#getting started with game development

[askagamedev]

I’ve got two questions if you don’t mind:

1.) when making a game what’s the best place to start? (Story, character design, etc?)

2.) most have their brand/developer names, but do you need one to publish games?

Thanks in advance from a solo dev!

Sure, I can answer both.

1.) when making a game what’s the best place to start?

Always start with core gameplay. What will the player actually be doing? The player must be an active participant in whatever is happening in the game. If players are just going to sit and watch passively, they aren't playing a game at all - they're watching a show. What makes something a game is the active participation of one or more players to drive progress and make choices. In order to figure out how the player participates, you need to think about the various things the players will be doing and how those things are fun. A good rule of thumb is to list the actions as verbs. In a game like Call of Duty, the player verbs would be running, jumping, aiming, shooting, and throwing grenades. In a game like Street Fighter, the player verbs would be punching, kicking, jumping, blocking, crouching, throwing, walking, and performing special moves. Think about the actions player will be doing in your game and how you will build that out.

2.) most have their brand/developer names, but do you need one to publish games?

You don't absolutely need to have a separate brand or name to release a game - several solo devs have gone the route of full transparency. However, having a brand name does help to establish a separation of your work from you as a human being. That kind of association is pretty much permanent because the internet never forgets. Having the game, its community, and anything you post indelibly tied to any of your other public-facing actions on the internet (including personal social media posts) can be a double-edged sword. Having an intermediary name/entity be a shield can help a lot when you need it, and going 100% public is something that can't be taken back.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[notthemonthbutmarch]

No one asked but “I’m scared” is such an underrated motivation for a character to do shitty things to others.

Sometimes it’s just that simple, but there’s always some deeper meaning as to why that character is scared— like the Bad Guy heavily traumatized Protagonist and now Protagonist is deathly afraid of getting on Bad Guy’s bad side again. It’s so underrated that a character is scared solely because the situation and personal consequences scare them more than the determent of others.

Maybe I’m not looking at that kinda of media that much, but sometimes I kinda just want a character to do shitty things to others because they’re scared. Like pressing the Big Red Button is gonna launch a nuke at the building they’re currently in with the Bad Guy, but if they chose not to then the whole rest of the city gets leveled by the Bad Guy’s evil death laser of doom— and then they chose not to press the button because they’re just frankly scared of dying. They entered this fight hoping to walk away, and now between the choice to save themselves or save others they indirectly kill everyone they knew because they were just to scared to pull the trigger on themselves.

So yeah maybe make characters be cowards a little more often?

[st-hedge]

It wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card that I’d draw V again. Anyway I’ll go ahead ramble in the tags

[toskarin]

miss Toskarin you’re not convincing me that Skyrim was the ruin of all western rpgs. In fact you’re convincing me that the issues began with oblivion.

I'd better be careful or else I might convince you of my less loudly-held beliefs

[lynn-tged-posting]

happy pocky day!

[ganondoodle]

i will never forgive totk for giving us 5 minutes of zelda being excited and confident about her actual interests right at the start only to yank her away for the rest of the game and into the scared puppy eyed little maiden role standing uncomfortably besides the cool new guy™️

like is it actually a genuis tragic move of the writers to let her yet again not be allowed to be anything but a puppy eyed sacrificial maiden or is it just … bad writing how do i explain that i care so much about zelda that totk made me care not even a little bit about anyone but master koga bc of how it was written

i was more emotionally invested trying to get a chicken out of a well than i was with totks story or new characters (if you take the yiga out of the equation)

(and no, finding a few scraps of text, you have to grind to find, telling me that actualyl she had so much fun there and did like .. one thing with an some sort of never seen or otherwise hinted at construct and omg she totally was integrated like famillyy and found friends we never see isnt remedying anything imo)

[blackblooms]

Irredeamable is out!

Trailer Music: Destiny by Alexandr Zhelanov https://www.youtube.com/c/AlexandrZhelanovsMusic

Play Irredeamable on Gamejolt here! Or play it on Itch.io Here!

About Irredeamable

Irredeamable is my latest project, a semi-linear action-adventure game, where you control this little bundle of anger and angst in her quest to recover her lost powers and bring forth the end of the world.

