Non-Professional Game Dev - The Joy of Making - Extra Credits
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- Why are hobby and personal games important? Even though they rarely make waves in the mainstream game industry, they are a fantastic outlet for expressing a wide range of creative possibilities.
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♪ “Moonsong” by Curly & GameChops
• Cave Story ► Moonsong ...
If a game matters to you, then it matters. Let's talk about non-professional game development!
How was this comment put down 7 ours ago, did you have this video hidden?
StarFury 909 Yeah he put it on private.
I knew it
Great video, guys. Keep up the good work.
Extra Credits Everytime this question is asked I roll my eyes.
Made a simple game on RPG maker to propose to my girlfriend when she finished it. Its technically terrible, but one of the things i'm most proud of. She said yes of course.
Kit That's pretty amazing.
Fernando Banda thanks! i figure once we're married and have bought a house i may go back and add to it!
I hope you two live happy together
Kit I think my heart just melted. :)
I actually thought of someone doing exactly that while watching the video. Glad to see someone else had the same idea. And very glad it worked. Best wishes to both of you.
"It doesn't have to be a world changing game to change the world of the people making it"
This is why I love extra credits :)
Fun fact: Minecraft was originally Notch teaching himself how to code in Java. It was the massive interest in his alphadev that caused him to try to monetize it. And the gaming world was never the same since.
then he sold it to microsoft after the minecons that insued
Notch didn't sell it to Microsoft. _Jeb did after Notch stepped down from being the CEO of Mojang and gave it to _Jeb. Notch was no longer having fun working on Minecraft because of how popular it became. It turned into just "work" for him instead of the fun thing it was to him when he started. That's why he left Mojang to start other projects. It's the same reason that other game he was going to make never came into being because he felt so pressured to make it good that it stopped being fun.
ShneekeyTheLost if you think about it, notch pretty much revolutionized the indie game genre
Considering all of the bad shit I've seen in the game's design and what I know from the early game, it was definitely not Notch's masterpiece. (nor was he good at sprite art)
il never forget the good time i hade with my friends in it
People gave a lot of unfair flak to the guy who made Flappy Bird. He never expected that level of success, he just made a silly little game.
I feel like non-professional game dev is also an important part of increasing game literacy. Amateur film makers, writers, artists, photographers, etc all are people who appreciate their chosen medium(s) and act as ambassadors to their friends and family helping to increase the public knowledge about the work. I think the tools like RPG Maker and other systems that are affordable, collaborative, and highly approachable all help to make gaming a better thing for everyone.
construct 3 or clickteam fusion 2.5 are the best options to start since no coding knowledge required at all
Maybe so.
this also applies to small a youtube channel.
I make video for my own entertainment and for my friends to watch, and this is how it should be. If I manage to attract more people, that'd be cool, but it's also fine if I don't.
Way too many people get over there head and invest so much in their videos expecting to be the next big hit, which then doesn't work out and then they quit.
Have you switched to trying to make the next big hit by noe
I don’t even know you but the verified tick made me happy for you
"If I manage to attract more people"
Well look where you are now
Amon gus
This episode could not have come at a better time for me. I have a full time job, I just got a promotion, it's nice, even meaningful, but I like doing small time game dev stuff. And every time I spend several hours over the weekend on a game I feel like "wow that was a waste of time, I'm never gonna be able to sell this."
But I enjoy doing. I enjoy the mechanics, I enjoy coming up against a problem and figuring out how to make it work and the feeling of seeing that thing that I never thought would work, suddenly working, and what that thing is is usually so small no one but me would notice it.
Thanks EC, keep gaming.
Same
Can definitely agree there, i mean, i've been working on one doom mod for what, 3 years now?
The "Code" at 1:22 is hilarious.
I thought I wasn't gonna understand it, but I did.
@@silentfilms7459 me too
Yeah, i felt like a stab in the heart when he said: "i learned HTML in high school"
Probably still would function better than my C code.
@@omegablender Don't worry... I'm the latest of them all lol
I needed that. I'm about to release a small game next week and I'm nervous beyond words
but the thought that no one would ever see it helps hahah
put the link here, I would like to try it out
show it to your friends. They like playing them
TrueCynder Im commenting here so that I get notified incase the link gets posted.
It's nothing special really ... Just a small JRPG that is more like a playable prologue to another game I'll work on- but sure if you guys want to check it out I got a tumblr blog for it. the-nova-bloodline.tumblr.com/
Also I got a few videos on my channel (nothing special though.)
Hey! If you need any music for your next small project, I'd love to work with you !
You've done it again, Extra Credits.
