He Knew Nothing.... But Got His Indie Game Published - Full Time Game Dev Podcast Ep. 017

[@thomasbrush]

Thanks Devon! You did awesome. ► Wishlist Elements: store.steampowered.com/app/1468110/Elements/ ► Learn how to become a full time game dev, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-how-to-make-six-figures

[@findthestones]

Thanks so much for having me on! Was humbled to chat with you, as I have watched your videos for years. Appreciate ya!

[@joshuawafford165]

in the army, communications as well. just starting to dip into game development. spend all my free time and at work thinking of story's and creating characters and decided ill try putting my creativity into games. so we will see how it goes. thank you for your service brother and cant wait to look at your game.

[@BushcraftedGames]

@@joshuawafford165 /Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme

[@awesomewow668]

corporate ahh response

[@christopherpulley7614]

I appreciate listening to your story. I'm personally in the frozen...can I do this? Stage but hearing your degree was completely unrelated to game dev, and the military and the need to create and recreate yourself after a "get a degree kind of job" is reassuring. Thank you for telling your story and God Bless.

[@Solar_Griffon]

i feel like knowing nothing and having a decade of experience in video/animation production are not the same at all

[@starofalltime]

Exactly, this video is misleading some the got already know half of what the job of a solo dev entails.

[@Drashwins]

i feel kinda jbaited by "he knew nothing" meanwhile guy has 10 years video and animation expirance

[@mcbthird]

lol yeah he knew a LOT

[@IrishZOMBIE117]

Linear shooters are the best. We gotta bring them back! The addiction to creation is real, man. "If I'm not building something I go crazy". This legitimately describes me as well. The absolute worst jobs I've ever held were the ones that had zero building/creativity in them. I have to be building something, or at least have the time and energy after work to build something or else I lose it too. I've been made fun of by my friends for staring at rocks in games. It's great.

[@andrewmartin2341]

I absolutely miss linear shooters.

[@ponderingponderer3010]

Creative minded people must always keep creating things, otherwise, we die inside!

[@thatcasual8]

I've had this wishlisted for over two and a half years! Looks like the exact kinda game my wife and I like to play together. Pumped!

[@themexicanwerewolf]

Hey Thomas I love these interviews they are great and shines a light on a lot of great people.

[@darcy4143]

I totally understand that the creative part of you needs that hit. I was a touring musician for 18yrs getting that hit every night and in that time I became a graphic designer as a side hussle then went into sound design haha then into 3d modeling and now I'm in game dev so yeah I totally understand the need to create but the best part about all of this is that all of these creative skills that I managed to learn over the years and without knowing it at the time, is they all marry up to be part of the process when creating Games. Great video as always.

[@T0mT4yl0r]

Knowing nothing keeps you always learning. Key to success.

[@heyheythrowaway]

Why do devs still not understand that a certain % of players like to go off the beaten track, explore, and look in corners for hidden secrets? No, often they're not stupid, they CHOOSE to ignore your obvious signposting. If you're going to have an open world, it should allow for open exploration. If you're making linear levels, you should still throw some coins or a trash item in hidden corners. This will satisfy this type of player's need to explore and tell them "Good job, you found a secret. Now go back to the main path." When doing play testing, the player is always right and you should cater the game to their expectations and sense of fun, not call them idiots. Then again, if you don't care about appealing to these exploration-focused players that's up to you.

[@_sleepyFox-oh6ob]

Yep. I'm one of those. Especially in souls-likes.. "Obviously, I'm supposed to go this way, but I want to find all the stuff before moving forward." Been that way ever since playing the original phantasy star and FF1. Those old games could get stressful trying to find everything due to the random encounters and limited restorative items. Satisfying though.

[@findthestones]

I definitely understand and expect it. It still hurts when you see a player go somewhere you didn't finish yet. My job is to put awesome stuff in all those places or at least as many as I can 😊

[@nullx2368]

Because it's expensive to do. It's really that simple .. it being able to happen everywhere is the problem

[@jayjayrin3080]

@@findthestones have more faith in your game.

[@ryanorionwotanson4568]

This is what I like to do 😂

[@motioncache]

I really enjoyed this talk. Just wishlisted your game. I found this extremely inspiring. I have a similar background to Devon.

[@findthestones]

Really appreciate the wishlist! ❤ so awesome to hear you were inspired

[@luckyknot]

Nice interview! it would have been very insightful to ask Devon about his team, if he learned to code in C++ or used blueprints, how many devs, artists, etc, if he comissions part of his work, an average of budget burnt per month, etc. Loved the existential thoughts about why one does make games!

[@Telruin]

Do you work for IRS? :D More seriously. That sounds like something that wouldn't necessarily mean much. And the objective here seemed to be about inspiring people to give this a go if they dream about this stuff. (But who am I to decide what people are interested in) Different projects works with different parameters and with different results. What is right for one, might be wrong for another. Some might never figure out what is truly right for them. For all it's worth, I think I can say that I don't believe he knows C++. But for anyone interested in coding, I would say that it's good to know any of them. A lot of it will be transferable. It would be like learning a different language of sorts... you might have to switch up sentence structure, grammar etc. but you can still tell a story.

[@ronelpeguero7621]

@@Telruinto see different examples of how teams are formed may give other developers an idea of a path they can take to bring their game to life. Considering most are not business savvy I would say that information is pertinent.

[@TheIronMason]

Thank you SO MUCH for adding in game trailers/video!

[@mahkhardy8588]

You can't get lucky unless you put in the work. Great talk my dudes.

[@findthestones]

So true! ❤

[@samohickey]

The "I'm addicted to creativity" part of the video, yeah, I get that. One-hundred percent.

[@Urotsuki]

24:30 did he just call us npc's 😭😭

[@JPayeTei-zi8w]

you misunderstood

[@Niko_3D]

Happy that hes doing great and can't wait for the game.

[@Taazzzy]

Happy backer here! Can’t wait to get my hands on this game! I’ve been following it since day one!

[@nodesofnature603]

Creation is a rebellion against death

[@jonathanglamann5086]

Let’s goooo, so excited for this game!

[@albert_bortoletto]

Man that last part was so great. Be humble guys!

[@AndrzejGieraltCreative]

Awesome! Love to see RPGs doing well on Kickstarter... I was losing hope for my game to be honest, an RPG, but maybe this will re-motivate me.

[@TheRealJackArthur]

Don't lose hope man! We support ya!

[@orlovskyconsulting]

Motivation and availability of budget is very important, gosh, i dont know how many times was not motivate to do some coding work , but i have done it anyway. People should realize that gamedev can be sometime tedious and even nerve breaking work.

[@ConorDrew]

I’ve always loved your interviews, gives a good overview of different aspects and attacks as everyone is different. One small ask, the boom from the mic has been a bit disorienting when it’s touched, might just be me, but the low rumbles distracts me from the conversation

[@justinspearlord]

Good listen, loved the guest and your insight! Especially your explanation on your motive of "playing god" (in the least heretical way possible ;)) as a reason on why you create. I've come to a similar conclusion myself, after all we are "made" in God's image and he is the Ultimate Creator. I also wanted to drop a little helpful critisism here becasue you seemed bit uncomfortable in your seat and readjusted the mic and were checking your phone. I could tell that it ever so slightly may have distracted your guest. Because this podcast is not just audio, appearing as an active listener is important for engagement with the guest and audience. You obviously were listening because you had questions about what he had said. It's just somthing I noticed and I want the best for you and the podcast :)

[@TUKMAK]

That was a great podcast. I like this guy. He has a good sense of humor

[@findthestones]

Haha, tell my wife. PS I read her that comment and she barely smirked lol

[@TUKMAK]

@@findthestones hahahah

[@DoubleV_Gamedev]

Great Interview

[@unskillfullymasterful]

Why the title misleading tho, he knew a lot of stuff not nothing

[@jerryjohnson414]

Exactly

[@leonardorodriguez9121]

He just knew design, animation, project management......... x)

[@lawrence9713]

Looks exactly like what I have in development. Guess I have to step up.

[@alexanderkulaev541]

Great interview! Thank you! Can anyone tell me what that thing is called that Devon talks about at 38:30 ? Imager? Where he posted his first picture of the game? I can't find it in Google.

[@findthestones]

Imgur 😊

[@alexanderkulaev541]

@@findthestones Oh wow, thank you so much for replying you yourself! :) I'm not a native speaker, so I always read that name different and wouldn't in a 1000 years understand that's what you meant! Cool to know!

