Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Iteration is the key to improving.
Whether you are making video games, practicing a new skill, designing a character, or improving your craft, you must repeat your framework (what you do) while intentionally:
1. avoiding previous mistakes
2. trying new approaches and/or
3. changing one technique at a time until you yield the results you want.
Do this consistently to level-up and upgrade your skillset.
In Game Development, iteration comes in two major phases -
1. The Iteration Phase
2. The EndPoint Phase
Iteration Phase is when you're playfully prototyping, building, and just testing ideas to see what tends to work. There's no real right or wrong way to do work in this phase as you're simply just messing around with what you can make.
The Endpoint Phase is when you make a list of requirements needed to make, build, and launch your game as efficiently as possible. This means you are done iterating, testing, etc. and your objective is to launch your game.
Most of my content advertises efficiency by minimizing iteration. However, this doesnât dismiss the importance of it.
If you have iterated your concept to the point where you're comfortable and confident that you'll be delivering a game that players will like (based off of play test results) - then this is ideally where you stop your iteration attempts, establish an endpoint (checklist of to-doâs to launch your game) and easily race to the finish line with all your clearly designed objectives as demonstrated here: https://youtu.be/zY9rpEPuisI?feature=...
All that being said, to make an *efficient* Iteration Phase is to simply add a deadline on how many ideas and concepts you experiment with. With a limited amount of time to pump out ideas (and other limitations you give yourself) youâll end up batching lots of creative effort to get something rolling.
Hereâs the crazy part â once you complete the Iteration Phase of your game, then you apply the Endpoint Phase of your game â you launch your game. And what happens after launch?
You do it again â but better.
This is where you grow as a developer. You iterate, you learn from your mistakes, apply criticism, try newly-taught techniques, and stick with what works. Take as many attempts as needed to reach your personal endpoint â just keep going.
tl;dr - use iteration to make your game cool, then once you're absolutely set in stone, establish an endpoint to finish and launch your game. Then, rinse and repeat.
12 - 0
You can't make a game without other players play-testing it.
If you do not play test or fail to get feedback, there's no objective way to measure if your game will be relevant, interesting, and/or fun for other players to try out.
It's important to hear all types of criticism (constructive, emotional, reactionary, subjective, objective, etc.) and filter out which pieces of advice best serve the improvement of your game's design.
But how can we actually measure play-testing?
There's a whole methodology behind this - and there's MANY more approaches when collecting metrics.
But the MOST effective result is simply by recording your play-tester playing your game. The reason why this is one of (if not) the best tactics is because you're watching their actions over anything else.
Here, you'll be able to observe:
- their reactions
- commentary made in their playthrough
- how often they repeat a gameplay loop
- their willingness to engage
- where they get stuck
- how they solve an obstacle
- micro-observations they make
- and which mechanic they interact with the most versus what they skipped
Bonus: players willing to engage in play testing also provide the idea that they are indeed interested in your game. Meaning, for them to play it implies that there is some level of interest in your game already. Figure out more about what made them willing to play it to further polish your game's appeal.
With recordings in particular, you can freely rewind and see what precisely works and doesn't. From there, as a developer, it's your responsibility to adjust towards the player's experience - and this is easily one of the most efficient ways to make your game better.
tl;dr - you need playtesting results to improve your game no matter what phase you're in.
13 - 1
Art Production kills your Speed
Art is one of the most important aspects of Game Development because of its ability to spike interest in players and a part of a game's experience is the presentability it carries.
Despite this, it takes a while to make "good" art since it's a skill at the end of the day. That being said, here are three key methods you can use to speed up your art process:
1. Use a Color Palette - Color palettes reduce the friction of choosing the "right" color WHILE providing a cohesive look. Not only that, depending on what pallet you choose, you can easily direct the game's mood and atmosphere with the pallet you select. Shout out to âŞ@ThomasStewartDev⏠on pointing this out as well in his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzhzJ...
2. Keep Visuals Simple - the simpler an asset looks, the easier (and faster) it is to build it.
3. Delegate Art - you could recycle art assets, hire an artist to make new art, or use art that already exists (art assets) to lower the time spent on producing art for your game. The resources behind this method could be expensive since you'd either pay for a professional artist or risk the "asset flip" impression of your game. However, speed and quality can go hand and hand if the execution is done correctly.
