7 Gamedev Time Wastes

[@occupationalhazard]

My biggest time waster is earning money to pay my bills so I can work on the game. My second biggest time waster is watching KZbin videos. 🤣 Keep up the good work!

[@henrique.campos]

Hire people!

[@mahkhardy8588]

Correct. The game wont make as much money as this youtube channel about making games will. What a paradox! 🤭

[@magnomendes7373]

Third is discord!

[@thedefaultcube1218]

Dude, I felt this.

[@vycdev]

relatable

[@sealsharp]

"Wasting time and not working the things" Got it. *closes the video*

[@bitemegames]

You know I'll never blame you for doing so. -M

[@1Chitus]

This man bought some time xD

[@SunSailor]

Regarding tutorial hell - a big factor here is, which tutorials you are watching. Are you watching high quality content, like git-amend, where you really learn how to architect your game or do you watch crap like the Jimmy Vegas channel, where you are tricked into making facades of games, without real systems and structure.

[@ultimaxkom8728]

I always appreciate people who shared their top recommendations.

[@Legit_SuperFall]

This is exactly right. There are so many tutorials out there that "work" because they accomplish what the title says. But the point of watching a game dev tutorial is to get help with finishing your GAME, not your feature. This sort of video is part of the reason you're told that you can only make tiny, unfun 2d sidescrollers, and you should give up trying to do something you're actually passionate about. I want to give the biggest shoutout to FairFight. His character controller is... Truly fascinating. His focus on game architecture is incredible. It's so easy to add new functionality to it. The way he makes you think about the future of your game is something you can't actually finish a full game without. And he does have a t h i c k accent, which is cool kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJiyZpianM2kiKcsi=gBmrhFC4Ld3aScXw There's also stayathomedev. Specifically his last few tutorials. They are modular, plug and play components you can in theory add to any game

[@mandisaw]

There's a distinction to be made between beginner tutorials and more in-depth or intermediate content (incl conference panels, workshop sessions, etc). But the message is the same - you do need to also work on the game itself (and multiple games, over time). Doing is a key part of learning, no matter the skillset.

[@TheKBC14]

I feel attacked

[@DeadParfoz]

>Don't fix every single bug that you see I really hope people won't get the wrong idea. ALWAYS fix bugs unless you really know what you're doing. Easy to fix? - do it right away. Huge severity? - plan the solution and fix ASAP. New features incoming? - make sure anything related to them is bug-free. Otherwise you're setting up a situation where fixing your bug may force you to rewrite half of the game features or make crutches to ensure that players won't trigger it, which in turn can make the game near impossible to update in the future.

[@burnheart2965]

Yes, that was shockingly bad advice. Bugs need to be solved asap. Most of the time you're more familiar with the code when you just worked on it. If you wait, it'll just get more confusing and worse.

[@mandisaw]

It depends. My usual workflow is to work on a chunk of a feature for a while before doing any testing - could be hours, could be days or a few weeks. Then I'll test that feature specifically, note & address the bugs encountered, and move on to the next chunk of that feature. Once the feature and its internal bugs are sorted, then it's a round of holistic testing. I think the advice here was not to stop after every line or method to debug, since it breaks flow and doesn't necessarily save time/improve results.

[@DeadParfoz]

​@@mandisaw that's what "know what you're doing" part was about. I put a warning to newbie devs who probably thought "I can ignore all the bugs till the game is halfway finished" after watching.

[@mandisaw]

@@DeadParfoz Fair, fair. Problem is, newbies by definition don't know how little they actually know 😅 The audience here has a mix, but skews heavily towards beginners.

