Non-Professional Game Dev - The Joy of Making - Extra Credits

Why are hobby and personal games important? Even though they rarely make waves in the mainstream game industry, they are a fantastic outlet for expressing a wide range of creative possibilities.
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[@extrahistory]

If a game matters to you, then it matters. Let's talk about non-professional game development!

[@jakeheintz4107]

How was this comment put down 7 ours ago, did you have this video hidden?

[@phxrebirth]

StarFury 909 Yeah he put it on private.

[@jakeheintz4107]

I knew it

[@ipadair7345]

Great video, guys. Keep up the good work.

[@reaganmaxwell9867]

Extra Credits Everytime this question is asked I roll my eyes.

[@gathius]

Made a simple game on RPG maker to propose to my girlfriend when she finished it. Its technically terrible, but one of the things i'm most proud of. She said yes of course.

[@fernandobanda5734]

Kit That's pretty amazing.

[@gathius]

Fernando Banda thanks! i figure once we're married and have bought a house i may go back and add to it!

[@sadlad5258]

I hope you two live happy together

[@CamoViper1]

Kit I think my heart just melted. :)

[@AssassinLupus7]

I actually thought of someone doing exactly that while watching the video. Glad to see someone else had the same idea. And very glad it worked. Best wishes to both of you.

[@hackerdackers8832]

"It doesn't have to be a world changing game to change the world of the people making it" This is why I love extra credits :)

[@joelsylvestre9405]

People gave a lot of unfair flak to the guy who made Flappy Bird. He never expected that level of success, he just made a silly little game.

[@g0mikese]

I feel like non-professional game dev is also an important part of increasing game literacy. Amateur film makers, writers, artists, photographers, etc all are people who appreciate their chosen medium(s) and act as ambassadors to their friends and family helping to increase the public knowledge about the work. I think the tools like RPG Maker and other systems that are affordable, collaborative, and highly approachable all help to make gaming a better thing for everyone.

[@micefort]

construct 3 or clickteam fusion 2.5 are the best options to start since no coding knowledge required at all

[@gamespotlive3673]

Maybe so.

[@Derekivery]

This episode could not have come at a better time for me. I have a full time job, I just got a promotion, it's nice, even meaningful, but I like doing small time game dev stuff. And every time I spend several hours over the weekend on a game I feel like "wow that was a waste of time, I'm never gonna be able to sell this." But I enjoy doing. I enjoy the mechanics, I enjoy coming up against a problem and figuring out how to make it work and the feeling of seeing that thing that I never thought would work, suddenly working, and what that thing is is usually so small no one but me would notice it. Thanks EC, keep gaming.

[@alanbu5837]

Same

[@acat5770]

Can definitely agree there, i mean, i've been working on one doom mod for what, 3 years now?

[@thomasrosebrough9062]

The "Code" at 1:22 is hilarious.

[@ryanchungus8972]

I thought I wasn't gonna understand it, but I did.

[@omegablender]

@@silentfilms7459 me too

[@sinnerthesinful552]

Yeah, i felt like a stab in the heart when he said: "i learned HTML in high school"

[@soda9023]

Probably still would function better than my C code.

[@finalrenderanimationstudio]

@@omegablender Don't worry... I'm the latest of them all lol

[@LaZodiac]

Legit, "Wife slays dinosaurs" game sounds rad as hell. Reminds me of Dark Void.

[@StoneBakedGames]

stone-baked-games.itch.io/clever-girl ;)

[@tricoelacanth1114]

I looked the the game page and it looks so cool! As a fan of dinosaurs, and of prehistory in general, I like this hobby project. I think it would be cool if you could make a sequel or prequel or spin-off that takes place in another time period. My preference is the Carboniferous.

[@StoneBakedGames]

I'm glad you think it looks cool, I enjoyed making it and it's nice to see it get a little bit of attention now. I'd love to do a sequel at some point, or an updated version, so one day hopefully.

[@viniciusdelimaalvim2670]

I was about to post it! That idea sounds SO COOL! ^^

[@Relachi]

this also applies to small a youtube channel. I make video for my own entertainment and for my friends to watch, and this is how it should be. If I manage to attract more people, that'd be cool, but it's also fine if I don't. Way too many people get over there head and invest so much in their videos expecting to be the next big hit, which then doesn't work out and then they quit.

[@Joe-mx5zo]

Have you switched to trying to make the next big hit by noe

[@acidicjosh3813]

I don’t even know you but the verified tick made me happy for you

[@BlueEngland]

"If I manage to attract more people" Well look where you are now

[@deathlesspumpkin8433]

Amon gus

[@extrahistory]

A lot of you were really intrigued by one of the hobbyist games Chris mentioned at 6:35. Want to travel back in time and fight dinosaurs too? stone-baked-games.itch.io/clever-girl

[@timothyliddy]

Thaannks!!

[@HxH2011DRA]

NICE!

[@geckoo9190]

Too bad I cannot download it

[@StoneBakedGames]

Could you describe the problem you're having? I'll try to fix it if I can.

[@drakan4769]

thanks, I wanted to ask you for links to _all_ the games mentioned though, I mean, no reason not to give your sources more exposition right?

[@luis2626]

583,000 Downloads $3 Donations LOL, ain't that the truth

[@IkBenBenG]

I wish! My stats (for a period of about a year and a half): 109 views 60 downloads $0.08 revenue

[@nujumkey]

IkBenBenG 38 views here, pretty sure they're all my buddies on discord :D

[@rukascool]

reminds me of winrar purchased licenses

[@36yearsoldgamercrippled49]

At least he got 583,000 downloads!

