What New Game Developers are Doing Wrong

This is old advice that can't be repeated often enough, because people still fall into the same trap all the time.

I think while this is obvious, it needs to be said But a big problem with this video I think is that, while you were giving good examples of "big" games at the beginning, you didn't really give any examples of small games. As a beginning game dev, should I start with a platformer? Is that too big? Should I start with tic tac toe? I think the main problem really presented here isn't "you shouldn't start here" but rather "where do I start?"

the first 4 minutes of this video, whether intentional or not, are very demeaning to new developers. Not every new game developer jumps into it with the mindset of a 5th grader... When I started out, my biggest challenge was getting taken seriously because everyone assumes that every newbie designer is an idiot with zero prior knowledge and zero common sense. Now I opt to work alone, and my workflow is much better, because at least I can take myself seriously. If a guy like me can build a 3D RPG from the ground up alone, making the 3D models, textures, audio, and programming etc, without any college learning, then nobody has any excuse to give up on their "big" games... These people fail because they make the mistake of thinking it'll be easy, that's the real issue here, lack of motivation.

8 minutes of video to explain something that could take 30 seconds

Took 9 minutes to say "start small and work your way up".

I had a lot of ideas when I was younger and when i started learning programming a started to work on my dreamed games. Now I am developing 3 games at a time, sometimes I stop having creativity for one game so I return to another and I like it :)

If you want to start game development from scratch you have to start with crumbs. Set a goal what kind of a game you want ( I started with an FPS game )And divide it into small elements. What is the first thing you need( how to shoot bullets? ) First make that. What is the next step( How to make enemies? ) Do that .... Build the first, crude terrible version of no-one-wants-to-play game. Learn through that process and feast HARD and I mean very hard on those small successes, later you will upgrade, and upgrade... You will have a feeling of progress which will keep you motivated and you will stay with your BIG game. And eventually, finish it. Bare in mind, it is difficult, take small steps, do what you enjoy and celebrate your success. We are all here because we love gaming if you lose that love along the way of creating something that is not inspiring for you, it kinda beats the purpose. Don't stop and may stack overflow be with you.

I think you need to compress this video in terms of script. I just wanted to skip around the video and I got the concept pretty well that way. Also, can you tell us what you mean by "small" game? Clearly they'd have to be small enough to create inside a week or a month, but you aren't talking about the minimum viable product either. When I started game development, I had the idea you mentioned in the second half of the video, where you start small and work your way up, but even the "small" game I was working on turned out to be too big in order to stay motivated with. Tell us what specifically makes a game small, (like simple platformer mechanics, lack of upgrade systems, a playtime of 10 minutes or less, etc.) and how is that different from a medium sized game, and a larger game.

For my first game, I'ma make God of War: Online! That's not too big, is it?

You are completly right:D I stuck in this cycle for..7 years:o Now i am finishing very little platform game and i am so proud of it:3

Something I learned is that you can still build your big game, just build it in chunks as individual smaller games. MAke entire mini games and to you can even keep them themed on the same story. For example, if in your big game you have vehicles. Start a smaller game where you can focus specifically on vehicles, later you can use those assets in combination for a bigger project. That's what I'm doing now with Atoms4D which is is a VR adventure game, I'm working on smaller projects which all loosely based on the Atoms4D universe.

Great point dude! As many other people have commented although this seems so obvious- often developers don't even realize they're in the cycle. Just to sort of "piggyback" on what you were saying; a huge problem I ran into (still running into) is not failing on projects but simply not even starting them due to constantly changing ideas/concepts for games! It's like I'm plagued with too many ideas that I want to do and I end up getting nothing done... * SOBS *

As long as one doesn't give up, there is no right or wrong path. Continuously attempting to create a 3D FPS from zero experience will eventually lead that person to become talented. It can be discouraging to fail repeatedly on large projects, but it's not wrong. If anything, some people are inspired when they pursue games they want to create rather than starting on abstractly small 2D projects.

Game Dev Tycoon tutorial XD

i actually started out making big games and it worked out for me because going into it i knew i wouldn't finish it so instead of working on a "big game" i worked on different little features and parts of the game each day until i had learnt enough to actually start a decent medium sized project. keep in mind this was over the course of about 4 years i didn't just go right into making a medium sized game.

Thank you Zach. I stumbled upon your video and it described my situation completely. I've been inside the loop of making large games - and completely failing over and over. However, I've begun to release smaller games and started to try to work on execution rather than just ideas. According to your diagram, I should work on a medium sized game and go from there. It's just so hard to release a small game because I know it won't get popular - it's quite a struggle.

Another useful trick to do not get stuck: "Learn how, to learn." I know i do not help. But those who achieved something, will understand ;D

Holy crap, this explains me in my early game development days. I made 4 games so far, 3 of which had failed: -Twister Party: Something based off Mario Party. All of it worked and all the scripts worked perfectly. The board game script worked very well, but I lacked motivation to continue it. I discontinued. -Intergalactic: Space RPG, but the camera had a rendering glitch and error and the save system wouldn't work anymore after some updates. I discontinued it. -Welcome to Septaplonia: Was going to be an awesome multiplayer game, but I had a lack of budget to even buy the servers for a day. Discontinued due to lack of funding. -Outside (My Current Game): I've had some close calls to which it failed, such as the student AI not working. However, I won't let it go to waste like my other games, but if it does, then it will probably be due to something I cannot control. Honestly, I hope this game doesn't fail since even though I had my struggles with it, I won't give up on it.

I've just gone through the Wave tuts, not only did I enjoy making and playing it, but I keep showing it to friennds and family and so far everyone finds it addictive. Point ... a game doesnt have to be huge and 3D to be a great game. That was my first game by the way... thank you RealTutsGML

I actually started out making a 3D FPS and was making slow, sometimes sporadic progress - you know mo-capped baddies, a gun that shot and left remnants on objects that it shot, basic pathfinding, doors that open/closed, 3D terrain, interacting with objects, going underwater. The thing was I did learn a HELL of a lot. I had to stop working on that game because life got in the way and because I never really wanted to make a 3D game in the first place - I just got caught up in what can I do next. So, when some time opened up I went to work on my real love which was 2D games and I found that a hell of the lot of skills crossed-over to the 2D world. So, I say do what you love, but, keep in mind that you do need to learn the basics as well, so start that Pong game too. As you go along ask yourself will this help me reach my ultimate goal and pay close attention to the things that will. And while working on the basics plot out more fully what your ultimate game is, what it will entail, mechanics of gameplay, breaking down the big things until they are more bite sized chunks that are solvable. For instance, you are going to want baddies in your 3D shooter, so first step, get a single FBX (if using Unity) baddie to appear, then look at mo-cap, get a basic action happening, then after that add more actions, then look at a creating a motion blend in the animator, then look at getting the character to move around a set-path using waypoints .... You can find all those things as dedicated tutorials on YouTube. Oh and when going through all those tutorials write out the code yourself don't take the lazy approach and download the provided source code - you will learn more in writing in the code yourself, then tracking down the errors as you learn HOW the code actually works.