Make SMALL Games! BAD Advice?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

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[@AnAngelineer]

- Make small game with a feature you want in your big game. - You can test it, refine it, and make a re-usable code and visual package - Sell that small game and make some money - Repeat - After 5 games or so, you have build up a good fraction of the material you need for your big game, and can go for it! And when you look closely, this is, actually, what many famous game studios did : From Software, Blizzard... they all built their experience and codebase on smaller games first!

[@cristitanase6130]

if everyone does this in 5 years or so the entire marketplace will fill up with spam garbage and the customers will avoid buying indie games like the plague the guy doesn't care about gamming, he only cares about money. There's no "after x years make an amazing game", he's goal is to gain the system, shovel spam and be rich off losers that buy his garbage games.

[@rexxthunder]

He's absolutely correct. You will not know how truly bad your ideas are until you start making them and releasing them to the public. It's a good lesson to learn so you can make your dream game the right way and actually succeed. I've made multiple games I thought were amazing ideas that nobody actually liked.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

heh yup! The feedback I got when I was in my Flash days really helped me learn that. Several games that I thought were super awesome, then I publish and it gets a score of 2.5

[@benjaminbeltran7004]

If you need people to tell you your ideas are bad then you have no criteria of your own. Feedback is good and welcome but relying ONLY on feedback is just shooting in the dark and expecting you'll hit something.

[@mandisaw]

No idea survives contact with reality 😅 More people need to get in the habit of telling strangers about their games early & often. Your friends (and family) will be polite, but nearly all your players will be unknown to you. If people aren't lighting up just from your "elevator pitch" or a screenshot on your phone, then it's not working.

[@standardLit]

​@@benjaminbeltran7004REAL, but that to be expected though.. some people says "just finish it and publish". I know thats actually good idea, but some people translate that idea to "just release it and no polish"

[@cristitanase6130]

No, he literarily said he doesn't like making games. He likes making money. He makes cheap spam as he did during cheap flash spam and gains profit out of it from naive players that buy its cheap garbage.

[@lolexguy]

this man just told him "skill issue" in the most polite, constructive, and professional way possible.

[@cristitanase6130]

no, he just told the world he doesn't enjoy making games and that for him making games is secondary to making money he literarily spit on every single passionate developer face and on the gamers that expect decent quality games and not cheap spam

[@cursivecrow]

@cristitanase6130 ...what. That's not what he said at all? You're really out here inventing whole conversations that never happened and getting mad about them.

[@TheGamingHub-2023]

Personally i really like this idea, reminds me of playing a rougelike game, where each run you learn something new to improve the next one. You gain knowledge to do things better and the more runs you do the better you get :)

[@icantsleep845]

I'm new to game dev. That advice of spending no more than two weeks on a single game prototype when starting out is GOD TIER. I went from struggling to get basic systems in 1 medium game over the course of three months to having 3 games like 60% complete in two-ish months. Sucks to leave them unfinished, but I've learned a lot. With my latest two, I google'd and checked the documentation so little now that it give me a huge boost in speed and confidence.

[@jomesias]

Those weren’t games, they were just tutorials you learned with. Happens all the time, learn then come back if you wish to add more fun ideas when you’re more experienced.

[@Me__Myself__and__I]

Learning a new complex skill takes time. Lol and learning game dev is like learning 10 new skills simultaneously. As a very experienced software dev I'll tell you that for at least the next 10 years you'll look back on the code you wrote the previous year and see all the flaws you were clueless about a year before. Doing a bunch of small projects, at least for awhile, is a much better way to learn.

[@cristitanase6130]

you're new, so don't do what this guy does, aka spamming with garbage low quality games

[@itodobien1396]

I hope you're not getting affected by all the haters on the internet. You can cure cancer and someone will have nothing but bad things to say about you. I think your vids and courses are a tremendous help and I hope you continue with it AND that you enjoy the work.

[@cristitanase6130]

sociopaths are also not affected you know

[@yigithanion]

watching your videos are a great source of motivation to continue my projects

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

That's awesome to hear! Best of luck with your games!

[@MarushiaDark316]

One good argument in favor of making smaller games is that often times, those can be leveraged and turned into minigames to help pad out a larger dream game. For instance, Stardew Valley has Junimo Cart and Praire King. Many N64 classics have tons of minigames. A lot of big games have fishing, racing, or shooting games inside them. Two of the biggest Nintendo romhacks out at the moment are Mushroom Kingdom Fusion and Mario in the Multiverse, both of which are basically just a mashup of classic game mechanics and characters from other older games like Sonic, Doom, Mario Land, Pokemon, etc. and all of THOSE games are listed as puzzles in the 20-Game Challenge.

[@TyberZann2814]

Speaking as someone who is actively working in the industry, I can say he's absolutely correct. The faster you get your first game out, the sooner you'll learn all the pain points. You'll be able to see all the tiny details and logistics you didn't realize you need for a good game release. And then you'll be able to apply all the lessons learned to refine your development process. Do that enough times and you'll be able to make your dream game and launch it with flying colors. TL;DR: There are just some things you can't learn without experiencing it.

