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What it takes to make a game by yourself

dillonshook.com

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Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#11

Post by hinkley »

danielvaughn wrote: post #2

The irony of video games is that they’re often associated (at least in America) with childishness. And yet, by any conceivable standard, they’re by far the most complex creative endeavor. Creating a video game requires knowledge of the following: programming, graphics, 3D or 2D art tools, artistic ability, UI and UX design, game design, music production, cinematography, storytelling, copywriting, etc etc. It’s just a…

I think part of that is because we are expected to put up with frustrating software at work because we are getting paid for it so if the work is more work than it needs to be, well just shut up and do your job.

Games are supposed to be fun. The money goes the other way, so the annoyances are taken a bit more seriously. The creator has to take that frustration on themselves instead of externalizing it, which is more work for them.

Add to that the delight aspect, and games try crazy stuff that would never fly with business software. 'Safe' doesn't get you many accolades so you're essentially obliged to try at least a few things. And the shelf life is lower so even if you fuck up you usually only have to hear about it for three years and then you can try something new. Once in a while, every five years or so, one of those UI gambles ends up being adopted by the industry, so while not the most effective petri dish for general UX research, it still gets some results.

Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#12

Post by meheleventyone »

danielvaughn wrote: post #2

The irony of video games is that they’re often associated (at least in America) with childishness. And yet, by any conceivable standard, they’re by far the most complex creative endeavor. Creating a video game requires knowledge of the following: programming, graphics, 3D or 2D art tools, artistic ability, UI and UX design, game design, music production, cinematography, storytelling, copywriting, etc etc. It’s just a…

This is only sort of true. I’ve been making games for over thirty years and nearly hit twenty years of doing it professionally. The truth is you only need to be passable at some of those things. Even if you want to make a game by yourself. Whilst I don’t think everyone has a commercially successful game in them I also am pretty sure that’s way more to do with circumstance and project management ability than any sort of raw talent. On top of which no game is truly the work of one person even if the help is uncredited.

TLDR; games like movies are a sum of parts that is a lot less creative and original than might appear at first blush.

Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#13

Post by tdeck »

prewett wrote: post #7

This is really a sequence of seven games of totally different genres, which is definitely going to increase the difficulty and time commitment! It looks like an interesting game, though.

Yep, it's worth watching the video as I was really impressed by the diversity of gameplay.

Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#14

Post by aschearer »

danielvaughn wrote: post #2

The irony of video games is that they’re often associated (at least in America) with childishness. And yet, by any conceivable standard, they’re by far the most complex creative endeavor. Creating a video game requires knowledge of the following: programming, graphics, 3D or 2D art tools, artistic ability, UI and UX design, game design, music production, cinematography, storytelling, copywriting, etc etc. It’s just a…

I agree. For a long time I felt games weren't art in the same vein as e.g. painting. More recently I've come to feel that's not true. As you say, making compelling games requires compelling art across multiple mediums. Add on top of that interactivity and agency! That's part of what's so satisfying about making them. It's an incredible challenge and measure of your ability.

Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#15

Post by JKCalhoun »

bergenty wrote: post #4

Not much, I was able to make 9 levels of a very graphic intensive game in unreal over six months. Is it really that much work to take it from that to something that runs on all the platforms? I’m genuinely asking.

I often found people could get a concept up and running (nine levels is impressive) but that there were boring things still to do like high scores, saved games, control configuration UI, settings, etc. that were a sort of hurdle that many people weren't willing to invest in.

Then again, getting something just up to the point that it is playable, a proof of concept, is when you can really see if a game is fun or not. I have floppy disks full of games that never made it past that point because there was just ... something missing.

Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#16

Post by dietrichepp »

meheleventyone wrote: post #12
danielvaughn wrote: post #2

The irony of video games is that they’re often associated (at least in America) with childishness. And yet, by any conceivable standard, they’re by far the most complex creative endeavor. Creating a video game requires knowledge of the following: programming, graphics, 3D or 2D art tools, artistic ability, UI and UX design, game design, music production, cinematography, storytelling, copywriting, etc etc. It’s just a…

This is only sort of true. I’ve been making games for over thirty years and nearly hit twenty years of doing it professionally. The truth is you only need to be passable at some of those things. Even if you want to make a game by yourself. Whilst I don’t think everyone has a commercially successful game in them I also am pretty sure that’s way more to do with circumstance and project management ability than any sort…

I agree with this.

I've worked with various teams on game jams and I’ve had conversations with people over the years, encouraging people to hold themselves to a lower standard. It’s not just the fact that this is a game jam—we are not competing with Zelda, and our game doesn’t need to have scope, scale, or polish similar to a Zelda game.

I also enjoy playing a game and seeing somebody’s amateur-ish art, or hearing some clumsy musical phrases that they put together. There’s something special about that which is hard to capture when you start spreading the work around people, because it’s just so hard to put together a coherent vision for a game in multiple minds.

We’ve also talked about how you run into a lot of people who’s main goal is to do job X at a higher level of technical ability and polish so they can get hired by a studio they like. It’s understandable why they’d want that, but it also leads to people sanding the edges off their style, so to speak. This makes it difficult to assemble a team of people who are all interested in the same style of development process (no judgment—some people on your team want a portfolio piece for a future job, some people want to express themselves here and now).

I don’t think making a solo game developer should be any different than being a novel writer, in the sense that it’s not a club reserved for the people who are good at doing it—but a club for the people who put in the time and effort to make something.

Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#18

Post by qzw »

danielvaughn wrote: post #2

The irony of video games is that they’re often associated (at least in America) with childishness. And yet, by any conceivable standard, they’re by far the most complex creative endeavor. Creating a video game requires knowledge of the following: programming, graphics, 3D or 2D art tools, artistic ability, UI and UX design, game design, music production, cinematography, storytelling, copywriting, etc etc. It’s just a…

This is so true, except for that one glorious, fleeting period when iOS apps were new and you could be an overnight millionaire with something like Flappy Bird.

Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#19

Post by CobrastanJorji »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #8
danielvaughn wrote: post #2

The irony of video games is that they’re often associated (at least in America) with childishness. And yet, by any conceivable standard, they’re by far the most complex creative endeavor. Creating a video game requires knowledge of the following: programming, graphics, 3D or 2D art tools, artistic ability, UI and UX design, game design, music production, cinematography, storytelling, copywriting, etc etc. It’s just a…

IME the US has a unhealthy culture of work. Religion too carries a "put childish things behind you" influence. Things do appear to be changing, yet with older generations there's still a lot of judgement.

I think if I ever got asked to write up a religion, there'd need to be a positive commandment ordering you to enjoy yourself in moderation on a daily basis. Something that says "if you're making yourself miserable all day every day, you are sinning." Not sure how to word it in a way that discourages hedonism and also doesn't make people trapped in lousy situations feel even worse, but that'd be the goal.

Re: What it takes to make a game by yourself

#20

Post by ransom1538 »

danielvaughn wrote: post #2

The irony of video games is that they’re often associated (at least in America) with childishness. And yet, by any conceivable standard, they’re by far the most complex creative endeavor. Creating a video game requires knowledge of the following: programming, graphics, 3D or 2D art tools, artistic ability, UI and UX design, game design, music production, cinematography, storytelling, copywriting, etc etc. It’s just a…

"programming, graphics, 3D or 2D art tools, artistic ability, UI and UX design, game design, music production, cinematography, storytelling, copywriting, etc etc."

Also! Physics, vector math, AI, cameras, shaders, networking, etc

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