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How do solo devs make an entire game themselves? M (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 1 month ago by dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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So, the question seems vague but I will elaborate.

I’m a software developer, but I don’t do games; yet I have an urge to try and make something.

It just seems so overwhelming, I know I want to make a game where the main character is a cat and you have to complete missions, but where do you even begin. