3 overlooked skills to make great games

We all know the primary tech skills you need to create a game, programming, and 3D modeling. But there are actually a whole lot of different skills you'll encounter when making a game. These skills are often overlooked yet crucial to creating the best possible game!
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Timestamps:
00:00 You don't know what you don't know
00:42 Assets management
01:33 Assets - Time
03:05 Assets - Money
06:13 Assets - Skills
08:41 Image manipulation
10:50 Research
14:59 What did I miss
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[@TheTwoHeadedDragon]

Just going to leave a comment saying I appreciate Thomas on this channel. Not always agreeing with your audience is a good thing, imo. 😅

[@Phraxas52]

Agreed. Just don't be a peanut brain and suddenly his insults aren't about you. lol Also, he's right about Unity. Hot take, I guess. Though I like both as I'm getting used to UE now. Never tried Godot but there's too many positive things being said about it for me to feel any differently from the mob. ... Random engine rant.

[@endo9863]

me too

[@LukasOsouch]

6:50 I will play the devil's advocate and appreciate Thomas being in videos, he's keeping it real and is often (possibly unintentionally) very funny.

[@KevinCarlson]

6:45 had me dying. I like having Thomas in the videos, though

[@user-df5ym9dv5g]

He's weirdly entertaining.

[@erickalfaro8389]

Im loving the growth on this channel. Love to see you guys push past critism and push pastunsuccessful launches. Ive built, bought, and sold businesses. And truly, the people who can make the most mistakes, learn from them, and push forward are the ones who win. Best of luck on everything! Good content.

[@adventuretuna]

A lot of indie game developers could really use a crash course or two when it comes to UI/UX. What many people don't understand is just because _they_ understand how to use their UI doesn't mean that _others_ would also understand their UI.

[@fantasycraft-forge]

The best part is, that I haven't even started making games (though I've wanted to in the past), but I'm already incorporating many skills from your channel into my projects. Thank you for all the valuable information!

[@CastleClique]

I like Thomas. He keeps it real and doesn't sugar coat it.

[@JOZUWE]

Video Idea: I would like to see a video, where you discuss or make a tierlist, wich genres are good for wich type of developer. For example im a artist, and i would like to make a game with less coding but more art, but not quite a visual novel. Other devs are maybe heavy on coding, music or storytelling. A list of game genres for each dev type would be great.

[@AuleileiMMA]

I like the business aspects of game development. Not many channels talk about it

[@mandisaw]

CodeMonkey & OrangePixel do, sometimes Tim Cain will talk the industry side. But there are also tons of business panels/talks

[@lanata64]

i enjoy people like thomas in videos, especially when it's like co-hosted. gives videos a more authentic and down-to-earth feeling (not to say that they're not such already)

[@WyrmyrGames]

The most important skill for Indies, and probably the hardest to acquire, is Game Design. It can really only be learned from playing games or (more so) making games. But it affects everything you do from prototyping, to game feel, to sound and music design, to art style. This all sounds obvious but Game Design really is a separate skill that we can all work on.

[@cynikuu]

was probably a bit harsh in the last vid, sorry Thomas, its good to have someone blunt like him to get the truth of things without having to tiptoe around them, but dam bro just needs to chill a bit. you can be blunt without being an ass about it

[@bitemegames]

No need to apologize, I went too hard in my own opinion. I feel the points I was trying to make were valid but the delivery was F tier and too blunt. -T

[@nerdmassa9086]

This is one of the most honest and insightful gamedev channels i follow. I can't miss a single video!

[@Yener_Egal]

Hi marnix, Could you guys make a tier list video about the best/easyest art style for game development. For example 2.5D 2D 3D Pixelart Normal art 3D low poly 3D realistic high detail ... Maybe also show some games which did this specific style. Would love to see that. Grüße aus Deutschland. :)

[@GAGONMYCOREY]

wtf is normal art

[@GohanScholar]

@@GAGONMYCOREY hand draw every frame of animation on physical paper. You're only allowed to animate on ones and do 60 FPS because that's what all the YT anime upload clippers love to do.

[@bitemegames]

This is coming! We've put this of for a long time since Thomas and I weren't skilled enough to actually have good opinions about art, but we're having one of our actual artists join in so what we say is more correct. Expect it somewhere early April. -M

[@elusiveevolution2689]

Good information! Thanks

[@whilefree]

Come on don't blame Thomas. He was too optimistic. I don't even have a brain. xD

[@dreamingacacia]

The first thing you should know is yourself. Some people grind hard and when they realized, they already burnout to the point that they can't work for months. The ability to manage yourself is the one that most people overlooked because they thought they're handling themselves well enough, but in reality only a few people doing well without properly research for the fundamental knowledges.

[@MehmetSarkd]

Blender(or 3d modeling software). Even if you don't model. You can edit store assets to suit your needs.

[@JoachimPileborg]

Hey, that was from my game! 😆 And yes, I'm working on the art to make the capsule etc. better... 😊 Unfortunately I don't have that affinity for those art programs. And have other problems which make everything take a bit longer. But at least I'm still working on it.

[@bitemegames]

Don't sweat it, the things I talk about here aren't overnight fixes. I've been using Photoshop for nearly half my life at this point, and had a prior part in life where I aspired to be a graphic designer. It's more about using the tool often enough for small stuff that will make you more and more fluent, over a longer time span. -M

[@user-df5ym9dv5g]

What is your opinion on the impact AI will have on gamedev? Will it speed up the development process, will it make coding less relevant? It feels like artist's skills are already more valuable in gamedev.

[@bitemegames]

I'm planning a video about this soon! -M

[@PhylJoy]

Risk management and work estimations look quite great skills to me!

[@michelecarroll6355]

Soooo cool my friend 💎💪🏽😉

[@karpai5427]

Shorts take 70% of time for ads. A 10 second tutorial does not have to be a short.

[@TheBluuuuuuub]

Thomas come back, they could not handle the truth xD

[@Phraxas52]

I felt like Thomas was being a typical dev that ignores his base and insults the gamers for why something goes wrong until he started listing off the things people have said to him, and then I totally agreed. I can't say I'd say it any more softly than Thomas.

[@alexandressj]

I feel like Thomas might have been a bit rude throughout the video. Not even showing up 😆

[@markguyton2868]

Communication I personally think is very important, since that is one of my greatest weaknesses next to programming. Not fun if your goal is game dev, part or full time

[@ericdfdsfsdfsdf4788]

This is a product management topic, more than anything else. That’s my favorite topic. I’m working on a PM model for game devs that can help you resolve many of the issues you encounter. Marnix, we should chat :)

[@bitemegames]

You can always shoot me an email at marnix.wyns at bitemegames.com if you want to have a chat! -M

[@mandisaw]

There are a bunch of "PM for games" frameworks & approaches out there already, issue seems to be lack of skillset (and motivation) to actually apply them.

[@rmt3589]

Therapy and the ability to get help. This isn't "if you need therapy, get it". If you're human, you need therapy. Therapy helps you organize your mind and life. It gives tools, not just for mental illness, but for everything. If you're neural normal, therapy will still help you, like a lifecoach. If it wasn't for my mounds of trauma, I'd have a lot more game dev focused discussions in therapy, and I have several as it is. It helps me figure out and judge the effectiveness of my next steps.

[@manuelg9418]

Cool!

[@HansFriedrich532]

Have you tried learning these skills yet? :')

[@mandisaw]

Good list! But Google/Wikipedia was never a real research tool 😅 I'd add soft-skills like networking, communication, being able to convey your game to others (in person or in images/video). And business-management skills on the whole are sorely lacking among would-be commercial devs. If devs spent just half their time on understanding anything beyond just code, I think a lot more indies would at least see some improvement.

[@GohanScholar]

Bring back Thomas!

[@PaulusBruna]

"|In our studio we are 4 people ..." shows video chat of 5 people ... layoffs are real :) /s

[@MehmetSarkd]

😂

[@RealCoachMustafa]

Anyone else feel called out when he starts talking about having a giant asset collection only cuz they seem cool?

[@junnoonrafid113]

Source of the thumbnail?

[@bitemegames]

Midjourney, prompt: low poly 3d, isometric, ship sailing, --ar 16:9 -M

[@LoneAcornGames]

I don't understand the hate towards Thomas tbh ☺

[@blackdoc6320]

I only disagree with the idea of using your money for an fps game, on the fps mechanics because at the end of the day, fps games live or die by the feel of the controls and if you use the same package as everyone else it's not going to feel unique.

[@LimitedPerfection]

Just finished rolling a joint. LFG

[@gruis3783]

You look more tired every stream...

[@bitemegames]

I am somewhat, taking a vacation in a month, looking forward to it... -M