5 Mistakes I Made When I Started Making Games

We all make mistakes, especially when you we start things like learning how to make games. In this video I walk you through 5 mistakes I made when I started making games, and how I got past them.
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[@landon7612]

Mistakes: 1:05 #1 Tried to build his own game engine for his game as a beginner 2:53 #2 Started on a game that was too big 4:45 #3 Didn't show anybody his game 8:04 #4 Tried to please everybody with his game 11:07 #5 Got stuck in perfectionism

[@tim-ruswick]

Appreciate the summary and timestamps :)

[@HistoMagouri]

Thanks. I just watched the video yesterday so I needed to keep track.

[@henrykobutra]

life saver

[@zayanwatchel8780]

Wait? He tried to write a fucking engine? Ah that's rich

[@adibmukhlis5256]

mistake #6 : this video description "we all 'make' mistakes"

[@SnepKaunt]

My top 5 mistakes: 1) Not enough emphasis on nice graphics. When players start playing and the game is engaging, they won't mind the poor graphics. But poor graphics will stop a lot of them from giving the game a chance in the first place. 2) Giving players too much freedom. It's arguably good for gameplay but it makes it so much harder to develop and test. 3) Underestimating how long writing takes and how hard it is. In my RPG I thought writing and coming up with quest ideas was going to be a breeze compared to programming. Instead writing is like 2/3 of my development time. Writing is especially complicated when you give players too much freedom so you have to write multiple versions of pretty much everything. 4) Spending too much time on unimportant details. Just one example: my first game takes place in the past and I looked up the phases of the moon for that date and location, then I made the moon in the game look the same. Of course no one cares about that stuff but I can't help it sometimes. 5) Not enough emphasis on promoting the game. Not advertising though. Player engagement is a big factor in how your game gets ranked on app stores, much more than reviews (which can be bought). So you want your first players to be the people who you know already love your game and are going to play it. That's why it's better to have a few hundred fans from the get go than like 10k pay-per-install players who are going to try your game for 2 minutes then give up.

[@tim-ruswick]

Thanks for sharing! #1 is great and really important for me..

[@igorthelight]

Number 4 makes me sad... C'mon guys! 100% realistic historical accurate moon phases! No? Fuck... Feel for you :-)

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Number 4 can be a killer, but I think it is good to have 1 or two of those because they are things you can say about your game that make people go, "AWWW, coooool." But yeah, most people will be totally oblivious.

[@josephbrandenburg4373]

SnepKaunt I think if you're gonna have tiny details, I think you have to tip people off somehow. For example, if you beat a NewGame+ in Chrono Trigger at the first opportunity, you go to a room with messages from the game's staff. Some of them point out tiny details, like "check out the shadow on that guy's sword!"

[@TricoliciSerghei]

This is gold. Thank you

[@FreeFlyGamesYoutube]

if you are new, make sure start with the small games...

[@Isaacminer1]

My biggest mistake: having so many ideas and wanting to start on them with no knowledge of coding at all.

[@aleksandarpolic3647]

Wanna pair up and make a team?

[@Isaacminer1]

Aleksandar Polic that would be awesome but I'm not sure I have what it takes to be completely honest

[@aleksandarpolic3647]

Both of you, add me on discord, we will come up with something. DiscordID: ExAmbitionAl#5664

[@aleksandarpolic3647]

discord.gg/kh9JDy try with my server

[@Wayne4472]

can i join you, guys?

[@platinumsketch]

No joke, the first game me and my crew are making is pong lol

[@tim-ruswick]

Good! Starting too small is always better than starting too big.

[@retrocademediaofficial]

Me too, just with space invaders added in. Don't ask how that works

[@EpicTastyPapple]

how does it work?

[@retrocademediaofficial]

Christian Billman well, paddles on left and right, and space invaders at the top, the ball duplicated when it was hit, and hitting a space invader gave you extra points.

[@starxhilmie]

You dont need a crew to make Pong game LOL..

[@dazzmarshall]

These 5 steps sound like the story of my life. LOL. Actually 4, i never did number one, but it did prevent me from getting into the game industry earlier, as I thought you had to build a game engine in order to be taken seriously. Starting on smaller projects as an indie is paramount, even though I went Tim's route. Something I would add for new developers is this; Indie development is guerilla warfare, you need to play to your strengths, and against AAA's weaknesses. If your not artistic, don't make an FPS trying to topple Doom4's graphics. Do something totally unique with the mechanics, a good example would be the game 'Superhot', the graphics are functional, but its the 'moving time only when you move' mechanic that makes it stand out. If your not much of a programmer, but a good artist; make a simple game like pacman, but give it a crazy art style that blows people away. And yes finish the damned game!

[@tim-ruswick]

Agree 100% on playing to strengths. Starting small is great not only so that you actually have a shot at finishing, but also because when your scope is small you can try a lot of interesting things relatively quickly and see what sticks.