Join Irredeamable Gamejolt community here! Follow me on twitter here!

The game has a heavy emphasis on combat, with a bit of platforming, and a whole lot of boss fights. There is also some mysterious lore to be uncovered by those willing to brave the world's deepest, darkest depths. My main goal with this account is to spread awareness of the game as i work on it. I'll post threads about the game content, characters, and world, with occasional distractions such as my unhinged game design thoughts and ideas. Don`t hesitate to share thoughts and engage, i love nothing more than to talk about writing and game design.

[kamek]

So, how are the humans faring in R.E.P.O.?

for those playing the beta updates, the museum of human art has been a wealth of information on the state of humanity, which i'm very glad for.

"Humanity almost perished. Lol!"

Yeah, they're not doing all that well.

In the interest of human survival, though, a group just calling themselves... "Human Group" has emerged.

"Human? Find us."

"It's not over for us."

They're heavily implied to function in groups and hunt semibots, and they as well as humanity in general live in survivalistic ways.

"Survive without possession" "I want stuff!" "Someone took the red pen!" "Who wrote this?" "Ye! Not ok!"

"I am sick of fresh corn!" "I do not care." "Ey! Sit down dude!"

"Take John the bots." "We will."

(this is the most l4d graffiti so far and i love it lol)

While this one doesn't specify anything being written by Human Group, the implications I'm picking up on here is that much of humanity, or at least what's left, has been driven into poverty and even homelessness by the Taxman and repossession.

There are likely other factors, but starvation and exposure may be a large factor into how few humans are left. Those who remain are fighting like hell to take back their world.

I think it's possible that the huntsman may have been associated with this group. Behind the scenes, we don't know whether he still operates with them (if ever) or if he's a lone agent.

Survival Help: Duck: No Touch Brain Guy: Tom started flying [so?] I saved him by pulling him out of the brain [????] Upscream: Hm. We once picked it up together. Trudge: I threw a grenade on a big one and it was not enough so I pushed it down a hole and that did it! Life: Life is difficult.

Free corn for Ammo 10:00-10:30pm Parking lot

I've seen a few people mention the idea that monsters and humans might coexist peacefully, or somewhat peacefully, so here's some interesting graffiti to consider; either the Human Group (if they wrote this) is also anti-monster, or some of the monsters are equally hostile to humans.

Here's a last couple graffiti that didn't add too much I didn't already discuss.

[chicle-exe]

Little lazy thing I made

[randomnameless]

Why do the FEH devs insist on ignoring Nabatean lore so much?

I recently had a surprisingly cordial discussion on redshit with someone about the "nabateans = colonisers" take, and one of the main points raised was that the game was purposedly foggy around Nabateans/Sothis/their story because it would obviously favor a certain narrative (and thus make another narrative look, uh, not that marketable anymore).

To be honest, we still ended up with a product that had a lead go "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and yet that lead is still marketable enough to have raunchy cipher cards and 5 FEH alts, so I actually wonder if, while pissing on that lore had that purpose, it was ultimately pointless since Supreme Leader can still sell goodies despite her incarnation in FE16.

And not only Supreme Leader - but the entirety of WC where we basically have 70% of the cast crying/complaining about their "mixed blood" or lack of and basically adding their 10 cents to the "this race and its blood is the reason why the world sucks".

I mean, can you imagine Sylvain selling any goodies and alts if Flayn replied to his "wah wah people only are kind to me and want to fuck me because I have Nabatean blood :(" by some uncharacteristic "good for you, I have to hide my ears, had to dye my hair, have to lie about my family because if the truth is found out about my identity, I will be hunted and vivisected like an animal and harvested for parts by people who call my kin abominations - just like what happens in the game where the same people who call my kin "abominations" ally with a classmate who calls me a creature and pretends I am incapable of human feelings based on my race".

FE Fodlan's main selling point is its cast of students, for various reasons, but even if I tried to kid myself, Nopes and FEH made it clears : students are the main selling point.