[@jamesclark2663]

There's a very old saying in regards to lens making (for telescopes and such), "It's faster to make a 4'' lens and then a 4'' lens than it is to make a 6'' lens. The idea being that making the 4'' one is orders of magnitude easier and the skills you build will directly affect the speed and quality of harder work. I've even specifically heard this logic applied to making video games.

[@cristitanase6130]

so make spam = profit no wonder the current games are hated by everyone

[@jamesclark2663]

@cristitanase6130 No one said you need to sell every game you make. You need to make a lot of games to get good at it.

[@cristitanase6130]

@@jamesclark2663 Sure, and your point is?

[@jamesclark2663]

@ My point is that you need to work on your comprehension skills. As is indicated by your response.

[@DJball30]

DAMN you're jacked bro! Congrats!

[@anwarpansari7396]

CodeMonkey? More like CodeGorilla!

[@jon-tyrelladolpho4800]

Some more advice that code monkey has actually given in the past is also to keep your code. If you have mechanics you built in one game and they can be transferred over to your next game do it. So then you have a system that took you a month to build which will now be done in a few minutes giving you more time to explore your new idea. So over time you can have some really complex robust systems that you know inside and out at the drop of a hat.

[@suicune2001]

Yep. I have my code for my start screen I can just copy and paste. It makes it so quick.

[@cyber752]

I love how you interact with the community and present technical information while also caring about actual experience in the field. I completely agree with you! I've made a lot of small games and I learned so much in 2024 after completing your free course and multiplayer, I had to make a lot of small games just to explore more genres.

[@neoteraflare]

If you just came out of masonry training what will be the first thing you build? Your dream house or a dog house/fence/tool shed to practice your skills so you won't find out halfway that you messed up the foundation of your dream house and you have to start it over.

[@DreLluminati]

Hey CM it would be interesting to see your approach to designing your games! 👍

[@MOONtyzoo]

Personally this advice has worked really well for me. When I started game development I always got in over my head and tried to make a really big "dream" game, imagining that I would release it and get rich or something (I was a kid at the time). I would plan it out and design it and everything but when it got to actually making it, the complexities of a big project would eventually kick in and I would lose motivation to work on it. I spent alot of time in that cycle of making/dropping games for a couple of years and it really slowed down my growth because of the burnout. Pretty much one year ago exactly I changed my strategy by lowering my expectations and making really small projects just for myself and for game jams. It worked because firstly I could actually finish games (my games worked on to games finished ratio is about 50% now), but secondly having a small timeline for each game allowed to reflect on each one and figure out something to improve on for the next game. In just one year I have made more progress in gamedev than I ever did before, and my games are slowly improving in both quality and scope, so I'm pretty confident that I will be able to make a genuine steam release at some point.

[@gaverion]

I am definitely in the category of making games for fun. I think too often people don't stop to ask why someone is getting into making games. From a making money perspective, it is a pretty risky thing to do! I think for people getting into game dev for fun, it is good to start on that big game right away. However, step 1 is breaking that big game down into small parts and focusing on that small part first. This gives you the benefits of working on a small scale project without feeling like you are wasting time on things you don't care about. Another benefit to this approach is that you become familiar with things you know you will need, even if you throw it out and redo it from scratch eventually.

[@milhouse8166]

Yeah idk about making money from releasing small games. It's really hard. I'm not quitting my day job so I guess my game is a hobby for now 😆

[@HopperGameDevelopment]

In regards to creating small games, one mistake I've noticed Indies making recently is pricing. I think too many developers are charging too much for a game that people can complete in less than an hour. You can always tell by going to the steam reviews, where there's people discouraging others in purchasing the game at full price, and sometimes even leave a negative review even though they enjoyed the game. If it's your first game, I'd suggest not to be greedy with the price, you might end up with less sales as a result.

[@EltonN.n]

I agree with you, but if the product isn't good you will don't sell even though your game is 1 dollar, or if you don't have how marketing this, for us is different, we don't have a youtube channel to help the people find our game, you put the game on steam and wait someone want buy this, and this never happen if your game seems much simple or have a simple art.

[@SylvanFeanturi]

I think too many people think that 1 hour game is bad.

[@Lars-Liam-Vilhelm]

If a game can be completed in 1 hour and it's overpriced, people will just refund it without giving it a second thought, whereas people are less likely to do so if it's a cheap game.

[@black_squall]

Getting more experience completing smaller projects has improved my ability to estimate length of time something will take. I used to always badly underestimate how long things would take but now, occasionally I will even over estimate the length something takes lol.

