Posted October 01, 2024
I've run into a new game engine Redot recently and wondered how hard to start making games.
Does anybody have experience and can share what I should expect?
Does anybody have experience and can share what I should expect?
ASHLIIN
New User
Registered: Mar 2020
From Austria
Dark_art_
🔴I'm just glad that cows don't fly YO
Registered: Dec 2017
From Portugal
idbeholdME
Doomed Space Marine
Registered: Jun 2016
From Czech Republic
Posted October 01, 2024
Funny that you stumble on the one engine that is days old after having been forked from Godot over the recent controversy instead of one of the more mainstream ones...
One other Engine that is good to start with is Unreal. It's free to use until you reach a certain volume of sales and one of the most feature packed out there.
And as for the question, it depends on so many factors it's hard to even begin describing and depends pretty much entirely on what you intend to do. Scope, solo/vs team effort etc. I only dabbled lightly in Unreal out of interest many years ago, never touched Godot (or any offshoot of that), so can't offer any relevant firsthand experience.
One other Engine that is good to start with is Unreal. It's free to use until you reach a certain volume of sales and one of the most feature packed out there.
And as for the question, it depends on so many factors it's hard to even begin describing and depends pretty much entirely on what you intend to do. Scope, solo/vs team effort etc. I only dabbled lightly in Unreal out of interest many years ago, never touched Godot (or any offshoot of that), so can't offer any relevant firsthand experience.
Post edited October 01, 2024 by idbeholdME
ppavee
Pixel ogre living in a cave of a northern troll.
Registered: Dec 2013
From Finland
Posted October 01, 2024
In my opinion (disclaimer: I have tried some game making courses and engines, but never really made anything) the hardest part is making a good idea of a game that has something to grasp attention of people.
Random_Coffee
I talk about Bloodlines at parties
Registered: Dec 2012
From Norway
Posted October 01, 2024
Me and my friend have been talking about doing it for three years, but.. literally nothing has been done yet. Yeah, game making is hard.
mechmouse
gog n' cogs
Registered: Mar 2013
From United Kingdom
dnovraD
2023-08-14: Remember the Spaces!
Registered: Jul 2012
From United States
Posted October 01, 2024
Yeah, it's basically a miracle that a game gets into a publishable state.
Also, maybe don't use the redpill version of Godot, just sayin'.
Also, maybe don't use the redpill version of Godot, just sayin'.
Post edited October 01, 2024 by dnovraD
brouer
New Mouser
Registered: Nov 2015
From Denmark
Posted October 01, 2024
Anyhu, taking the topic at face value: Depending on personal ambition, the hardest part is probably coming up with an actually interesting game idea that hasn't been done to death already.
And for a solo developer or small team, having the required talent in all areas (programming, graphics design, music/SFX design and, last but definitely not least, putting together a coherent story) to make a potential commercial success is...well good luck.
But just making simple stuff for yourself and close family can still be tremendous fun. You never know until you try, so go for it.
If you're aiming at 2D games, or if your PC can't handle Unreal, Godot is a very good contender. It'll run well on even weak laptops, and its feature set is impressive for such a lean program.
However, for someone with zero previous exposure to programming, it might be worth to first play with something simpler like Microsoft Makecode Arcade, GDevelop or MicroStudio.
dnovraD
2023-08-14: Remember the Spaces!
Registered: Jul 2012
From United States
Posted October 01, 2024
Post edited October 01, 2024 by dnovraD
Breja
You're in my spot
Registered: Apr 2012
From Poland
Posted October 01, 2024
Just look at how many bad and mediocre games there are. Except for some scams maybe, no one sets out to make anything less than a good game.
dtgreene
vaccines work she/her
Registered: Jan 2010
From United States
Posted October 01, 2024
I would suggest just using Godot.
Game making isn't that easy; if it were, how come so many high budget games come out with bugs or other issues?
Game making isn't that easy; if it were, how come so many high budget games come out with bugs or other issues?
Shmacky-McNuts
New User
Registered: Dec 2011
From United States
Posted October 02, 2024
I tried making a Zork like game.....when Zork was new(omg......). It was difficult, because you realise you need substance very quickly.
park_84
¨3 -( ♪ )
Registered: Aug 2010
From Spain
Posted October 02, 2024
It's not trivial, but go ahead if you're interested in this, it's the way to get an idea for yourself.