[@officialsouthsoul5223]

hey guys, do y'all feel like a 2D platform/ with a rich story would be to much for a beginner? i come from a music background and i will be composing the music myself and will be hiring acters for the voice acting. i have build stuff in the past like go carts and i can draw pretty good. i feel like all the art design i can do perfect, i just never messed with coding but the thought excites me and i feel passionate about it. i just download unity yesterday. it's gonna be a side scroller but there will be moments when a key aspect in the story will lead the character facing down falling. (kinda like skydiving). would that be hard to implement in unity? (appreciate any advice, much love!)

[@hydrocarbon8658]

lol same

[@merpysoup6505]

Sounds great! I can help with the level design if your interested. When your done, post it on itch.io and send me a link

[@DoobieDoctor5000]

One big mistake I've made is not giving myself enough credit for the work I put in, and not being confident about what I produce. This is actually one I continue to struggle with. If someone asks me about my first game, Indy 1945, I'd describe it as "a buggy mess". They don't want to hear that. They want to hear, "It's a game about being stranded in the water and fighting off sharks and saving people." Also I spoke with people from WayForward a couple years ago at E3, and they were looking at a XenoHorizon game I was helping make. I was like, "Oh yeah he did most of the work but I did a little bit here and there..." and my partner at the time later was like, "Dude. Quit selling yourself short. You work really hard on this game. Just because I have more time to put into it doesn't mean what you do isn't worthwhile." It really made me think.

[@tim-ruswick]

Yeah for sure dude. This is one of those lessons I probably took for granted having learned this in marketing/PR and having it kind of ingrained in my personality now, but yeah I remember that feeling. You need the perfect balance of confidence/humbleness. One of the ways I actually combatted this was rather than put myself down, I'd acknowledge my work, and then I raised others up. "Thanks, it was a ton of fun. Just glad Im surrounded by great people". Something like that.

[@JanosTerroz]

Great piece of advice. Learn to credit your accomplishments and take compliments. It will advance your motivation to do more.

[@loserchips1112]

I'm going for a Visual Novel, and I'm using Ren'py So far, I've written a few lines of script and it's going well. I don't plan on it being too huge, I'll probably end up working on it WITH my little sister. Meaning: -She can help me with Game Ideas -She can help me with art design -We can keep each other motivated Honestly, I think making a game would be more fun when you are working with someone. Because then you can talk to them about the progress and how happy you are to get this far in development.. I'm only eleven.. and I know that's a really young age. But I REALLY want to make games. And.. why not start now? It's not too big, I won't be alone, and I already know most of the things because the engine I'm using has tutorials on it. :D

[@meggycrystal99]

Jifiggleburg Hey, good luck! 11 isn’t too young, good luck on developing your skills! It’ll give you an edge later, make sure to try and keep the magic alive that you have right now :’) I know that it can be tempting to use a good idea for your first game, especially on an engine that seems simple like Renpy, but something that I think is helpful for using a new engine is to make a silly game that you don’t have too much attachment to. This is used for testing how the code works, how easy and hard certain concepts are to code, what will break the code, and how long things will take. It can be a little fangame (I remember doing a silly dating sim for the visual novel 999, which was good cause it had the sprites already made for me.) or a trope-filled funny story you make up as it goes. I wish you and your sister the best of luck on your game!

[@MsSomeonenew]

Persistence is the main ingredient no matter what age you are. Just try to keep it within doable reason, it takes whole professional teams years to make bigger games.

[@skybeast2738]

Been looking for this kind of video, so many crap on KZbin with hundreds of thousands of views and the simplest but most informing video only has 2k views... Oh well, you earned a suscriber.

[@tim-ruswick]

Thank you dude, I appreciate that!

[@CoreDreamStudios]

I also subbed to you GDU.

[@wozzupgamer]

My first game was pong, using visual basic, using the shapes, it took me 2 weeks.

[@badoli1074]

"Taking feedback" is a double edged sword. The less the person know about a topic, the less precise, correct and or defined the critique you're getting will be. First rule of taking feedback is: Be very careful when somebody tells you a *solution* to a problem instead of stating *the problem*. What do i mean? Lets say you made a shooter and the person says "I have problems killing this one monster, make the gun stronger!" - The first part of this sentence is *the problem*, the second is a proposed *solution*. Is the gun really the problem? Maybe it's the monster having too much HP? Maybe it's the level being too labyrinth-y to get a good shot...? For every problem there are 100 possible solutions and not all of them make the game better. What i found out is that gamers are great with stating the problem, but often bad with proposing solutions, as they don't think like a game developer.