Some friends of mine and I have been talking about making games together, and this video is a soft, warm welcome into the kiddie pool. A reminder of where we're starting. The ways in which we're limited, and the ways in which we're unlimited.
I've been learning how to code in my very first programming language. I picked up some graphics and developing software for us from a special Humble Bundle at $10 per person (I think that counts as not breaking the bank ;D) and the most established artist in our group has been messing around with Spriter learning to animate a version of his character using their "bones" system.
For us, this video comes at a perfect time. Thank you.
4 years later: what came out of that project?
This is why I love the fangame community.
i know i'm a year late but have you played pokemon reloaded?
@@santiagogs15 Most fangames based off of Nintendo IPs Get taken Down in a flash.
583,000 Downloads
$3 Donations
LOL, ain't that the truth
I wish!
My stats (for a period of about a year and a half):
109 views
60 downloads
$0.08 revenue
IkBenBenG 38 views here, pretty sure they're all my buddies on discord :D
reminds me of winrar purchased licenses
At least he got 583,000 downloads!
I made 17$ lol
Legit, "Wife slays dinosaurs" game sounds rad as hell. Reminds me of Dark Void.
stone-baked-games.itch.io/clever-girl ;)
I looked the the game page and it looks so cool! As a fan of dinosaurs, and of prehistory in general, I like this hobby project. I think it would be cool if you could make a sequel or prequel or spin-off that takes place in another time period. My preference is the Carboniferous.
I'm glad you think it looks cool, I enjoyed making it and it's nice to see it get a little bit of attention now. I'd love to do a sequel at some point, or an updated version, so one day hopefully.
I was about to post it! That idea sounds SO COOL! ^^
"It doesn't have to be a world changing game to change the world of the people making it."
Fantastic.
I just noticed NOW that you were kind enough to use and credit my music on your channel, I wanted to say thank you so much for liking my work enough to include it in yours
Sometimes there are non-professional / hobby games that compete with professional games. Cave Story, Minecraft & Counter-Strike are all huge games that were just hobby games someone created while tinkering around.
Undertale was the other game I was trying to think of.
Well, Undertale had kickstarter, so it's a bit of professional?
The best example I can think of that hasn't been commercially sold is OFF. It has a pretty big cult following. It's also a great example of how games from different nations can enrich us. I always get excited to see a successful indie or 'non-professional' come out of a different country than America.
+Lorik D Time to listen to Pepper Steak for the hundredth time now.
Purification in progress ...
DAMN, I need to play it again, now.
This was very timely advise for me. Thank you guys so much for being on the ball with stuff like this!
A lot of you were really intrigued by one of the hobbyist games Chris mentioned at 6:35. Want to travel back in time and fight dinosaurs too? stone-baked-games.itch.io/clever-girl
Thaannks!!
NICE!
Too bad I cannot download it
Could you describe the problem you're having? I'll try to fix it if I can.
thanks, I wanted to ask you for links to _all_ the games mentioned though, I mean, no reason not to give your sources more exposition right?
When you said making them for valentines day or marriage proposal I just though "I'm glad I'm not the only one."
Really? Please elaborate.
I made a game for the 18th birthday of my gf in which you play the first day we met.
It just feels right to make something like this.
@@CananaMan Aww. That seems like a great concept game
I love you guys. I'm not a dev by any means but I love the optimism and joy that your videos have. They always make me feel good and happy!
Someone once said that there could be hundreds of undiscovered games on the quality level of Strawdew Valley on steam, that will never been known. this video reminded me of that. it's sad that, even when games created for a hobby are good enough to be beloved, acclaimed, and popular, simply no one hear about them.
This video inspired me to buckle down and finally get to Editting and posting my first public video, thanks guys.
Step 1: wife
Step 2: make a video game where my wife travels back in time to fight dinosaurs!
Step 3: emotional profit.
I am stuck at step 1. Dont even have a GF
I've made some non-professional game. It's quite fun showing it to your friends and family and letting them play it.
What type of game was it and how long did it take you to make it??? I'm thinking about going into Game Design at a later date!
Red Panda will you make a video walktrough for your channel?
Timothy Liddy depending on the project, it can take anything between a few days to years. If you are thinking about it you should start very small, try making a pong game
I've actually started making a pong game. after losing motivation on bigger ideas.
I'm going to start small and pick it up from there.