Now, I cannot understate the importance of Art in Games. If/when you understand that Art is a core part of the game's experience, you might see the sheer value of it and be willing to invest more in an extensive art production cycle. ESPECIALLY if your game heavily relies on the art factor alone.
If this is the case, understand that if you do not outsource this in any way shape, or form, (especially as an independent developer) you will increase the time it takes to launch your game.
There is no wrong answer to approaching art - after all, you are responsible for your game's production and if you know your art needs more time to cook in the oven - then happily accept it and continue development. Just be very aware and vigilant that this is primarily one of the most common bottlenecks in the development space and there are ways to mitigate this as aforementioned.
tl;dr - art is important but takes time. Either outsource or accept the time-sink you'll add when making art for your game.
19 - 4
Who youâre with directly influences how you behave.
As a developer, you must be honest and ask yourself â are you around friends who support you? Are they holding you back? Maybe they donât do either.
We must be reflective and vigilant of those who we surround ourselves with and draw congruency to those who we aspire to be. In other words, what you engage with directly reflects your work, which bleeds into your lifestyle. The fastest way to reach the person you aim to be is to minimize the line of congruency as rapidly as possible. You want to be highly disciplined, consistent, and always solving challenging problems? The friends, coworkers, and modeled patrons you interact with should display these qualities. Donât have access to these desirable traits in your current friend group? Thatâs okay â set the example yourself and be aware of not losing that newfound trait to bad habits. Are you realizing that maybe youâre spending too much time at the group movie night and falling to sleep at 2:00am since the conversation was amazing? Great, letâs start taking our time back by cutting it off.
If all we ever did was listen, weâd easily fall for deception â this is why itâs critical to pay attention to the actions of the people you are with.
You either have friends/associates who:
1. Are your Tailwind â these are the individuals that directly contribute to your development goals. They can code, make art, market, or do something technical. Likewise, they can be your cheerleaders â friends who share your work, give you real constructive criticism, or simply encourage you to keep drilling. This group is rare and if you are privileged to have these people in your life, please appreciate them.
There are also levels to this â letâs say you have a roommate who cooks extra food to share with you â that action saves you ~20 minutes of cooking that you can use for your development which is technically really supportive since it attributes to your focus/lack of taking a break when developing. Then thereâs the homie who commits a whole dialogue system overnight for you to use for your game. Both forms of support are valuable in different ways but they both attribute to the end goal.
2. Are Neutral â this is the common reality we operate in â thereâs nothing wrong when you have a friend or associate who 1. Isnât aware or 2. Doesnât care about your project(s). In fact, this is perfectly healthy and normal since we are all busy with our own lives and to be hyper-invested in another personâs pursuit without interest is unexpected behavior. You cannot let this group sway you into distractions nor should you âpunishâ this group for not showing interest in your work. Youâre probably connect with this group through proximity, other interests, or shared values. Just be aware of how much influence you have when observing their actions as you might subconsciously pick up helpful or damaging patterns from this group.
Keep in mind that traits such as non-valuable criticism or general commentary about your game provided from this group is not necessarily a net negative. You need to view this as a âif they donât stop me, theyâre good.â
3. Are your Drag â itâs easy to say that there are malicious individuals who pry on the goal of stopping you and your development. The reality is that, while slander and competition exist, this group primarily wouldnât reveal their intentions too easily nor would they appear antagonistic (unless their truly bold enough to flaunt this personality.) People of Drag come in many shapes and forms: It could be your classic doubters, comparison police, attacks on your character, goals, aspirations, and/or other methods to influence you towards taking other directions.
And yes, itâs absolutely true that there are individuals out there who will purposely sabotage your efforts. This includes purposefully delaying multi-step playtests, creating editor notes that flood a page with no relevant fixes, asking you to hang out with them for x-amount of time followed up by no-shows, redirecting your focus onto something else, etc. You will meet these people in your abundant life and the best thing you can do is to simply cut them out as soon as your able to identify these intentions. Likewise, no one is forcing you to open-up and meet lots of people who may or may not help you.
So, are you currently surrounded by tailwind or are you being dragged?
What are you going to do about it?
Controversial take â while itâs ideal to surround yourself with as much tailwind as possible, keep in mind that this is much harder to execute since every project tailors to a specific subset of skills and talent that not everyone will have readily available. What we should be comfortable with â as the role says â is being an >> independent << game developer. Meaning, with or without tailwind, you should be able to make progress no matter what obstacle shows up. Obviously, the less obstacles the better â but you need to create habits that allow you to prosper.