[@robertdeelen6685]

another reason for starting out with small games is that you will actually finish them. starting a project is super easy everyone does it. finishing a project (whether building a game, writing a novel or whatever) is really REALLY hard. and not finishing a project will drain your enthusiasm and interest in doing it. the guess is that around 80% of new game devs never finish a game. and one of the reasons is that they start with a big project, without knowing what it takes. dont be like them, start with something small, then something a bit bigger and a bit bigger and so on, until you have the experience and skills to build a your dream game.

[@quantumphasetech4881]

I love your videos and appreciate everything you do for this community! Even when making games just for fun, making many smaller games is fantastic advice. It's a blast and you acquire the skills you need for that bigger dream game. Not to mention the great satisfaction that comes with each game completed.

[@nikolaytonchev6508]

I completely agree. The thing I notice is a lot of indie / hobby people that are total beginners start doing some games like RTS, side scroller and etc. which is very bad imo. At least me I made a mobile game with 1 button only and when you try to polish that very simple thing to have lets say commercial look , ohhhh boy the fun starts ( UI, animations, sound , pop ups etc. so much stuff that people don't realize how hard it is and they think after 1 tutorial or making a character moving they can do anything.

[@Me__Myself__and__I]

True. Inexperienced people don't know all the things they don't know so they underestimate the difficulty.

[@ClockworkGearhead]

It's not, "Make small games," it's, "Make a game at the size you can finish."

[@Lars-Liam-Vilhelm]

Make however big of a game you can realistically finish within a 6-12 month timeframe, basically.

[@SpentAmbitionDrain]

People who disagree with this advice never made a large project. Scaling issues are project killers. There are people who can do it, but they are few and far between.

[@stevenpike7857]

This reminds me of art skills. Trying to make one perfect drawing is too much. Practicing small drawings over time and you get better. There was an art school where she had the class split into two. One half had to make one perfect vase - the first time. The other have would be graded on the number of vases they made, despite the quality. By the end of the class the half that were allowed to make a lot vases despite mistakes ended up creating beautiful vases in the end, while the first group couldn't.

[@Me__Myself__and__I]

Was that for a single class session? Just one day? I can't imagine that split on making vases would be done for longer. The drawing bit makes total sense though. I couldn't draw a stick man to save my life, but it seems obvious that creating lots of smaller bad drawings over time would produce better results (aka more learning) than trying to make one or a few highly detailed ones.

[@stevenpike7857]

@@Me__Myself__and__I I presumed it was the first day - to teach the students that it's practice over time that makes a great artist.

[@KindSparkdev]

100% true. To be fair I've only seen this mentality from people who've never published a game. As you said, what you can accomplish from 6 months to a year is very dependent on your skill level. If it takes 6 months to a year to make Space Invaders, then maybe start by making Space Invaders. Like I said in a recent video (sorry gotta plug). Dream games aren't necessarily a bad thing, but entering the industry to make a single title is a bit naive.

[@mandisaw]

Naïveté is the elephant in the indie-dev room, I think. A lot of folks vastly overestimate their skills & prospects (job or money-wise), even if they literally just started making their first game a few weeks or months ago. I've never seen its like in other crafts or even in other tech or engineering disciplines. I get that most players don't know how complex games are to make, but common sense should apply. Don't have to be a doctor to know they don't let day-1 med students work on live patients 😄

[@paulmdevenney]

remember - GTA 5 wasn't the first GTA. The first games were MUCH smaller in scope

[@SebielRhee]

I agree with this advice, but I also think there's a simpler way to communicate it. On average, the best way to make a hit game is to make several non-hit games first. Almost no-one makes a hit game on their first try. So in order to get through that process as quickly as possible, those non-hit games should be small-- otherwise you may be delaying your potential hit game by 10+ years.

[@PauloHSousa237]

5 years as a game dev and I never spent more than 2 months in a game, I should create something big

[@captainawesome2226]

This is a perfect example of how the "make small games" argument is so one-sided. If people were being honest, small games are often an excuse not to push yourself really hard to either learn something challenging or finish a complex project. Fear is a big deterrent, but without it you risk becoming complacent and, frankly, lazy. Every team has a lazy person who misses deadlines, makes excuses and eventually quits, leaving the rest of the team to clean up the mess. I honestly think "small game" mentality is to blame, otherwise I wouldn't bother arguing the point. I've worked with a few people now and I would choose a developer that's been to development hell on a large project over someone with a bunch of completed small projects any day of the week.

[@abdou2247]

No matter how you look at it, this actually a pretty good advice. When you develop small games, the iteration time gets smaller with every game, and you get to identify you strong/weak points more accurately. Especially if you make games for different genres. I have experienced this first hand when trying to make a game for a small game jam, i thought i had under control since i kept it very small. Turns out a lot of unexpected stuff *will* happen, that you did not take into account. With the preparation, i still did not get to finish the (very small) game. So now, I’m focusing on making multiple small games in a short amount of time. To master the development cycle, and have something to show off for the time i spent learning Unity, that is because I’m thinking about doing this professionally. As always, your videos are invaluable. Huge thanks for the content! Looking forward to more!

