Dream of making games

This was made by one guy.
You go at it like an autist and give all your extra time to it, or you die an idea guy like the vast majority.

The first five games you make will suck ass.
Then you keep trying and trying.
Also making a game and the reaction you get as the result isn't an automated, stable process.

Let's talk about this guy and the games he's made, for example.
Team meat is just two people.
They often hire a musician for the music and that's it.

So Edmund made a lot of games before Super Meat Boy, they were all forgettable experiments that he made just to learn and understand how game design works.
Then he and his buddy start working on Super Meat Boy.
It's their dream project, they've always wanted to make a tight platformer and so they pour their souls into it, they spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours on the controls, the level layouts, the difficulty progression, etc.
After the game is out they spend even more time on it patching it over and over because they love that game so much.

The result?
The game sells alright and about 90% of the people that purchased it never finished it, or went even past the first level.

As this is going on, Edmund is thinking about making another game.
The game is going to have roguelike elements, but he doesn't know the genre very well, so in order to learn how to make games that use that genre's elements, he makes a modest flash prototype for himself.
He doesn't plan to sell it, it's just a small learning experience trying out a few thing, he uses his own art and puts bleeding babies and edgy imagery everywhere because who cares, it's not like he's ever gonna sell it anyway, it's just a small shitty little thing in flash.
He shows it to another indie dev and he's like "this will sell, sell it now, immediately".
So he does (after much convincing), and that game was called The Binding Of Isaac, he didn't expect it to sell at all, he was fully prepared for it to bomb and he was ok with that scenario.

The result?
TBOI was his best selling game to date, spawning multiple DLCs and a completely remade version of the game in C++ with it's own DLCs, making him a metric fuckton of money.
People played and finished TBOI games multiple times, with competitive events and races even, plus tons of mods.

What are the lessons we can learn from this?

1-You don't need a big team to make video games.
2-What you think is a good game isn't necessarily what your audience will think it's a good game.
3-Pouring effort and time into something doesn't autimatically means it's going to sell better than another project you whipped together in a couple of weeks, it all depends on how well it clicks with your audience.

Nah. I've learned to make video games for a long time and I can't imagine myself doing that.

that's my problem.
get gud and the best you can get is some game maker type of shit.

yeah, I know Ed.
but we're talking about professional quality.

It's simply a matter of time, not even an autist could do something that took a team of professionals years of hard works and over time.

It's like you guys think making games is easy work.

Intrusion 2 is legit gud

You retards are trying to convince a clinically depressed person that he should just be happy. Shit doesn't work that way. He has hormonal imbalances that fucks up his way of thinking and nothing you will say can ever change his mind.

my problem is that it would be impossible for me to make something that could rival something made by a professional team.

What you're using is a very vague term.
Let's say you want to make a super nice looking 3D game so you get an engine, you make or purchase all the assets you need, you spend an autistic amount of hours perfecting the animations, the player feedback for all your actions and so on.
Making this game takes you like 20 years or something.
Once it's finished it's technically perfect, but by then the graphics are dates as hell.
So the average customer takes one look at it and they're like "this shit's gay, it looks like shit" and doesn't buy it.

Let's present another scenario where you decide to make your game 2D.
You do the same shit as above, but in 2D, so after 20 years it aged better visually, but Holla Forums takes one look at it and they're like "what is this gay ass hipster retro shit, sage" and that's the end of that.

I guess my point is, "professional quality" is relative.
You gotta factor in time, personal effort, what kind of audience is going to buy your game.
Being a perfectionist isn't a bad motivator, but actually getting your hands dirty and churning out millions of shitty proptoypes until you come out with something half decent is more important.
Once your first actual game is out people will give you feedback and it'll motivate you to move fowards and make more (unless you're an easily triggered tumblrina).

Basically just go make prototypes right now, keep praticing over and over, stop overthinking shit.

That's like whining that you can't make a Hollywood blockbuster on your own. No shit. But you can still make something great within your scope.

It's a legit piece of shit software but Hotline Miami, Hyper Light Drifter and Downwell are more fun than every AAA title that came after this decade, and they were done with GameMaker.

Also done with GameMaker? Undertale, and the guy that did it got more than a fucking million dollars with that. Looks at those graphics, look at those fucking piece of shit graphics and yet look at how much it sold, how well it was recieved. All you need is a good idea and the balls to get up and do some shit. No guarantees it will sell or be great on the first try, but TobyFox himself did Earthbound ROMhacks nobody knew until he struck gold, you just gotta keep at it.

Of course, you won't make full 3D HD super high quality AAA games unless you suck it up and sell your soul to the AAA devil of shit ideas and worse job conditions, but with Unity and UE4 these days deving it is becoming easier and easier to make some really cool shit. Take a look at Anima Gate of Memories, done by only 3 guys on Unity over a period of years.

TL;DR: It has never been easier to dev or to get people to eat shit graphics so what are you complaning about?