Want some advice to get you started? Don't go crazy when choosing your first projects, keep it really simple, don't try to make the new GTA, but clones of games like Tetris, Pong, Space Invaders or Pacman.
For now, you don't really need to focus on game design. The mechanics of these classic titles are well established and proven to work, so just replicate them. Concentrate on building the game itself and, most importantly, completing it, which is also easier to achieve if you choose simple games. Aim to make a complete, well polished project, from start to finish, paying attention to detail, including all the screens, all the menus and configurations, all the graphics and music, etc.
If you set your goals too high at the beginning, you'll probably get nowhere, so start simple and grow from there.
Want some advice to get you started? Don't go crazy when choosing your first projects, keep it really simple, don't try to make the new GTA, but clones of games like Tetris, Pong, Space Invaders or Pacman.
For now, you don't really need to focus on game design. The mechanics of these classic titles are well established and proven to work, so just replicate them. Concentrate on building the game itself and, most importantly, completing it, which is also easier to achieve if you choose simple games. Aim to make a complete, well polished project, from start to finish, paying attention to detail, including all the screens, all the menus and configurations, all the graphics and music, etc.
If you set your goals too high at the beginning, you'll probably get nowhere, so start simple and grow from there.
UnashamedWeeb
+200 rep before negrep bots
Registered: Jun 2020
From Canada
Posted October 02, 2024
Bottom 50% now make less than $4,000 rather than $5,000 per game.
Top 25% of self-published indie games revenue expectations have almost halved to $26,000. You’ll have to be in the top quartile if you want to make more than that as an indie dev.
Top 14 % – This is the threshold of crossing $100k gross revenue line. C. 3,000 self-published indie games have made over $100k gross revenue on Steam. That’s a bigger number than I thought. Steam is 17 years old, but the majority of games have been posted in the last 5-6 years. That’s around 500 indie games per year that cross $100k mark. Not bad.
Top 10% earn more than $187,000
The top 1% of indie games have earned more than $7,000,000. That’s c. 200 self-published indie games that have made it. These are mega popular games like Subnautica and Rimworld that have made well over a $100m in revenue as well as games like Plague Inc, Don’t Starve, Orcs Must Die! 2, etc that have still made tens of millions of dollars each. They’re very rarely teams of less than 5, but almost always teams of less than 40 people. This is more than $175,000 per employee, in some cases millions of dollars per employee.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210429064531/https://www.intoindiegames.com/how-much-money-do-steam-games-make
I'd say pretty hard.
Post edited October 02, 2024 by UnashamedWeeb
Magnitus
Born Idealist
Registered: Mar 2011
From Canada
Posted October 02, 2024
I'll let you know when I'm done, but so far I'd say pretty hard and it's not even a technically impressive project with tons of intricate animations. More like a text/menu-driven rpg.
Unless you work in a large team, you need to juggle up a lot of different skills: Game design, programming, writing and in my case, ux design (the game is menu-heavy). My wife will draw the art, but she still needs direction concerning what to draw (and that takes some figuring out) and while I'll use pre-existing music and sound effects for now, I still need to pick them and that's work too.
Assuming you work on your project iteratively (that would be my recommendation as it is nice to see things evolve and it gives you some agility to play what you have so far and change course earlier if you find that you don't like something), you'll be context-switching between these considerations a lot.
Add to that the constant uncertainty until the project is in a more advanced stage concerning the fact that you don't know for sure whether the end result will be entertaining or not and I'd say it takes some determination to push through.
Unless you work in a large team, you need to juggle up a lot of different skills: Game design, programming, writing and in my case, ux design (the game is menu-heavy). My wife will draw the art, but she still needs direction concerning what to draw (and that takes some figuring out) and while I'll use pre-existing music and sound effects for now, I still need to pick them and that's work too.
Assuming you work on your project iteratively (that would be my recommendation as it is nice to see things evolve and it gives you some agility to play what you have so far and change course earlier if you find that you don't like something), you'll be context-switching between these considerations a lot.
Add to that the constant uncertainty until the project is in a more advanced stage concerning the fact that you don't know for sure whether the end result will be entertaining or not and I'd say it takes some determination to push through.
Post edited October 02, 2024 by Magnitus