[@EddieKMusic]

I made 17$ lol

[@ladsworld]

This is why I love the fangame community.

[@santiagogs15]

i know i'm a year late but have you played pokemon reloaded?

[@cakeisyummy5755]

@@santiagogs15 Most fangames based off of Nintendo IPs Get taken Down in a flash.

[@ShneekeyTheLost]

Fun fact: Minecraft was originally Notch teaching himself how to code in Java. It was the massive interest in his alphadev that caused him to try to monetize it. And the gaming world was never the same since.

[@wispy9859]

then he sold it to microsoft after the minecons that insued

[@Volfgang59]

Notch didn't sell it to Microsoft. _Jeb did after Notch stepped down from being the CEO of Mojang and gave it to _Jeb. Notch was no longer having fun working on Minecraft because of how popular it became. It turned into just "work" for him instead of the fun thing it was to him when he started. That's why he left Mojang to start other projects. It's the same reason that other game he was going to make never came into being because he felt so pressured to make it good that it stopped being fun.

[@the_dec0de]

ShneekeyTheLost if you think about it, notch pretty much revolutionized the indie game genre

[@PixelBytesPixelArtist]

Considering all of the bad shit I've seen in the game's design and what I know from the early game, it was definitely not Notch's masterpiece. (nor was he good at sprite art)

[@OGA-b4l]

il never forget the good time i hade with my friends in it

[@syferz]

Sometimes there are non-professional / hobby games that compete with professional games. Cave Story, Minecraft & Counter-Strike are all huge games that were just hobby games someone created while tinkering around.

[@syferz]

Undertale was the other game I was trying to think of.

[@Man_in_White]

Well, Undertale had kickstarter, so it's a bit of professional?

[@Darkblastdragon]

The best example I can think of that hasn't been commercially sold is OFF. It has a pretty big cult following. It's also a great example of how games from different nations can enrich us. I always get excited to see a successful indie or 'non-professional' come out of a different country than America.

[@Foxpawed]

+Lorik D Time to listen to Pepper Steak for the hundredth time now.

[@braenhelbarn366]

Purification in progress ... DAMN, I need to play it again, now.

[@accumbularatedop5468]

"It doesn't have to be a world changing game to change the world of the people making it." Fantastic.

[@nedlalordofthelegos]

When you said making them for valentines day or marriage proposal I just though "I'm glad I'm not the only one."

[@thepip3599]

Really? Please elaborate.

[@cardijey6918]

I made a game for the 18th birthday of my gf in which you play the first day we met. It just feels right to make something like this.

[@cheesecakelasagna]

@@CananaMan Aww. That seems like a great concept game

[@aug1014]

Step 1: wife Step 2: make a video game where my wife travels back in time to fight dinosaurs!

[@matthewnoybn6656]

Step 3: emotional profit.

[@samkj1953]

I am stuck at step 1. Dont even have a GF

[@David-kd4qr]

I love you guys. I'm not a dev by any means but I love the optimism and joy that your videos have. They always make me feel good and happy!

[@extrahistory]

[@pobredeouro]

Id like to make small personal games like this but my main issue is actually finishing anything I start, I decide how I want the game and tackle the challenging parts but then dont feel motivated to do any of the stuff that just requires a bunch of work that doesnt push my limits or makes me learn something new, I have been trying to convince some friends from university to start a project with me so we could all motivate each other to continue working but doesnt seem like anyone wants to..

[@clochard4074]

I never finish my games, but since it was fun to mess with them I believe they were a success nonetheless.

[@beanman4534]

Do what I did and bring friends along. Well I was kinda brought along by friends.

[@redpandai1]

I've made some non-professional game. It's quite fun showing it to your friends and family and letting them play it.

[@timothyliddy]

What type of game was it and how long did it take you to make it??? I'm thinking about going into Game Design at a later date!

[@genybr]

Red Panda will you make a video walktrough for your channel?

[@D4RCKS0RC3R3R]

Timothy Liddy depending on the project, it can take anything between a few days to years. If you are thinking about it you should start very small, try making a pong game

[@cheeseriners]

I've actually started making a pong game. after losing motivation on bigger ideas. I'm going to start small and pick it up from there.

[@rageoftyrael]

It's great to start small, because it's a great way to build up your confidence. When you make and finish a smaller game, it'll give you some experience and you'll be able to point at something you've created. Then, you can start working on something else a bit more complicated. Also, if you've got some huge grand plans for a game, it's often better to simplify some of the stuff to make it completable. It's generally going to be better to make your game much less complicated so that you'll actually complete it. When you try to do complicated things you don't know how to do, it's easy to get stuck on that and not make any progress, which can often lead to you not finishing your project. If you find yourself stuck on something and can't get it figured out (hint: look online, lots of things you might find difficult or not know how to do have been figured out and answered), try and make it simpler or if you can, cut it out all together. You might be surprised to see that your simpler game is actually pretty good anyway. :)

[@divinitydoe]

This video inspired me to buckle down and finally get to Editting and posting my first public video, thanks guys.

[@0xs]

That html though

[@gregorycomey]

I don't really get it.

[@0xs]

cmck ok. /all worth whatever that is

[@SomeFreakingCactus]

What is it? I'm on mobile.