It's great to start small, because it's a great way to build up your confidence. When you make and finish a smaller game, it'll give you some experience and you'll be able to point at something you've created. Then, you can start working on something else a bit more complicated. Also, if you've got some huge grand plans for a game, it's often better to simplify some of the stuff to make it completable. It's generally going to be better to make your game much less complicated so that you'll actually complete it. When you try to do complicated things you don't know how to do, it's easy to get stuck on that and not make any progress, which can often lead to you not finishing your project. If you find yourself stuck on something and can't get it figured out (hint: look online, lots of things you might find difficult or not know how to do have been figured out and answered), try and make it simpler or if you can, cut it out all together. You might be surprised to see that your simpler game is actually pretty good anyway. :)
Id like to make small personal games like this but my main issue is actually finishing anything I start, I decide how I want the game and tackle the challenging parts but then dont feel motivated to do any of the stuff that just requires a bunch of work that doesnt push my limits or makes me learn something new, I have been trying to convince some friends from university to start a project with me so we could all motivate each other to continue working but doesnt seem like anyone wants to..
I never finish my games, but since it was fun to mess with them I believe they were a success nonetheless.
Do what I did and bring friends along. Well I was kinda brought along by friends.
Amateur is the opposite of Professional, and sounds a heck of a lot better than "Non-Professional." It unfortunately has gained a bit of a negative connotation in recent years, but all it means is someone who does an activity for fun instead of for wages--and I think it's time the word was reclaimed as such. For an example of how the term was used positively is how for decades, the *Olympics* were seen as the pinnacle of *amateur* athletics, with each sport ideally having its own competitions for the professionals to strut they're stuff, and it was only the heated rivalry between the USA and USSR in the Cold War that changed that (much to the chagrin of other countries, like Britain, who still wanted to play by the tacit agreement of previous games that professionals wouldn't participate).
Agree, Amateur is the ideal word. And is not pejorative unless you use it that way.
Also, in Spanish, for example, it does not have a negative connotation (usually).
Thank you so much for apologizing for that 'buggy' code. I had to pause and collect myself before reading it, but was glad after I did.
Seing the title. "Thinks yandere dev"
burn
He is doing a pretty decent job though he has quit the foresight when it comes to his project ...
Well he was a professional game dev before he started working on Yandere Simulator.
Apparently, as he said, Yandere Sim IS (sorry for capsing) his work right now.
Man, two years in the making
I would recommend "Mimicry Man" as an example of one of these hobby-made games (at least, I think it is). Pretty well done and an interesting premise, if somewhat lacking in polish. You play as a mimic in an RPG, trying to trick the hero into opening you so you can eat him.
To the artist working on this show, I laughed myself into tears with your code 😂
I love the joke you put in!
Enjoyed the video, enjoyed hearing about a few of the examples provided. Would the Channel be willing, or able if there are time constraints, to make "Games You May Not Have Tried" videos showcasing only hobby games, as if as a small mini series within that series of videos?
Chris Oake That's an awesome idea!
Chris Oake Yes please, I am all for this! 😄
Name 1 thing Triple A games don't have
Pure love and passion
Good managers
A cat cooking Instant noodles
Botw
Nite they also don’t have
proper sleeping schedules, it’s kinda getting out of hand.
Those are 2 things
Those closing words hit home. One of the best and most inspiring EC episodes to date. Thank you, guys.
I call it happy accidents :3
Happy accidents sound so hilarious. Have my upvote
"There are no mistakes, just happy accidents"
-Bob Ross
Heeeey! I'm not a video game :P
Is that also what we call babies?
I loved watching Bob Ross paint, and his ongoing commentary always made me smile.
Seeing this really makes me feel better about my own projects. I have a RPG series that's been in the works for a long time and haven't mustered the willpower to finish. This may just have been the kick in the rear I needed.
0:53 I just found myself internally screaming "CAVE STORY CAVE STORY CAVE STORY CAVE STORY"
This resonates a lot with me. I started podcasting half a year ago with a few friends and even though we don't have an audience we still have a ton of fun creating something that is our own and improving a little with each episodes. Almost everything you said here applies to podcasting as well. And the best things, since our podcast is about games we can combine 2 things we love. I'd encourage everyone to try and create something if you feel like it. No matter what it is, it feels amazing to have something that is 100% your own.
Thank you Extra Credits for this fantastic video!
#HobbyGameDev can be one of the most satisfying creative outlets. I've come to the conclusion that I don't ever want to work in the industry simply so that I don't spoil the joy that is making a video game and having the freedom to make literally anything I want.
I recently made a game with my 2-year-old daughter for #KIDSJAM, which really was an amazing experience to see her play and love her own game.
Thanks for validating and appreciating the love that goes into non-professional games!
As someone designing a tabletop game, I can say that all of this advice works outside of video games as well. Thank you for this video. Very encouraging. :)
I know theres a mountain of comments here, but I just wanted to say thanks so much for this episode. This is exactly what I needed to hear right now.