[@Ben_of_Milam_Music]

no, ignoring minor bugs is pretty crucial advice imo. Specifically visual bugs or bugs that do not impact gameplay in a meaningful way. Bugs that make your game impossible to play means you do not have a game and your code does not work, I am pretty sure everyone knows that. The idea is to get your game into a playable state ASAP, then start play testing to see if the game is worth continuing development on. Basically you want to answer the question of "is this game fun?" before you start committing too much time to it. As much as BiteMe is into agile game development, it's better to start with physical prototypes instead of digital prototypes imo for this reason (checking if the game is actually any good). "Bugs" can be identified and fixed near-instantaneously in physical prototypes, and you can find out whether or not you have a good idea on your hands much faster. Writing out some simple rules and making some simple drawings for a tabletop version of your game, then pushing around some buttons and beads on your board allows you to playtest your game idea the same day you came up with it. That's something I think a lot of modern game devs get wrong. Spending a week or two (or much, much more) working on a digital prototype as the first iteration of the game instead of making a physical prototype and finding out if the game works in a couple of hours. If you're an absolutely cracked out gigachad game dev, I am sure you can make digital prototypes very quickly, especially considering that Game Jams are fairly popular in the game dev community. But I think if any of us were successful game devs, we probably would not be watching and commenting on "how to be a game dev" style videos lol

[@40wattstudio41]

KZbin is the biggest time waster for me. The algorithm is good.

[@PcGamerHero]

I agree with those points, and I would like to add point 8 I never heard being talked about outside of the IT world, but I found it critical to stop wasting time - you didn't account for risks. What I mean by that is that you got your task, planned it out, and know what to do, but then you are a week in and something unexpected has happened and now you can't push that feature out of the window. I'm talking feature creeps, not having the technical know-how, or maybe being lost over interpretations of the game design. If you made games, you have those horror stories of things going wrong. I discovered that once you are experienced in everything that can go wrong, you can start to predict what issues will likely happen. So - don't let them happen. Before starting to work on a feature, in the planning phase, write down everything that can go wrong, think of strategies to avoid it, and how to deal with it if it happens. For example, if you think that there is a risk of feature creep, make sure to write down with the designer a clear list of minimal requirements. This is called risk mitigation, and I can tell that once I started doing this with my own projects, everything went more smoothly and stress-free.

[@mandisaw]

Basically sound software development lifecycle (SDLC) principles, including some project mgmt on top. Risk mitigation, change management, cost/time analysis, etc. There's an idea that games should emulate Silicon Valley start-ups, i.e. "move fast & break things", with little/no planning before implementation. Except that those tech startups historically had loads of cash to burn, and even a crappy product could still lead to a big payout exit for founders & staff. Games should probably think a bit more like established tech firms, where you do a lot of thinking/testing when it's at the cheap planning & prototyping phase, before resources are poured in. Iteration to find the fun is cool, but you should at least work out what your constraints & goals are.

[@mandisaw]

Wasted about 1.5 yrs when I started in Unity. Was making everything from scratch, similar to how I'd done my native-Android games. Once I got a better understanding of the built-in systems and the Asset Store, my progress sped up 10X. Having a job & doing another degree also slowed my game down, but having a steady paycheck, new skills, and the many networking opportunities has more than made up for any lost time. Game will take longer to complete, but it's much more likely to be successful now.

[@geshtu1760]

Hard disagree about assets being better than writing your own system. Yes, for some things this is true, but it's not zero effort or zero time to learn how to use the asset, and maybe you still need to add features to make it work with your game. The worst case (and yet extremely common) is that you now have constraints because you're stuck with the features of that system you didn't write, and now that aspect of your game is limited. You'll probably spend longer working around the limitations and quirks of that system than if you made it yourself. Something I learned a long time ago is that for a solo dev, writing your own system is often quicker than learning how to use someone else's. There are exceptions, and if you're working with a team you need to care more about ease-of-use and documentation. But again, there is no guarantee that some random asset on the store with no documentation and limited features is going to save you time. It may end up costing you more. It's not an easy decision. It's something you really need to weigh up. It may be better. It may not be. So my disagreement is to say that it's simply not true that asset save time while writing your own costs time. It's never that easy. You have to make a judgement call.

[@mandisaw]

It's the classic Buy or Build decision, but my experience is that a good code asset is generally a plus. I usually look for something specific enough that it does only what I need without too much cruft, modular design so I can do my own implementation & customization as-needed, with enough documentation & clear code that I can do my own maintenance once the creator stops supporting it. You're right that it's a judgment call, but it's not all-or-nothing. You can "start from storebought" with assets that provide a basic foundation, or use a specialty asset to enhance a feature you've built yourself. Editor utilities can also be a great timesaver as well. I mostly make my own tools, though, because I like to :) Having someone else stress-test a module across many systems & runtime configs also puts you in a better starting place for your holistic testing. Some things are just too involved to write & test yourself, or are just not in my wheelhouse, like physics and very complex shaders (I'm a shader newbie). I'd rather judiciously add some third-party code that adds tangible value to my game, than spin my wheels for yrs just to claim the 100% self-written achievement.