[@keurh475]

I have titles that I have been working on for 5 years to 10 years. I also make TONS of small games just for fun. No telling how many tiny games I have coded up in my head while driving and hurry home to try it out.

[@lootlabgames1342]

Although I do agree with you, I myself have taken a different path. I have been working on my first game for years now. It will be coming on in EA this year, and I will probably be working on it for at least 3 more years after EA release. I released a pre-alpha demo a while back and received a ton of feedback. I also get feedback via Discord so that helps. But I am not trying to make a living off of it. If it does well that is great but either way I am making a game I can be proud of.

[@MegaGangsta4life]

I gave myself 1 month to see how far I could get making a multiplayer game So thankful I did. Got my ass kicked, accomplished very little. But I learned a lot, got to explore the the tip of the iceberg of difficulty, and it made me HAPPY to go back to making singleplayer 😂😂😂 It was necessary to humble me and educate me

[@mandisaw]

Learning what *doesn't* work is often way more valuable than knowing what does. Even just the chat function in multiplayer is a massive PITA, wouldn't touch that with my enemy's IDE lol

[@MegaGangsta4life]

@ well said! I tested out Fishnet, Mirror, Photon, and ObjectNet (the best networking solution imo) Definitely agree that finding what doesnt work is key

[@immitatedone1511]

Don't give up, next month will be better, even with new project :)

[@Me__Myself__and__I]

Oh my. Multi-player games are difficult even for experienced game devs. Admittedly they are easier now that the major engines have built-in support for it, but multi-player is still very, very difficult to do well. I have a massive amount of software dev experience including lots of networking & multi-threading and I would worry about trying to make a multi-player game work well.

[@Lars-Liam-Vilhelm]

As someone 4 months deep into making a multiplayer game, i can attest to the truthfulness of this comment. While i've learned a lot about making multiplayer games, to the point where it has become kind of second nature to me now, making singleplayer games and only having to worry about what the local player sees and interacts with is just 10x less of a headache.

[@kinsondigital]

I think one of the most important things about making small games is failing fast and the rate of learning you can get from taking this path. Very good points.

[@I-OGameDev]

Currently making a small first person parkour game. I'm about a week and a half in having only really worked in 2D before. In that time I've learned: Probuilder Quarternions (kinda) A bit of c# (I use Unity visual scripting, so making custom nodes to control things like cinemachine settings) A BUNCH of new and useful vector math concepts And, finally, a lot about project structure. This game is FAR more stable than my main project and uses a single-point entry system which I'm very proud of. It also has a single update and single fixed update loop, making troubleshooting and adding features much faster.

[@Uqknown]

This helped answer some questions I had. Thank you.

[@TacticalProgrammer]

Making small games is definitely good advice! Like you said, it depends on whether you are making games for fun or for money. In my case, I'm making them for fun, that's why I didn't hesitate to jump into a big project. However, my experience with smaller games definitely helped me with my decision making and problem solving throughout the current project.

[@RealPeoplePerson]

Sokpop (Stacklands, Mistward, Simmland) seems to have fun making lots and lots of small games, exploring different genres and ideas. When one of those games take off or you see great potential in further development, you can put more time in it.

[@thelasttellurian]

Even if for fun, what's the point of making a game if no one will ever play it? There is no chance a game I make be discovered when there are 1000 games added every day to Steam, and I suck at marketing (English is not my main language so no youtube dev thing for me). I would gladly do it for fun if I knew at least SOMEONE would play and enjoy it... (also, does that mean you don't have fun while making your games?)

[@castlecodersltd]

Good advice, thanks 🙂 Finding the fun in your idea needs to be a must before anything larger is attempted. If it ain't fun to play no one will play it so move on to the next idea

[@1LastGameStudio]

One of the added benefits of making small games is to realize how much time it takes to complete the various tasks of game development, and to size projects reasonably. To follow everyone's advice, I decided to make a small game to start with... except that what I thought would be small turned out to take much longer than expected! So start even smaller that what you first think!

[@TeacupgamesYT]

I will second this. Just released my first title on Steam this January 7th. Start idea dev late August. Before that we were working on this bigger ActionRPG, with a 2,5 year production ahead of us. Publisher ready to join. But what I have learned by delaying my giant project, was things like how development fatigue is always close by and lack of Q&A time and knowhow in an indie team, so that we basically got our traction killed by big horrible hidden game crash bugs. That hurts when seeing this happen on a channel with 8.000 concurrent viewers on Twitch or a YT creator with 1.2 millioner subs. But as Arnold used to say: No pain no gain😅 And I could go on and on and on! But who knows maybe I will make the big game next, or maybe we make a smaller, yet big for us game! I still fell like a young student of the art of Steam. Only time will tell. Thank you for sharing such valuable insigts

[@Lars-Liam-Vilhelm]

I started on my first commercial-purposed game in September of last year and have set a deadline for summer of this year. Development has come a long way already and i intend on creating a Steam page for it within the coming 2-3 months. I've used Unity since 2013 when i was 12, and it's only in the recent years i've felt confident enough to make actual good, more complex games.

