How To Fail At Picking A Game Engine

Here are some of the best ways to fail in this early stage of your game dev journey, follow all instructions and you will for sure fail soon! Good luck! :D
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Music:
Doh De Oh by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license

[@Artindi]

Thanks for watching! I'm not sure what part 3 will be, what do you think the next step is in failing at game development?

[@CREOMASTER1202]

may be promoting

[@Artindi]

Like self promotion for your video games? That seems like it probably might be the next step. hm..,. Thanks! :D

[@KlausWulfenbach]

The next step is to make sure to avoid following any of the hundreds of free tutorials on your engine of choice, followed by a paid class or two. Otherwise, you'll learn a lot about how to do specific stuff and never get mired in the possibilities of all the things you could do. Then, even if you do a bunch of tutorials, you can get stuck in a perpetual cycle of only adding stuff and never cutting features even if they keep breaking the game, or constantly restarting from scratch over and over at the first hint of trouble. They may seem like opposite problems, but both prevent you from finishing, so keep it up! Also, don't ever do any game jams because then you might learn how to scope properly. Or worse, you'll learn teamwork.

[@Artindi]

@@KlausWulfenbach Nice, there are so many subjects! :D

[@bigshrekhorner]

​@@KlausWulfenbach A big problem with free engine tutorials is that a lot of them are focused on a very specific problem and its solution, and they almost never focus on the features that are used to solve this problem. A key component of problem solving (which, in turn, is a big component of game dev) is the ability to understand a problem and combine features of the available tool to come to a solution. Just asking for the solution to a problem you are having is not going to cut it, because you are learning practically nothing. You don't know the actual importance of the features you used to solve the problem, you only know they are useful for *that* problem you just saw the solution for. Engine Documentation and Reference, on the other hand, is much more valuable than tutorials, as it focuses more on the features, and uses some common problems only for the sake of an example. It does not spoon feed solutions to problems.

[@JohnSmith-uk6wh]

This series is basically Terrible Writing Advice for game devs. I didn't know how badly I needed this.

[@Artindi]

To be honest I didn't realize the similarities until after I was part way through making the first episode, but I'll take the inspiration and hopefully I have an original enough spin on it. :)

[@mandisaw]

@@Artindi The similaritites in no way diminish the *punch* of the message! Have loved TWA for years, and am speedrunning How to Fail now :)

[@ThumbsTup]

"The best way to fail is to decide to make your own game engine" I've made a game engine in C with no experience over the course of a year and I have to say- Yes, you will burn yourself out many times before you even start

[@ThumbsTup]

Product is worth it though if you can manage to do it successfully, it's quite satisfying

[@AsrielDremurrBomj]

uhh... Well, 4 years ago I tried to make my own engine in C++ without significant expierence... (I still have some videos of my would-be game on my channel) and yeah I burned myself. But after that I watched a lot of C++ tutorials, got some experience, and now I'm making my own engine again... And I'm just enjoying it! I'm not even close to burn myself!

[@ThumbsTup]

@@AsrielDremurrBomj that's very good! I'm trying to do a similar thing as well

[@deni4l164]

2:45 probably the best game dev advice you will ever hear. The hardest part of making a game as an indie dev is staying motivated until the end. Being part of a community and sharing your progress is a great way to not fail at making a game.

[@Artindi]

it sure is, if nothing else, being part of a community will keep you developing something, even if it's not your original project. :)

[@ShenDoodles]

My biggest worry is oversharing. I have a world planned out I’m not keen to share before I’m happy with it visually enough to make a trailer. I’m confident my core gameplay could stand on its own without a flashy world, but I also worry about people who don’t understand how prototypes work taking the wrong stuff away from gameplay. What balance do you think would be right? The first area’s pretty no-frills, so perhaps that might be an option.

[@bigshrekhorner]

I do not think that making a (game) engine is a bad idea in on itself. It can teach valuable skills (how the graphics pipeline works, how inputs are processed by the computer, and how can the game take those inputs and make them into an in-game action, how exactly music ties in with the gameplay to create adaptive sounds etc) and can allow one to not use 3rd party engines mechanically (and get stuck in tutorial hell). It can also teach people how they can take advantage of more "obscure" features of game engines, like custom shaders (because, let's be real, a huge chunk of indie games made in Unreal do not even bother modifying the shaders, and they end up looking the same) Also, since 3rd party engines are usually a one-size-fits-all, a game developer could create their own game engine that focuses only on the specific genre they want to make, which can allow a lot of optimizations or very precise control over some very specific elements. I'd say that if someone is really capable at programming (or willing to master it), they shouldn't shun the idea of making their own game engine.

