Community Question of the Week: What game dev advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time?
Our Game Dev Community shares their thoughts on what they wish they knew when they were starting out in game dev.
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: What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time to when you were starting your game dev journey?
YongJu Lee (이용주), aka "Kumunua", game development student: “If I could go back in time and give advice to my past self, I would say not to discard the small games I made back then and to keep them safe.
At that time, I had just started coding and didn’t understand the concept of a ‘portfolio.’ My desire to release the best game led me to throw away those smaller projects, making it difficult now to showcase the things I did back then. I would stress the importance of having a portfolio. To avoid making the same mistake, I am now storing every small game and unfinished project on a USB drive, recording my work to build my portfolio, gain experience, and create something that proves my journey.”
Manuel Cota, Software by Tarh Ik: “Listen, younger me: Stop trying to prove to others that you can build a video game for the leading console all by yourself. I’ll give you the answer right now: yes, you can. That doesn’t mean that you should press the “publish” button as soon as you get a working prototype.
Stop arguing with other developers about what works and what doesn't.
Have patience.
Focus on user experience. Extend the golden rule of software development: Be the player of your own games, only then will you know if your games are fun.
Your game controls must be smooth. A rage quit is a bad review.
If you don’t like the user interface, don’t hesitate to scrap it and re-design it. When you love your UI, the players will love it as well.
Look at what AAA games have done. Learn from them and mimic their flow. Believe me when I tell you: your average player is expecting that flow.
And lastly, here is the secret about how to use social media to increase your productivity: Shut the darn browser down and get back to work.”
Tyler “Coffee” Merker, currently working on Bow-Bots: “Start small. Like, excruciatingly small. Build Pong, then build Pac-Man, then build Super Mario. Don't run out to build StarCraft or Halo, or the next big tactics franchise. Whatever you think is ‘too small to be worth your time.’ Good. Start there anyways. It'll either be easy and you'll know you can do it, or it'll be harder than you think, but you'll still be able to do it.
Too many developers, myself included, stumble because they don't want to start at the beginning.”
Marlon “Nolram” Wolfersdorf: “There are only three simple things, really: Be ready to kill ideas you love. Work additively: Start from something working, like a prototype, then expand. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Nobody is expecting you to make the greatest game of all time on your first try.”
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!