6 months ago I started Khan Academy's Javascript tutorials in my spare time, knowing absolutely nothing about how to program a game. Now I'm making a puzzle-platformer about climbing over your own corpses to overcome obstacles. It's pretty sloppy and unfinished, but I'm just impressed that I managed to cobble it together in the first place.
My buddies and I have done this. We got to work on a deck building game incorporating biblical and theological themes into the mechanics of our game we made Spiritual Warfare: The Deck Building Game. We had it made through the Game Crafter
Nathanael Wisecup That sounds like a game I would play!
Here is the link to purchase the demo
www.thegamecrafter.com/games/spiritual-warfare:-the-deck-building-evangelistic-demo
There is full game available on the same site :)
I was curious if you guys would do a video on moders making full on games. There have been many and I wonder if there has been an increase lately of mod developers becoming game developers by themselves or if companies look to hire them. Great content, keep up the good work.
This is something I understand as a writer, too. One of the biggest myths around writing is you have to write for an audience. You can write for yourself as much as others. I have literally dozens of notebooks filled with stories that will never see the light of day. I have a writing blog not to be one of those internet commentator types but to help structure my thoughts and measure my progress as a writer.
Personally, I recommend everybody try making a blog or RUclips channel, something private where they have a platform to structure their thoughts. It makes a world of difference.
Why was flappy bird the example and not Minecraft? Originally Minecraft was just a side project for Notch that happened to gain notoriety.
You could probably lump in Undertale too, although considering that game had a Kickstarter, I’m not sure if you can call it a personal project instead of an indie project...
snekboi Though Undertale was a side project, it was targeted towards an audience.
flappy birds is a quickly made not professional not a well-planned game. people made tons of copies since it is very easy to make.
dwarf fortress
"creating an art"
-one art please!
HAHA!
... Cave story!!! That makes me so elated to hear that ending theme!
Wasn't stardew valley made non professionally by one guy over a period of a few years? I'm surprised I didn't hear any mention of that
I think it is a lot like Undertale, where the success was some phenomenal that, in a weird way, two things happened. A) It because cliche to use them as examples and B) they wanted to raise awareness for other games!
It was. but he spent an obscene amount of time on it, like up to 10 hours each day for 4 years. And he is working even harder now, currently implementing multiplayer support and bugfixing.
both of those games got kick started. so h
technically it is professional
Yes Like 10 years.
Reminds me of the development of Cave Story.
You should play that if you haven't, by the way. The original non-Steam PC version is free and it's great.
My sisters and I used to make RPG Maker games together and let me tell you, we all now have a running joke about an ingenious system one of my sisters put into one of our games called "Rent-A-Dragon" that was run by an intimidating man in a cloak, but he'd talk to you like a used car dealer and you got to choose a dragon to ride around between the various areas. We put in a Rent-A-Dragon service into every game we made after that, and we loved it!
That html though
I don't really get it.
cmck ok. /all worth whatever that is
What is it? I'm on mobile.
HTGML - HyperText Game Making Language
As someone just starting to crank out prototypes for a portfolio, this is exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks for this guys.
the game about sending the dude's wife back in time to kill dinosaurs sounds amazing XD like even if it's bad or not very fun it sounds like a fun idea XD
stone-baked-games.itch.io/clever-girl ;)
I seriously love how you're going around sharing that link dude. My freaking hero!
Haha! Well, a bit of self promotion never hurt, right?
This video helped me a lot, I've been waiting to have an idea or the necessary skills to make my "THE GREAT LIFE CHANGING INDIE GAME" for some time now and it never got me anywhere, because I was always thinking of how bad that would be, or how I would fail. I'll just make some bad (probably) personal games from now on :)
Maybe someday, you'll start on a project that becomes THE GREAT LIFE CHANGING INDIE GAME. You never know if you'll be the next Notch!
You guys should make a "games you might not have tried" version of games developed by few people or individually made like Touhou, Little Fighter 2 or Soldat. They're still avaiable on the internet for downloading and some of them still have communities.
Extra credits, thank you. I am working on my first game, text-based. I was slacking off, but this gave me what I needed to get back at it. Your team is amazing, and I appreciate every episode I have watched.
And 5 days later, a masterpiece would be released by one of these indie studios.
Goddam i love hollow knight.
Lots of the stuff you talk about here is also applicable to other creative work (music, art, film, photography). Thank you for putting this together! This is a great message.
Thanks for talking about this! It's amazing what's possible these days. ;)
I like to think of myself as a "hobby" vr game developer.. heh A few years back I got an Oculus DK1, and started learning UE4.. And now I've got a couple projects I'm pretty proud of, and want to keep going, see where the skills take me.
It was worth watching it for me as a hobby-composer! I often thought 'well... most of people won't listen to my music, and my works won't be remembered. i wonder this is kind of waste of time'. But what matters was how 'I' feel about it! Thank you for this good lesson!
No mention of Cave Story or Undertale?! They are perfect examples of hobby games worked on by a single developer for years in their free time, that had a huge amount of polish and effort put into them and made it big because people recognized and appreciated the love they were given.
Undertale was not just a hobby game. Toby Fox invested much money in that game. Many people donated to Undertale.
Undertale feels more like paid passion. It's true that Toby did a vast majority of the work, but he always had a wider audience in mind, which can be seen in the actual game. Still a good example of a non professional game making it big
2 of my favourite non-professional games are Aurora 4X (currently undergoing a full recode from VB to C#) and Dwarf Fortress (now has patreon support of $5600/month).
Both are solo-dev project with so much functionality under the hood you can spend many many hours and it only feel like a few minutes has passed yet always uncover something new.
One thing I'm surprised wasn't really mentioned here: these are the games that form your portfolio. I've met so many people wanting to get into the professional industry who have no past experience to show for it. Make games because you love making them. After that, maybe pursue a career in it. But if you skip that initial, non-professional phase, there's a large chance you won't have the skills to get very far in this industry.
Also, as someone who spent many years on the Game Maker Community forums back in the day, it's sort of weird to see a video on this at all. From my experience, I can't help but think "of course this is a thing... who doesn't know about these games". I've played so many Game Maker games, with massive differences in quality. The ones I remember most are those made by Cactus (he did a ton of these games before making something like Hotline Miami) as well as games like Iji and Sehklus. Definitely check out Iji if you haven't. It's decently well known, but the game is exquisite. Sadly it doesn't run as well as newer hardware.
They mentioned portfolios at 4:04
4:41 "Creating an art"
"an art"
Paging McMansion Hell!
Well... tecnicaly there are 13 arts, so "an" is correct
We don't all make games for be taken in AAA companies. For my part, I hate AAA compagnies and I'm a student in a 3D animation and synthesis images program. I personally want to be in a AAA company for learn and make a real good game cause I'm not satisfied by their games.
One like is just not enough to fully embrace this kind of videos!
They are just amazing!
Thank you! This is what I needed to watch! I'm really passionate with Gaming as a whole. And I dreamed of making my own library of Video Games based of influences in Cartoons, Anime, Comic Books, Movies, TV Shows and especially from other Video Games. Because they got me exposed of seeing so many imaginative scenarios that I wouldn't never think or dream of doing! I'm currently trying to save up on a tablet to start drawing since I cant really draw too well (I'm still trying lol) and writing up characters I create for my stories. In the end, Video Games are the reasons on how i can Express my Art and Passion for Gaming and Gamers everywhere!
My major in college was Game Art and Production, so most of the big projects we worked on were games, including Senior Project. It was fun a lot of the time and I learned that I enjoyed making the sound effects for the games as much as I enjoyed creating concept art (plus I got to voice act a little which is my dream job!).
I wish I could still play all the games my classmates and I made... A lot of them were pretty cool!
Undertale, SUPERHOT, and many other revolutionary titles started out like this, now that I think about it.
Jeremy Saklad But Undertale was also crowdfunded.
no? Both undertale and superhot were crowdfunded
Weegee McDonut33 he said started. Undertale demo wasn’t. Not sure about super hot tho.
Great video! As a big fan of Chris DeLeon's other work/writing (I'm actually a Gamkedo subscriber), I'm glad to see exploration of the topic getting promoted further. Adopting this mindset allowed me to finally finish my first game this year, with more to come soon. Finally accomplishing these goals has been so satisfying, and none of it would have been possible without people like you guys and Chris. So thanks, I really appreciate it!
the joy of making where have i heard that before
fuck you
how dare you
What did i do
happy little friends. happy little friends
lol, i get it
While I work in the industry I still absolutely love doing mod work for games for this very reason.
The hobby game about the lady fighting dinosaurs sounds cool. What is it called?
stone-baked-games.itch.io/clever-girl ;)
Thank you! :)
No problem. It was a big surprise to me that it got a mention in this video, so I hope a few more folks get to enjoy it.
Thanks, I really needed this. I love making games. It's very cathartic for me as you said, but I often get caught in this self-doubt loop of "What if this isn't good enough?" and "What if it doesn't succeed?" and then stop which makes it basically a self-fulfilling prophecy. It seems silly but it's good to have someone else say it's okay to just do it for fun even if nothing ever comes from it.