[@BenRangel]

The first game is ALWAYS too big. I'd even say that doing anything game with motion might be too big (if you're a new programmer and that game is your first real interactive application) I'd recommend something like a turn based quiz game ("guess the rgb color" is a good example) or a grid based game like sudoku or Battleship. I was shocked the first time I built a game and realized that shit like managing the game state (score, timers, active selections etc), extras (end game screens and reading/writing high scores) took 10x more time than I expected. And making a "classic" game like sudoku is nothing to scoff at either. if you polish it and release it - you *will* get players.

[@wiipronhi]

Man, my first game what an asteroid game where the asteroids could collide and would wrap around the screen. So when the asteroid when off the left screen it would re-appear on the right. It was such a mess, After about 30 seconds there would be so many asteroids on screen that you couldn't move without having a panic attack. spent about a month working on it learning how the engine worked and learning the engine language. Would definitely say that it was worth doing, never "finished" it, in the end I had what was essentially a prototype that would take me less than a day to make today. Everyone starts with humble beginnings :)

[@icedragongamemaster6797]

Your first game must be complete in one month. Mine took 2 years...

[@tim-ruswick]

Mone took me 10 years! Wish I wouldve started smaller.

[@HistoMagouri]

Cuphead and Senua's Sacrifice took at least 5 years or so and they came out good. Did yours too as well?

[@icedragongamemaster6797]

My game came out as I wanted it to be. So I count it as a sucess. Check it here:kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKHEqGSjnLWEsNE

[@HistoMagouri]

Now THAT'S years of hard work!

[@VikasPoonia]

Mine ended in 4 days

[@mlpfimguy]

If I could go back in time and give myself a tip it would be to MAKE BACKUPS you never know when your computer will start acting up, I've lost so many projects because of this

[@curtisyue182]

Thankfully I've not had to learn this lesson the hard way.

[@StealerSlain]

Another common problem can be having an inspirational huge general(!) idea with no design document, end goal or storyline whatsoever.

[@fatsu]

I made a very simple text-based game (because I don't have a computer to make 3d games) and I started it but after I've done all the mechanics and important processes I had no idea of what should I add to the story and I might cancel it if I don't get any ideas My advice is just to make a plan of the hole game then start making it :'(

[@Scallisgaming]

having an overall goal for the game is a good idea, breaking it down into mini games is a great idea as well... it's hard sometimes to not feel it's "impossible to finish" and my advice is when you are feeling that way, break the game down into different releases... make it manageable and then release it... then work on the next part of the game...

[@enosaeon118]

The building tech instead of games/products is so true for people into Open Source, you become (consciously or not) a snob: "Unity3D on macOS is for babies, I'll build an engine for FPS games in C using a headless server distro!" I've come to see that pet projects (as awesome as they might be) should take a backseat to actually shipping stuff and getting the ball rolling.

[@tim-ruswick]

Yes for sure. I used to be a programming snob. Until I actually stumbled upon construct 2, and as much as I didnt want to admit it, I could make a platformer in 10 minutes with construct that might take me 10 days with something like C. It was INSANE, especially for prototyping.

[@alexseguin5245]

I find it funny that people even think of programming games in C lol. Why would you even try?

[@Kenbomp]

If you can do c go for it. It's a good skill. Plus you can customize you tools. Unity had solved allot of problems though. It's only getting better.

[@suicune2001]

I'm definitely a dabbler. I start making games then never finish them. :( I've made a couple games when I first started. My very first one was a 3D first person game where you were a caveman throwing boulders at dinosaurs. The next game I made was a side-scrolling space shooter. That was 4+ years ago. :( I've started many projects but finished none. Now I'm trying to make a 2D survival game. I plan on finishing it no matter what. I'm stuck right now in making an inventory. I've never made an inventory before. If I can't make one for whatever reason, then I'll have to tweak it so I don't need one.

[@suicune2001]

Nejcraft hraje Did the concept just not work out?

[@suicune2001]

Jnaejnae The problem I am having is everyone uses the boxy inventory system but I need a text-based one and I have only found one tutorial for a list inventory. I also need to figure out how to scroll through the inventory using the arrow keys. I hope I have that "aha" moment with arrays because I will need it eventually. I have too many game ideas. I already have the second game I want to publish planned and even a distant third. Lol. I also want to make a choose your own adventure story game. But one game at a time!

[@suicune2001]

Thanks so much for that! I use JavaScript (or Unityscript) so that looks pretty close to what I would be using. I'm definitely going to save that so when I have some code to work with I can reference it. :) I don't quite understand it. I get a vague idea of what I need to do. I just need to read more material and watch more videos on it.

[@SamGarcia]

Arrays are just a collection of variables with a number id in its name you can reference. If you know how to handle variables, then arrays should be self-evident. If you're still stuck, look up tutorials for arrays themselves, not just inventories.

[@suicune2001]

I have looked up many tutorials about arrays. There is just something about them that my brain does not comprehend. I found a pretty good one recently I'm going to practice.