So ? Don't make something made by a professional team. Why aim for something you cannot do ?
Notch had great success without any huge teams behind him.
But if you wanna be part of a professional team that badly it's not that incredibly hard getting onto one. You will just end up making games you will hate.

I dunno, I got this idea for a new kind of tetris game and is a fun idea, completely original.
I think nobody gives a fuck because I haven't shill it, but I wonder if someone will give a shit?

anyway, here is (one of my many failed prototypes).

ca3games.itch.io/trikix

I can't stress it enough, this is the most important part.
All the indie games that sold millions?
They're all unified by the same element:

The developers made something they wanted to make.

Instead of catering to a specific audience do something you want to do.
That will require compromises along the way sometimes (see the furry character in undertale for autism bucks to fund the project), that's true of any business project, but ultiamtely make something that, at it's core, is something you would personally like to play.

As i said before, the amount of effort you pump into it and who you pander to doesn't equate automatically to your game selling, so just make something you like, every time, and keep making more until you hit gold, it will be basically semi-random, so it's useless to obsess over it.

Well there's one of your problems.

what's wrong with java for a turn based game?

I guess I could go to reddit and facebook.

Practice makes perfect is a saying because it's true. Keep making games and you'll eventually make something amazing.

Why don't you just stop complaining and start improving your own skills?
Do you think the creators of all those games you love sat around making blogs about their shitty skills? No, they were busy making vidya.

my real problem isn't making vidya, but marketing and shilling.

where do I shill my stuff?
imageboards are just crap for that.

Seriously my 10 year old cousin has made 2 RPGs already in RPG Maker XV and Ace. It's so dumb and easy. Obviously he hasn't finished them but he did design quite a bit (map, story, characters, items, attacks, etc)

Just keep making games and who knows, you might be the next Rockstar.

Buy a full page ad in a broadsheet newspaper.

OP is never gonna succeed because he has the attitude of a loser.
No amount of practice will ever gonna make a difference when he can't even imagine himself succeeding.
He didn't make this thread to find a solution but a confirmation for what he already feared and to wallow in self pity.

;_;7

Somehow this thread makes me feel a little better. Like I might be able to live doing what I love one day.

Strange.

You use Kickstarter in the only way it actually works for not-famous people: as an advertising platform. If your game is 95% done and you make a Kickstarter asking for "that last bit I need to finish this", you'll likely succeed, especially with a decent demo. That'll get people noticing your game and give you a high enough reputation to get into online stores.
The only people that make Kickstarter money off ideas are the famous names like Schafer and Inafune who sold their reputation to get easy money, or the scammers selling to the desperate (furries, numales, etc.). So either make most of your game first, or stuff some genderfluid furry shit into your game, your choice.

We need more writers who know what the fuck they're doing, keep at it user.

No, user.

Making a Tetris isn't game development.

You don't have a game, you have no part of a game and you have nothing which would make a game. You would bring nothing useful to a team.
If you'd be put on a team you'd be the asshole who just eats cheese snacks and plays WoW at workhours until he gets fired.

Contacting a publisher would be really interesting in your case.
I suggest you do it today. Dont forget to share the phonecall with us.

I feel like I have a real bombshell of a game in the works, which feels good. Just gotta keep working on it.
We're all gonna make it.

First your problem is that your games suck, now it's marketing? What the fuck is this.

Regardless, just keep a blog where you upload your progress and can gather fans, you won't have to do much else. If you don't get any attention it's probably because your game sucks, so you keep working and trying new things until people notice you.
Most of all, keep the scope small and work on what YOU want to work on, don't compromise. If you pander you will not see success, unless you make a furry fuck sim or something.

I want to make games, but I'm a writefag with no concept of what makes a game fun. Guess I'll just learn Jap and become a localizer or something.

Fug. Why is the road to making it brah so long.

I wonder if that guy is working on something new, been years since that released now.

I've probably tried to make like 10 different games over the years. I'd always start with the walking cycle of the main character.
I've gotten really good at walking cycles.

One thing that sort of got me going was getting into competitions, even if you don't win it's still some good motivation to git gud and get some decent pointers. I still think that's the only way I ever would have gotten decent at uv mapping.

Better make a walking simulator then
or do a classic prince of persia clone

I'm good at making them but I don't like making them.

Just use crutches for the stuff you actually wanna use in a game.
There's a lot of practices that don't help you develop as an artist but help you get stuff done that would otherwise be too hard.
Stuff like drawing over 3D model makes animation 10 times easier.
You don't even need to trace the whole model. It already helps to mark body landmarks so you get the proportions right.
Just remember that you will stagnate if you keep relying on it.

I'm a decent programmer, but I can't model, animate, draw, make music, or really do much else.

The joy of prototypes is none of that matters. Shitty block models, free-use music, etc. who gives a fuck. If the *gameplay* is there people will like it. And that's when you know it's time to get the band together.

