How Hard Could it be to Design a Mini-Game System?

[@ShiloBuff]

I love the conclusion. Coming from a professional programmer that did programming as a hobby for multiple decades: I always thought it was crazy when my friends wanted to start off creating a MMORPG or any RPG with big plans while having no programming or designer experience. Always start small. Developing anything, whether its art, software, or games, is not a walk in the park. It takes tons of dedication and failures.

[@DELTA12STUDIO]

I 100% agree, even a simple project takes a lot of effort

[@biscoto3201]

It's a pain, first the story where it will go, maybe an story plan. Make the caractères sprite 😭 good looking enought but not that hard to do/animate, and direction. Finding this is hard. then make the make the map. (where I actually struggle).... I prefer not worie about the engine, and music will be only at the end of an version: intro, prologue, chapter ..... At least I am young and see this as a life project, and not as game to make money. 😅

[@dibbidydoo4318]

I'm trying to render a triangle in OpenGL, am I prepared for an RPG?

[@ShiloBuff]

@@dibbidydoo4318 Only once you learn how to render four triangles to make a square. Then you can make the next greatest MMORPG!

[@AaronQ64]

I agree I think you need to approach it as a fun hobby project and exercise to improve your skills and if you make something in the end great and if not you will have increased your skillset.

[@lostboi2271]

With all of my heart I want to thank you. For the past few years I've just been a dreamer and not a doer, dreaming of all the different creative projects I want to do but not actually doing anything aside from aforementioned dreaming. For the past week or so I feel like I've actually been getting my shit together and at the same time my game dev dream has been reignited so I've been watching a lot of content around the topic (especially yours) and it's helped further inspire and motivate me as I'm planning to do 2 longer game jams this year to get comfortable enough around both Unity and Aseprite so that next year I can do a (maybe somewhat crazy) 1 game jam per week challenge. Sorry for this rambly mess of a comment I just needed to get this off of my chest as well as express my gratitude for the literal treasure trove of information your videos are 🙏 thank you for these videos, I don't use adblock but if I did I'd turn it off for your videos Ps. I really like the chill vibes of your videos 👍

[@AdamCYounis]

Thanks so much for watching, and best of luck with your games! I think a jam game a week (maybe every two weeks) is a great idea. You'll learn a lot, very quickly, and you might stumble on something that you want to take further.

[@Konitama]

The talk about being a solo developer definitely hits home. Just the sheer amount of stuff I need to make can be overwhelming if I try to step back and look at the big picture. I do believe working alone can get things done a lot faster in some cases. I can put together a whole fishing system in a couple of days which would probably take a team of people several weeks to do. That's not humble bragging or anything, it's just the fact that a team is going to need to collaborate, have meetings, discuss each step of the process, agree on design choices, etc... while I know exactly what it is I want to do and I can just slap it all together.

[@BeLozeyFoShowzey]

In the LEGO The Hobbit video game you gather resources, select what you want the blacksmith to create, and jump up and down on a bellow. I would have loved for it to be more interactive like the system you've created. Thanks for the in depth share of your work.

[@constantwhale3618]

I am addicted to these videos

[@bitbraindev]

Wow, super useful video! I saw you also looked at my game, thanks for that, such an honor. That weapon screen at 35:44 instantly makes me want to play your game. I would not even care what your game is about. I just want to take these blades and slay enemies with it!

[@snowpoint720]

Good lesson. One idea I had for an RPG was mixing potions with a mini-game. But if I'm doing it all alone, just getting the inventory and menus for crafting to work and look good might be enough of a challenge on its own.

[@zerosargon977]

9:00 ( 9:00 _ 9:48 ) it does warm my heart that someone else also feel this way, thank you : )

[@Addercus]

Your system looks really cool - always creative with your approaches to solutions. Reminds me of "Jacksmith". It is an old flash game about creating weapons which can range on how good you are at the tactile minigames. Can create swords and bows. The second part of the game was that the person who ordered the weapon would go to fight in an idle type fight for more resources of ore and recipes to craft more things. Really cool game if you want any inspiration.