[@Seancstudiogames]

You didn't say this Marnix but an immensely fast way to combine both learning and get development done is to participate in game jam's. I don't know if anyone has done an in-depth video as to the benefits of participating in jam's but they have overwhelming positive benefits. You'll gain problem solving skills, learn workflow failures and improve them, gain alot of knowledge and experience and most importantly PUBLISH a game! Even if you don't complete the game, you'll gain alot of confidence. Ideally a developer should participate in 3 jams per year. if you're new to game development, keep them short, 3 -7 days for the first one,

[@astromonkey1757]

2 years for my first game, 1 year for each of the other 4. Time wasters are everything inconclusive where at best you dabble. I see lots of trailers during your livestreams or in discord of games that are at best a one trick pony, i would categorize them as prototypes, gamedev need to stop thinking using unity physics = game, because no amount of bad quality indie dev games glamourized by influencers will change the rule of quality > all, pick a genre and make a game.

[@RealCoachMustafa]

I wasted over a year working on a 2d platformer. The steam page is still up. Maybe one day I'll make it really quick and just shove a tiny version of that game for the steam page that's already up.

[@inevgames]

Some game ideas don't even require code knowledge to prototype. We can prototype and test our game using paper, pencil and scissors. This is especially true for card games, RPGs, turn-based games.

[@Mefrius]

I have a question. Is it okay to use many different tutorials for a game i'm making. For example i am making a simple roblox-like tycoon. I'll make a project and then do many different tutorials: how to make a button, how to make a score system, how to make a first person controller. But all of that in one single project that i slowly combine into a game i want to make. Is it a good way to do and learn game development?

[@bitemegames]

It's a good way to learn the individual components, but you may end up struggling with piecing all of them together, as that relies on having a good architecture binding all the different mechanics together. We made a previous video about that here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqGac4adaNtop5o -M

[@Mefrius]

@@bitemegames Got it! Thanks!

[@Shadefrank]

I've spent over 6 years on my first mobile game and made over 100k usd so far. Planning on working on it for many more years because i have no time to create another game and people want more content. Listening to your talk about guild architect felt like you might not have your core game loop defined. Or do you? Anyway, great video as always.

[@pixeltroid]

Another game dev time waster is working on devlogs, especiall video devlogs. A lot of small devs have this mistaken belief that maintaining devlogs somehow counts as "marketing". But in reality, they're wasting their time because they don't have too many subscribers and youtube does not promote small channels. And as a result they're making videos that do not get any views. All the time they're spending on recording and editing devlogs could have been spent on making the game itself.

[@bitemegames]

Absolutely, if you really want to be a gamedev KZbinr for the fun, there are better things to do than devlogs as well. They're a nice to have, but won't sell your game. -M

[@mandisaw]

I think we need to change the narrative around devlogs. They are probably better for networking with other devs, and maybe getting their feedback, vs marketing to the eventual audience. Conventional marketing (e.g. trailers, store page, ads) is better for the latter.

[@JeF_91]

I would love to see a video about how to explore an initial game idea. About how to validate the potential of an existing idea for a game, to check if its worth the effort, and if yes, what are the next questions to ask to better organize and evolve that idea(s).

