#Senior Developer on Web wants to try Game Development

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

clear lintel
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So im a web developer with 10 years of experience worked on multiple different kinds of projects but i always had my eye on game development but thought to myself was too much of a work for a single person and couldnt find time anyways.

But im at this point in my career where im more lax and can dedicate more time to my hobbies.

What i want to know specificaly is that if 1 person can finish developing a game without using too much money on different kinds of assets and how much time would it take. For example i don't want to buy textures, 3d assets & animations etc. for ridicolous amounts of money. Im fine with whatever freely if any of these aforementioned and similar resources available. And if there are such available resources please share where can i get them.

I have intermediate experience working with C# & .NET 6 for web projects of course. Therefore do not want to swich to different kinds of programming language in my early days i tried C++ and it was a nightmare. I don't like being given too much option to do same thing i want to be strictly do what is considered a good practice.

What i have in my mind is something similar to but trimmed down to what 1 person can achieve of course:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/269210/Hero_Siege

but in 3D since i have absolutely no talent for 2D art i'd be relying on outsourcing too much.

Also i am not sure if Unity is the right choice for what i am aiming. I am not even sure if Unity is still free to use for commercial usage there was a lot of going on in the recent past i just didnt followed up on it, so if anyone can enlighten me please do so.

golden radish
# clear lintel So im a web developer with 10 years of experience worked on multiple different k...

My opinion is if you have free time, use that free time to enjoy other things. game development is nightmare for a solo game developer. you have to do all aspect such as 2D, 3D, gameplay, logic, debugging, multi platform test, Profiling the CPU and GPU, memory is most important one, optimization, shaders, VFX, lighting, environment design, narrative, all other tricks and faking. the game like Hero_Siege have talented Artist, you can't make good game without good looking. I don't think for web developer optimization would be priority but for a game developer you should measure everything so you could get the best performance. Yes unity is completely free to use, pro version is not require, and don't listen to internet bullsh*t, Unity still is one of the best engines and it's capable of making good games. tutorials and documentation and Community is Amazing! So as I have said, go for a small project and try to learn the basics, fundamentals is most important things a game developer need to know, unfortunately most game developers doesn't have idea how Computer and hardware works. start with small game and if you like it go on for a big project. if you go for solo game developer you would be a generalist and you must do everything by your own, always use plugins and assets to speed up your process. your small first game might takes months or weeks to release, but for a large project you need at least one year development. also I recommend to target your games for only specific platforms. (EDIT: marketing your game is another thing, most indie game developer fail at this point)

round zenith
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Unity would be the best solution here. Try it and do some basic games. Start with something simple and then work your way up. Understand how Unity works. It's a long way and focus your time on learning things separate. It's possible to build good games solo but it takes time. Unity has a lot of assets to work with and tools like Shader Graph and VFX Graph that helps you archive stunning graphics. Also since Unity is widely used, there are many resources to read from and work with. And yes, Unity is still free until you reach a certian amount of revenue per year and you can choose how you want to share your profit after that.

lean flame
obtuse ruin
# clear lintel So im a web developer with 10 years of experience worked on multiple different k...

Ok, I'm going to do the douchy thing and number drop, but what's important is the context.

I'm self taught. And like you, had a lot of free time as my day job was guh. I started with mobile and yeah it took me over a year to create my first app. Entered a game competition for handhelds and barely made a dent to the world. Both did terribly. But I used them as a base and launched a second app a week later that did very well, and my games started doing better too.

Since then I've worked on about 400 projects. 250 of them were mobile apps, games and small experiences (solo) before doing 150 bigger game and VR experiences (as a company).

I learned a lot. It was a fantastic learning experience. I'm about 16 years in. It didn't start moving fast until I quit my day job and did it full time. The longer you wait, the more competition there is and the more you'll need to learn.

I work on music, art, modeling, animation, coding etc. You will master all of those but they can take a few years each at least - music Ive been playing since I was young that was probably the longest. Mastering blender was a few years (thanks to the 1.x to 2.x conversion being a nightmare). Animation and art, you just need to practice a bit every day, record your progress, and learn learn learn. Unity is just C# with their apis on top, the hardest part will be learning what is a bug in the engine vs your code vs working as expected. Read the manual top to bottom a few times.

If I can do it, you can do it. Do a couple stupid small games first. Then a very simple concept prototype I use my rule of 1s (1 hour - design, 1 day - concept, 1 week - prototype, 1 month- beta, 1 year - release) as my targets for working on bigger titles.

Until you learn the little quirks of the engine though, you run a big risk of redoing your work a bunch of times later on if you aren't careful and start small.

Anyway, I hope it inspires you and helps. My life was changed dramatically by making my first game. I wouldn't change it for anything.

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And yes, I use unreal a lot, Unity a lot, godot, and a bunch of others. If you have time, I recommend doing a basic tutorial on each, and seeing which engine resonates with you. If at all possible, I'd strongly recommend learning an opensource tool over unity.

clear lintel
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Thanks for everyone, sharing your experiences and advices you have given are much appreciated.

clear lintel
# golden radish My opinion is if you have free time, use that free time to enjoy other things. g...

I can imagine being a nightmare doing every little bit of process of making a game. Do you think it is possible to use completely free assets for some of those processes of game making ? Because i really have no problems making use of freely available resources. I have some experiences using blender in the past and i can may be put some time into making more unique characters/buldings etc myself but i really don't want to make more than lets say 50, 3D assets that would be the limit.

clear lintel
clear lintel
# obtuse ruin Ok, I'm going to do the douchy thing and number drop, but what's important is th...

I'm self taught too ! but as web developer :) you must have such a blast having worked on 400 projects really impressive.

As i explained @golden radish on my previous comment i don't want to master said aspects of game making. If anything i'll rather don't use any music or sound other than very basic 8bit whatever is available on google search.

I do not want to make this as a hobby and making money at the side. I am fine with not profiting from it, at the end maybe i'll even share as a free game on steam.

as for redoing my work, im familiar with refactoring :) no problems.

bottom line is i just want to focus on coding.

obtuse ruin
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But yeah, asset packs are great, use them if you can. The most important part at phase 1 is getting something- anything- playable and making sure other people like the base concept

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You'll know you are onto something once you become addicted to your own game 😄 and then your QA friends get addicted, and yeah you are on a path then

clear lintel
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Do you perhaps share what is the roadmap for making game. I mean what do you start with making and then move on to doing what etc. to the very end. ?

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Also which websites do people visit for freely available resource outside of Unity Store ?

lean flame
golden radish
clear lintel
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I am really concerned about if it possible to skip some of it tho. Can i even purely focus on coding ?

golden radish
# clear lintel Do you perhaps share what is the roadmap for making game. I mean what do you sta...

(this is for when you have created more than 1 game, otherwise just go and create with tutorials without any planning)

start with the document, I suggest a page document that you can find on the Internet (let me look if I find it will send the link). then start with basic concepts like movement and camera then go for basic logic for your game if you have a specific mechanic and then go for environment design, after a couple of weeks your project will have some depth then at that point, you can start to develop pieces by pieces. sometimes go for sound design, or sometimes mechanics or Art, and so on. Until you get a good vision of the game then you can put the plan for marketing and start to polish your game. (only after making at least 1 game)

clear lintel
golden radish
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Don't go for shaders, shaders need good understanding. learn basic shader graphs in unity but try to use ready shaders as much as possible.

clear lintel
golden radish
clear lintel
golden radish
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I have youtube (gamedevbox) I use this in one of my videos

clear lintel
golden radish