[@capitalex5422]

HTGML - HyperText Game Making Language

[@guymcaulay8996]

Seeing this really makes me feel better about my own projects. I have a RPG series that's been in the works for a long time and haven't mustered the willpower to finish. This may just have been the kick in the rear I needed.

[@flibbernodgets7018]

I would recommend "Mimicry Man" as an example of one of these hobby-made games (at least, I think it is). Pretty well done and an interesting premise, if somewhat lacking in polish. You play as a mimic in an RPG, trying to trick the hero into opening you so you can eat him.

[@codyjilleo9487]

To the artist working on this show, I laughed myself into tears with your code 😂 I love the joke you put in!

[@tsilver33]

I know theres a mountain of comments here, but I just wanted to say thanks so much for this episode. This is exactly what I needed to hear right now.

[@IONATVS]

Amateur is the opposite of Professional, and sounds a heck of a lot better than "Non-Professional." It unfortunately has gained a bit of a negative connotation in recent years, but all it means is someone who does an activity for fun instead of for wages--and I think it's time the word was reclaimed as such. For an example of how the term was used positively is how for decades, the *Olympics* were seen as the pinnacle of *amateur* athletics, with each sport ideally having its own competitions for the professionals to strut they're stuff, and it was only the heated rivalry between the USA and USSR in the Cold War that changed that (much to the chagrin of other countries, like Britain, who still wanted to play by the tacit agreement of previous games that professionals wouldn't participate).

[@nand3kudasai]

Agree, Amateur is the ideal word. And is not pejorative unless you use it that way. Also, in Spanish, for example, it does not have a negative connotation (usually).

[@Anonymous-zu7dh]

Seing the title. "Thinks yandere dev"

[@keaton5101]

burn

[@Verris_Ephemera]

He is doing a pretty decent job though he has quit the foresight when it comes to his project ...

[@HandofFate-im7ur]

Well he was a professional game dev before he started working on Yandere Simulator.

[@ceceron4420]

Apparently, as he said, Yandere Sim IS (sorry for capsing) his work right now.

[@timothyliddy]

Man, two years in the making

[@yule781]

Name 1 thing Triple A games don't have Pure love and passion

[@PixelBytesPixelArtist]

Good managers

[@betterthenallofu]

A cat cooking Instant noodles

[@rhodes449]

Botw

[@looperover]

Nite they also don’t have proper sleeping schedules, it’s kinda getting out of hand.

[@usualunusualkid7149]

Those are 2 things

[@isaiahbaker3597]

Wasn't stardew valley made non professionally by one guy over a period of a few years? I'm surprised I didn't hear any mention of that

[@timothyliddy]

I think it is a lot like Undertale, where the success was some phenomenal that, in a weird way, two things happened. A) It because cliche to use them as examples and B) they wanted to raise awareness for other games!

[@leifern91]

It was. but he spent an obscene amount of time on it, like up to 10 hours each day for 4 years. And he is working even harder now, currently implementing multiplayer support and bugfixing.

[@tjlnintendo]

both of those games got kick started. so h technically it is professional

[@129das]

Yes Like 10 years.

[@tromino2598]

Reminds me of the development of Cave Story. You should play that if you haven't, by the way. The original non-Steam PC version is free and it's great.

[@hoodiesticks]

6 months ago I started Khan Academy's Javascript tutorials in my spare time, knowing absolutely nothing about how to program a game. Now I'm making a puzzle-platformer about climbing over your own corpses to overcome obstacles. It's pretty sloppy and unfinished, but I'm just impressed that I managed to cobble it together in the first place.

[@jonathananatrella2964]

This is something I understand as a writer, too. One of the biggest myths around writing is you have to write for an audience. You can write for yourself as much as others. I have literally dozens of notebooks filled with stories that will never see the light of day. I have a writing blog not to be one of those internet commentator types but to help structure my thoughts and measure my progress as a writer. Personally, I recommend everybody try making a blog or KZbin channel, something private where they have a platform to structure their thoughts. It makes a world of difference.

[@emetobot7449]

0:53 I just found myself internally screaming "CAVE STORY CAVE STORY CAVE STORY CAVE STORY"

[@mykaelos8656]

Thank you Extra Credits for this fantastic video! #HobbyGameDev can be one of the most satisfying creative outlets. I've come to the conclusion that I don't ever want to work in the industry simply so that I don't spoil the joy that is making a video game and having the freedom to make literally anything I want. I recently made a game with my 2-year-old daughter for #KIDSJAM, which really was an amazing experience to see her play and love her own game. Thanks for validating and appreciating the love that goes into non-professional games!

[@Sparrow420]

"creating an art" -one art please!

[@marbles3662]

HAHA!

[@commenturthegreat2915]

I accidentally left a local multiplayer game I made for fun downloaded on a school computer once, and about a year later I entered a random classroom to find students battling each other and projecting it for the rest of the class to cheer them on. It was really encouraging to see my game being enjoyed without my presence.

[@waaurufu]

My sisters and I used to make RPG Maker games together and let me tell you, we all now have a running joke about an ingenious system one of my sisters put into one of our games called "Rent-A-Dragon" that was run by an intimidating man in a cloak, but he'd talk to you like a used car dealer and you got to choose a dragon to ride around between the various areas. We put in a Rent-A-Dragon service into every game we made after that, and we loved it!

[@NicholasKross]

4:41 "Creating an art" "an art" Paging McMansion Hell!