[@godpowernwachukwu]

It depends. If you want to make money from it, then make small games first to learn marketing and the engine. But if it's a hobby, Hell make big games. Take your time, do it even if it takes 10 years.

[@milhouse8166]

That was the first validation I've received in this whole comment section 😂 thanks

[@Braneloc]

If you want something to show (to friends, boss, producer, publisher) or something to sell --- make it small(er) or more importantly FINISHABLE. Do at least one game jam to complete a small project. Completing/finishing feels completely different to starting something and working on it for ages. ..also, there is a big difference between full and part time. The key is finishable, don't over scope :)

[@TYNEPUNK]

im convinced, and i am going to make small games from now on. I have 2, 6 to 8 monthers in dev now. great video!

[@KuyaPoy-07]

Problem with small games is that I cant think of any small games I want to make. Which led me to not making any games at all. And no progress for many years. I learned more making a big project that I enjoy making like the one I am currently making. So it depends on the person.

[@immitatedone1511]

If it is a learning curve you seek you are on the right track. If it is success, remember small game - small flop. Big game - big flop (if it flops) = hopefully you don't flop and everybody loves your game :)

[@standardLit]

​@@immitatedone1511yup, but at the same time small flop=small learn giga flop=big learn I know it's not accurate, I think it's just funny 😂

[@Me__Myself__and__I]

Yeah, I agree and very much understand this. I have no interest in small games either. I don't play small games and I'd have no enthusiasm or inspiration trying to build one. On the other hand I probably have 100-150 pages of notes on what I want to do in one specific rather large game (game mechanics, systems, optimization notes, etc). I recently started work on it and it will likely take at least 9 months before I can even hope for an early access release, then if it does well I could end up spending years expanding it. So, yeah, it does very much depend on the individual. But most (easily 95%+) people who don't already have extensive experience would fail to get even a medium sized project to a playable demo state.

[@KuyaPoy-07]

@@Me__Myself__and__I Exactly, I dont play small games either mostly triple A games, and my dream is to make something more similar but scaled down at least

[@Me__Myself__and__I]

@KuyaPoy-07 Totally understand and best of luck. Building something like that without resources or a lot of past experience is very difficult. Something I am also quite aware of. But for those who put in the time and effort at least some will succeed.

[@luqnotperfect]

I love making games, and I work for a company doing mobile games since 2016. But my dream was always to make my own ideas a reality and even with ton of experience making everything (art, music/sfx, gd and coding) as a solo developer is wayyy harder than it seems. So Ive just started building small games to gain some experience on many fields, and I know im not making the next big hit AAA, Im just having fun doing my stuff, learning and hopefully in the future making a living out of it. I know many will try to make their dream game, but without experience and a great team and a real budget its not always possible, and most will fail and quit. I dont see anything wrong on doing a space invader and adding a special twist to the gameplay. And I know as a dev there are other jobs with way better income, but Im doing what I always love and as long as I cover the basics and as long as Im happy doing it, I will keep trying

[@Chewbert]

There is an incredible amount of gatekeeping in the game development community, it definitely is a problem. I also find myself hearing a lot of criticism from people who do have very little experience or have never released a commercial product, and I think that is what irritates me the most. I do it as a hobby, but I intend to turn it into a business. So for me it is very important that I release a product!

[@ArksideGames]

The scaling your dream game idea is FANTASTIC

[@SaleemVFX]

This guy is packing some muscle, He will beat that code into a game

[@Kevin-zd5bi]

You're a nice guy. I like your outlook on life and game dev.

[@Wski12]

hey CodeMonkey, am a game dev with 1.5 months of experience with unity and i find coding a little complex, what i mean is that i cant really understand some stuff, like nested loops and dictionary and lists, + more , i tried watching tutorials carefully but i cant seem to understand it, i find something that i dont know complex for no reason, do you have an advice?

[@Nutter666]

Holy Crap. I only just realised you're Rowkilla when I saw your Newgrounds profile! As someone else who got his start making flash games, this is like discovering you've been watching cooking tutorials from Gordon Ramsey without knowing it 😅

[@hambonetunes1988]

Your last game "Dinky Guardians", you mentioned this game taking 7 months, any idea about how many hours you spent each day/week on this project? Time passed is one thing but time spent on the project is another, trying to get an idea to adjust my own scope of a project.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Hours are really tricky to track, especially because for at least about half of those months I was only working on the game sort of part time, with the other half of my time here on this channel. So I have no idea on an exact number, but I usually work maybe about 250 hours a month, if I did 4 months full-time on the game, and 3 months half and half, then I guess the total number of hours was maybe about 1375 hours? Although costs are usually fixed on a monthly basis (like rent), so technically the thing that matters most is the raw total number of months and not hours. When it comes to scope, it is notoriously difficult to estimate. If you think you can build something in one week, chances are it will take 3 weeks. So always be very very careful with your own estimates, I actually initially thought Dinky Guardians was going to be 2-3 month project heh

[@hambonetunes1988]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity thank you!