[@rcookie5128]

Highly appreciate all this discussion! So many questions and parameters that determine if a mini game feels continuously fun is really an art in itself.

[@egimzyegimzy3566]

long time gamer, long time doer of things. finally something got me to go forward to try and understand beginner coding and design and game making. your content is super helpful. also the more i watch, the more i REALLY wanna play insignia. forreal.

[@sirhultzilop8824]

Your walk through, conclusions and way you speak of all the different aspects to take into account, its really useful, you present yourself an your info so well, thank you for what you are doing, your content is very informative and encouraging.

[@christinedelire3974]

In order to get the player involved in side quests, xenoblade chronicles 1 uses a tree that represents the relations between the characters that give you quests using arrows that remind you the relationship between the characters. I know this is complex to implement but this really helped me when playing this game to get involved in the side quests and made me come toreally like certain side quest characters, which is very rare for a person like me that skips the dialogues in side quests.

[@Great_OT]

I tried your demo a while back. It was wonderful

[@GermyJer]

This was an amazing video! I've been learning to program since the pandemic and I've started making my first game. I really appreciate your perspective on how much goes into making the systems get along - very helpful to know for future projects. Wish me luck!

[@jimkurth]

Great video! I'm a hobbyist game programmer working solo on my own game and IT IS TOUGH. I really appreciate you making this video discussing your approach to your design needs and game dev. More videos like this would be wonderful. One thing that I struggle with is not knowing where to go next in my game dev structure. I know many others have this same problem where they get done with a specific portion of the development and while they're there, they have the desire to refine their existing code to make it better/more efficient or to carry-on and move onto the next task and then trying to figure out logically, what is the next section of code that is needed? A lot of times, your code depends on everything being completed for it to work properly and knowing what seems best to do is hard to determine without realizing that you'll have to go back a few steps later and recode/reprogram it--sometimes to completely rewrite the entire block of code.

[@haz_games_official]

huge fan! what is that drawing program you using to plan you sketches?

[@Joe-lj4jw]

I prefer working with a group, but I have mad respect for anyone who tries to solo build a whole game fleshing out every detail day by day.

[@AquaticAnkylosaurusGames]

i love to listen to your videos in the back ground whilst i make my own game. This video was very helpful to my blacksmithing themed dwarven game haha!

[@onnot701]

Keep going, i'm constantly impressed of your deep rational knowledge on the topics. I'll buy game even if I would not like it.

[@Thyflooder]

i like this so much, it really reminds me of "blacksmith jack" on cool math games i used to play it alot but grow out of it, it had a lot of similar ideas

[@francescodamico7621]

Your work is so precious, thank you!

[@018FLP]

The Call to Action decision is genious, a lot of games don't have these quality of life little things

[@ashleyelizabeth9591]

What program do you use to take notes and do your sketches?

[@miguelluceroart]

This is gonna be useful for my endeavors! Thank you.

[@__leftistVegan]

It's interesting how some times these systems in games while they have a lot of beifits to the player can sometime take the player out of flow/ the core game loop. My favourate game series is The Witcher but its always frustrating you have to meditate to get your potions replenished (An improvement from the first game where you had to meditate at a fire to even craft potions) or things like not being able to sell junk items unless you're talking to a merchant. Even games we love have systems design in a poor way.

[@NaJk93]

Just so you know Adam. That kind of crafting system is always a 10/10. Pressing a button to craft is a worthless function that only serves to uphold a limit on item held. Games that has limited slots for inventory like most MMOs etc. A well made crafting system can make me play the entire game just to craft everything to perfection. It's just such a fun feature.

[@ThePancakeJedi]

Long time follower. I always enjoy your video's. Would love to see coding video's from you.

[@moderneros]

Fantastic, thoughtful video as always

[@swalscha]

Great content as always, thank you for sharing your game dev journey!