[@skygamer7971]

I started Unity about a week ago and I can agree with literally all of these. This video helps a lot, and I've been stuck with number 5 for a while, so I'm just gonna give up with the little thing that I can't find out how to do because it's good enough.

[@andrewriker4369]

Sh*t that I do wrong By: Tim Coming fall 3017

[@tim-ruswick]

I should write that book.

[@loserchips1112]

XD

[@samknowles2160]

The booger just sitting in your nostril really makes this unwatchable

[@GoldenWind]

You douing a great job, thank you a lot. My mistake is perfectionism😓

[@IT-Entrepreneur]

My first project was called "Indigo Arises" :D Its like....well.....homefront.......... guess what? I got the main menu and an moving character..... Well... Game was never finished xD

[@froyorex4856]

Do some Godot Game tutorials

[@qdeanc]

This is so real. I've abandoned at least 5 different projects and all these problems apply to my process.

[@gaskindesignstudios3998]

My biggest mistake was not being proud of my first game because I didnt get what was in my head because of numerous reasons, (i'll chalk it up to my lacking leadership skills), and so after i released it and showed people i would explain it to them in this negative light so they had a negative experience. EVEN IF ITS CRAP TO YOU, TAKE PRIDE IN THE FACT THAT ITS RELEASED. ( kind of a tie into number 5)

[@riddlelane]

Mistake:NEVER SAVING MY PROJECT!! I worked on a game for a month, saved regularly, but ONE DAY I forgot to and lost an entire day of progress which in my standards is a lot of progress lost.

[@UltraGearGamesOfficial]

So, im a lone, i dont have much artistic talent, but i can program at least some basics. And even a bit more advanced ones. I am making a 2D Platformer as my "first" game, its like Mario. Ive already spent like 3 weeks working on it, but since IM the boss, and im pretty lazy, i stop for a day. Then 2, 3, 4, 5 until i finally decide to work on the game again for 4 hours. Sometimes luckily on like 2 days. My problem is, i HATE doing levels for my game. I just cant really do designing overall, im bad at it. And especially for my game i think building levels is really complex. First, you place the level visually, using a tilemap. Then you manually add collision. Then you add coins, NPCs, Spikes, and a checkpoint. All of that takes approximately 1 hour. Anyone who would care to make my levels for my game? I also need to think of 2 boss fights. Im doing this in unity. Anyone interested? :( btw my actual first game was a race game "FlatOut Unity", it used pretty much everything which isnt mine. EVERYTHING. Textures, Models, Scripts. It had 5 cars, and 2 levels, and 2 different gamemodes. Sumo, and race (the race was broken meaning it was pretty much about going in circles forever).

[@isaaccorrea7728]

Very inspiring!

[@rohitkrishna2691]

I could be wrong in interpretation in some places, but I think in short this is it. 1. When making a game, focus on making the game but don't create technology. 2. When starting out, don't makes games that are big. Start with something simple, like pong. 3. Since games are made for people, show it to them and let them play. Observe them while they do so. Their interaction will provide the information required in order to tweak the game to be fun. 4. Show the game to people who come into the target audience, i.e. they are used to playing that genre of games. 5. Don't aim for "Perfection". Aim for "Good Enough". I made the 2nd, 4th and 5th mistakes. But also, I made the mistake of thinking that making a simple game made me eligible for a difficult one

[@tim-ruswick]

Id say this is a pretty accurate summary. And yes! Ive made that mistake too...finishing something small and then jumping on to something massive. I did that with GDU actually.

[@rohitkrishna2691]

Game Dev Underground Good to know that Game Developers are human after all. We make miskates😉. I was scouring KZbin for informative videos from experienced developers, and I found this channel pretty informative. There's GDC of course. But it's these little individual contributions that make up a community. Thanks for the video and I look forward to more.

[@MRC76582]

My opinion on this matter, if anyone's interested, is: Perfectionism is great, but you have to focus it. Like Tim mentioned, dabbling in small details like "Should the speed be 53 or 54?" is insane and will get you nowhere but if you focus on "feeling" instead you'll find yourself hitting those "Perfect!" moments a lot more often. I had an obsession where I would HAVE to make everything either symmetrical and precise to a pixel (when doing 2D pixel art) and I would need every parameter in game to divide by 10 or 5. What happened in reality was that it never "felt" right even though the numbers and everything matched, was symmetrical, etc. So one day I decided "f*ck it" and decided to go for what looks / feels good instead of "mathematical and numerical perfection". We, as game developers, love our numbers. We have a certain system in our head and we'll be damned if that system is infringed in any way. However, if we want to be successful, we have to put ourselves in players shoes because players are not gonna be looking at the variable names and values & they're certainly not gonna count pixels. They're gonna experience everything simultaneously and if it doesn't feel right the game will be forgotten after the first playthrough.

