Top Things to Know When Creating Your First Game
KEY POINTS
- Focus on game mechanics and concepts before artwork; visuals can be finalized later through outsourcing.
- Utilize prototypes for feedback; diversify learning through tutorials beyond your game genre.
- Maintain enjoyment in development; avoid over-attachment and burnout to keep the process fun.
If you love to play online video games, the chances are pretty good that you’ve thought about making your own.
If you have a game idea in mind, you want to be able to bring it to the forefront, especially if you love playing games online yourself. And you can think of an idea in the market that hasn’t yet been tapped.
The thing is, you probably don’t know much about video game creation, and that’s OK. There are only a few things you really need to see through to completion: creativity, patience, and a lot of determination.
When you’re working on your video games, you need to think about what put you in that position in the 1st place and how you can make sure that your video game comes to life. So here are the things that you need to know about creating your very first one.
You don’t need to think about artwork just yet
Often, game designers think that they need to think about the artwork for the game that they want before anything else, but that is not the case.
You can pay for game art outsourcing much later on and have an idea of what you want, but you really need to think about the concept of the game and everything you want to include within it first.
Game art is the very last thing you’ll think about because you don’t need to have the game art down before you get the idea on paper.
You need feedback
You must create a prototype and share it with your friends and family for feedback. You should never base your video game on dimensions but on your assets. Creating a skeleton of your video game is going to help you to get some feedback that you need to know whether the game is going in the right direction.
You need to read as many tutorials as possible
It would be best if you read tutorials, remember them, and test them for later. Tutorials don’t often resemble the game you’re creating, so give it a read anyway.
For example, if you’re creating platform games, you might want to read up on tutorials for creating a top-down shooter game or one for a board game. Some tutorials have gameplay mechanics that you can borrow for your gaming idea and implement.
Don’t get too close
It’s very easy to overthink this because it’s a project you’ve got in mind. You need to think about how you can do better with your gaming, and that means you need not to overthink how the game is going to go.
If it’s not fun, you’re doing it wrong. If it’s not fun, gaming should be something that’s exciting and fun to make. It shouldn’t feel like work, and it should feel like crafting A masterpiece that’s functional, enjoyable, and something that you’re happy to share with those around you.
Don’t take things too seriously because if you get to that point, you’re going to end up burning out, and it won’t be fun anymore. Once it stops being fun, you won’t want to create that game.
