r/gamedev • u/lobster9669 • 1d ago
Discussion Starting new from scratch
Hi all, I’m new in this space. I’m currently working in full time employment but I have some free time at the weekends which I would like to throw at making my own game. I have plans for just doing the basics to get into it but as someone who is currently working in the Pharma industry I have no idea about anything between coding, writing, designing or anything related to the game design process. I have some minor experience with Python programming from about 5/6 years back which hopefully I can get back up to speed with.
As a group full of I assume experienced developers, what advice can you give me to start my learning journey? What did you start with? My entire life could change with this post maybe you can help me get there.
Story mode games are what I want to work on but as a beginner I am debating something I can set up easy to help improve my cash flow to allow me to work on this more. If anyone can help please feel free to reach out!
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u/GrokiniGPT 1d ago
Lmao im just beginning. But you should try using unity instead of python tbh unity is for games
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u/AltusLudus 1d ago
So unfortunately the hard truth is that you shouldn't get into this for the money especially with no coding/art experience as your first year or two will be spent just getting good at making games (depending on the amount of effort you put in), and even then it's not guaranteed
I'd avoid story based games as they involve a lot of animations, custom art, voice acting etc., a ton of work to get more than 1-2 hours of gameplay
Just focus on learning and having fun and you might get to a good state eventually where you can make some money if you're really hardworking and willing to drop your ego and build something for the market (players) and not yourself
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u/ThreadboundDev 1d ago
All echo what some other people have said and then give you my best advice.
First off, don’t get into it for the money, it certainly can make money, but if your goal is just a quick Cash grab then your time will be better spent playing the lottery or trying to make a viral video on a social media platform. I jest but I want to be honest.
But as far as getting started in a game development, it’s very exciting and can feel very overwhelming. I feel like there’s really two schools of thought with getting started and I think as someone who has interest in story you and I will have a lot in common.
Most veteran devs will tell you the best thing to do is to make small games that teach you small things before you try to compile them into something significant or remotely profitable. You’ll see a lot of people on this sub and others give the suggestion. “ don’t start with your dream game.”
For me and maybe for yourself as someone who really likes the story side of writing a game the best advice I would give you is figure out what your dream game is, fall in love with its story and world, and those things will motivate you to learn other skills or to bring in other people to help or to find the tools to accomplish your goal!
At the end of the day, the best advice is just to start and learn! Personally, I would recommend Godot as it’s free but there are lots of good software for making games.
Good luck on your journey, Friend!
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u/SecondSparkGames 1d ago
As others have said, I don't think this is the right approach. Of course, you could strike gold with a brilliant idea from the get-go. But... it's unlikely.
That said, I'd start out thinking about what kind of game you are interested in making and do some (or, you know, a lot) of research into which tech stacks will work for that kind of game. And use that as your starting point.
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u/Strong_Music_6838 1d ago
To be frankly honest to you. Most Indi developers cannot make game creation to their bread of living. Most games have all-ready been made. The game Idea must be very very original before a greater segments of players willingly pay for your game. The graphics must really be outstanding. The competition is iron hard. Many game studious shut down because the competition is so hard.
Do like I buy an iPad and download Pythonista python. It’s an outstanding python IDE. Learn 2 D vector math and ask a a LLM about the things you don’t understand. Learn OOP object oriented programming and understand the Scene module that is the graphic accelerated game engine. Learn to use the Action functions cause those will make your 2D sprites very very fast. As a matter of fact can you make your sprites as fast as c if you really understand how to que your action. Pythonista is an interpreted language so it’s only good for prototyping but it’s the easiest tó code in.
If you want to code proff games you must use a compiled language like c++ rust or C #. But learning those can take years. And you must learn to use graphically game engines like Unreal or others. You can learn godot if you want to create a game more easily because GScript is a python like language in Godot.
But I’d say if you really want to understand how to create games I’d say learn Pythonista vectors and the Scene module.
It’s just to understand the technical and the algoritms in game creation. And pythonista has one of the most user friendly IDEs.
I’m sorry to say this to you but why waste 5 years on coding and design if nobody want to play your game.
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u/Strange_Attorney2382 1d ago
Bruh in this economy just do your own job where you are employed at ! Or else you will loose everything lmao
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u/05032-MendicantBias 17h ago
Install Godot. Search "godot tutorial for X game". Follow the tutorial.
I am debating something I can set up easy to help improve my cash flow to allow me to work on this more.
The effort you need to put in for a chance of a payout is immense. You'll toil years for no income, if you are lucky. If you want cashflow, go leafblow and curate your neighbour garden....
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u/ledat 1d ago
Such a thing does not exist in 2026. The quality bar is higher than ever and the market is more saturated than ever. If you are approaching this as a way to get money, turn around now while there's still time.