[@WastelandSeven]

Excellent advice. I like what Rami Ismael (from Vlambeer) said about community input on Nuclear Thrones, "We'll listen to your ideas....but, its our game" Nothing made by a committee of people working on the project. is going to be particularly good. If you please one person you'll piss off another. That's why Cuphead has raised such a fuss. The people who love difficult run and gun shooters were ecstatic. The people who don't were upset at the difficulty level. Know who your target audience is because they're the ones who will buy your game. People who were put off by Cuphead's difficulty were people who would probably have got a refund anyway. But, the people who loved it were the ones who were going to keep the game.

[@charliebrownau]

Some really bad noise background HUM. Please invest in :- Rodesmarlav+ lapel mic or ATR2100

[@averagetrailertrash]

I think making an engine on day one is tempting because programmers subconsciously know it's an innate part of the process. You WILL build up a unique library of code as you develop more and more games. And yes, it will eventually be like a second engine within the bounds of Unity/UE4/GMS/etc. This is normal. There is no reason to start from scratch until you've outgrown the scope of toolsets, and when you eventually do, there will still be SO much to do and learn before you can replace the low-end features you've relied on these engines for. You'll be shocked that you ever considered doing all of that from scratch as a beginner, on top of all the things you've built over the years. The urge is natural but must be resisted.

[@raisapernu7170]

I have only one game in my mind and I am working on it. No matter how much it takes I'll finish it. Full time job can definitely be something else but I'll finish my 3D (j)rpg some day. Too bad I have spent 1 year now and finished only 2 characters with their animations and emotions. This year included full time university studies, part-time job and learning of blender and unreal engine from the scratch. So mistake #2 kinda made me feel upset but I'll finish this no matter what. I have been thinking of this since 2003 when I was a kid. Other mistakes are no problem to me.

[@zombievirals]

I started off about 20 years ago trying to make games using QuickBasic, and had nothing but unfinished projects. I was too intimidated by languages like C/C++ at the time and I'm not even sure if Python existed at the time. I lost interest in video game design/programming for the most part up till recently. I started off playing around with Construct(which requires no programming at all), but once again ended up with a few unfinished projects and lost interest. I recently gave Python a try, and in parallel to that, I've recently started taking introduction to programming in college, which I believe is helping me. Nonetheless, I've started off very simple this time, making a simple asteroids type space shooter using Python and Pygame. To be even simpler, I followed a tutorial on KZbin, and within 3 days I've gained a lot of understanding, plus I'm generally having a great time. I'm finished with the tutorial, so now I'm just making my own adjustments to add a little more complexity and depth to the game. So I have the basic foundation, and I've even wrote down less than a page worth of plans for finishing this game within a month. Every so many improvements, I record footage of the game so I can look back through it and be inspired by how far I've came from when I first started. I see this now as an ultimate form of artistic expression, where you can take artwork, music, and story, and combine it with logic/code to make an interactive piece of art basically. In the past I just saw game design as just making video games, nothing more.

[@Copier777]

This video is really really helpful, because I really dream of being an indie game dev one day and I can totally imagine myself making all of those mistake. A question that popped up in my mind, however, goes as follows: Is it a good idea to make little sort of mini-games that you may be able to use for that Big Dream Project of yours?

[@nymphcore5916]

My biggest mistake also was getting it PERFECT. Scrapped so many games because I felt like it is not up to the norm of what counts a polished. Make what you can, move on & maybe revisit a remake of that project later on, see how you improved!

[@kitspeck6818]

a mistake I made is spending too much time on a game design document. I was told in the beginning that a GDD is a must for any game dev project and tried to use a GDD template i found on the internet to make my own. Fresh out the gate, I didn’t know how to fill it in with stuff for my game (budget, scope, timeline, schedule, etc) because I had never made a game before so I’d get frustrated and abandon a project because I thought in order to be a legit game developer, I had to know all of this info and have it on paper. THIS IS SO NOT TRUE!!! I still use a GDD because it is a good container for my info tracking, goals, milestones, ideas, etc. The big AAA companies use the GDD to keep teams of people on track, little solo developer me uses the GDD to help me plan for future projects. So I guess you could say I use it more like a journal and I’m so relieved that I don’t have to do the document the exact way the big companies do. I can warp the GDD to work for me.

[@baphnie]

I'm currently designing my first game to help me learn Python... I definitely feel isolated, since game development isn't necessarily part of my graduate curriculum or career trajectory. I've just always loved games, but have wanted something that is truly mine and has all the "right" mechanics. Is there a space I can pitch my game for feedback? GitHub etc?

[@mudzibaba]

You don't have to worry about me making #1 mistake because always found that making game engine is really boring. Also thing and custom engines are something that I'm afraid as someone that is fan of making games as part of bigger(15, 20, 30+) studio rather than solo developer. So I wonder if scripting is the same in some custom engine that uses c# for scripting as in Unity?