[@sinnerthesinful552]

Well... tecnicaly there are 13 arts, so "an" is correct

[@MrTreefoz]

As someone designing a tabletop game, I can say that all of this advice works outside of video games as well. Thank you for this video. Very encouraging. :)

[@andy4an]

i love that tons of people are doing game jams to encourage themselves to make games in groups, with the main goal just being in community with each other.

[@rctfan7]

Why was flappy bird the example and not Minecraft? Originally Minecraft was just a side project for Notch that happened to gain notoriety.

[@Zodiacman16]

You could probably lump in Undertale too, although considering that game had a Kickstarter, I’m not sure if you can call it a personal project instead of an indie project...

[@meghnalekshman4137]

snekboi Though Undertale was a side project, it was targeted towards an audience.

[@huseyin.goktas]

flappy birds is a quickly made not professional not a well-planned game. people made tons of copies since it is very easy to make.

[@franchufranchu119]

dwarf fortress

[@Millenia3D]

While I work in the industry I still absolutely love doing mod work for games for this very reason.

[@breandank3026]

I was curious if you guys would do a video on moders making full on games. There have been many and I wonder if there has been an increase lately of mod developers becoming game developers by themselves or if companies look to hire them. Great content, keep up the good work.

[@CaptainAtria]

I recently finished my personal project and I took it with me to my family's Christmas party. I was so happy to show my friends the results even though it seemed pretty incomplete.

[@Flowtail]

This speaks to why I enjoy writing fanfiction so much--it's freeing to be able to write about exactly what I want to read about! Even though nobody ever reads it, it's satisfying to flesh out the worlds and characters I've made.

[@damian9k]

You guys should make a "games you might not have tried" version of games developed by few people or individually made like Touhou, Little Fighter 2 or Soldat. They're still avaiable on the internet for downloading and some of them still have communities.

[@FerdandOfThe]

For some reason I had automatically assumed that this was going to be more about people making games for wanting to make them as art without a budget rather than a hobbyist project to share with friends and family. So, it was an interesting perspective shift I hadn't considered before.

[@reNINTENDO]

One thing I'm surprised wasn't really mentioned here: these are the games that form your portfolio. I've met so many people wanting to get into the professional industry who have no past experience to show for it. Make games because you love making them. After that, maybe pursue a career in it. But if you skip that initial, non-professional phase, there's a large chance you won't have the skills to get very far in this industry. Also, as someone who spent many years on the Game Maker Community forums back in the day, it's sort of weird to see a video on this at all. From my experience, I can't help but think "of course this is a thing... who doesn't know about these games". I've played so many Game Maker games, with massive differences in quality. The ones I remember most are those made by Cactus (he did a ton of these games before making something like Hotline Miami) as well as games like Iji and Sehklus. Definitely check out Iji if you haven't. It's decently well known, but the game is exquisite. Sadly it doesn't run as well as newer hardware.

[@CCartman69]

They mentioned portfolios at 4:04

[@nupinoop296]

My major in college was Game Art and Production, so most of the big projects we worked on were games, including Senior Project. It was fun a lot of the time and I learned that I enjoyed making the sound effects for the games as much as I enjoyed creating concept art (plus I got to voice act a little which is my dream job!). I wish I could still play all the games my classmates and I made... A lot of them were pretty cool!

[@gamesdisk]

I wanna do a game jam.

[@RegsaGC]

Google " game jam" and see what comes up! :) Sign up immediately if you find something, it'll be an adventure. Otherwise consider online efforts. If you can arrange for a group of 1-4 friends, meeting over the weekend someplace can be just as great. My favorite online jams: ludumdare.com/

[@TheAsvarduilProject]

You can easily set one up on GameJolt.

[@timothyliddy]

Asger, it sounds like you know a lot about this kinda thing???

[@adampotgieter8703]

gamesdisk Same, but school and parents...

[@TreetopCanopy]

You can find jams online! I'm trying my first jam next week.

[@elitemantis]

Last weekend at a local game jam I saw a girl who was there with her boyfriend decide to make a game on her own. And that was brilliant. She made a flawed, but fun little game in Game Maker, and both her and us enjoyed the process throughly. That was awesome.

[@mapopi-mm]

This video helped me a lot, I've been waiting to have an idea or the necessary skills to make my "THE GREAT LIFE CHANGING INDIE GAME" for some time now and it never got me anywhere, because I was always thinking of how bad that would be, or how I would fail. I'll just make some bad (probably) personal games from now on :)

[@RyanTosh]

Maybe someday, you'll start on a project that becomes THE GREAT LIFE CHANGING INDIE GAME. You never know if you'll be the next Notch!

[@darienclose5063]

Non profit games get to a whole new level when they're open source! I have been part of a project for i think 2 years now and it's got a few thousand people in the discord! Not a single cent was ever expected out of it, even though the main dev absorbed the cost of putting it on steam. He even put himself in the game, and while most other people can be bribed, he always says "i do not want your money". It's awesome that it's open source, because it means that even when the main dev took a year of break, the community was just as active developing it and gaining audience without any advertising. Now there's even a splinter project working on a different direction for the game, implementing improvements that would have been denied, so it's definitely not dull to work on a non profit game.

[@possiblesloth]

This is interesting timing. I work in security, but I've messed around making mobile games in my free time on and off for the last few years. I just recently had one that was complete enough to put up online. I was incredibly nervous about letting other people see it, but everyone has been surprisingly nice and positive (even the bug reports). If you're proud of something you made, don't let fear keep you from putting it out there for people to find. It's so rewarding to see people enjoying something you worked hard making.