[@haydenap]

Theory crafting gameplay systems, specifically UX systems for repetitive actions do not get enough attention in most games it seems like. I loved the segment talking about this with BotW and how this is a major consideration for you in your game. It's apparently far too easy to just leave these considerations out of the equation and what you end up with is a half-baked, un-fun, gameplay experience for the player that gets stale really fast. It's almost as if neglecting this concept feels like the developers aren't respecting the players time. Kudos to you and your strategies to make this game great in all aspects.

[@edgelimits]

Could you please share which software are you using for design documentation (seen around 04:36) ?

[@eboatwright_]

This is really awesome! I also love the stardew minigames, and I think that'll do great for your game! (I also really love your art style too :D)

[@FireallyXTheories]

I always hated shopping list crafting, so I embrace everything that tries something else.

[@Miguel7456lmkuutti]

When u talked about picking a handle for the blade from your inventory... Made me instantly think about the gunblade from FF8! How cool would it be to be able to forge it for yourself in this kind of minigame 😄

[@itsonlyalaska]

Hi! I've found your videos so helpful! Thank you so much for making these ❤️

[@3ustin]

such a good cautionary tale.

[@TackleProd]

When grinding a sword to sharpen it, you often have to hold the blade at a certain angle. Idea: The controlstick has to be held at a certain vector for some time, not fully at 1, but lets say half way between .5f and .7f as the perfect angle. idk just something

[@ResoluteGryphon]

This very clever. Well done!

[@xThuby]

As a little side note to the recording inputs idea. That would also be useful for automated testing.

[@GeorgeG90]

people who do not understand the complexity, will start the project and iron out one problem at a time that comes up. Will eventuallyi end up finishing, creating something that will flurish into something or empower the next project that will give the needed results. people who do understand the complexity, will overthink , overanalyze in their head and come up with a note to self "this is not feasible" and they will end up not starting the project, move on to something else in life and do not get to have the opportunity to make something that will eventually give the needed results. This is how 2 differnt mindsets operate in life. Those are the 2 paths people take in life, no matter what the subject is.

[@jertlemiah]

This is crazy cool!

[@Sacred_Games]

Give to the player 2 options, do or no do the minigame and doing the minigame give you more stats or something as a reward meanwhile not doing it give you less, you need to think about mass production too, give the option to do one or more items at the same time. A part of a game becoming tedious is the repetitive tasks, so i recommend in your stores inside the game, put available some items easy to build, but the items like legendary items only can be craft.

[@Microbex]

Mmm, new video. Thanks Adam!

[@andresparedes-vincent2851]

i love the way the minigames work, but i do think a fail state might not be as hard to implement naturally as you might think. for the hammering, there could be a buffer zone where the hammering wont make he metal expand past the correct shape, but if you keep hitting a completed area it will start to warp outwards (and maybe even crack) for the grindstone, if you keep grinding for too long it will start removing from the actual shape instead of the edge. either of these could be easily scaled as well, the buffer zone could be as big or small as you need depending on the difficulty of the item or something like that edit: that way, in some cases you might not actually want the temperature all the way on high if you are close to finishing a side of a shape, which could add another layer of skill?

[@AdamCYounis]

In this case it was less an issue of finding a natural fail state (overshooting, like you mentioned, is easily done in both games) and more a question of whether I wanted there to be one at all. I chose not to keep them, but I could re-introduce them once the whole set is in and I can see how they feel in a full playthrough, if it feels like adding actual risk to the player (lost resources) would make the experience better.

[@andresparedes-vincent2851]

@@AdamCYounis makes sense! another thought i had was have you considered item durability and repair? i think these mechanics could work equally as well for those, but repair does tend to be tedious in some situations/games like you discussed so do you have any thoughts on if it could work in insignia?

[@__leftistVegan]

I would be amazing if the player reached a certain rank in these tasks they could join a black smith guild or similar or have the title as a mastercraftsman etc I love games that have a long term overarching reward.