[@QueenOfMissiles]

I'm not a game developer (yet) but have been producing mods for 8 years. From what I've seen both share a lot of the same skill set and problems. The biggest mistake I've ever made as a mod developer was giving up too soon. A lot of times when developing a project you can get beat down by failure. When I first started making mods I had a lot of small projects, some good & some bad. A few of these projects I had release early to help boost attention to another project. This other project was meant to act as a community focused mod API for a game. At first it worked well with the project taking off and my smaller projects with it. However, after a while my lack of skills start to show in my work. A lot of bugs showed up and I took hits. The main project suffered a similar problem due to mis-management. This went on for a few years with other problems happening (drama, politics, beef between developers, etc). After a while it became too much and I started to give in on the projects doing well. This resulted in me merging a lot of my small projects into someone else's large project. In effect I gave up and let someone else do well. Doing so resulted in the project doing extremely well off my work. For a while things were even good and downloads were very high. Sadly in the end the project died due to mis-management. I found out long after this project failed that people loved my work. Not just the project I merged but all the mods I produced. It turns out I had been producing very unique content. Not only was the content unique some of the later stuff was higher quality than other mods. If I had only kept up with it I might have noticed and not given up.

[@melancholynn8297]

To be honest, I'm gonna take the second tip more seriously since the game I do want to create is pretty big. The game consists of different art and gameplay styles. What I'm going to do is a test run of the individual gameplay mechanics (like one game is purely an RPG while another one is more of a point and click one). I'm new to programming and I want to do programming last or second to last since it seems like the hardest one to do. I'm doing it by myself (for now) because I am pretty embarrassed on telling people about something I'm passionate about. This comment is unnecessarily long.

[@rickster5224]

The first game I can say I completed was a first person PacMan/Mario mashup called SuperPacMar64. Had to collect all coins to beat level. The enemies instead of ghosts were goombas with spiked koopashells around them. Whenever the player got a powerpellet the shells fell off the goombas so the player could jump on and kill them.

[@KatouMiwa]

How do you make this a career ? I'm 20 I haven't been to collage. The one thing I like doing alot is making things and editing. I made maps and edits not just this channel and I've done a little game making with apps that don't really require much knowledge if you follow tutorials. What I'm saying is. How can I make it my career cause all I see is , you go to collage to learn. But then what ? How am I supposed to make money. I don't understand . Somone just hires you too help ? They pay you like normal jobs but I don't see how that works if it's a game that isn't released ? I can see how it works if you work for higher up company's. But obv when you get outta collage you can't join people like that . Idk km confusing. Can somone just tell me the steps? I'm guessing I have to do it solo and have a part time job aswell of something no related ? Thank you

[@WastelandSeven]

And perfectionism is a bear. Because it can paralyze a project. Especially if you're working on it alone. I've done this as an artist putting in endless background details nobody would ever notice and getting so bogged down that it was taking weeks for one page of a comic.. If your project isn't about the landscape, then why draw every blade of grass and every leaf on the trees? In 3D terms, why do endless details on areas outside the playable map? One thing game designers need to understand is something that used to be common in comics. Whitespace. That is, areas devoid of background where the focus is totally on the character. Don't forget what your game is about. Whatever your game is about that should be the focus and if you're getting lost in the details step back and remember where your focus should be. Because obsessing about irrelevant details will cause you to quit in despair

[@harrysanders818]

Dont know if I jus watched this 1st time or if I rewatched it :) Anyway, great tips. Love your channel! THX from the heart!

[@lukedraper3888]

Same as your #1 I'm playing around with Godot at the moment but when I first started I tried to build an OpenGL based voxel render engine from scratch. Needless to say, that did not get far before I took a long break from development.

[@miwwie1504]

Perfections and expectations are creative killers. When you have an expectation of something, you're essentially immediately setting yourself up for failure, because you are creating an illusion of something that does not exist yet. There was a lot of thinking power, but nothing there to make it a game

[@lukethis2924]

Hey Tim. Thanks for sharing this, it's given me a lot more confidence knowing not just that I'm the only one that has fallen into at least most of those 5 (I didn't try to build a game engine but definitely guilty of the others). I'm still learning how to overcome them after 4 years (most of that time has been part time as I was working and learning how to do game design). This year though, I'm working on a game that I've programmed almost all the features for and I'm now just making the levels and finishing it up hoping to have it out by the end of next month. As I just watched this now, I find your advise very encouraging.