[@crunch3171]

We don't all make games for be taken in AAA companies. For my part, I hate AAA compagnies and I'm a student in a 3D animation and synthesis images program. I personally want to be in a AAA company for learn and make a real good game cause I'm not satisfied by their games.

[@ethan4896]

Extra credits, thank you. I am working on my first game, text-based. I was slacking off, but this gave me what I needed to get back at it. Your team is amazing, and I appreciate every episode I have watched.

[@NikoKun]

Thanks for talking about this! It's amazing what's possible these days. ;) I like to think of myself as a "hobby" vr game developer.. heh A few years back I got an Oculus DK1, and started learning UE4.. And now I've got a couple projects I'm pretty proud of, and want to keep going, see where the skills take me.

[@AssasinZorro]

Game "Beginner's Guide" contains a bunch of game that are presented as non-professional games and it's about stresses of development. Strange that you didn't mention it. Also I got inspired to make a game a month ago as a birthday gift for my friend, so thanks for inspiration. Currently making bigger game for another friend's birthday. I didn't even realize this episode is so recent.

[@noahdkg]

the joy of making where have i heard that before

[@keaton5101]

fuck you

[@keaton5101]

how dare you

[@noahdkg]

What did i do

[@FrensKafka]

happy little friends. happy little friends

[@rivermoot]

lol, i get it

[@S0oo]

As soon as "Dreams" , the new game from Media Molecule gets released i wanna dump in a ton of time and your channel helps me so much. I already started working on my project and began to cut it down. Your videos helped me to find a balance between my expectations, my actual resources and how others might experience the project. Thank You.

[@abderian2399]

And 5 days later, a masterpiece would be released by one of these indie studios. Goddam i love hollow knight.

[@TheMasonX23]

My friend introduced me to RPG Maker when I was 12, and we'd spend hours at a time making games together. Later, I made games in other engines, I usually did it just for myself, or a few developer friends on a forum. They weren't very good, so I never told anyone other than my immediate family. When I was in college, I mentioned to some of my friends that I had been working on a game. They wanted to see it, and their support that night inspired me to release some of my recent games. People were mostly kind and constructive, and helped me grow as a developer. I'm now a professional developer working with a team, but sometimes I spend time on solo projects not really intended for other people. It's nice to escape the grind of forced creativity and focus on the fun that got me into game development in the first place.

[@MrKaelas]

Thanks, I really needed this. I love making games. It's very cathartic for me as you said, but I often get caught in this self-doubt loop of "What if this isn't good enough?" and "What if it doesn't succeed?" and then stop which makes it basically a self-fulfilling prophecy. It seems silly but it's good to have someone else say it's okay to just do it for fun even if nothing ever comes from it.

[@donciterenyi4494]

Isn't a AA game bigger than a AAA one? I mean AA batteries are bigger than AAA ones

[@jenniferbeveridge131]

@5:39 This is all good advice for any creative endeavor, be it a novel or painting or game developing. I recently listened to Patrick Rothfuss say very similar things to this video's points in an interview. From his point of view, he worked on his first book, The Name of the Wind, for fourteen years, being the guy who "wasn't successful," and then he suddenly got lucky and people's perceptions of him changed. That's fourteen years of doing something for himself, and then the right person in the right place at the right time came by and thought it was cool enough to give it a shot at publication.

[@Kartoffelkamm]

Question: How can a single person with most likely no accurate knowledge of the process of game developing make a game? Next question: Can anyone sell games on Steam? Well, I´d be happy to share my work for free, too, but I´d want to share it with others if I make it.

[@_bug56]

1. Acquire the knowledge. Resources for coding, art, and 3d modeling are all over the internet. Read, try, read it from somewhere else, try again. 2. Yes anyone can sell games on steam. If you've been on their indie game store you can see the mountain of personal game projects. You can charge or offer it for free.

[@hypersapien]

1) Depending on what kind of game you want to make, different skill sets will be required. For example, I am a 3D environment artist. I am lousy at character art, and my programming skills are minimal, so my personal projects tend to more more Myst like puzzle games. Companies like Epic (Unreal Engine) and Unity really want to grow their customer base, and both have been making big strides to make sure resources are available for people to learn their engines. You can find an abundance of tutorials out there for both. 2) Here is a FAQ on submitting games to steam: steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=765&section=faq I haven't done it personally, but there are hoops to jump through. Presumably they do this to keep people from submitting multitudes of low quality games on a daily bases and flooding their market with garbage.

[@Kartoffelkamm]

Are there any user-friendly tools basically anyone could acquire and use? I mean, I hate to admit it, but somehow I tend to not get how supposedly easily usable programs work, and if I do, I just figure out one or two basic functions and stick with these, which highly limits the variety of things I can do with this program.