I wanna do a game jam.
Google " game jam" and see what comes up! :) Sign up immediately if you find something, it'll be an adventure.
Otherwise consider online efforts. If you can arrange for a group of 1-4 friends, meeting over the weekend someplace can be just as great. My favorite online jams: ludumdare.com/
You can easily set one up on GameJolt.
Asger, it sounds like you know a lot about this kinda thing???
gamesdisk
Same, but school and parents...
You can find jams online! I'm trying my first jam next week.
This speaks to why I enjoy writing fanfiction so much--it's freeing to be able to write about exactly what I want to read about! Even though nobody ever reads it, it's satisfying to flesh out the worlds and characters I've made.
Out of curiosity, what's the game where the developer's wife goes back in time to fight dinosaurs? It sounds fun. :)
I accidentally left a local multiplayer game I made for fun downloaded on a school computer once, and about a year later I entered a random classroom to find students battling each other and projecting it for the rest of the class to cheer them on. It was really encouraging to see my game being enjoyed without my presence.
Two words: Katawa Shoujo.
man, Katawa Shoujo is like the only project that I know of where are bunch of 4chan anons got together and made a fully and rather quite good/compelling imo visual novel/game , getting Mike Inel do the animations was the cherry top in the cake
I have to admit I played it a long time ago simply for the lewd scenes.
When the first lewd scene popped up I was so captured by the actual plot and characters that I immediately skipped it because it felt like unnecessary filler. Good stuff.
Does anyone know how to get shizune's unreleased route for mac I heard it was amazing.
Dear extra credits, I'm working on a large non professional game with some friends and I want to know what a reasonable price is to put into software so I know if I've put too much in. I wanted to get some information from the professionals, you guys are amazing and inspired me to make this, I know you'll probably never read this with your busy schedule and personal life but it's good to ask, you're the best
“You have total creative freedom”
Unless your just the artist. :(
As a dev with no graphical skills, I think the artist would have more creative freedom than me.
@@iluan_ if you're talking about creative freedom for making games then you're damn wrong. A programmer can put together a game with some crappy art, but if you can't code then you can't make anything. If the artist learns to code, then they're not just an artist anymore, they're a programmer too.
@@iluan_ - there is artistry in making your own stick figures "live" and react with the code you write! I'm similar to you but always making chicken scratch sprites instead of clip art - cool payoff to see them move by your dev fuctions!
I feel like this applies to the creative process beyond just making games. Loved the sportsball analogy. Great work as always!
Question: How can a single person with most likely no accurate knowledge of the process of game developing make a game?
Next question: Can anyone sell games on Steam? Well, I´d be happy to share my work for free, too, but I´d want to share it with others if I make it.
1. Acquire the knowledge. Resources for coding, art, and 3d modeling are all over the internet. Read, try, read it from somewhere else, try again.
2. Yes anyone can sell games on steam. If you've been on their indie game store you can see the mountain of personal game projects. You can charge or offer it for free.
1) Depending on what kind of game you want to make, different skill sets will be required. For example, I am a 3D environment artist. I am lousy at character art, and my programming skills are minimal, so my personal projects tend to more more Myst like puzzle games.
Companies like Epic (Unreal Engine) and Unity really want to grow their customer base, and both have been making big strides to make sure resources are available for people to learn their engines. You can find an abundance of tutorials out there for both.
2) Here is a FAQ on submitting games to steam: steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=765§ion=faq
I haven't done it personally, but there are hoops to jump through. Presumably they do this to keep people from submitting multitudes of low quality games on a daily bases and flooding their market with garbage.
Are there any user-friendly tools basically anyone could acquire and use?
I mean, I hate to admit it, but somehow I tend to not get how supposedly easily usable programs work, and if I do, I just figure out one or two basic functions and stick with these, which highly limits the variety of things I can do with this program.
Follow Tom Francis' tutorial series to using GameMaker: Studio
Tom Francis made Gunpoint
While I'm not really qualified to answer your questions, let me try.
if you really want to make games, any sort of game, you can try making a pen and paper game or invent a new card game, or even something with gestures like the new 1-2 switch. if you are set on Electronic games, you can try a text based adventure for example or I've heard that game maker is free and easy to use, even for someone with 0 scripting experience. as for the Ideas, well that is up to you. Also remember that mostly all games are systems with rules, if you have an Idea, make sure to develop the rules it should follow.
