Study This When Learning Game Development

[@tjspeirs75]

This is a really important distinction to make. Game development is how to make a game. Game design is how to make a *good* game. The difference is incredibly important and it feels like most tutorials (and schooling, trust me) don't worry at all about the second. It's understandable why, but without the former without the latter just feels empty and lifeless

[@EdomGames1]

Absolutely and it's something I think we all had to learn to fix the hard way haha. Without game design you just end up making a "functional" game but not a fun game

[@timmygilbert4102]

​@@EdomGames1you can't make a good game without learning to make a game, walk before run

[@radthadd]

It always helps to play the games that are similar to yours. Good writing is similar to good game design.

[@TorQueMoD]

Great tip! I love watching channels like GMTK and the architect of games, because they're both amazing at articulating game design in a way that I couldn't possibly do on my own even though I've played games my whole life and worked as an indie game designer for 25 years.

[@EdomGames1]

Yeah I absolutely watch GMTK as well and a few other design focus channels. They sometimes let me see things I never even thought about

[@soloshottie]

game development is the process of making a game. game design is the process of making decisions about what should be in your game. one is physical, the other is mental

[@GameDevBattle]

Wonderful video, dude. Should have more views.

[@trueblueblack47-]

This is brilliant insight. Thanks man!

[@GoblinDepartment]

I've created tons of small games and I only allow myself to take on 1 "unknown, black box" per project. Instead, I challenge myself to design fun stuff with simple tools, learning a little bit more with each project.

[@EdomGames1]

Yeah I think that's the best way to learn honestly. I'm trying to force myself this year to join more game jams so I can practice my design skills

[@C.S.Argudo]

Coming from being on the producer side of youtube, the music part was easy tbh. Art though... omg im gonna be payong for that foe the rest of my lifd

[@DemoniumSama]

Game design is indeed my fav part of making a game and in what I spent more time so far. I made a GDD for each project, no matters if it was a 1 week or a 3 month one, and checked similar steam games to watch/play them and also read reviews on what people liked and disliked and how it fits my view, and all of them turned out to be rlly fun and balanced, and also helped a few friends in the path to improve their games (I still think that I'm not good enough, however it's indeed my strongest skill). My issue is actually spending less time designing and more getting shit done. Good video btw.

[@EdomGames1]

Lol that last part. Yeah I agree that is the best way to improve. But I can't say it's my strongest skill. I feel it's one of my weakest which is why I make a constant effort to improve it. I should probably read more reviews too! Not a bad idea

[@dmangamesSTUDIO]

good insight, time to write a bit more for my game's design

[@gear2g]

You should try out Unicorn Overlord, looks like you can apply most game decisions there on your own game.

[@EdomGames1]

I've actually been looking at that game! But I'm waiting for a PC release then I'll play for sure

[@gear2g]

It's Vanillaware haha, it'll never be ported to PC.

You touch on a point I ran into on a game I'm working on. When you have a very original idea that doesn't really have an analogy in an established game, you're gonna work uphill. Going into my project I thought my original idea was a great boon, but I realized it's really hard to explain it to people when I have nothing to compare it to! Seems a bit the same in your case when you compare it to a mobile project that was closed down...

[@EdomGames1]

Yeah often times we try to be TOO original and shoot ourselves in the foot. Sure, there are a lot of unique and interesting games, but there are even more games that took an existing idea and put a twist on it. At this stage leave the original ideas to the truly creative people haha.

[@ElaineTG]

I have a question about this: What do you think about Palworld in this regard? To me it doesnt seems like they put a lot of thought into it but rather thought to themselves "Pokemon with guns would be cool" "Oh and lets add survival elements too" or is it exaclty that? Is that game design? They thought this Idea would be fun and they worked on and expanded the idea?

[@EdomGames1]

Hey thanks for asking. Palworld took an existing idea such as pokemon, and blended it with shooter, survival, and base building aspects. So in essence, I think what they did from a design PoV is fine. Its no different from how early metroidvania saw games like Metroid and Castlevania and put a twist on it. Hence the name of the genre, metroidvania. Or even the soulslike sub genre. Lies of P was pretty good and successful, and it mostly builds off bloodborne and souls games. Games all mostly borrow from eachother. Some more than others. "Unique" ideas are far and few, and even those ideas usually have some inspiration. So I think what palworld did was fine. They mixed some genres and made an interesting experience. I think people are caught up on the fact that the Pals visual designs are a little too similar to some of the pokemon lol. But from a gameplay PoV they did a good job I think

[@ElaineTG]

@@EdomGames1 I see! I think I understand it a lot better now thanks to you

[@Marandal]

actual solid advice for a newbie!

[@ottdeon]

Yeah I be so lost bro

[@CallousCoder]

Game design is so hard. Coding music is not the problem. But designing a good game is the really hard thing. To make surfeits balanced, challenging yet not to hard. It needs to draw people in. And I don’t have those skills. Especially since I love abstract strategy games. They also need to be fair. So iterate through those and making changes to get rid of certain luck elements or turns that will always make a person win is really tedious.

[@EdomGames1]

Yeah I absolutely wish I focused on design more but oh well here we are haha. It's slowly getting better though

[@szyslay]

Solid points! Note down the direction, keep it simple, compare to your goal game. Like and sub! I hope my long developed game woll soon be final😉

[@EdomGames1]

I appreciate the support thank you!

[@timmygilbert4102]

Discipline that use many discipline: i wish i use that other needed discipline instead ofvthe discipline I'm comfortable with 😂 👉🏿 never ending loop of FOMO

[@timmygilbert4102]

Discipline that use many discipline: i wish i use that other needed discipline instead ofvthe discipline I'm comfortable with 😂 👉🏿 never ending loop of FOMO