[@alfredenglund]

i have a tip for facing large projects, lets say you want to make an awesome RTS then dont set the goal as an RTS YET! your first goal should be for ex, building placement, and then creating some sorts of AI, split the large project up in small parts and make 1 part at a time and keep that part as your "goal" and then once you finish it work on the next part of the project. and then when you got ex 7/7 parts then just combine em and you got yourself a game :) consider the small parts of the large projects as a game

[@lucasorace8579]

I don’t know what u mean with “big game”. I m new in the field of game dev, and I m creating a game that is not so complicated but has a story, an AI system, and multiple levels that I have to model with 3D programs. But I m still Working on it and I m more motivated than before. Then, a lot of ppl talking about big games, but I still don t understand what they mean. An Online FPs like a triple A, an mmo...then what else? I have to know. I talked with ppl that told me “start with a simple project” and they didn’t t want to work with me. Now I m alone and motivated to create my own game. I think that the motivation is important in what are u doing, if is a game more complicated than a “doodle jump” I don t think that is a bad idea...when I see that something doesn’t t work with my codes, or 3D model, I just try and try and try and learn from my mistakes and edit it to make it works. What is wrong with that ? 🤔

[@mraznonge]

I think my biggest mistake was being impatient with programming. My next was not subscribing to you sooner. Your content is amazing and it pushed me to make my own game. It's only mobile right now and no where near steam polish, but I will say it's a big step from failing Java in high school. Barely getting through C and mobile app development in electrical engineering. It shattered my dream of being a dev. It wasn't till near the end of last year that I got the encouragement to try it out. It's been a steep learning curve and a lot of hours of patience, but you have kept me motivated to keep on my path to becoming a game dev. Thank you so much man!

[@JackPS9]

I've spent a whole month before, just working on some basic world generation. Just trying to make it as optimized as possible. Though while I was doing it I kept learning more and more. Just remember everyone your mistakes while doing game dev are just lessons to learn from.

[@fryncyaryorvjink2140]

Programming is so discouraging. I've never got past the basics because I want to see graphics, not text. At the same time, I know I've got to start small, which is annoying because small games usually suck

[@pixelmaverick7812]

Worked 3 years on my first game, Candlelight. The time was mostly spent on learning Unity and learning to create the art. I shipped the game on PS4 and on Steam but no one knew it existed. Biggest mistake was underestimating the importance of marketing. With so many games out there right now, it does not matter if the game is good or bad. If people don't know it exists in the list of 100k other games you are doomed to fail. I'm working on my next game, Dragon's Eye and will definitely work with a publisher this time around.

[@Scrappi]

My biggest mistake: Start working on a game and right away I announced it with a release day of 4 days later... Been 8 days and the game is still being made. Stupid of me since I have been developing for 3 years.

[@LiveFromTheRaw]

My mistake was abandoning my love for game development. It went on for 10 years. More to the story...

[@TricoliciSerghei]

I'll be creating a game based on your advise from various videos, thanks a ton for sharing your personal experience with us. It helps enourmously!

[@nisa7961]

I cant totally relate with mistake number 3! I didn't show my friends my game until it was finished. My game was wayyyyy to hard. However this made a great wee story for my job interview when they ask you to give an example of a mistake u learned from :D

[@TGameDev]

Definitely fell into the overly ambitious point when I first got started. Arguably still there even having dialled it down A lot (I like making my own art and music, but gotta program and write too).

[@sabertooth4324]

This video was so incredibly helpful to me. THANK YOU!!

[@GANONdork123]

I still haven't finished my first game but one recommendation I would make is to focus on making a game, not on finishing a game. In other words, baby steps. You gotta take it one step at a time.

[@takis76]

I do not agree with everything you said. Everything depends of what game you want to create. Creating a 3D game you will need an engine instead creating your own. But there are cases you will need to design the engine of your game, because there is no ready made engine which will serve your game. I agree about creating smaller games but not yet another Pong and Tetris. I suggest to begin to create the game you want, but with smaller parts. Enough about Pongs and Tetris we fed up. Build the game you like but the small version of it. Is not bad to create technology. I said all depends of what kind of game you are going to create. I am creating a game here and I am creating a complete engine from scratch, because there are not ready game engines which can serve my game. The most important is to choose which programming language or game making software you will use for your game and if the programming language or the game making software is capable of, then everything can be created. But games are not the programming only, you will need graphics, 3D models, music, sounds, actors.

[@scratchy996]

Sports. Do some sport, people, at least 3 times a week to run, bike, swim , or whatever you like. It helps a lot with mental and physical health, you'll have more energy, it does wonders for your focus, your drive, it helps you get better sleep.

[@annogaming9535]

So I'm sitting here trying to program a game and I agree. I had to redo the whole thing 4 times just because I want it to be perfect with event systems and templates and so on. The problem is that I just don't know enough about these things and it gets overwhelming. Now I try to keep it simple and ignore a bit of "bad code" just so I can make progress. I tell myself that a game is a game and not a rocket engine where everything needs to be 100% perfect all the time lol. The games don't just disappear and when you learn something new you can always add it later on and just update the game instead of updating the "toe" of it. It is not even a game or anything yet and you just keep going in circles otherwise.