[@richardbloemenkamp8532]

I just tried the Demo of Songs of Everjade. I'm not really a gamer (except KSP with mods) but here is my feedback: + I think the art-style is quite nice. Somehow I like the setting. + Homebase with a lot of readable text and little things to see. + Quick to start the game and continue. My issue with big games is startup time. Sometimes it is nice to just start a quick game just to play a few minutes. Indie games can be good for that. - Too little variety, just corridors and the same or very similar enemies. Very procedural levels are always a bit boring and pointless to me. I like a bit more design and discovery. - Not clear to me how to best fight enemies and how to defend against attacks when close to the enemy. Close combat is fast and small and therefore a bit hard to see. It seems important to learn how to fight the enemies without taking damage. As you see I'm not a frequent gamer. - I died three time before discovering even the first power up or spell or other discoverable. Ok I'm very bad at fighting games. For people like me add an option "easy" with less powerful enemies and/or some shrines or other pickups to repair your health and other. - Steam still says "coming soon" but from your YT video I get another impression. If possible put what you really intend to do. - I had some screen tear but after putting V-sync it was gone (my Intel I5 + RTX3060 should be fast enough I think). Is that common knowledge under gamers? - I started playing with arrow-keys and space-bar. Then I discovered WASD + mouse. I assume the latter is the intended way. You often talk a bit negative about this game but I think with some adjustment towards more casual / occasional, relaxed, gamers it might still work. I see myself playing this game/demo a bit more each time only for a few minutes in between other things to do.

[@VoylinsGamedevJourney]

Planning is important, but you need to set limits of how much time that you'll be investing into planning. With my video editor finally in Alpha, I'll be able to finally work on a game in the next coming months ^^

[@jokerpb4778]

YOUR MOTHER! just wanted to put it out there

[@nineret]

Time spent on, 90% Lazy, 10% actual developing

[@emmamason4249]

The main thing that holds me back is my three kids, 3, 2 and 1yrs old! just finished a diploma in Software Development, and starting to work on my own game. I love watching your videos! Keep up the good work!

[@Mel-mu8ox]

7:04 Ah, Dwarf Fortress, the game of a lifetime. The cats vomited, the fish attacked the dwarves, the UI made ppl want to cry XD It was only meant to be a side project :P

[@Definesleepalt]

i like video games so much i started trying to make them .... i also like video games so much that i put off making progress to play more video games ..... a ruthless circle

[@NewGenArtsStudios]

Absolutely LOVE this video!! I just started as a gamedev, but have done many projects in the past already. - wrote my own theatre piece, sold out 3 times. - done many projects in the music bizz - wrote stories for a few comicbooks - Been hired as a narrative designer and game writer for 2 projects. I always wondered why people didn't like to use assets to make their job easier. As long as YOUR idea is original, use all the help which will CUT DOWN your man-hours by possible MONTHS!! Work smarter guys and girls, you got this!!

[@YTmingle]

You are an amazing influencer. Also Makes videos amazing and nearly accurate and valid points. 🎉😊 I’ve been subscribed maybe almost since last 2 3 years. And learned a lot from you. I have not wasted any time while working on my project but there is one point you said in this and last video that catches my attention. That I was enjoying only part of my project where I loved or feels easy and I was stuck there. But because of you now I’ve realised that I’ve to figure out and come out of that loop. 😅(thank you) . I had a question for you. When my project will complete would you please help me to test it and give feed back on it.? (I’ll mail you regarding that one day) 😊

[@AdamWoolnough1981]

I'm still new, 8 months into learning unreal engine, I just can't agree with release 5 shit games before a good one

[@BakedChocoChips]