If you spare more time and attention to the Nabatean plot/lore, the students either grow from "likeable" to "despicable" or worse, you won't gaf about them because yeah sure, Hilda might be upset because people expect things from her due to her crust, but it would feel like a "peanut" compared to Seteth's irrational (granted, it's not so irrational since GW exists) fear that Flayn's newest friends would dissect her if they learnt she was a Nabatean, and being conflicted by finally letting her have human friends and form bonds she crave, or protect her due to the trauma from the genocide of their species.

Don't get me wrong, I love peanuts, I mean, not everyone can have a tragik of loaded backstory!

And yet, given how this verse's DNA is "can you fight against the red emperor who uwus about you", they had to add copious amounts of Earl Grey to their games so there's no clear-cut factions :

The "Your alien blood and its influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command" vs "I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

is turned to :

"Your alien blood Crests and its your church's influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command"

"I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

Sprinkle with the cast's hammering here and there that the "reforms" might be needed - but never develop on what they are - and add a few baseless and groundless takes as a toping (basically everything Claude says about tolerance and the general "isolationism/foreign policy" stuff) and you get FE Fodlan where the Red Emperor's war isn't seen as the catastrophe it is in the other entries from the series!

Now, for FEH...

FWIW, the F!F!Billy's trailer had them try to explain that Sothis was a bit pissed about her slaughtered/massacred children when Nopes never gave any reason about why she was pissed - maybe on Billy's behalf bcs Jerry's dead, but come on, she would indeed deserve the medal of the worst parent in the franchise if that was the case, since Billy can murder her daughter without Sothis taking over ! - but given that they cannot write/go against the source game those characters are from.

They tried a bit, with B!Supreme Leader and Hegemongard's FB, but then it stopped (because she had no "new unit" released since then lol) and I can understand why : Hegemongard came out before the Supreme Emblem, and Hegemongard hates dragons who are seen/perceived as gods by some of their human followers. Come FE17, and now Supreme Emblem accepts Alear because they are "one of the good ones". We can come up with HCs and details and talk about what are emblems or if Hegemongard's views were only hers at the end of AM all day long... But imo, Doylist wise, it still feels it's a retcon because the devs from the main games tried to scrap and remove the most "controversial" traits she had.

For the other characters... Well, you see what Marianne is in FEH (but even in her base games), she's one of the few characters who reacts - in a way - to the partial history about relics and demonic beasts and all... only to give sad uwus to Maurice.

FE16 (and Nopes) refused to have any "student" character react to the Nabatean lore/reveal, about what are relics and all. There are no lines, Claude shared some knowledge in the explore section of VW's last chapter, but we don't have anyone muse or think or even talk about what are relics, what are crests, and what kind of fuckery their ancestors or the ancient humans of Fodlan did.

With that in mind, FEH can't do much : either they write Marianne in a retcon-y way like what happened for Hegemongard (and they're not afraid to piss on characterisation, look at Lyon!), or they flanderise her "character" and develop her around 3 lines she had in the game in her paralogue, and continue to give sad uwus about Momo when he was at best a guy who slaughtered and murdered so much that he abused the Nabatean turned into a relic to the point where he turned in a demonic beast even if he had a matching crest, or at worst, had been part of Nemesis's piñata party in Zanado and was something of a genocider.

Tldr :

Why FE Fodlan never gaf about Nabateans : earl grey + the marketable cast has to stay marketable and you can't sell peanuts at the same price you'd sell swordfish

Why FEH dgaf about Nabatean lore : they can't afford to retcon characters + they have to sell peanut alts with the same seasoning they had in their base game.

For what it's worth though, I think FEH is more daring than the base game(s) given how they gave more lines and screentime to Rhea - through her different alts - than GW. And they even designed her Halloween!alt's lines to piss on some of Claude's assertions, while the various FB involving members of the church also - indirectly - reply to some accusations thrown their way in FE16 when, FE16, never gave them an opportunity or lines to explain that those takes were full of dung.

*"but random, maybe she doesn't know that the crests she often decries is "dragon blood"!"