At the end of the day, you are responsible for your choices, how you filter information + individuals, and most importantly what you do your knowledge.
17 - 5
Via Negativa - the ability to simplify so much that you cannot break it down any further.
It is the "Absolute reduction of an element to its simplest form; used for effectiveness."
In Game Development, we tend to draw tons of complicated ideas and systems that probably don't get used as often or as effectively as possible.
So why not cut that content out?
More importantly, why not simplify your game's design to the simplest possible form ever?
Once you achieve this state, adding content or variation to your game doesn't just become easier, but with limited space, everything becomes more purposeful.
The bonus effect of this is that you use less work and effort to create more content once you've established your game's simplest core. This also makes development faster as a result since you're using fewer resources.
tl;dr - simplify as much as possible (even when you think you can't) to create the actual "core" of your game. Then use that to your advantage to speedrun your production cycle.
20 - 6
Drilling - "Transmutable frustration and focus used to overcome challenges and growth."
AKA - Hitting the same area over and over until it cracks.
When you encounter a problem in Game Development, your first instinct is probably to try again until you have a solution.
Usually, taking breaks helps ease the mind, and returning gives you the ability to resolve the problem.
But the biggest mistake that will tank your productivity is when you switch to another task instead of 'drilling' the current problem you're facing - especially when the problem is a core dependency of other tasks.
When you practice drilling you reap a lot of benefits:
1. You raise the 'pain' tolerance of sitting with a problem for a prolonged amount of time.
2. You invite harder challenges after growing the confidence to solve hard problems.
3. You build the ability to stay focused and tunnel vision on your current objective.
While controversial, getting better at drilling is a form of improving both the developer and the development. It is intended to be frustrating since we all naturally search for the path of least resistance, but it is within that resistance that makes us stronger and grow to accept challenges.
Go open your Game Engine and try solving the hardest problem you have today. When you eventually crack it, (because you will) you'll reap the rewards of growth and progression - just like a real-world excavator.
tl;dr - keep hitting your problems until you crack them so that you gain EXP irl
20 - 6
Video Game Music (VGM) is a form of Marketing.
The problem with having a banger soundtrack attached to an IP that is unknown is that - you cannot introduce video game music independently without its source. Marketing it starts to depend on if the game itself can be recognized and possibly shared by at least one player.
What are ways to bypass this?
1. Use visual media
- One strong way to share music without context is when you add an interesting character in a thumbnail, title it as "[Character's Theme] from [This Game]" and then highlight the music. Here, players who are drawn by the character's interesting traits will gravitate towards the content out of curiosity and/or to answer possible questions about what the content possibly provides. (Is the this graceful? Who is this character? I never heard of this game before... etc.)
2. Make an interesting game first
- Besides that, your game's appeal needs to carry itself in order to give music the chance to be displayed. If the music is so good that it's meant to be shared, then naturally, it will be shared by others. But if you can't stick the landing and start the chain of sharing music (because your game didn't resonate with the necessary audience) your audio efforts are more than likely to be in vain.
3. Use OSTs outside of the game
- Undertale's appeal was sky-high when the game offered you to spare monsters instead of killing them. This open door led to the discovery of its banger soundtrack being shared. Balatro's OST has skyrocketed in viewership after its nomination at The Game Awards. Individuals who talk about Dearly Beloved in one way shape or form have experienced the opening title theme of Kingdom Hearts. etc. In other words - you need to create relevance to the listener.
The reason why this is critical to observe is because:
1. No matter how much effort you put into your game, you'll NEED appeal to let others experience said effort.
2. You can use music as a marketing tool AS LONG as you create a compulsive reason to make listeners engage (interesting thumbnails, music so good it's meant to be shared, features another composer with a great track record, shares the same genre as other great pieces making the algorithm reveal it to you, creates curiosity, use the soundtrack in other media to create the question of "where is this from?", etc.)
Once you have the listener's possible attention (and foot at the door) you can then invite them to experience an aspect of your game that may compel them to learn more.
Speaking of, check out DodgeKing Deluxe's OST here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqs1N...
3 - 0
Underrated production cheat-code:
Uniforms and Outfits.
When you work a typical corporate office job, there's usually a dress code where you have to be semi-formal. While style and self-expression via clothing choices and fitting is a completely personal choice, notice how fields of professional labor typically require this physical assessment.
