Hi, Fellow Game Developers,
Our topic today is how to finish games, for solo developers or very small teams,
There’s a lot of developers who actually starts developing games, but a very few percentage of those
actually finish’em,
there might be a plethora of reasons for why that would happen, but we’re not gonna delve into those,
we’ll be talking about some tips for finishing a game, those are not hard rules, it’s more of a general guidance,
and some might finish a game without implementing all of them.
So,
First Tip : Keep It Simple, Keep A Small Scope
It’s a crucial part, and this is to be decided even before starting the development cycle,
you can’t make a huge MMORPG, you can’t make a GTA clone, you just can’t do it alone,
so think about a small game, one that can be made in a believable timestamp, 1 to 2 years max ( Recommendation ).
This also leads to the topic of feature creep, that constant need to add more features and systems as your game grows,
be aware of it, and eventually do less of it.
Second Tip : Plans!
You better research how to make plans and more specifically how to make a plan that suits a ‘Game Dev Cycle’ and that suits you.
but don’t think about the details yet,
you’ll think about those when you’re on execution mode, and actually make more plans derived from that initial one.
and even with that, your plans might change as time goes, and it’s very okay, so be okay with that.
Third Tip : Stay Organized
in the beginning it’s fun, and you can play around with your game systems and mechanics and do cool stuff while developing,
without it affecting your progress.
But after sometime, your project will be cluttered and messy,
and doing big changes or refactoring some systems might not be that easy.
So learning some tools and habits might help prevent that, like how to use prefabs, having clean code, organized hierarchy,
modulation of your assets ( separating the logic from the objects that do the logic ), etc..
Fourth Tip : Visualize It
Think about the dream you had when you first started, the dream of making a game,
think about how the final product will look like, also about the release date, the monetization model, the platforms it will be on,
you might even start thinking about a sequel if your mind can go that far.
Also having a playable version sooner will help you taste that dream, because it’s tangible now.
Fifth Tip : Motivation & Consistency
A critical part of every project someone might take, and a hard one too, staying motivated.
visualization will help you with that, and also patience.
but also something i’ve learned to do personally and it should be more of lifestyle ( not a one time thing ),
which is making ‘WORKING ON YOUR PROJECT(S)’ a daily habit, it is easier said than done,
but in order to make that happen you’ll need to delve a bit into the realm of ‘PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT’,
learn more about yourself and how you function, and then embed that into your project / work.
It’s more of a personal thing, so everyone have to figure that out by him/herself, as we are all different.
Another point to this,
saying that you’re a free spirit and can only work when you’re on the mood wouldn’t help that much,
so be aware of that.
Sixth Tip : Plan For Success & For Failure
It will require a lot of thick skin to be okay with failure, but you’ll have to plan for when that might happen,
also for success, no one is ever ready for it, but regardless, we should plan for what to do when that happens.
Seventh Tip : Tell Everybody About Your Game
You might ask why?
well, easy :
-You’ll hold yourself accountable and actually push forward when you’re not having good days.
-You’ll have more exposure and interest in your game.
-You will definitely get help and fresh ideas either from friends or dev’s whenever you have problems in your development journey.
Eighth Tip : Avoiding Perfectionism
Nobody in the history of game development ever released a game that was perfect ( don’t believe those 10/10 from reviewers ).
some elements from a game can have a perfect score, a full game, No way!
So, you’ll never make a perfect game in version 1.0,
you’ll probably make a very good one, and updating it will make it even better, and so on.
So don’t get so hanged on perfectionism ,
tweaking and re-tweaking stuff to make it better will only take more from your time,and it’ll actually make you lose
clarity about what’s important and what’s not, so try to avoid it.
Ninth Tip : Make The Decisions
Not only the decisions about the plans and timestamps, but more importantly the in-game decisions.
Now making the difference between the good and the bad is easier but the problem lies when there’s good versus good,
you know, that moment when two options sound really good, but yet you have to choose only one of them.
one way to make that decision faster so it won’t chew more of your schedule is to set a deadline for When To Make
That Decision’.
So, assess the situation, go deep on it, than make the decision on that deadline,
and be okay if you find out later that it wasn’t the right option,life goes on.
Tenth Tip : The Last 10%
Prepare yourself for a nonstop action movie, that might last months!!
Polishing,
Finalizing all the little details,
Clearing out most of the obvious bugs,
Making sure that it works and that it’s good enough,
Trailers, store pages, localization,
Marketing, Videos and Screenshots, all of this is mostly focused on the last 10% of the ‘Game Dev Cycle’.
So be ready for it.
Hope this helped those in need, and remember, these are general guidance, there might be more tips..
But I don’t know it all..
If you wanna read more about ‘Game Development’ make sure you follow me on ‘Medium’ or Connect with me on ‘Linkedin’ :
Medium : https://medium.com/@oussikhazmenski
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/oussama-khazri-38133592
And don’t forget to share it with other beginner game developers,
Thank You For Reading..
-” Oussama Khazri”-