[@kayzweller_dj]

man you're so MVP by creating a game engine before create a game. No offend man, it just really cool way of thinking. I am starting create a game by now, and can only thingking to use unity kind of stuff~

[@ericvaneldik7331]

pretty much sums up all my problems I have had to conquer and some I still find my self repeating, like making the game to difficult.

[@redrinn105]

I'm "trying" to start my game project but I think my problem is that I don't know where to start... Just so much to do and learn. I'm a great artist and have an in detailed mind but I don't understand code and blender that's my downfall. I work in a two man team, we're both kinda lost lol

[@divyangjain5334]

This is not only for games, But I have faced same while developing my first cool software project!

[@bluemonsteronlamesa]

good advices, even for artists even

[@Kenbomp]

Also start with etoys or scratch these are free and are great for protoyping 2 d games. It's all visual with logic you can add so you see how it looks like. You can make a mod of Pacman in 1 hour. You can see show quickly if your game would look like.

[@ChrisField13]

This was super helpful. I tried making a game that was too big, lost focus, and gave up on game dev. But now I have an idea of how to cut the game in half and actually finish it!

[@jesussanchezpalma4153]

The last point happened to me, but no in the game development. In fact, I was making a system for business and It was getting ok, but I was too perfectionist and I lost my motivation so I didn't finish the software.

[@SharifSourour]

Purely for learning purposes I attempted creating an engine and found the exact same thing. It's very esoteric yet just as enlightening.

[@Marcusaralius76]

I highly recommend everyone make a game engine at least once. Specifically, make a game engine powerful enough to play pong.

[@SharifSourour]

I definitely get stuck in #5 and sometimes #4 with many projects.

[@SevenStonesStudioOfficial]

My biggest mistake was "shiny thing syndrome" and trying combine all my shiny things together. I ended up with too many ideas and no concrete games!

[@CodeDashie]

Oddly enough I used to release stuff all the time. But in recent years I barely show anything even though I'm better these days. Anxiety seems to get me more these days. :/

[@agent-33]

I got all 5. I don't even use advanced game engines. Just simple app maker or IDE that can run in android device since I do not own a PC.

[@williamcorley2477]

I subscribed to you just because youre a cool guy. I like your attitude and how you clnvey yourself in your videos. Plus your content. Youre brutally honest and i love it!

[@DragmoraProductions]

I found out that one of my problems with making games is that i focus on the grafic first. lerning blender to make a character and realistic backgrounds. But no i know that the best thing to focus on is making the player go from start to finish and when i have a working game i can focus on the grafics.

[@kurisumakise5641]

I started the video like I think this is the same old shit, like just a simple rant on youtube. But watching the whole thing made me want to just go and learn C++.

[@Neerajkumar-mc7wk]

I have some ideas regarding indie games but not able to learn coding anybody having coding knowledge wanna team up???

[@averagejoessb3110]

I've only made one game and it is somewhat like a pacman clone but instead of collecting bits you have to survive for a certain amount of time.

[@averagedude6688]

You might want to sit straight up a bit more, this way you'll improver your posture, and it wont hurt your back :)

[@MrSonyChaos]

I did every single fucking mistake you mentioned. Every single one.

[@mat_name_whatever]

Currently making a 2D game engine for a larger scope game. Wish me luck xD

[@Salamaleikum80]

One thing i wonder about is wheter or not i should focus more on drawing/game-art or game-programming?

[@aaronriggs4143]

enjoy this video but I have to say you called it gallactica. I did the same thing ha it's gallaga just saying ... battle star gallactica is a tv show :) ...

[@bibekghosh5423]

you are right about that perfectionism thing I have that I will work on that now

[@ZaCkOX900]

Don't go for perfect? Guess I am quite different. I do agree with you though, but I still only strive for perfect. I have OCD but I also have the experience and skills to back it up.

[@sean6291]

Virtually nothing is perfect

[@TaraNasupovic]

I disagree. Building a game engine is a good way to land a job as a game engineer. Ask me how I know.

[@MoMoney_No_Life]

Nice m8 Darkwork C++ basic but COMPLEX if you dont know

[@otesunki]

I'm doing ALL OF THEM. aside from #1

[@killer777881]

one my mistakes was trying to gathering up a big team at first steps with zero knowledge of how to manage that team and even my self.

[@Homeboy022]

I wanna make an ARPG like PoE/Diablo 3 in TPP. I thought I can build everything on it (like Unique items which have different effects to learn different aspects of game development). Do you think it's a good idea? Or ist it still too big?

[@tim-ruswick]

If you have not finished your first game yet, I always recommend that you build something really small. Like pong clone small. Your game ideas will not go away and you can always do the larger games when you are more experienced.

[@ericramirez5660]

Great video. Extremely helpful, appreciate the advice

[@Riddle_wright]

My biggest mistake was avoiding documentation.