[@kevmscotland]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity At roughly 40hrs a week, if you restrict yourself to a healthy work/life balance, 250hrs a month is way too high.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

I work about 8-10h a day 7 days a week. But I enjoy what I do so I don't burn out, and I never sacrifice either my sleep or my time at the gym or walking my dogs. So while I do work a bit too much (I wish I had more time to just play games!) it's not so much that becomes unhealthy.

[@christophernoneya4635]

I think theres a better way to contextualize it, or at least a bit more accurate. Start making mechanics. Make dozens of prototypes for mechanics that interest you. You dont have to commit time or anything serious, just treat it as a learning experience

[@luisces]

Id love to make more smaller games and publish them on google play, but the new testers policy is killing me. I'm absolutely not against it, there should be better software on their store, but that alone does not guarantee it. Still, I totally agree with yih as always. Forte abraço!

[@mandisaw]

Whoa, I didn't even notice this new policy! Only applies to new personal accounts (so not me :) It doesn't seem too bad - at least 12 testers for 2 weeks. They even advise going for friends, family, coworkers, other devs, and-or communities where your target audience hangs out. There are likely already indie-dev circles and Discords where ppl test each other's games - why not just join one that suits you?

[@luisces]

@mandisaw Sure, I'm not saying there is no way. I'm part of a reddit community for this btw. But it's not so simple, people have to actively use the software, there are some quirks. There are 3 testing phases, people usually have to be invited to a created Google group, etc. It's not impossible, just a new hurdle.

[@mandisaw]

@@luisces Yeah, I've done beta testing on both Android & iOS for work. It can definitely be painful to setup, although I would say that Google makes it a lot more straightforward than Apple. Getting people to actually play, well, that's where freebies and quid pro quo comes in 😄 Maybe a pizza night if your testers are in-person, or the usual, "I'll test your game, if you test mine". [Edit: Oh, what's the Reddit sub? Is it BreakMyGame?]

[@duuze4853]

The reddit post reads like: > My dream is to fly... > Here's a plane.. > THANKS FOR KILLING MY DREAM!

[@KenlieroGames]

I am doing exactly what you suggested with GTA. I am doing scoped down story based 3D adventure. Trying to keep it small enough, and even break the story into more than one game. It will still take longer than optimal, but this way it wont take forever.

[@ProxyDoug]

The problem I have is how to keep the game small, since every time I have a small idea, mid development it balloons into something that is hard to tell how long it would be.

[@afriendlyfox]

I would say also, making games for fun and making games for money aren't necessarily exclusive. I am attempting to try to hit the balance between one and the other, so making something that makes me excited and is why I want to make games instead of choosing a more well-paid career, while making sure whatever I'm making still has a reasonable scope and appeal to be sustainable

[@Timmel7]

The Silksong reference :D

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

One day it will come out and it will be awesome!

[@byronmorley2907]

Circumstance has a lot to do with it. I have a well paid full time job in software dev. I make my game for fun, but I dream of having my own studio, but I'm stable so I'm in no rush to pump out games I don't want to build games I'm not interested in, I want to learn as much as i can and iterate on my own series of colony sim games, these systems take a long time to put together and I learn and enjoy the process.

[@moustafakhattab8142]

Amazing video once again

[@borgerborgerborger]

on your chest presses, avoid lifting your back up as you push the bar up

[@nicholasallen9035]

I whole heartedly agree with the advice, but am in a weird spot and struggle to follow it. I’ve been making games since I was young, and eventually have worked much of my career life in the game industry, but I can’t seem to get any traction completing small games on my own time. Besides the time management juggling with full time work and family, I often feel I have to many ideas and can’t focus on one more than a month or two (encompassing likely only about 40 hours of work on it). I’d really like to hear Hugo’s thoughts on something like this, to make small games with a busy life.

[@RHWarrior]

From the consumer end sometimes a small, tight, elegant game that's good at 5 things is way more enjoyable too than something huge trying to do 20 things at once.

[@sweetpotato_7353]

This is actually a great idea for some people good with methodical learning.. for people who got ocd or other learning disability.. it's better to stick to one game and slog slowly till you make one leaning as you go.. then you'll have better chance to finish a game.. 😅

[@DRJuicyBear]

As I always say, "Fill your head with little victories rather than 1 big failure.".

