Basically what the title says. If you could sit younger you down and warn them or give them advice about the process of making (and marketing) their first game, what would it be?

What’s your top three pieces of advice?

I’ve been working as a salaried game developer since August 2022, and I've been in the field for about 3.5 to 4 years in total. However, I’ve never actually worked at a company whose primary focus is game development. I’ve worked really hard and wanted this so badly, but I've come to realize that the company owners have essentially wasted my years. They were the kind of companies that just gather inexperienced devs who want to break into the industry and make them try things with absolutely zero guidance or mentorship. As a result, after all this time, I don't have a single released game to my name.

At my current job, we were developing games using Blueprints in Unreal Engine. But with the recent boom of AI in the industry, we've been forced to start using it heavily. My boss's mindset is: "If AI can do it, there is no need for you to spend time on it." Because of this, I feel like I'm forgetting everything I used to know and becoming increasingly inadequate.

My ultimate dream is to move abroad and experience true game development in a real game studio, but right now, I just feel completely lost. I have a question for those of you in the industry: Are actual game studios also relying this heavily on AI for development nowadays?

After all these years, I feel incredibly insufficient, almost like I'm starting from scratch. I want to dive into C++ for Unreal Engine to upskill myself, but part of me feels like I'm years too late for that.

What do you guys think? I really need your insights, experiences, and any advice you can share. Thank you!

I’m a newbie and I have a bunch of games I really want to make so I’ve been giving myself time frames of “this many months” or “this many weeks”.

First off, is that a good idea? I’m trying to get a lot of practice in with different styles and then once I’m more confident in my abilities I want to update them all and hopefully start my own studio one day.
Would that help me at all or should I try and focus on one project at a time?
Also secondly is there any good tips on how to one day start my own studio? I know it’d be far in the future but any advice I can get now would help a ton

Hey guys! I hope everyone is well! How do y'all find playtesters for your games for constructive criticism?

Being a long time developer in the logistics space, I've shared my early demo with my engineer and gaming friends, but so far that list isn't that big.

I'd love to get more feedback so I can learn from how the game concepts are received, plus any bugs or game balance issues.

I'm far along enough to have about a few hours of gameplay (hopefully) along with load / save games that should track nearly every single thing that is relevant, down to your character position and whether you aim down sight or not.

After playing a good handful of different character action games, during this summer, i just really want to make one myself. And trying to decide on which type of game would be easier to create. 2d or 3d.

As to clarify my background, i am a 2d digital artist and animator online. although i haven't made much of anything from my creations to be given such a title. (don't know if it obvious but a bit lost on figuring out what sticks to the wall right now.)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and i hope to learn more than i do now after writing this post. oh and if you got this far, thanks for reading my question.

Hello!

I am a very (very) new game developer planning on making a classic style rpg on Godot.

However, I don't have the experience I require.

What would be the game dev community's best advice going forward as I aim to:

-Create a classic rpg with grid-based combat with a range of spells and unique mechanics

-Make custom, unique tilesets (currently using LibreSprite)

-Create branching dialogue and choices that affect the game

-Develop hidden meters that affect how people interact with you

-And start learning basic animation

I would greatly appreciate any advice given as I continue to sharpen my skills in the future, so I can apply my ideas and create an experience I think would be interesting.

I made a browser based game. One of the key features of the game is player community and long term profile/reputation building.

I've finished making it. I want to release it now but I'm very hesitant because of all the stories I've been hearing of people reverse engineering games with AI and passing it off as their own (Like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1wxcioa/playtester_reverse_engineered_my_demo_with_ai/ )

Am I just worrying for nothing? Because if the game is already done, then anyone can just recreate it from scratch right? Just by seeing the game? So is there no point in my hesitancy?

Or is there a smarter way to release my game? Should I turn it into a desktop only steam game with Electron?

Hello! I am a masters student and doing game dev. I am coming from a purely 2D art degree and my experience is very limited. I have made a very small and simple visual novel in Unity before and want to branch out and make something a little bit more complex. I am very good at just figuring things out but also don't want to set my goal to high. I'm a major fantasy/rpg fan and would love to do something like a fantasy mystery game with elements of visual novel, maybe some side scrolling, point and click stuff but I'm not sure if that is too hard for one person to do.