okay, a point by point response. - planning vs prototyping: Really, you need both. The main thing is to keep a clear vision of what you want to build, and figuring out ASAP how to get there. You need a plan on what the game should be, and prototyping to make progress towards it. Prototyping without a plan is just playing in a sandbox or brainstorming. - wrong priorities: I agree, though it goes back to the "work towards prototype" mindset. If it adds to the prototype, then it's good work. Otherwise, defer it. - focusing on bugs: I disagree. Log the bugs but don't defer it too far. Otherwise, you're going to keep deferring it for later, and eventually forget it or just work on new shiny features instead. And that bug is going to bite you painfully in the future. Have a clean kitchen to work in all the time, is nicer than a messy kitchen. - reinventing the wheel: Really depends I think. Godot doesn't really have a good asset marketplace. And the moment you need more than what the asset provides, you're also in trouble. So pick assets that you can easily use and within its limitations, build your own if you need something beyond that. - Striving for perfection: I disagree. I don't think games should take longer than 10 years, that's probably too long without any player feedback. But shipping fast and making lots of mediocre games is also not great either, and gives you bad habits. If you feel you learn faster that way, then go for it. But there is a middle ground where you learn a lot by making and polishing a high quality game, that doesn't take 10+ years to make. Or change your game release so you can launch to early access, and iterate on it. Or launch the game and release expansions/DLC for it that continues the development. I don't think releasing mediocre games is a good suggestion, beyond learning what a full gamedev process looks like. Do it a couple times, then go make something better. - tutorial hell: yes, go learn and apply what you learn. Tweak how the tutorial teaches you to do it, use what you learned to make a better game. - not knowing when to quit: yes, you need to do market research, feasibility prototypes and market feedback to confirm the game makes sense. The faster all the confirm is gotten, the earlier you can decide if the project is worth doing or not. I think the biggest time waster is not knowing what you are doing. If you were trying to recreate a game, all the game design decisions, art style, assets, mechanics, features, etc. are all decided for you, so all you need to do is implementation. Then you just need to learn everything you need to implement it. But when you are trying to create a new game from scratch, and have to plan, design and implement everything from scratch as well, everything is unknown. And that unknown is the biggest time waster, as you try to figure out what direction to take the game towards.

[@marcapouli7805]

My biggest waste of time is spending 10 years learning and practicing blender and unreal engine 10 to 15 hours a day thinking I could earn money with that. Basically I work for free for all that time exept 300 euros of social income, and feeling more and more depressed. I don't believe any more in hard work, merit and justice and I have no idea how to earn money. I have 20 years or less before retirement, I see no future for me.

[@JasonWelch]

Programming wise, most tutorials out there are garbage to be honest. They cover the basics or doing one specific thing in one specific way. Most "level design" tutorials are just people creating pretty scenes from a fixed camera perspective. They don't discuss planning, grey boxing to final art, etc. I agree that using existing libraries and assets is a huge time saver, however I decided a while back to only buy things that would really take too long or be too complicated to do myself because per-seat asset licensing annoys the hell out of me.

[@parkerking6410]

I think participating in game jams helps out a lot with many of these issues because they force you to go through the development cycle and publish a very imperfect game. And you have to prioritize what to work on or you won’t have a playable game at the end. So I say participate in game jams.

[@TheRopiak]

This was helpful as I just started entering game jams and considering something I might sell for $1. Great video!

[@_gamma.]

The number of devs that want to write everything themselves is too damn high, assets are great! Big studios usually have internal tooling devs for a reason (to make the game-making part easier)

[@ceottaki]

You sound like you have a bit of conference flu… 😢

[@bitemegames]

I do 😢 -M

[@coachluke85]

BiteMe Games:"You'll spend 6 years making a game." Me: "But what if I only want to make ONE game?"

[@VBrinkV]

You can mske one game. But iteration will help more with polish than it may seem. If you made a smaller version of the dream game you have in your head and release it, you might actually find you learn more from that and make a better game than spending 6 years on a singular project.

[@aethernova]

Просто многие ввязываются в бесконечную разработку чего-то абстрактного, с полировкой каждой детали, проработкой ненужных фич и непониманием целей, но установкой на то, что делают законченный готовый проект. В то время как прототипирование, в том числе без особой цели - это как раз вполне нормальное дело. На прототипе разработчик тестирует нужные механики и возможности технической части движка, чтобы получить представление, как лучше что реализовать в дальнейшем. Но от прототипа как раз не стоит ожидать законченности. Полировка деталей, даже если это прототип - это тоже нормально, потому что делать всё на примитивах, белых кубах и сферах, бывает довольно грустно. Главное с этим не переборщить. Из невменяемой стихийной разработки, как правило, ничего толкового не получается, а если получается, то это всё очень трудно поддерживать, потому как архитектура выходит неудачная, через заплатки и костыли, оптимизация скорее всего выходит непродуманной, много лишних ресурсов и легаси кода. А нормальная разработка готовой игры (или прототип, который планируется на неё вывести) подразумевает, что архитектура проекта уже известна и в начале как раз набрасываются её основы, в том числе желательно как можно быстрее получить минимальный запускаемый проект. То есть сделать основные окна и меню, хотя бы экран входа, кнопки старт/выход. Чтобы игра уже запускалась, как некая обёртка, пусть пока самого геймплея ещё нет. Ну и далее таким же образом реализовать игровые механики, интерфейсы и прочий геймплей, закладывая поначалу только их ядра, а не всё сразу.