[@sol1dBl3ck]

Hi, I'm really struggling with game ideas for short games, what methods do you use? Or how can I come up with cool ideas? I am a beginner to intermediate developer

[@formantaudio]

Is the best advice but I'm an idiot with a lot of time. Y'know I edit to add, I am silly, but I understand lol. I am finally working pretty hard on an idea, but I wouldn't actually spend like, more than this 6 months I have planned on making a level demo. I imagine if the idea is received well, and is wishlisted a lot, or if there's any level of acceptable reach, (which to me is like, very low I've set my bar being an EDM musician), I feel I'd be winning. On top of feeling good of myself, I will have successfully created a product that is more than just a wav file people listen to. I am learning, how to implement correct cinematography practices into my work, I study movies with like a pen and paper now. I am learning more about programming now, than I have in years of auditing university courses. It's taking a long time but I think going the way I am, and learning the mix of skills I am focusing on, I will be able to produce some pretty fun stuff. That all being said, if my little world isn't well received, it's a fantastic porfolio piece. I am more interested in finally learning how to do this stuff. I am on disability so I should be using my time effectively to learn, and not waiting on these surgeons to finally call me up.

[@doneFG]

I would sometimes compare Game Development to same as baking... your dream is to make a 6 Layer Wedding Cake, but you never baked before. So you make smaller cakes and learn from that. Learn to make each layer at a time to make your perfect Wedding Cake. I also think people often get confused when talking in time, some people might have 2-4 hours a day. You would not really compare that to be working 40 hours on a game a week. So when someone says they been working on a game for 2 years might be the same as someone working on a game full-time for 4-8 months.

[@kinsondigital]

Hey. This is great advice! I had a feeling that you are from Portugal and live in Portugal because of your accent. Is that correct? I live in Portugal as well! I don't build games (even though I would love to), but I build game dev tools and libraries. I built a 2D game framework called Velaptor. We should connect!

[@screablue]

lmao here I am making a space invaders because I like that game 😂 ups!!

[@dreamingacacia]

I guess my real problem would be the inability to design the game properly, or at least the inability to followthrough which is something I could blame having ADHD but it's also the inability to cope with ADHD and find a proper approach for it. Well actually I've rather good game design skill. I think a decade of being a nobody which I didn't have a proper game to show is because the lack of self-understanding, so I couldn't followthrough to the end and finish a proper project. While I have many techdemo games, they're never cross into being a proper game. Maybe I have too high standard to call something as games. I mean I'm not fond of abstract graphic, so if I only use mannequins, I just couldn't call it a game despite having a complete game loop.

[@captainawesome2226]

For sure, make small games at first :D But there are always exceptions to every rule. It's very difficult to find developers with experience on larger projects. Unless you are joining an established studio you just can't find people with the knowledge of how to make games at scale, and this is devastating. I'll give you some examples. Netcode for game objects is fine for arena games but it has no object permanency, and if you don't want to load every scene in the game on the host/server you will have to write your own scene manager. I've never used Netcode for Entities so i can't comment on that, but unless you know how to scale a networking system you are stuck with arena games. Good luck trying to make a multiplayer RPG where all of the clients have to be in the same scene as the host, or you have to have every scene in the game loaded on a server. The second example is 2D fighting games, specifically the 2D combat finite state machines. There are a lot of tutorials on YT for making a combat FSM but basically none of them are scalable beyond the most basic functionality. Blend frames, immunity frames, animation lockouts, even something as basic as using SO's for attacks instead of hard-coding them are missing in almost all YT tutorials. There are a lot more examples (built-in Timeline is terrible, no scalable top-down shooter systems, even character controllers without jitter are hard to come by), but the upshot is that you cannot get experience solving these large-scale issues whilst working on small games because by definition, small games are small and large games are... you guessed it, large (if you think you can solve a multiplayer RPG networking system in a small project, please email me). You would have come across these scaling issues in the larger projects you have created, and you are nowhere near a beginner game developer. Someone needs to work on these systems if we ever want to push the indie dev scene forward and innovate in more complex genres. So, as general advice, sure - make small games. But the hard stuff needs to be done by someone at some point.

[@natecoet3291]

I think the advice here is not just making small games but starting small. Building things around a prototype, concept, gimmick are helpful. But on the othrr there is the trap of being stuck in that loop. I think one has to just be grounded. Often single devs wznt to make these AAA game with no budget on their own. Start small and increment more every time. That's my thought.

[@Schizo0ol33tKazuka]

I think it’s great advice. One thing you can also do is split your dream game into smaller games? This way you can make every piece of the game one by one and perhaps put them together. Wanna make a 3D Action MMORPG? Start by making a game only with the combat system for example (this will also work as a kind of prototype for your dream game).

[@Zerockless]

Great video

[@diegomendes1998]

My view is that you need to make games you can complete. As a beginner, you won’t be able to create big games. You can spend 5 years in a single project without learning a single skill, so this can be painfull to your carrer. After you have some games to show off, you can say “here are the proof I’m capable of delivering a good game”. Then you can start bigger projects.

[@blackcitadelstudios]

My first game is a very huge game. 😅 still working on it right now. Were currently playtesting.