As for your second question, if you are not thinking of making profit, then simply go to a game related forum and post your game, there is also newgrounds and I keep hearing about a site called Good old Games (GoG),
Steam has or had greenlight but you should look it up, as for the entry barrier on steam, I once heard about a game that was actually just malicious code so... it shouldn't be that hard to enter.
Lastly I'm pretty sure that EC has a lot of videos about programming, designing and publishing games. so spend a whole day watching all the EC videos and you may find what you are looking for.
best regards and good luck!
You have a great point about not having stakeholders, upper level managers, or investors to appease. I have enough tip toeing around budgets, deliverable, and people's egos and emotions: and I only work with databases. I couldn't imagine that same pressure surrounding a creative pursuit :/
Weirdly enough I released my first 'Non-Professional' game on Steam Greenlight this week. It was partially inspired by Mega Man, and partially by Extra History's Zulu Empire series.
If that sounds interesting to you, you can find it here.
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=862595475
This is interesting timing. I work in security, but I've messed around making mobile games in my free time on and off for the last few years. I just recently had one that was complete enough to put up online. I was incredibly nervous about letting other people see it, but everyone has been surprisingly nice and positive (even the bug reports).
If you're proud of something you made, don't let fear keep you from putting it out there for people to find. It's so rewarding to see people enjoying something you worked hard making.
Isn't a AA game bigger than a AAA one? I mean AA batteries are bigger than AAA ones
I'm glad I saw this episode. I had a plan for a game almost exactly like you describe here but eventually stopped because I realized the theme was a personal issue I had that pertained to about three other people close to me. Knowing I can just make the game with having to make it perfect and innovative mechanically makes me want to start it again.
Could you do an episode on the claim that "video games cause violence"? Not only is it an interesting topic in general, but as a sociology student i'd love to have somewhere to point when this claim is made in exams and by teachers, other students or even my parents.
If you've made this episode already, i've missed it and that's on me. But if someone could link me to it, that would be great.
Cero Cornizard i did an online paper on that topic once.
Could you link me to it? i'd love to read it
If you are still looking for something, a quick google brings up several results. Here's one from bbc
www.bbc.com/news/technology-33960075
Thanks for all these years of keeping us inspired, Extra Credits!
It helped me with the decision to take a big break in July August and try and turn out one of these passion projects too. It's aimed at Android, and I'm hoping to make a profit, or at least learn enough so that the next project might become something. But at the same time, I'm keeping my job, so that this game can still fail without me or my family going belly up. Still looking forward to those two months though, because trying to make this game while working makes for frustratingly long times of not being able to work on the project.
but what to do if u are making a non-pro game, but don't know anything about music or don't have money to hire a musician? Downloading free soundtracks will make u feel that some of the uniqueness of your game is lost.
Well I can think of 3 options;
1. There are plenty of copyright free music that's really good, and comes in a large variety. Like movies with a soundtrack, the uniqueness comes not from the originality of the music, necessarily, but how and when you use it. I doubt most people will recognise all the tracks you pick.
2. Use free music synthesizer software to make your own sounds. It's easier than ever to do, and that will allow you to be as creative as you please. Will there be a learning curve? Probably. Will the final result be amazing? Probably not. But that doesn't matter, as it's a game for you, by you.
3. Contact a smalltime musician you like, say a youtuber or someone on Soundcloud, to make music. Send them a copy of your game, tell them why you really enjoy their music/believe their style is perfect for your project. Be clear that the game is for free and you can't pay them. It's possible that they might agree to do it, especially if they like your game. Potentially, you might have some skills to offer them, given you're making the game yourself. Maybe they really like your animating skill, or coding, and wants to use it for one of their projects, so it would work as a trade. It's how getting voice actors for abridged shows work most of the time. Remember-the worst they can do is not respond or say no.
u can make those yourself
Imagine you're a professional game designer: Did you make that soundtrack? No, you didn't. Someone else did, possibly with your input, but what they did is certainly now exactly what you had on your mind. What you do next is design around what you already have in your hands.
Go to a music gallery, browse your category of choice, pick one that inspires you/you feel that somewhat fits what you want, and design around it. Then after a short while, test it out, see if the whole is similar to what you wanted, and reiterate on top of it, or go browse some more for a different piece.
In a professional game dev team, "no person is an island" - that is - no one rules over all and has complete control over the development process. Everyone uses what the rest of the team can offer, and make something within that scope.
I'll put down here that a game doesn't actually need sound to a game, or even a good game. Most of the time sound plays in video games people are going to mute it can a podcast or and audiobook or something else to play instead so having no sound at all won't damage most games that much. In some genres such as idle games sound would actually make the game less fun.