[@skydemon3423]

what do you use for your notes all the pictures and writing layed out like that

[@bruhbbish3698]

wtf, dude this is brilliant!

[@LuanaSantos-rl4sb]

I am also doing a game by myself and I feel that too, gamedev is overwhelming

[@SadTown99]

I’m surprised ‘ Gambling, Card Game, or board game ‘ wasn’t mentioned for a mini game idea

[@austingoldinger7943]

I know I'm late but someone should have shown him the flash game, jacksmith. Wonderful combination of skill, adaptation, and accomplishment.

[@0.mo.ya.0]

May i know what pixel art used for and how to get money from it ?

[@ThatBoiJayGee]

What software is he using for his blueprinting?

[@AcidMonkie]

What is the program with the purple background that you're taking all your notes in?

[@wisesonitier]

Stream avatar, i guess

[@PernilleThede]

Does something like this exist for rpgmaker vx?

[@kirbyboii9284]

I've been learning how to make a game using aseprite and unity and I have seen a LOT of videos but it never was helpful as how your videos are, for some reason my mind only understands what YOU say so PLEASE PLEASE make a unity pixel game tutorial where you start from zero and use only aseprite and unity, I know that's a lot to ask but no one explain things as good as you, and thank you so much for the great content.

[@ephitariathegame2brainstud996]

Hi, Adam! Please tell me how can I get in touch with you? Email, for example? Can you carry out the work to order? Draw characters?

[@andreoli777]

Where you did the game deoc?

[@_g_r_m_]

It must be really hard to handle such a big project with all that systems over that many years, i usually have a feeling of not progressing enough when i work on longer projects and I think that the tiredness of your voice expresses something similar.

[@TheMKDev]

new upload, yes!

[@lipbalmplease]

Could the tutorial be an apprentice of yours showing you their progress on their blacksmithing skills? Maybe you calling out each of the steps to the appreciate and thus, watching the tutorial. Something like this may make the tutorial more engaging.

[@Kalahee]

What's the whiteboard app?

[@HunterKiller-]

Hi! Can you make a video comenting on the pixel art for the game "blasphemous"? Tha game is SO beautiful.

[@Great_OT]

Please what's the name of the graphics tablet you use?

[@mathieumaxwell]

He has a couple Wacom Intuos series tablets, there is one or two videos about them if you search his channel.

[@Great_OT]

@@mathieumaxwell thanks

[@kenzuleisti2779]

Thank you for this video. Enjoy your content even though you talk too fast but I keep forgetting I am subbed to you (perhaps because I avoid pixelart) xD

[@Fasyle]

If you do poorly in the forging mini game too often and produce poor results for customers= bad reputation and some quests are only unlocked with good rep.

[@jjkthebest]

I have no intention to ever make a living out of making games by myself. If I ever make a living making games, it's gonna be as a programmer in a development studio. Currently, making games is just a hobby.

[@itsjustaline]

The mini game remind me of the Papa games

[@onogrirwin]

5:00 It feels like you're telling me not to make an MMO...

[@giantenemycrab5596]

Pretty hard apparently

[@AdamCYounis]

You bet

[@loganspencer4728]

ngl thought i was playin minecraft because of the music lol

[@ChristopherLMunoz]

"cooking mama is a big inspiration" ait I am out of here :D

[@totheknee]

20:38 - Nintendo games _always_ have way too much boring dialog, and _always_ treat the players like they're too stupid to figure out how to play without far too much hand holding and "tutorials." It's why I never play Nintendo games. _Ever._

[@totheknee]

29:23 - Totally unnecessary. _Any_ player on planet earth, when shown a pile of pancakes and a hand icon, will _immediately_ start to grab pancakes. Especially when an opponent grabs one. The #1 problem with games these days stems from the fact that game designers don't understand this universal truth. Which is odd, because the designers themselves would be grabbing pancakes without any prompt to do so. WTF?