[@KirbySamaDesu]

I've been playing some old games and also some flash games to find inspiration for a next game and I should say that games were much simpler back then

[@noodle-eater]

thank you, you remind me when I was joining game jam back then, now honestly I am pretty confused about how small is the game, I am stuck with one of my game idea I tried prototype a few times but the game just got bigger and bigger. And by time pass the idea seems not fun anymore so I try to change the design and start prototyping again same idea in different mechanics.

[@scgstudio]

if you wanna jump, learn how to walk first. Small game are not dream killers, they are lego bricks which later can be used to build a game you dream about. Another advice, do NOT listen to "random" people as they give you "random" advice(s), including this one ;) . Listen to different people, from different points in their career. Advice from a veteran might be "too much" for you at the beginning, it is good to know what they tell, but again listen carefully and check if it is fitting to your needs.

[@milhouse8166]

This motivated me to keep working on my open world mmorpg just to prove you wrong 😝

[@DigitalDreams-fe1yj]

1:05 how do i get that animation as my wallpaper i need it

[@PhazonMage]

So overall advice? If you're looking to make a living, make games that only take you 6 months. When you're starting out, that will be your 'Flappy bird' or 'Angry bird', but working on "small" games gives you skills to build bigger games, all within the same 6-12 month timespan. If you start making games like Minesweeper or Space Invaders, you'll end up making games like GTA or WOW or your dream game, because you now have the skills to work on it. If you're looking to make games for fun and you want to jump right into your dream game, not caring to make a profit, then spend 5 years building your game. Who knows? In 5 years, you might find that the market is booming for your kind of game and you become the next Eric Barone or Notch.

[@anispinner]

You shouldn't be making small games; you should make *prototypes* and invest years into them only if the crowd proves them interesting.

[@emil_crafter5935]

2:14 Is it in your opinion "possible" or valid to make games mostly for fun or as a hobby AND earn a bit of money from it? Something like a mini job but mostly for fun.

[@mandisaw]

That's called a side-hustle, and it's what myself and plenty of other devs do! Totally valid, projects just take longer. In my case, I publish apps & games under a personal, formal business, but some day-jobs don't allow that, so just need to check with your employer (and your country's laws). Personally, I've found that having my job to pay the bills means that my games can be more creative. As my skills improved, I've also gotten more ambitious, working on longer and more complex projects. If I were making games for a living, I'd need to rein that in, a lot.

[@Kio_Kurashi]

Yeah it's fully possible. Especially if you're not assuming the revenue would come from the game itself. Example: youtubers who make tutorials. If they're not making it a full job then the revenue from those videos is just some fun pocket change rather than a needed source of funds to get their game completed.

[@SnakeEngine]

Yeah, in my naive youth I would declare you my public enemy and loser for going small, haha. But as a grown man this is such a mature and helpful advice. Sorry for going off-topic. But are you actually fine with Unity, performance wise? Not talking about Dots, but the old Gameobject-based workflow combined with incremental GC. Do your games start chugging after a while, are some unexpected performance hiccups happening after you play for some extended period of time? Stuff like that.

[@luotigames]

I made a game with many small games/ mini games ( I'm Not Crazy @ Steam). I'm still proud of it even if it seems like it selling very poorly, but hey it's my 2nd game on Steam. Maybe my 3rd or 4th game will do better.

[@davidcalderwood7041]

Do you have a video on uploading a game build to steam? My game's demo is almost ready! And I was wondering if you had a tutorial on how that process actually works.

[@Yukiixs]

So you are telling the size does matter? 😢

[@lylewyant3356]

Not thought about this topic much. For me, I suppose I would make one level of 3 or 4 genres then come back and build out the one I like best. But hey. What do I know...

[@andrewpullins8817]

This advice pisses me off so much. I know you're right, but I do not want to make small games. I don't want to spend my time making Atari games, I don't want to make game jam games. I don't have ideas for small games. I'm so upset 😢

[@xelefdev]

Don't make succes your goal and all this will be irrelevant.

[@entei6736]

Hello Code Monkey, I was wondering if you have any advice about how to make courses. I have been developing small games for 2.5 years now and want to teach people that are new to the game development. I really enjoyed the 2 courses on your channel and wondering if you have any tricks or tips, thanks :)

[@Keus]

How make small games from big games?

[@Djirka19]

Hi Hugo, I agree with the advice to make small games of 3 - 6 months duration, but it also depends how many hours you can invest into the process. 3 months fulltime will not be the same for a person who can dedicate only 10 hours a week to game dev (like me). So to make this advice translate to all personal scenarios, how many hours monthly this 3 - 6 months time schedule expects?

[@evanccase]

Not on topic but bro is jacked looking great bro

[@dmitrvy]

How do you gain wishlists and visibility for a small game? You will join one of 19k games that releases early and gets barely any visibility with 2 players and 0 reviews. Do you have any solution for that?

[@xelefdev]

This only works if you somehow get a lot of engagement on social media. 'A lot' here isn't even that much compared to the biggest succes stories because those require way more.