[@humman007]

Eighth thing and the biggest one is procrastination combined with imposter syndrome

[@dreamingacacia]

don't call out oldies like us. we're working hard on our corners.

[@sven4627]

Biggest time waster in life is working a job to pay bills

[@4wrldGames]

Really good and helpful video!

[@gstreetgames2530]

The biggest time wasting problem I face as a solo developer is always design decisions! Without others to bounce ideas off of or talk about with, making each design decision takes 3 times longer as I mope around pondering the questions that arise from each systems design. This is purely personal of course, but I'm sure other solo developers struggle with this same or a similar issue.

[@apemant]

For sure! I think implementing possible designs to test them is the only way forward in these situations. You might feel it is a waste of time, because nothing is trivial in gamedev, but what else would you have done with this "wasted" time? Think about it some more? You'll never figure it out without trying it out for real. And it's the only way to find the "unkown unkowns", the things you don't know that you don't know about.

[@shaunfarley7087]

I feel this, luckily I spend evenings in VC on discord with 3 others who are all making their own games. Its great to get instant feedback and share ideas

[@gstreetgames2530]

@@apemant That's a good solution, you've got it! Iteration of systems is fun for me so its my solution to the problem as well, but then come the micro decisions for those implementations. Mastering the key ones for the design you're working on is the solution to those micro decisions. That's the laborious part!

[@gstreetgames2530]

@@shaunfarley7087 That indeed can be helpful too. Social creatures thrive in an environment where they feel valued and appreciated. This is why solo development is a dark path for most.

[@mandisaw]

That's pretty much the reason for making a game design document. You spend some time upfront hashing out your main design decisions, maybe core narrative & marketing ones too. Then it can serve as your "North Star" during development. Even for a solo dev, it's quite handy.

[@TactDB]

The magic rule is if you can work on a long term (deep) project for 2 years chances are you can work on it for 10 more years. Be it a business, relationship, big projects. 2 year mark. Like Jonathan Blow says "you gotta do something to stand out".

[@ZyvhurStudios]

My biggest time waster is honestly procrastination, I'll tell myself ill only watch one episode of a show before I start working and before I know it I have to go to bed lol

[@SomethingToSee101]

I think your point about Stardew Valley's development is a good one, but it didn't happened as you described. Most of the time he was working to pay the bills too, only at the end he focused 100% on the game and only because it was clear the game was probably going to do well

[@bitemegames]

What's your source? The story I talk about is as described in the book "Blood Sweat and Pixels" by Jason Schreier. -M

[@SomethingToSee101]

@@bitemegames @bitemegames The story is not incorrect, I just found your description to be unfair and kinda misleading. One source I found is the Vulture's article How a First-time Developer Created Stardew Valley, "For four years, he says, he worked an average of ten hours a day, seven days a week, on Stardew Valley. Luckily, he was living with his girlfriend, a graduate student in, appropriately, plant biology, and to help stay afloat he worked part-time as an usher at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre."

[@mannander]

I think I've personally made a full circle on this. If you plan *too little* this is also a problem. If you design too little, it's also a problem. So I do think it can actually cause issues to go too quickly to the game engine. But overall--yes!

[@bitemegames]

Are you _that_ Martin Annander? -M

[@mannander]

@@bitemegames The one and only, as far as I know! :)

[@aslkdjfzxcv9779]

wise words.

[@jameshughes3014]

it's so easy to get sucked into working on a feature or bit of art and over doing it... then i realize i just spent 3 days on a tree and i've got a whole forest and city to build. It doesn't feel like procrastinating, but I think it is. On the other hand... that feels like the best way to prevent burnout.

[@gameworkerty]

The equivalent American saying would be roughly translated to "the cowboy who stands still is like a gun with no burger". Hope the meaning is not lost in translation.