[@TheGuardian163]

Follow Tom Francis' tutorial series to using GameMaker: Studio Tom Francis made Gunpoint

[@deahtwind]

While I'm not really qualified to answer your questions, let me try. if you really want to make games, any sort of game, you can try making a pen and paper game or invent a new card game, or even something with gestures like the new 1-2 switch. if you are set on Electronic games, you can try a text based adventure for example or I've heard that game maker is free and easy to use, even for someone with 0 scripting experience. as for the Ideas, well that is up to you. Also remember that mostly all games are systems with rules, if you have an Idea, make sure to develop the rules it should follow. As for your second question, if you are not thinking of making profit, then simply go to a game related forum and post your game, there is also newgrounds and I keep hearing about a site called Good old Games (GoG), Steam has or had greenlight but you should look it up, as for the entry barrier on steam, I once heard about a game that was actually just malicious code so... it shouldn't be that hard to enter. Lastly I'm pretty sure that EC has a lot of videos about programming, designing and publishing games. so spend a whole day watching all the EC videos and you may find what you are looking for. best regards and good luck!

[@commenturthegreat2915]

1:18 Finally! Someone using the round tool correctly! I thought I'd never see the day :)

[@ThatReplyGuy]

Two words: Katawa Shoujo.

[@LyamOfficial]

man, Katawa Shoujo is like the only project that I know of where are bunch of 4chan anons got together and made a fully and rather quite good/compelling imo visual novel/game , getting Mike Inel do the animations was the cherry top in the cake

[@Azumongo]

I have to admit I played it a long time ago simply for the lewd scenes. When the first lewd scene popped up I was so captured by the actual plot and characters that I immediately skipped it because it felt like unnecessary filler. Good stuff.

[@applepie4287]

Does anyone know how to get shizune's unreleased route for mac I heard it was amazing.

[@danielhale1]

Making mods for games is a good way to start. As is making simple board games you don't intend to sell, or making a quick one-off campaign for your favorite RPG. It's great to have a creative outlet for you and your friends to enjoy, without the stress of having to make a profit.

[@coiledAgent]

Fitting that a Moonsong remix was used because the entire time this was playing I was thinking of Cave Story, which was made non-professionally by one dude over 5 years and is one of my favorite games of all time.

[@troglodyte4207]

“You have total creative freedom” Unless your just the artist. :(

[@iluan_]

As a dev with no graphical skills, I think the artist would have more creative freedom than me.

[@MaoDev]

@@iluan_ if you're talking about creative freedom for making games then you're damn wrong. A programmer can put together a game with some crappy art, but if you can't code then you can't make anything. If the artist learns to code, then they're not just an artist anymore, they're a programmer too.

[@jsantos916]

@@iluan_ - there is artistry in making your own stick figures "live" and react with the code you write! I'm similar to you but always making chicken scratch sprites instead of clip art - cool payoff to see them move by your dev fuctions!

[@RobLang]

I've spent years making pen-and-paper RPGs and giving them away for free. I've now turned my attention to video games, turning one of the pen-and-paper RPGs into a game. Very satisfying. The pitch is: exploration where you take the base you build with you.

[@LostParadise_]

Me and my friend are making an RPG Maker game about our school's AV club and our rival school's AV club, and it's definitely fun to not only write stories, but to implement characters based off of people you know directly.

[@sheepalot9924]

Could you do an episode on the claim that "video games cause violence"? Not only is it an interesting topic in general, but as a sociology student i'd love to have somewhere to point when this claim is made in exams and by teachers, other students or even my parents. If you've made this episode already, i've missed it and that's on me. But if someone could link me to it, that would be great.

[@vulturearmy3780]

Cero Cornizard i did an online paper on that topic once.

[@sheepalot9924]

Could you link me to it? i'd love to read it

[@archmagusofevil]

If you are still looking for something, a quick google brings up several results. Here's one from bbc www.bbc.com/news/technology-33960075

[@jeffer746]

The Thing I love about these types of games is that it feels like it was made by a person and not a corporation I remember playing a game called comedy quest a while ago and even though the game isn't even that good you can tell that this game was made by some guy and maybe a few freinds and it's kinda like you get to know these people just by playing their games.

[@AaronJShay]

Lots of the stuff you talk about here is also applicable to other creative work (music, art, film, photography). Thank you for putting this together! This is a great message.

[@mikethegrunty5968]

Am I the only one who saw the title and thought of digital homicide?

[@RichardBlaziken]

Nope haha, I went looking through comments to see if anyone else thought so!

[@wherethetatosat]

Aren't they those assholes who got mad at people for having legitimate criticism of their games?

[@wanada6938]

THE DIGITAL TYRANT HAS FALLEN! THANK GOD FOR JIM F**KING STERLING SON!

[@spindash64]

wherethetatosat What games?

[@sageoftruth]

Me too. When he said not to charge too much for it, I was thinking "Should you even charge anything at all?" Still, a minor overestimation of your game's worth is peanuts compared to the crap DH pulled.

[@FuutennoSenshi]

Thanks for all these years of keeping us inspired, Extra Credits! It helped me with the decision to take a big break in July August and try and turn out one of these passion projects too. It's aimed at Android, and I'm hoping to make a profit, or at least learn enough so that the next project might become something. But at the same time, I'm keeping my job, so that this game can still fail without me or my family going belly up. Still looking forward to those two months though, because trying to make this game while working makes for frustratingly long times of not being able to work on the project.

[@TheDirector021]

Weirdly enough I released my first 'Non-Professional' game on Steam Greenlight this week. It was partially inspired by Mega Man, and partially by Extra History's Zulu Empire series. If that sounds interesting to you, you can find it here. steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=862595475

[@patrickmclean3413]

Just wanted to say thank you to Extra Credits. It was this video among many others they've put out that inspired me to publish my Android productivity app "Jobrix." I've watched almost all of the game design videos they've put out, and it went a long way to making game and app development seem more achievable for me. My app is one of these personal projects EC talked about in this video, and making little gadgets and games for other people as well as a yourself really is one of the best ways to learn coding and design. Thanks again, EC!