[@Artindi]

I agree. The advice to use a game engine rather then make one is geared towards newer devs, I've seen a few cases of devs getting burned out trying to make their own engine, but otherwise, you are correct. A custom engine can be a powerful thing, and if one has the skills to make it and it will improve the quality of their game, then a custom engine should be considered. Great point! :)

[@wilburdemitel8468]

​@@ArtindiIt'd also make sense if you're coming into game development with the mindset of taking many, many years, and hoping to learn valuable skills from the experience (both negative and positive). Granted, not everyome is in a position to do this.

[@Xizilqou]

Was going to say something like this but you phrased it better

[@Nerobyrne]

I mean, Tolkien designed like 3 different languages just so he could write one book, so .... ^^ Just don't be like that one dude who wrote his own operating system and made some games in it.

[@bigshrekhorner]

@@Nerobyrne Actually, Tolkien wrote Hobbit and Lord of the Rings *because* he designed the languages first. In other words, he had some languages he made lying around and decided to bring them to life, through a story. In a sense, he's more akin to a game engine developer making a fleshed out tech demo to showcase his engine (see Crytek, creators of the Cry Engine and developers of the Crysis games, which are pretty much made to showcase the power of the engine, or Epic Games and Unreal [both the engine and the game series it was named after]), rather than a game developer making an engine for his game. Your observation is still correct though, If you want to develop a game, you should remain focused on it, rather than defocusing *too* much.

[@andersp_]

I really like this "How to fail" series, keep up the good work and get well soon!

[@Artindi]

Thanks! I really like making them so good to hear it's worthwhile for someone else too! :D

[@jessicabentley1961]

Changing engines like you change you socks is exactly what happened to duke nukem forever and it shows

[@JackieCodes]

Omg the fact that you drew all these scenes out to make the video just gave you all of my respect! Super awesome vid!

[@Artindi]

Thanks mate! I wish I had the time to animate some of them too, but then I would probably only get one out a year rather then every couple of months. lol

[@GraniteFaun]

The only engine id actually call free is godot since its so refreshingly free of BS (well aside from drama in their lesdership). I mean its so lightweight and open source, no nags, no cross-selling... People talking about the direction for it, like if it should compete with unreal/unity or should be a good learners engine. Id rather go for "the no BS engine"

[@albingrahn5576]

as a Unity dev for 6 years, i'm fed up with all the aforementioned BS coming from that company and decided to switch to Godot. i see a much brighter future in a completely free open source engine than in the "holding your game hostage to squeeze money out of you" business model that Unity tried to pull off. in hindsight i don't even know how a closed source engine like Unity got so big in the first place. i mean we're LITERALLY _programmers,_ and we're allowing ourselves to get bullied by a _program..?_ the way i see it, Unity vs Godot will be like how 3ds Max vs Blender was for the 3D modeling community. around the early 2000s people were gladly paying for 3ds Max over downloading the less premium software that was Blender, but over time the open source nature of Blender allowed it to grow and the community themselves who used and loved the software gave it the features they were missing. now Blender has overtaken 3ds Max while still being completely free and open source!

[@largeladsteve25]

While valid advice I would say that writing a game engine is one of the best ways to teach yourself things, so if you don't care too much about a finished product it can be a good learning experience. Working on a top-down map engine (akin to paradox games) when I'm not at work has taught me so much, especially because I'm doing it in a language I'm less comfortable with.

[@zoeythebee1779]

Instructions unclear, made my own engine and it cured my burnout

[@Artindi]

O.o

[@TonsOfHunStudios]

Great now I don't have a game or game engine and my car won't start either xD Nice work! Loved the humor/art. Hope you feel better :)

[@Artindi]

Ha ha, I guess you followed my instructions, whoops! Thanks! :D

[@GrimblorPhlax]

I don't necessarily agree with how you're treating making a game without using a pre-made engine. For my first game I just used a graphics library, and it helped me learn a lot faster than my previous attempts messing with unity, because you're able to see exactly how everything works. Now, if you're not a programmer, then sure, it would definitely be better to use a game engine. But I got a good baseline working in a week and if it wasn't a short game jam game I could've added more increasingly quickly. A lot of people treat making an engine as if it's attempting to replicate the general-purpose use case of many popular commercial engines, but if you are making something 2d you could just make something quickly using libraries or frameworks and not worrying about needing to use tutorials to figure out the best practice for a particular engine.