It's highly debatable, especially given what she and Hubert throw to Billy in CF - but even if she doesn't, Doylist wise we still have a character who, knowingly or not, says "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and who is never called out on her prejudice. That's more of an issue regarding the general writing though, she has to be a red emperor and took pages from Ashnard's book, and yet, the player must still feel bad and want to romance her, so her mindest/goal cannot be looked at too closely, because, I guess, even the devs thought it would be difficult to romance her (thus sell goodies!) if more light was shed on the "blood from this race corrupts our people" schtick -> which in turn would also make characters whose backstory and gimmick rely on "crying about crests" be way less likeable, thus marketable and able to sell goodies.

[askagamedev]

I'm a recent computer science graduate and finished my military duty, where I also developed a strong concept for my first game. Game development is my passion, and I’d love to pursue it full-time, but I’m unsure if going indie can provide enough financial stability at the start. Should I focus on funding and self-publishing, or look for a stable job in the industry or another field and keep game dev as a hobby for now? My friends think I could succeed as an influencer if I started streaming, but I’m also unsure if I want to specialize—programming might be an option.

It's important to remember that you're still in your early levels and there's a lot of the tech tree you haven't yet explored. In the ideal scenario, you'll manage to find a job in the industry and use it to level up your skills. You'll be able to earn the skills and experience needed to make your dream game real while building other games and seeing some best practices in action.

Outside of the ideal scenario, I think that finding a job that can pay the bills and leave you with enough free time to spend on your passion is a worthwhile endeavor. The amount of crossover from regular software engineering and game development is not nil, and leveling up in software engineering is a net positive towards making your dream game work out too... and programming generally pays a lot better than indie dev work. You can even consider the day job as a means to earn some funding to build a demo that you can use to shop around for investors and further funding.

I would caution against starting off with streaming too - these are two entirely separate pastimes and require different sets of skills. I don't know how you operate - maybe you're naturally gifted at juggling multiple things at once or perhaps you have the gift of the gab so that you can keep an audience engaged while speaking into the void and also concentrating at the same time. I just know that it's difficult enough getting started without a lot of experience in one thing, let alone multiple things at once.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[basiliomagnus]

bothers you with questions and statements namely do you have any thoughts about rellouis you are willing to share. I am constantly in a state of starvation over them

i got another ask about this ship so you can take this excerpt from a fic im not gonna finish

[old-skyguy]

Look.

Ace Attorney fandom.

I know why people don't like Turnabout Bigtop. I am among the people who dislike Turnabout Bigtop.

But I GET why people like the case. I'm not going to be one of those annoying people who just blindly dump on it because I hate those mfs too.

Thing about Bigtop isn't that it sucks. Thing isn't the weird grooming stuff (though that is a huge part of it). It's not that it could've been good.

It's that - in my personal OPINION - it could have been *great*.

I think it had the potential to be one of the best third cases in the trilogy. It had everything; a fun and goofy setting fit for a pretty dang goofy lawyer game - where the environment itself had jokes and quips and one-liners and mishaps and tomfoolery written all over it, it had the previous case introducing a very interesting and important plotline that gave background for one of the more well-loved characters while also introducing an equally fucked up and lovable new one who was a child forced into a shit childhood of naivete in a CIRCUS with another character who was very naive and childish - whose interactions could have been funny and cute and reflective of said shit from the previous case (seriously she becomes such an important character in the 4th case, WHY would they not include her in this one for some character development? How did they fuck up letting a CHILD explore a CIRCUS?? That would have made the interactions flow MUCH better).

They had a pretty good, sympathetic killer imo, a morally dubious victim, an asshole of a client (who was pretty flat admittedly in-game, but I like his weird, topsy-turvy reasoning for it in the anime. Also, I think Max being kinda a dick would have bode well for the themes of Farewell since most of his clients up to this point have been like...nice? Not nice, but sympathetic, but him having to defend someone who's innocent but a prick would have shown him that just because someone is an asshole, doesn't mean they deserve to suffer for it and that they have the potential to grow as people, which is almost a complete foil to what Matt was. Ultimately, I would have loved the contrast of them as clients and I think it would have also served as character development for Phoenix, especially with his low-empathy tendencies).