[@grapeshott]

but what to do if u are making a non-pro game, but don't know anything about music or don't have money to hire a musician? Downloading free soundtracks will make u feel that some of the uniqueness of your game is lost.

[@CCartman69]

Well I can think of 3 options; 1. There are plenty of copyright free music that's really good, and comes in a large variety. Like movies with a soundtrack, the uniqueness comes not from the originality of the music, necessarily, but how and when you use it. I doubt most people will recognise all the tracks you pick. 2. Use free music synthesizer software to make your own sounds. It's easier than ever to do, and that will allow you to be as creative as you please. Will there be a learning curve? Probably. Will the final result be amazing? Probably not. But that doesn't matter, as it's a game for you, by you. 3. Contact a smalltime musician you like, say a youtuber or someone on Soundcloud, to make music. Send them a copy of your game, tell them why you really enjoy their music/believe their style is perfect for your project. Be clear that the game is for free and you can't pay them. It's possible that they might agree to do it, especially if they like your game. Potentially, you might have some skills to offer them, given you're making the game yourself. Maybe they really like your animating skill, or coding, and wants to use it for one of their projects, so it would work as a trade. It's how getting voice actors for abridged shows work most of the time. Remember-the worst they can do is not respond or say no.

[@oicmorez4129]

u can make those yourself

[@lessiedevelop7718]

Imagine you're a professional game designer: Did you make that soundtrack? No, you didn't. Someone else did, possibly with your input, but what they did is certainly now exactly what you had on your mind. What you do next is design around what you already have in your hands. Go to a music gallery, browse your category of choice, pick one that inspires you/you feel that somewhat fits what you want, and design around it. Then after a short while, test it out, see if the whole is similar to what you wanted, and reiterate on top of it, or go browse some more for a different piece. In a professional game dev team, "no person is an island" - that is - no one rules over all and has complete control over the development process. Everyone uses what the rest of the team can offer, and make something within that scope.

[@ThomasstevenSlater]

I'll put down here that a game doesn't actually need sound to a game, or even a good game. Most of the time sound plays in video games people are going to mute it can a podcast or and audiobook or something else to play instead so having no sound at all won't damage most games that much. In some genres such as idle games sound would actually make the game less fun. If it your personal game you decide what goes in and what doesn't go in it. If you want to make a dating game with 8 different colours of squares and talk soley in haiku then nobody can stop you.

[@nujuat]

If you have apple devices then you could play around in GarageBand.

[@SamRandolph]

Great video! As a big fan of Chris DeLeon's other work/writing (I'm actually a Gamkedo subscriber), I'm glad to see exploration of the topic getting promoted further. Adopting this mindset allowed me to finally finish my first game this year, with more to come soon. Finally accomplishing these goals has been so satisfying, and none of it would have been possible without people like you guys and Chris. So thanks, I really appreciate it!

[@alengm]

I make non professional games. It is super fun to create them at the start, but it becomes tedious by the end. But when you finally finish, the feeling of satisfaction is amazing. Then you can share that game on itchio, reddit, youtube. And hear feedback from other game devs like you that can appreciate how interesting your little game is. So it is not just for friends. There is a community with which you can share.

[@Alorand]

How does the modding community figure into this?

[@Alorand]

+Ricardo Santos My question was about what direction most Amateurs do (or should) approach game development from. How crucial, for expanding your game development toolbox of skills, is learning how to modify games that are far more complicated than what you can build yourself? And I hope you know, many Mods do far more than just rearrange furniture.

[@404hydra4]

I'm pretty sure you could consider it similarly as the description in the video. Often when I'd make a mod, I'd become so engrossed in my own little custom corner of the world it was almost like making a game in itself but IMO it is more rewarding personally when you've built it from a pre-made engine yourself, (when it's not crashing), I think I'd like to try making something again but I still feel a bit intimidated to build an engine on my own.. If only I knew of a pre-made engine that's legal to distribute after being modified (which includes the features I'm looking for)

[@jackkraken3888]

I read somewhere that it was the first steps in game creation for many. It gave them a better understanding of how games are made and gave the inspiration to make their own games. Remember modding is not just adding assets to a game. Some modders modify game code, create scripts (eg AI in Age of Empires), made completely different games out of them, and have even finished games that the creators were unable to do. There is a lot to modding than meets the eye. It can give you a glimpse into the world of game development than not everyone knows about. eg: www.pcgamer.com/after-14-years-an-aoe2-fan-mod-becomes-an-official-expansion/

[@_bisclavret]

The greatest roguelike I've ever played is a free game made for personal reasons: POWDER. Some dude decided to make an RPG that he enjoyed playing and so he made my favorite roguelike ever. If you like roguelikes, than you should definitely give it a try, even though there's no sound or sprite animation, its mechanics are super deep, but also easy to use. There's even a wiki.