[@Artindi]

For sure. There are always exceptions, I know a few people who have created they're own specific case engines. If someone has the knowledge to do so then sure. It can be a viable option. I just don't recommend it unless the specific case is really needed and they actually have the knowledge to do so. Thanks for your insights! :)

[@pointyorb]

I wonder how many of the comments will be "step 1: pick [insert game engine here]"

[@vibaj16]

step 1: pick Source 3

[@DevNoob]

I just happened to bump into Unity and never really considered something else. Very lucky with that!

[@Artindi]

I love your comment, because I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not. lol. :)

[@somniad]

this first bit aged slightly poorly re:unity turns out you *do* actually take real risk using a third party game engine it's still definitely the wrong decision for almost everyone to make their own game engine though; unless you want to do it just for fun or because it's a skill you want to focus on for whatever reason, AND you're really really into programming, it's definitely a bad idea I meet both of those descriptors and wonder if I'm doing the wrong thing hehe

[@Artindi]

yeah, I've been thinking a lot about that joke for that last little bit. lol

[@DsiakMondala]

Imagine paying installations and runtime fees

[@thisguy.-.]

As someone who fit every description you laid out, I will say for sure it's no easy task. I've spent the past few weeks working on one and only now have I got an image to display to the screen. So it's a large task for sure, but it's worth it for me, and probably wouldn't be for most others.

[@hazukichanx408]

It's sad how reality makes fools of us by randomly being even worse than we anticipated, after all the cynicism we already develop just by living in this world... with its monkeys in business suits, and the _things_ that they _do._ But I don't think we can blame someone for not anticipating the full awfulness of said suit monkeys. We all do our best.

[@somniad]

@@hazukichanx408 Yeah, that's totally fair. It's nice to think that even if the world is terrible, at least it's terrible because people are following their incentives or whatever. I'd like to think I know the ways things will at least be stable. But sometimes too few people have too much power and just make everything worse for everyone including themselves via pure incompetence. It's pretty rare in the scheme of things, though. I don't blame anyone very hard for such an assumption. You're often forced to work as if it's true even when it's not. It's sort of like a natural disaster if natural disasters were caused by people. Good to try to be resilient against, but impossible to protect yourself fully from.

[@vizthex]

i've been trying to learn game dev on and off for years now, but i can't do any one thing well enough to really justify trying. Programming is impossible to learn, art is black magic reserved for only a lucky few, etc. but one that that helped me finally force myself to at least try is seeing just how much a game engine can do (in this case, Unreal and Unity). I knew they'd be flexible, but not this much. for example, Satisfactory and Deep Rock Galactic are both made in Unreal Engine 4 - but they're near-polar opposite genres. The Ori games and Subnautica are both made in Unity (as are most indie games). Hell, even the Java engine Minecraft uses powers Slay the Spire (but for the love of *god*, do not use it. Causes too many issues for us end users). Realizing that made me kinda broaden my horizons, so to speak (though I still can't figure out game dev lol).

[@DualBackdrop]

FYI Java is not an engine it's a programming language. Do you really think notch made java?

[@vibaj16]

@@DualBackdrop Well, Minecraft uses LWJGL (Lightweight Java Game Library), though it isn't really a game engine.

[@aqua-bery]

This has really cool "How not to be happy" vibes from CGP Grey

[@AndrewChumKaser]

It's actually somewhat sound logic to never trust your game engine that was made by big companies, even the free ones. Like, you were joking, but given the state games, companies, and game engines are in these days, do you really think they WOULDN'T want control over your IP if they could have it? Don't believe me look at Unity.

[@Skeffles]

Great video! I definitely see a lot of people really undervaluing engines and it's a shame.

[@SaiponathGames]

Nice humor, good work anyway!

[@souporwormgaming]

construct 3 is fire and i will die before i stop giving it my money.

[@plynkz]

nobody stop me from using amdroid studio to make a pc game

[@microdavid7098]

great work

[@Artindi]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed! :D

[@fennecfugames]

This was hilarious 🤣

[@Artindi]

Yes! I did a thing! :D

[@adibrahman9297]

Awesome 👍🏾

[@Artindi]

Thanks mate! :D

[@terry-]

Great!

[@greatusername6326]

0:28 bruh

[@swileyhedrick2373]

just use scratch at first, it has a suprisingly high skill ceiling.

[@CrazyRiverOtter]

"The big companies... are just trying to get you to use their engine so they can take over the rights to your game once you make it" That aged... interestingly. Good ol' Unity.

