Game Dev

Tips to NOT be overwhelmed

Here is a post from a developer talking about how they are overwhelmed working on their first game. How it started fun and exciting but now months later is has become too much, this is a very common problem. Reading the post it very much sounds like extreme over-scoping (multiplayer on the very first game!)

The top response provides some excellent tips for dealing with this, it is by Tomas Sala who is a very successful indie dev (made Falconeer and Bulwark).

First is how Game Dev is quite different from regular Software development, it is much more exploratory. Iteration speed is super important to try out different ideas and figure out what works.

Then focus on the core first, don't even think about multiplayer until you have the core game loop working (unless multiplayer is part of the core, like Among Us)

After the core is solid, make it look good and show it to people to get feedback. If your goal is financial success then validating your idea is super important, marketing is one of the best skills you NEED to learn, watch my videos with a Steam Marketing Expert.

Of course if you're making games just for fun then this step doesn't matter, but then again if you're doing it as a hobby you shouldn't be feeling overwhelmed.

In terms of very practical advice I would say write down to-do lists, that’s my best tip. Come up with all the tasks that you need to do to get your game to the finish line. It can be extremely intimidating to just imagine all the things you have left to do, but it becomes a lot more manageable once you have a list of 100 tasks and then just start doing them one by one.

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Tech

Valve Hardware LEAKS

Steam VR has been updated, and inside it apparently includes models for the Controllers for Valve's rumoured upcoming VR device codenamed Deckard.

These leaked controllers seems seem to be similar to the Quest's controllers, there's no IR ring around it, DPad on the left and 4 buttons on the right. It appears there are no grips for your hands to let go, that was one of the main things of the Index controllers.

Alongside this there was another leak on a potential Steam Controller update showing off dual touchpads like a Steam Deck.

I must say I really loved my Steam Controller, I'm one of the few people that did. I really enjoyed playing Mafia 3 with it where I could drive the car using the joystick and then aim accurately using the gyro.

These are all leaks through Steam updates so there's no official word on anything, no one knows if or when these will be released.

Tech

Making Apps, just like Game Dev

Making a living from Indie Game Development is a very difficult task, 95% of games fail (financially, if you make games for fun then you CAN'T fail)

And one very similar industry is App development. It's also an industry that is overcrowded with millions of apps that exist and also 0 discoverability. If you try making an App (or a Mobile game) you will quickly realize just how good Steam actually is in terms of discoverability.

On that note here is a really interesting article from a dev talking about his 15 years spent building apps. It's very interesting to see the parallels to indie game development.

He talks about Find your Niche; Wear Many Hats; Reflect Regularly; Understand your Strengths and Weaknesses; and many more very applicable lessons to game dev.

Gaming

Unique November Games

Yesterday I was researching the Top New Games of November for my series, and this month has some really interesting very innovative stand outs. I'm always amazed by the creativity of indie devs.

One of the most innovative mechanics I've seen in a long time is in Gladio Mori, this is a physically accurate gladiator game, your character swings a sword and it will deal damage exactly where the sword connects. Then it might deal vital damage or just muscle damage.

But the really interesting mechanic is how you can define your own movesets, there is an in-game custom animation editor where you can grab some IK handles to define the animations of your attacks, I've never seen a mechanic like this and it looks perfect for this kind of game! Super unique!

Another great one is just the perfectly chosen genre for a licensed IP game. DEATH NOTE Killer Within is a social deduction game (Among Us) where one team plays for Kira trying to identify and kill L, whereas the other team plays as L and the inspectors trying to destroy the Death Note. Really perfect genre for the IP.

Then for one that has a great mix of genres is ShapeHero Factory. This is a Factory Roguelite Tower Defense game. You build a Factory to create soldiers of various types using converyor belts and machines, then go out into battle and you win or lose based on output from your factory. This is actually the idea I originally had for my game Blueprint Tycoon where the prototype working title was The Army Supplier.

And then a game that makes me feel old, the full title is: "420BLAZEIT 2: GAME OF THE YEAR -=Dank Dreams and Goated Memes=- [#wow/11 Like and Subscribe] Poggerz Edition"

This basically looks like the perfect Gen Z terminally online game, it's all about memes, visual insanity, comic sans, and nothing really makes sense. But it seems to be a great game since the reviews are at a near perfect score.