The reason why this is important is because it indirectly activates one of your stressors - the more you look like and/or emulate the role of an 'office employee' the more likely you are to be compliant with the office's tasks.
There's a few key lessons we can learn:
- If we aim to follow the examples of what aspire to be, we will align our behaviors.
- What we wear (and by extension, do) discreetly influences how we perceive our environment.
Also, little fun fact - wearing shoes (specifically formal ones) creates a physical stressor to your feet. There was a study conducted that concluded that:
- Wearing formal shoes creates a boundary between leisure versus work.
- That the reduction of comfort led to the minimization of being in a relaxed state - (which indirectly fosters/opens up the possibility to develop a mindset of staying vigilant/sharp within your environment.)
As developers, when you have time to sit down and continue creating your games, I challenge you to try wearing a semi-formal outfit and/or shoes to see if you see a slight improvement to your production.
I've personally been applying this method for over two years now and I definitely see how I take my work more seriously when I'm in that 'slightly stressed' state. Try it out to see for yourself and see if this works for you!
tl;dr - wearing outfits can push you to stay focused.
10 - 2
Less Friction = Better Games (& Results)
Game Developer Masahiro Sakurai claims that the more time you spend "not playing the game" the more likely you are ready to disengage with it. That's why it's important to jump right into the action by minimizing load times, bypassing filler, and just letting the player play the game as soon as possible.
There are a few circumstances where friction is actually welcomed - but these aspects usually have to involve the player's attention in some way shape or form. Think of cutscenes, settings/customization, and other side artifacts that dive into your game's depth value (such as lore, accessibility, etc.)
Intuitively, this makes sense - yet what's also not discussed as much is the friction we have in our lives. As Game Developers, we're human - and there are a plethora of distractions we undergo, shackles that restrain our productivity, and even skill gaps to actually deliver what we want to make.
Think of the following - Are these habits helping or hurting you and your development journey?
- Social Media
- Work/Job Responsibilities
- Chores, Hospitality
- Socializing, Relationships, Hang-outs
- Habits, Mindset/Attitude
- Technical Knowledge/Toolkit to Make Games
- In-Game Distractions, Overscoping, Constant re-iteration
- Perfectionism
- Comparing yourself to others
- Health Status, General Energy
- etc.
While it's critical to make the player feel 'flow' in your game's design, are you creating an environment where YOU the developer can easily tap into a flow state to be productive?
That being said, friction isn't just limited to what players feel about games - it also has parallels on how the game is made too. When you boot up your favorite game, the urgency to enjoy the core gameplay loop should be given to you ASAP. The same goes with how you're creating your craft - it is imperative as a developer to be vigilant (and hold standards) on yourself in order to minimize your development's friction and maximize your workflow's output.
You can do a lot with a little and most of the best optimizations you can make stem from removing what causes friction - both in your lifestyle and how you design for the enjoyable player's experience.
10 - 0
Character Design has huge leverage in increasing your gameâs interest since it pin-points one of the main influences to making any game relevant to you â relatable appearances.
Iâm not claiming that looking at Sonic the Hedgehog or a specific PokĂŠmon makes you subconsciously say âthatâs so meâ â but the idea of having relatable features (expressions, poses, human-like attributes, etc.) is easily one of the quickest ways to make a character gain any level of empathy, relateâability, and/or communion with the player.
By doing this, you automatically get the player to feel involved with the particular design. Whether they like the design or not comes down to how interesting it is (which is broken down by various compulsion tactics used in the actual design itself) This could be attraction, simplicity, polarization, emulation, etc.
That being said, itâs critical to make your designs:
⢠Legible
⢠Exaggerate your most important details
⢠Use contrast to highlight unique parts
⢠(Not necessary) Add key relatable aspects such as facial features, humanoid features, etc.
This doesnât have to be the case with every character designâ there are many beloved plant, animal, object, and abstract designs that nail appeal too. Itâs just a common trend/pattern to see human-like attributes used to favor the playerâs attention.
End of the day, you can have the greatest game ever without characters or ârelatable designsâ (look at simulators, board games, etc.) but consider great character design as a cheat-code to grab more attention to players you are targeting.
You can read more about techniques used and join the conversation here:
https://youtu.be/RLJgfyGzte8
Huge shout out to âŞ@fumetsusozo⏠& âŞ@gartore⏠for contributing their thought process behind this.
20 - 0
I help develop Game Developers.
Business Email: edwardivandev@gmail.com