[@izza_19]

Yeah, lol 🤣🤣

[@itsME-dc4vm]

nice ;D

[@_doglo]

i just threw myself into gamemaker and i actually really like it. i tried godot once and it just wrecked me, so ill stick to gm for now😅

[@elliejohnson2786]

"Your religion of not believing in religions" I hate this because some people actually think that's a religion, for some reason.

[@josecarlosmoreno9731]

99.9% of atheists aren't pure atheists (not just no deity but also no spiritual/supernatural beliefs nor rituals), they tend to have strong moral/metaphysical beliefs and adhere to a common set of them such as humanism, etc. A lot of them are even superstitious in the common sense of the word. However, their faith is so blind and their ignorance so profound that they are unable to notice or admit their own religious beliefs and behaviors. A common supernatural belief held by atheists is for example is that of personhood, especially of others. If there is nothing supernatural going on in the world, then there is no soul and no consciousness, rather simply a deterministic mechanical/chemical sequence that you call other people. Therefore there is no reason not to treat other humans the same way you treat a machine. Another religious belief is morality itself, given that to believe in right and wrong is irrational and nothing but a hindering set of traditions. Funnily enough, atheists often end up more irrational than theists given they insist on maintaining religious beliefs and behaviors without any foundation and instead rely on mindless faith in their own feelings even if those feelings contradict their stated beliefs and critiques of other religions. Countless religions do not have a fixed orthodoxy and authority, so the decentralized nature of modern atheist religions does not impede their inclusion as religions.

[@MigWith]

burn out is somewhat stupid now that I think of it... just don't force yourself too much and take breaks on your creation, this will make it more engaging for your brain. - said the artist that draws concept art and mechanics of his future game

[@GunSpyEnthusiast]

" Hold on to your game engines religiously, however, changing game engines like you change your socks is a great idea. " the only thing you have told me is either: A: don't change game engines. or B: change game engines when your first game engine goes missing.

[@Artindi]

Ha ha. Or gets a hole in it? :)

[@GunSpyEnthusiast]

@@Artindi no.

[@VojtaJavora]

I wouldn't say not using a premade game engine is the same thing as making your own. If something, general purpose engines often come as a consequence of a game, not the other way around.

[@swordofstabbing]

e.g: doom engine, quake engine, goldsrc, source, source2

[@nathanplummer623]

How can you get involved in game dev communities?

[@Artindi]

Your comment right here counts. Otherwise you can join discord servers, reddit, twitter/x has a very supportive community, any social media has people posting and supporting each other. It just takes some looking. :)

[@tauheedgamedev2388]

I do love these types of vids, now What to do?🤔

[@Artindi]

If you haven't failed yet, I'll figure that out and let you know. ;)

[@phir9255]

I picked Cryengine

[@HangsumOfficial]

haha that's some cool video

[@Artindi]

Thanks mate! Means a lot to me, glad you enjoyed. :)

[@Hobbes9]

lol.... yeah you'll probably fail at making the game by making your own engine... but only because you get work on it for the next four years and forget about your game idea to begin with. Don't regret it at all 10/10

[@lucifer-look-]

People who are able to write an own game engine would better decide on their own what to do

[@timo4463]

also unity is the worst engine bc some people on steam did dumb stuff with it not bc its one of the easit game enginges but bcthe engines transforms the best games quality

[@vibaj16]

mainly b/c the company showed that they cannot be trusted

[@principleshipcoleoid8095]

Bevy is great game engine. It has one benefit: Rust! Joking aside, it's nice and also does ESC. It's not too overcomplicated, but as of now lacks an editor sadly. So yea it's one option to use Rust when making games.

[@ianweckhorst3200]

I’m gonna make a 2d platformer on source... what could go wrong?

[@tralavala9808]

and while checking pros and cons dont get fooled when reading comments about that one frEeeeeEEE and foss engine that does EVERYTHING better than x or y;) especially if that comment is on video about x or y;)

[@Artindi]

Yup, what works for one person might not work for the next, you just got to figure those things out for yourself, so well said. :)

[@manender1020]

Monogame and XNA lol

[@bojidarvladev4890]

Is Unreal engine viable.

[@vibaj16]

yes

[@n4nno.__.__.__.__0]

These videos are calling me out😭😭😭

[@JacobKinsley]

2:30 me with the blender community (in reality, I don't really have much to contribute and the community is already inundated with poor quality tutorials and beginner advice)

[@kartkibloczek]

Yeah! Make your own engine to fail! Hehehe... hehe... heh... heh. Eh... plssendhelp.

[@JustinKoenigSilica]

Yandev lol Randy lol

[@scottdorsch5149]

Your religion of not believing in religions. lol

[@mmo4754]

Not believing in religion is not even close to being a religion