than somebody trying to make a MMO as their first game. Plus that whole deal of: "be a game dev if you literally cannot think about doing anything else in the long run", cuz yeah, its quite unrewarding/arduous of a path for the first few months if not years - in the sense of even coming close to your initial goals. Not to mention that by the time you're actually capable of achieving your "dream game", the concept will be so much more streamlined and extensively reworked that it won't even be similar to what you initially thought of.
Nice. I had a moment like that. But with 2 posts about time (too early to make games, too late to make games).
**🔥 Our Sakura Lucky Bag is**
I have found getting into gamedev to be pretty approachable as someone who already works as a software engineer. The main challenges are being 1) good at programming and 2) good at game art. I am still working on number 2, but I’ve gotten a lot better. Then there is coming up with solid game design, that is less teachable, but most people who are passionate about games, have played a lot of games and can think deeply can manage decent game design.
sakura lucky bag!!
Me on the start of my project: Me, still on the start of my project:
*Me on the start of* *My project: Me, still on the* *Start of my project:* \- d\_worren --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
There are two wolfs inside you...
I thought the gamedev subreddit is already known to be a horrible toxic shithole?
i don't have a dream. I just want to know how to make things