Amen. You'll automatically get interested artists and musicians who want to work with you if your prototype looks fun.

Just make a Risk-esque game with your own twist to it.

I'd play the shit out of it tbh.

pretty good taste fam

...

I have no skills, i can't even draw a circle.

don't be so sad, it's not that bad you just gotta try

hehe that's just a codeword your call of duties and youtubers who make 7 videos a week with the silly thumbnail but… but in HD!!!!!

don't worry about it. TRY IDIOT!!!!!

Post art

Anymore then this concept and I'll get bullied off the team
it's a TTYD/Superstar Saga mixed game

...

Cute. Also the project will never succeed its not because I want to hate but because I feel bad for you dude.

kek

same

I'm well aware it's gonan die. But hey, paid practice for my artwork.

Wait, people are still working on that?

WHAT!? The initial thread couldn't have been more than six months ago!

Never said anything about pay, good for you buddy.

News flash everyone exaggerates how bad anything nonproductive they make is and feels bad about what they could have done.
Get over yourself and put out.

I don't know what you mean, but this is entirely different.

Yeah, just because you are a useless shit doesn't mean we all are. Tone down and limit the scope of your assets and it's perfectly feasible.

If you wan to make Star Citizen (rather, what SC was promised to be) alone then obviously that won't happen unless you have 1 in a billion determination and stick with it for 20 years.

What do you want to do? Jobs are pretty specific in a game studio. so while you can be a programmer if you want, deciding what goes into a game is more a producers job.

About gathering a team, look into game dev communities around you. Either join others or find someone less experienced than you and build them up, they won't get paid for at least 1 year so start doing design work with them a couple times a month and keep expanding the idea until they feel they own it with you. Don't be a boss, be a leader. They'll know tons of shit you don't so don't micromanage them.

Just so you know, most publishers demand the IP in exchange for funding you. Have fun watching "your-game" 3 get raped after your team gets kicked off for out for cheaper russian programmers.

Also create a small project first, big projects takes really really really really really long time to finish and a new team takes time to learn to work together.

this tbh

wasn't there a book called The Secret, about visualizing your way to success of somecrap like that

i think i caught /x/ talking about it at some point

You will be Notch asking for advice on Holla Forums and your first shitty Java gaym gets you 2.5 billion.

yes. it was cult indoctrination. I forget its name but it centers around a reincarnated atlantean warrior

Yeah, the vast majority of us are mediocre at the skills necessary to make a game. So what? You have to go on despite it. No one else is going to make your game for you. There are ideas inside your head that don't exist literally anywhere else in the universe, and if you love vidya, you owe it to trudge on and give your best shot.

Why spend the time gathering a team to help you make a game when you could spend that time getting genuinely good enough to make it?

Well, you got the right idea at least.

Work on your design over programming a system, or just make games with a single mechanic or two. If you have zero design practice you're just programming without thinking, and it will guaranteed be shit. Make a board game or card game first, get your feet wet, show that you can design ANY GAME. It looks far more impressive in a portfolio and it's easy to use any game pieces you have to represent tokens and such in your games.

When programming, yeah your games will be ass at first, but the design work you put down first will make or break your project.

Conan?

Make a mod
Polish mod
Publish mod
Update mod when required

If you actually release something you will find it easier to team up with people, you can also focus on what you are best at eg. if you are good at coding add functionality, if you are good at modeling add an asset.

The cancer.

Bamboozled. Go learn to model and use unity if you want to make a videogame. The age of videogames being made by programmers seems to have passed.

The author blamed the tsunami on the tsunami victims for sending out tsunami like vibrations.

Have fun with your generic unity game #54363473474

You need to program if you want to do anything reminiscent of the word "new".

That game actually looks very good, I wouldn't say it sold like crap. People backed $100k to make it, and now they also made some profit on steam. If I'd only make half of that on my game I'd be happy as hell.

Join another team that is already making a game to get your skills shaprened out.
If you're not good enough to join a team, then all you can do is study.

Make a /fit/ inspired jrpg turn based thing, manlets, qts, chads, some form of bulshittery with specing or leveling so you can be fast and slim, bulk up, put points or time into training/using different body parts. Different fighting styles, straight up boxing to kickboxing to wrestling and shit. Items like creatine and post-workout give you extra gainz/exp. While high carbs or protein or fat foods give you different things like extra stamina/energy or health and toughness. Have a secret so that if you hit level 30 without interacting with a female character you can become a wizard.

Play this game.

Ive heard of it but i only have a phone to play games on so i guess its another one for the list.

Get out.

I have a pc from 5 years ago, cost 3 grand back then, something is fucked with the graphics card, used to want new drivers all the time and cut out during actual gaming. The power supply eventualy shit itself and i cant afford shit atm. Sorry for bloggposting i guess

Automatic forced garbage collection is what is wrong with making games in java.