Community Question of the Week: If you could master one new game dev skill in the next year what would it be?

From custom imports/exports to the ever-elusive "juiciness," our Game Dev Community shares their thoughts on what they'd like to learn.

October 14, 2024
Discord Question of the Week Hero image

Each week we pose a question to our game developer community on the Microsoft Game Dev Discord. The beating heart of our online developer community, our Discord server allows developers to connect with each other, share their projects, get support, and network with peers in a thriving discussion space.

This week’s question is: If you could master one new game dev skill in the next year what would it be?

Adriano Pessoa, Lucky Raccoon Games: “I would like to master juiciness! Although it is a very broad subject, juiciness is something that elevates a game into a truly good game.

Juiciness is putting together visuals, effects and sounds in a dimension that keeps the player informed and at the same time entertained.

What I really want is to learn how to apply this intuitively, so that it is part of the game plan from the beginning, something that I can plan naturally. The main idea is to put together visual, auditory and sensory elements, with the aim of awakening feelings such as fun, excitement, surprise, action, urgency, and so on.

It's about making something catch the player's attention at the right moment. It's about creating the feeling that the player is doing something truly epic. It could be putting a camera shake here, a visual effect there, a sound effect at the right time, something that informs the player about their actions, but that at the same time has the power to awaken emotions, connection and satisfaction with the game while playing. This is something that I have been studying and applying little by little in my games. It is something that I would really like to master and be able to do it more naturally.”

Alan “Kazu” Nguyen: “I've wasted so much time this year but for next year, I would focus on programming, especially problem solving, data structure and algorithms. Those are all useful skills that a developer needs to know to solve many problems about designing new and old mechanics using your own understanding. Last month, I participated in a game jam and failed because I was stuck in a book flipping mechanic because of my lack of problem-solving skills. I hope that I can improve and find a way to ‘git gud’ now and in the next year, because I don't want my time to waste any further.”

Jana “2DPixx” Ochse, 2D game artist: “Game Design. How to create great gameplay and how to use narration in a subtle yet meaningful way to support gameplay instead of taking away the focus.

Also to be able to look at the world and get inspired enough to bring something new to the table instead of just rehashing old ideas of people with a lot more inspiration than myself. Wishing to be a better listener/observer to myself, other people and our surroundings, because in essence it all comes down to understanding all of this if we want to create experiences for each other. I think it does not matter if it is about games or anything else.”

Manuel Cota, Software by Tarh Ik: “I would like to master the creation of custom importers and exporters in Blender. The advantage of using DirectX is that you can do pretty much everything, but the disadvantage is that you must… pretty much do everything.

When it comes to 3D models, I've been able to get by with some in-house tools I've created using a customized version of Microsoft's X-file format. However, if one day I need the collaboration of an experienced 3D modeler, there is no way they would agree to use my homebrewed tools. The only way other indies would agree to collaborate with me is if there was a bridge between their familiar design environment and mine. This import/export file add-on would be the cornerstone for that bridge.”

Screenshot from Amazing Maze by Lucky Raccoon Games, available on Xbox

Want to join in on the discussion? Visit the Microsoft Game Dev community on Discord to hang out with us, we’d love to see you there!