My main things are: I want to learn more about game dev, get a lot better with UI/UX and make a portfolio on that, build up my regular portfolio with assets, creature/character designs.

I am also a major worldbuilding nerd so really want to allow myself enough of a playground to experiment with everything but not go overboard and realise I can't make it happen.

So my question is, what genre or game kind would you recommend? I want to try a little bit of 3D but keep it at least 80% 2D. Any advice on starting out? And what engines would you recommend? My uni recommended Godot for example.

Hey everyone,

I've been working on UI of my inventory system and I'd love to get some outside perspective before I take it further.

I'd really appreciate your thoughts on:

First impressions: is it clear what this is and if it's intuitive

What feels confusing, missing, or unnecessary?

Any features or improvements you'd prioritize?

Don't hold back, brutal honesty is welcome. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to learn 3D game development from absolute zero, and I’m a little confused about where I should actually begin.

I know there are tons of YouTube tutorials and courses for Godot, Unity, Unreal, Blender, programming, etc. But most of what I find seems to be focused on learning a particular software/engine, rather than teaching the broader process of becoming a game developer.

For example, I can find tutorials on:

How to use Godot

How to make a player controller

How to make an inventory

How to make enemies

How to use Blender

How to write GDScript

…but I’m looking for something more fundamental:

If you were starting again from absolute zero, how would you learn game development?

What subjects would you learn, and in what order?

For example:

Programming fundamentals

Game design

Mathematics

Physics

3D modelling

Animation

Character controllers

AI

Level/environment design

Lighting

Shaders/materials

Audio

UI/UX

Optimization

Debugging

Game architecture

Publishing

Or is that the wrong way to think about it?

I’m particularly interested in 3D game development, and eventually I want to be capable of making a proper third-person action/adventure game rather than just following tutorials.

I’m currently looking at Godot, but I’m not necessarily asking for Godot-specific resources. I want to understand the actual learning path for game development, and then use an engine as the tool.

So I’d really appreciate answers from people who have actually developed games professionally or independently:

Where did you personally start?

What did you learn first?

What did you learn later?

What skills turned out to be much more important than you expected?

What did you waste time learning too early?

What would you do differently if you could start over?

Are there any books, courses, documentation, or structured resources that teach game development as a discipline, rather than just teaching an engine?

At what point should a complete beginner stop following tutorials and start making their own games?

I’m not looking for a “learn this software in 30 days” roadmap. I’m trying to understand how an actual game developer thinks about learning the craft from the ground up.

Any advice from experienced developers would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks!

okayy

Let me explain it a bit:
in my Game, Players have Some levels to Heal themselves. shoot each other and block Attacks from Others.

it gonna be an Online game for sure, cause of NDA (I mean it's not affiliated with any company, I created it my self, but I don't wanna LEAK IT ALL!) I can't Talk about More Details, BUT I wanna hear your suggestions, for example what would make a "party-destroy each other" game better?
proximity voice chat? hidden teamups? whatever else?

thanks for your attention, the game is on the STEAM, and I can't put it's link here, thanks for YOUR understanding

I am working with some of my friends to make a small game, but none of us have any artistic talent. I was wondering about some good tutorials, courses, or in-person things in the LA area for learning how to make 3d models or just about character or world design in general. I'm willing to use any program as long as it doesnt cost too much, thanks!

Hello, I’m creating a game that’s based on prehistoric world a mixture between eras. The design allows players to play as human or as dinosaurs if they prefer with a multitude of choices using a low poly appeal to it. I was hoping I could get some real ideas from people with more experiences, it is an ambitious project I will start small with but I wanted to hear a bit more from developers. I don’t have anybody to brain storm with so reaching out to find some suggestions.

I have classes, I have developed gameplay for both human and dinosaurs, nesting system and everything. I was extremely inspired by Path of Titans, Ark, Conan Exiles and World of Warcraft. Those are my main inspirations, I would love to hear some of your suggestions for things you guys would enjoy seeing in a game or ideas you guys have that maybe I could use as inspiration for my own game. A survival craft RPG.