If it your personal game you decide what goes in and what doesn't go in it. If you want to make a dating game with 8 different colours of squares and talk soley in haiku then nobody can stop you.
If you have apple devices then you could play around in GarageBand.
i love that tons of people are doing game jams to encourage themselves to make games in groups, with the main goal just being in community with each other.
How does the modding community figure into this?
+Ricardo Santos My question was about what direction most Amateurs do (or should) approach game development from.
How crucial, for expanding your game development toolbox of skills, is learning how to modify games that are far more complicated than what you can build yourself? And I hope you know, many Mods do far more than just rearrange furniture.
I'm pretty sure you could consider it similarly as the description in the video. Often when I'd make a mod, I'd become so engrossed in my own little custom corner of the world it was almost like making a game in itself but IMO it is more rewarding personally when you've built it from a pre-made engine yourself, (when it's not crashing), I think I'd like to try making something again but I still feel a bit intimidated to build an engine on my own.. If only I knew of a pre-made engine that's legal to distribute after being modified (which includes the features I'm looking for)
I read somewhere that it was the first steps in game creation for many. It gave them a better understanding of how games are made and gave the inspiration to make their own games.
Remember modding is not just adding assets to a game. Some modders modify game code, create scripts (eg AI in Age of Empires), made completely different games out of them, and have even finished games that the creators were unable to do. There is a lot to modding than meets the eye. It can give you a glimpse into the world of game development than not everyone knows about.
eg:
www.pcgamer.com/after-14-years-an-aoe2-fan-mod-becomes-an-official-expansion/
This was the most timely advice that I've ever received. You should know that. Hope you see this
Am I the only one who saw the title and thought of digital homicide?
Nope haha, I went looking through comments to see if anyone else thought so!
Aren't they those assholes who got mad at people for having legitimate criticism of their games?
THE DIGITAL TYRANT HAS FALLEN!
THANK GOD FOR JIM F**KING STERLING SON!
wherethetatosat
What games?
Me too. When he said not to charge too much for it, I was thinking "Should you even charge anything at all?"
Still, a minor overestimation of your game's worth is peanuts compared to the crap DH pulled.
I love how their videos feel like inspirational talks sometimes.
I've got to differ with you on this point. You say 'non commertial', but you're only talking about 'art for myself'. You can also make non comertial 'art for the sake of art', and you say nothing about it, and by that, you kinda discredit it. Also make notice that the media, the industry... kinda sucks. It's really hard to get into it. So sometimes you make it freely because getting to be known/ played/ listened to is more important that get money out of it. Get your message to be spread out.
It's like when you're an indie musician, or painter, or a webcomics maker. Maybe a non-profesional one.
For example. I work with a musician, he writes songs which you can download freely, and we play either free or 'pay what you wish' mode. It's non comertial art. But... It's not the same as if we only played for our fun or the fun of our friends. A lot of people enjoys our music, and that's our objective. A non comertial one. But you wouldn't say 'don't listen to them, they don't want to make money so you probably wouldn't like it'.
It's just that. You should talk about amateur people that makes free games just for other people to play them and get to feel whatever the dev wanted to express.
Mer Grazzini I agree, I think most non-commercial games are made with a wider audience in mind than just friends. I think it's more apt to compare non commercial devs to the punk music scene rather than a local sports club.
Yes, and that assumption that if you play a non-professional game it "probably wouldn't be that great"... It might not have the best graphics in the world, it might by quite buggy and probably really short, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't have been an interesting experience.
@5:39 This is all good advice for any creative endeavor, be it a novel or painting or game developing.
I recently listened to Patrick Rothfuss say very similar things to this video's points in an interview. From his point of view, he worked on his first book, The Name of the Wind, for fourteen years, being the guy who "wasn't successful," and then he suddenly got lucky and people's perceptions of him changed. That's fourteen years of doing something for himself, and then the right person in the right place at the right time came by and thought it was cool enough to give it a shot at publication.
I would say this even applies for every type of creative kind of work (writing, drawing, even RUclips). This helps a lot. Thanks.
My favorite non-professional game is definitely Orbiter space flight simulator distributed for free and created as a hobby, but it has managed to get a great community of modders behind it and with the stuff they make you can improve it massively. For example it normally has no sound and mediocre modeling but there are mods that add sound and overhaul the spaceships which makes it awesome and customizable. Depending on what mods you download you can make it anything from flying a starship in the Star Trek universe to flying an Apollo mission using the original Apollo navigation software and some people have even managed to turn it into a train game. That simulator is actually what got me into gaming, and now that I have some experience with graphic design and programming I am thinking about creating something like this myself.