[@rodrickscott8146]

at our core we are made in Gods image so when we can create something similar but our own reality it makes us feel closer to our purpose

[@jakemydawg4720]

Hey Thomas, I was wondering your thoughts on gamemaker? I was recommended starting out with that

[@IndiePatron]

Woo

[@Baggssy]

Can totally relate to that feeling of not being able to stop at 2am lmao

[@GrapplingTVBJJ]

Loved to hear about Devon's story but man you gotta let the guy talk lol

[@eldaniels6730]

13:37 Am i glad I'm still 16, no wife and kids to bug me for like another decade probably, plenty of solid time to conquer the world. Only, parents can get annoying with the chores sometimes.

[@dexlovesgames_dlg]

he's living the dream

[@CreedenceTheBass]

Playtest sooner 🤣 Steve Bromley shares a lot of good information on that, but it's also all over KZbin! Riot Games tests concepts before they even start building.

[@OuchE713]

16:00 couldn't relate more.

[@filmcutpaste]

Looks awsome

[@treybishop212]

I think the golden butt horseshoe you're referring to is intuition lol

[@a6gittiworld]

Dope game 🤙🏼

[@conclavemasslands8224]

@thomasbrush you make me question my sexuality, love your content, been watching for years, keep it up bro

[@shotoutgames8823]

Thomas says scamming us NPCs is fun. 😊

[@forasago]

It's a Power Play.

[@Tbjbu2]

nice was fun too short

[@gamergate2.0andbooks]

I'm planning on saving enough money for a high end gaming computer for game development and I have absolutely no skills of game development and I'm passionate about video games and I would only do it as a side hobby and do u have any advice about where to go to learn the necessary skills set to develop a video game

[@gamergate2.0andbooks]

Also for me any amount of money is alot of money

[@gamergate2.0andbooks]

Because I'm broke as f and the only money I get is ssi money

[@n-credible0753]

25:20 welp, I ain't gonna open any of those now 😶

[@AnikenSkiwalker]

My obvious question to your guess is how can he afford to work on a game for 5 years without revenue?

[@SnowyLeopardFrom1997]

2:20 - Time management Bro, there's no time to manage time management in game dev

[@flat_foot9017]

he made a game related to his criminology background, it would be interesting... But it just looks like another open world, fortnight and zelda like

[@owlsponge3159]

why do you have to both stare straight into the camera tho...

[@sweatt4237]

The reason we love creating is because we are image bearers of the Creator and his name is Jesus.

[@spelarnet]

U just gotta drag god into everything😂 no we love creating stuff cause we are creative people. God is fiction hate to break it to u

[@sweatt4237]

@@spelarnet A building is evidence of a builder, and painting is evidence of a painter, and creation is evidence of a Creator.

[@spelarnet]

@@sweatt4237 And batman is real I read about him. Must be real then right? No there is no evidence of a god. And there never will be. Its something people made up to understand the world. But its 2024 science have come so far away from that. U are brainwashed. All religions are massive cults.

[@atom-2077]

In what universe does this look AAA?? it looks fine but 75% of the first frame of the trailer is straight off the UE marketplace

[@danielchavez9367]

Lol.... I love people who complain about buying assets. If you have no artistic ability, there is nothing wrong with using assets from someone who has the skill. So many indi games completely failed because the dev had no artistic skill. How sad... to put years of your life into something. Just to receive nothing, just because you have no skill in 3d modeling.

[@MalikFrost12]

It looks indie just at a really big 3d scale. This does look really impressive for his first game.

[@shannenmr]

I don't want to diminish their accomplishments and apparent success but it did feel abit too much like he was really blowing smoke up his ass with those comments.

[@totalbhaukaal9515]

That's a pretty impressive UI for a solo dev

[@timmygilbert4102]

Nintendo universe 😂

[@flat_foot9017]

Elements remind me of fortnight and I hate it so much

[@FURIAfdx]

I dont like the kidfication of the characters, DISLIKE from me

[@Gibon123_]

Devon Parsons can tell how long time u learn in UE4 when u start make this game? or just learn and make this same time project :)

[@findthestones]

It took me about 6-8 months of learning as I built the prototype. Over 3 years working on this game and I am still learning everyday 😊