[@mandisaw]

LOL good try

[@musikNUja]

I'm 2 years deep on my first game. You often mention people should just publish a game because they will learn a lot from it. What are these critical learnings I should be aware of now that I'm doing it wrong? xD

[@gstreetgames2530]

Your scope is too large.

[@towel9245]

Good advice 👍, thanks!

[@gekks]

My biggest time waster was that I didn't know what I didn't know, so I made some weird decisions that turned into problems later on. But I chalk that up to the initial learning process - kinda unavoidable. Hopefully game #2 will be faster! 😅

[@sooooooooDark]

2:52 "Your rolled a 4" 🙈

[@bitemegames]

We show the player always as "Your" and just concatenate the string. Since it is a prototype we didn't care about grammar too much. Soon(tm). we will update it so it always fits in the sentence! -T

[@mandisaw]

@@bitemegames You might want to check out Unity's Localization system. I'm not sure I'd use it as-is (has a heavyweight JSON library built-in), but they use a templating scheme that allows for languages that do gender/number agreement, possessives, and other grammar features. Even if you use something else, you might get some good implementation ideas out of it. They had a live session going over the features like a year or two ago - I "stole" their idea of a Scene view dropdown to switch languages (issues a global event that UI classes can subscribe to).

[@GohanScholar]

Day 12 of asking for Melon-Pan tier list.

[@RoccaaaHD]

Always fix bugs the moment you see them. Dont build on a fundament made of shit.

[@bitemegames]

And then fix the same bug 7x because you refactor the underlying system 7x because you can't get it wrong the first time. -M

[@RoccaaaHD]

@@bitemegames If you need to change the underlying system 7 times, your underlying system sucks.

[@IndieVideoGameDeveloper]

Having shipped actual products, I will say fixing most bugs right away is critical.

[@IndieVideoGameDeveloper]

​@@bitemegamesif you are refactoring 7 times, you're probably working without appropriate levels of design.

[@RoccaaaHD]

@@IndieVideoGameDeveloper I havent shipped shit. I make plugins and assets for popular engines for a living. So im at much lower level than a full game dev. And even i know to never build more code on top of bugged code. Leaving bug fixing for later often ends up with twice as much work, because fixing it causes more bugs to appear with the code built on top.

[@CastleClique]

I disagree with all these. Spending years polishing is necessary to stand out. Most games fail because they look unpolished and rushed. Also, using other people's save/inventory system sounds like a nightmare.

[@plaintext7288]

Just use C

[@burnheart2965]

Love the callout of Stardew Valley. The guy could freeload of his girlfriend for 5+ years. His parents were a high level programmer and an artist. Steam climate (greenlight, less competition) was incredible. He had basically no competition and all the support handed to him on a golden platter. Life on easy mode.

[@mandisaw]

Also cloned an established IP and took it to a new market - Harvest Moon was around since the (S)NES, but non-Nintendo players had no exposure to it. Seeing Stardew hailed as a darling of "pure indie creativity" or "doing it for the art, not what's popular" always makes me choke a bit. And yes, having your spouse fund your business is fine, but it needs to be acknowledged more - the "solo indie" myth often ignores the wife's contributions.

[@gameboardgames]

SEe your point but not sure if 'freeloaded off his girlfriend' is fair. It was much more of an 'investment in her boyfriend' when you consider how many millions of dollars StarDew Valley brought in. It was top-3 most successful solo dev games of the decade.

[@mandisaw]

@@gameboardgames It's only an investment if she was likely to see a return. Since they weren't married, and presumably had no business contract, she might not have seen a dime of those millions. Not saying that happened here, but it used to be common where a girlfriend supports a guy through say, medical school, or early acting gigs, and then he ditches her once he starts making money. You don't see it as often these days, since most younger folks just don't get married/LTR, and older folks tend to be a bit more savvy about money. But it still happens 😥

[@burnheart2965]

@@mandisaw Agreed. I adored the original Harvest Moon titles and his game is a blatant, uninspired ripoff. Natsume deserved a big chunk of that success.

[@mandisaw]

@@burnheart2965 I mean, no shame in running with an established idea, that's how we get media genres in the first place. I just don't like when folks say it's unique, or that it had no concept of commercial intent, when it was an already-successful franchise.