They just didn't think that far ahead. They just didn't execute it well enough. They just decided to make three of the adult characters fight for the hand in marriage of a teenage girl. (Bat's part of the story was actually kinda good if he was just YOUNGER, I think him doing that for Regina would have been a stupid thing someone in the circus would do to impress their crush. Damn you Ace Attorney and your weird treatment of underage girls!!)

It just flopped and that's ok.

Even though it kinda sucked, it can still mean something to me.

Also I'm a Moe Curls apologist. I liked him, shut up.

[ruvviks]

PLEASE DO NOT TAG AS YOUR OWN OC OR PAIRING.

Nathan and Ruben share a bond more powerful than most; mutual understanding through past experiences no one should ever have to go through, and through past actions so horrible they cannot be spoken of. Their grief and the blood on their hands binds them to the STEM technology they created, which has alienated them from the rest of the world— but they give each other the comfort they have both longed for so desperately for years, and that is all they need. They are each other's counterpart; you cannot imagine one without the other, like two sides of the same coin. Through their pain, their grief, their desire, and their regret, they have become one.

anna akhmatova, the guest // bones; equinox // 'i won't become' by kim jakobsson // agustín gómez-arcos, the carnivorous lamb // by oxy // achilles come down; gang of youths // czeslaw milosz, from 'new and collected poems: 1931-2001' // 'extended ambience portrait from a resonant biostructure' and 'migraine tenfold times ten' by daniel vega // a little death; the neighbourhood // marina tsvetaeva, from 'poem of the end' // by drummnist // katie maria, winter // 'nocturne in black and gold the falling rocket' by james abbott mcneill whistler // micah nemerever, these violent delights // body language; we are fury // 'the penitent' by emil melmoth // chelsea dingman, from 'of those who can't afford to be gentle'

taglist (opt in/out)

@shellibisshe, @florbelles, @ncytiri, @hibernationsuit, @stars-of-the-heart;

@lestatlioncunt, @katsigian, @radioactiveshitstorm, @estevnys, @adelaidedrubman;

@celticwoman, @rindemption, @carlosoliveiraa, @noirapocalypto, @dickytwister;

@killerspinal, @euryalex, @ri-a-rose, @velocitic, @thedeadthree

[aka-indulgence]

🥲 Let me explain! ‘hear me out’ (unconventional/rare)

I don’t think it’s RARE considering he’s from FNaF, I haven’t exactly hid it, and I Know there are people out there who like him too but uhhh still feels like I have to explain it dsfjkhldfjg

I really like DJ music man :’’’)

He’s big, I think he has a cute face, and I really like how terrifying he is 👉 👈 when I first saw him crawling around the tunnels and over the walls I was scared but also!!! Something else??? Then after you finish his section he starts jamming out like in the gif and I remember immediately thinking “Wow that’s so cute. He’s really cute. Wow I like him”

And then Help Wanted 2 came out last year where you have that minigame where he snaps his fingers to start the music, nods his head to the beat, and threateningly approaches the player while he judges their work,,, and I went 😳 what if he like me

I drew art of him earlier this year after watching some playthroughs (that I almost posted) 😭 I think it’s cute if you sat on his hand and he quietly appreciates you… and the little mini music man guys are your friends bc you’re DJ’s favorite human… I mean it’s Giant loves Tiny that’s my jam

I want his bouncer mode to activate while you’re working and you have to shut it down/reset him… he gets really close to you and you think hes going to kill you… but he recognizes you and he breaks out of his programming because look. Favorite human is here. Why was he chasing you, “Hi human :) I love u”

Not to mention he has a boss theme 😎

[silver-horse]

as much as I am enjoying Kingdom Come Deliverance, I am losing my patience with it a lil bit because of the save system. The game doesn't allow me to save whenever i want to like most RPGs, I need to gather these "saving schnapps" and there aren't many/enough so i don't want to waste them. But this means whenever I get attacked on the road and die, I lose entire hours of progress. This is bullshit tbh. Since I started this game, most quests I had to do 2-3 times... just redoing every dialogue etc. If this continues , completing this game will take a million hours. Maybe I will have to regularly quit the game and restart, just because at least it saves when we quit the game.