[@MerGrazzini]

I've got to differ with you on this point. You say 'non commertial', but you're only talking about 'art for myself'. You can also make non comertial 'art for the sake of art', and you say nothing about it, and by that, you kinda discredit it. Also make notice that the media, the industry... kinda sucks. It's really hard to get into it. So sometimes you make it freely because getting to be known/ played/ listened to is more important that get money out of it. Get your message to be spread out. It's like when you're an indie musician, or painter, or a webcomics maker. Maybe a non-profesional one. For example. I work with a musician, he writes songs which you can download freely, and we play either free or 'pay what you wish' mode. It's non comertial art. But... It's not the same as if we only played for our fun or the fun of our friends. A lot of people enjoys our music, and that's our objective. A non comertial one. But you wouldn't say 'don't listen to them, they don't want to make money so you probably wouldn't like it'. It's just that. You should talk about amateur people that makes free games just for other people to play them and get to feel whatever the dev wanted to express.

[@spencergosewisch9529]

Mer Grazzini I agree, I think most non-commercial games are made with a wider audience in mind than just friends. I think it's more apt to compare non commercial devs to the punk music scene rather than a local sports club.

[@Medytacjusz]

Yes, and that assumption that if you play a non-professional game it "probably wouldn't be that great"... It might not have the best graphics in the world, it might by quite buggy and probably really short, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't have been an interesting experience.

[@DirkDerick]

Honestly this episode made me think of "The beginner's Guide" which is a game about non-professional games. Not sure how that would tie into this conversation given that it has other themes regarding the consumption of games as a media but I thought it was worth noting

[@justcallmexen]

I'm glad I saw this episode. I had a plan for a game almost exactly like you describe here but eventually stopped because I realized the theme was a personal issue I had that pertained to about three other people close to me. Knowing I can just make the game with having to make it perfect and innovative mechanically makes me want to start it again.

[@JonnesTT]

I personally have started making my first game to learn game-making, design, and coding, I do love making games, I really do! But I do hope (never expect something that big) that my dream might just come true and something sends me straight into the game-making business and prototypes and experience will, if I'll ever put my heart towards a professional career be exactly what I'll need to jump head first into that industry.

[@legodawg2001]

For someone who plans on making a game in RPG maker simply because I want to create a game that I will enjoy, with quirkiness and philosophy everywhere (think Xenoblade meets EarthBound), this means so much, and is so encouraging.Thank you.

[@MichaelFergusonVideos]

This is so refreshing. I feel bombarded by yt videos that are directed toward making the big time. I have no interest in making commercial games. I enjoy the challenge of creating games as a hobby. If I choose to stop development on one game to start another there are no consequences. That is liberating and preserves the fun aspect.

[@Nr4747]

This video really resonates with me ! I made a "fun map" (aka custom map) in Warcraft 3 once when I was about 16 where I swapped *every* unit and building of the Undead faction with units and buildings of a new Nerubian faction I created (I didn't code anything, but worked quite a lot with the ingame map/unit/building creation tools). The great thing was: Because I had just "swapped out" unit for unit (by changing the parameters of the existing units) the AI would actually (mostly) play the faction correctly, just using the altered units as it would have the unaltered ones. I played the map a few times with my younger brother and a few of my friends - and then, a few months later, the *unthinkable* happened ! Someone else, whom I didn't know and never shared the map with, actually asked me in chat if I wanted to try out a "cool new map" with him where you could play as the Nerubians instead of the Undead ! It was *my* map, it had spread to people I didn't know and some of them actually liked it and wanted to play it ! That was *such* a *great* moment for me, even though the map itself was nothing special compared to any of the truely great "fun maps" out at the time !

[@valeryasteel4167]

I love how their videos feel like inspirational talks sometimes.

[@echillaoi451]

this was the most advice filled and inspiring video i probably have ever seen on making a video game

[@RagdollArtwork]

Okay, so I work as a custodian at my local university, and one of my supervisors has an interest in game design. He apparently was having trouble coming up with ideas, until he took inspiration from where he works. So now, he's building a small game in which you're a custodial supervisor, and you have to navigate around the custodians under you and their large machines in Frogger-style gameplay to clock out for the day. Just thought I'd share that as an idea of where these can go.

[@digitsstuff6521]

This reminds me of an old game I made on Scratch where you play a dolphin who inexplicably finds himself on Mars, and then has to fight aliens to get back home.

[@felisathurmann3458]

I really like the message of this. I hate it when people dismiss something as 'unimportant' or 'a waste of time' just because it isn't done professionally or in order to make money. Some things you just want to do for yourself, for fun, and that should be way more acceptable than it currently is. No matter if it's art or games or fanfiction or whatever. It's okay to do things just for the enjoyment of it. Thank you for this great video!

[@XDeedge]

I haven't really tried making a video game, but I am currently in the intial stages of making a tabletop game, thanks for the advice and encouragement

[@DamonCzanik]

I made a game I dreamed of making as a kid. An HD remake of Star Control 2. I was finally at a point artistically where I could make it. It took me years drawing the art. It's not the best, but it's mine. And I made it so people can experience what I loved about the original game. A game that inspired games like Mass Effect. Ur-Quan Masters HD is free, open source, and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. When I hear that someone enjoyed my game it makes my day. I enjoyed making it and just wanted to give joy to others.

[@Jonasansu]

This is what I am. When I started my CS degree I was planning on going into game development, but after a co-op at a midsize AAA company I realized that there was a lot of stuff about the culture of professional game design that didn't click with me. I still enjoyed making games, I just didn't want to do it for a living and now work as a software engineer at a company that could not be further from the games industry that clicks with me a lot more. I still work on personal projects, I still take part in as many game jams as I can, and I still get to be involved in the parts of game development that I enjoy without dealing with the parts that I don't. If I ever did make a successful game that would be amazing, but that is not what I am in it for.