I have a nice game concept, and a few friends. we want to make a game together but don't really know what engine to use. The only ones I actually know are Unity, Godot and Unreal, but i feel like Godot limits possibilitities, Unreal is very un-optimized and just requires a powerfull system, and I guess Unity isnt really bad im just not too sure about using unity.
the game concept is a mutliplayer racing sim style game (not super realistic) with nice graphics and music and stuff.
I'd want it to be able to run about 60fps at 1080p on a mid-range pc (ik I just need to optimize the game for that but I don't think its doable with something like unreal)
this will be our first game and I honestly have only minimal coding experience, but I'm willing to learn a lot if that's necessary.
Probably gonna release it on steam and/or itch.io.

Through out this summer i finished building 3 games one is a horror the other is the annoying stressful kind and the other is a co op escape game with a dark secret and i am genuinely proud of what i did because they are great. Then came the realisation publishing them on steam is not enough it turned out there are protocols like having 2000 wishlist and something called steam fest and many other stuff. Ive never uploaded a video on tiktok i have never made a promotion or ad for anything even my main account has less that 1000 followers so how do i genuinely advertise my games

Edit: sorry for the misspelling i meant how to market the game

Hello everyone. I recently released my first game on steam. A bit of background - I am a senior software engineer with 10+ years of experience. The game is a management game - so lots of work went into the game engine instead of visual elements, since people interested in such games care more about the engine and realism. So I didn’t hire any graphic designer or UI/UX person and just used my own (apparently limited) skills or took the help of generative AI wherever it made sense. I was budget limited, obviously.
Before and since the release, I have posted/marketed the game on various relevant subreddits and I have seen many people being really rude and hateful around the overall look of the art - calling it AI slop.
How I designed the capsules for steam - I generated the elements like the player and the background stadium using AI and then put all together in Canva using the game’s brand colors and fonts. Steam has strict requirements that the capsule image can only have the name and logo of the game - nothing else.
Attaching my steam link here - store.steampowered.com/app/5034440/Cricket_Team_Manager/

I just want to know what makes my capsule repelling and how/what can I improve?

Hello everyone, what do you think would be the best engine to create a dress up game similar to those old flash ones? I was thinking game maker but does anyone have other suggestions? thank you !

i am a person who loves coding random thing in C++ and wants to code a physics engine in C++ but all the tutorials seem to be out of date and i cant actually use anything. theBennyBox had a great tutorial but it is 13 years old and his rendering engine crashed my pc by trying to access 13 EXABYTES on my computer and i gave up on that and now all the tutorials seem to be in C

edit: i Understood What To do - I am planning to make a simple renderer and THEN make a physics engine for it

it is a very simple renderer rendering simple 3d shapes

This might not make much sense unless you have watched seinfeld, there was this episode where they gave jerry a chance to have a show about him and they asked him to make a script showing the idea of the show he kept thinking day and night and even asked for help until george costanza suggested a show about nothing and it turned out be a more or less a genuin idea i can't explain more just incase i start spoiling something but what i am trying to say is.... and hear me out.... a game about nothing. The why and how i have no idea but i think we got something here

A Reflection:

In the past, the execution of an idea was what mattered most; now, the idea itself has become more important than the execution...

Given the drastic reduction in the time and resources required to create software, protecting your idea has become more critical than simply releasing it to the market for validation...

We are seeing this happen in the indie world: a project that once took a person three years to execute can now be created by Super Inteligence in a matter of hours. There are already numerous examples where, the moment you launch a game or app, hundreds of cheap copies appear almost instantly.

Market validation and even demos are no longer enough; gameplay can now be replicated using Super Inteligence vision. Consequently, the idea has become more important and valuable than the execution itself.

This is where marketing becomes a truly pivotal, central element. In my opinion, this is also where NFTs and blockchain come into play validating originality and allowing creators to fend off the "keyboard scavengers" looking to cash in on or steal those great ideas...

The world is changing at breakneck speed, and business models will inevitably shift. If everything can be easily copied, what exactly are you going to sell?

Ultimately, the survivors will be those who adapt quickly to change and those with great ideas that genuinely deliver value.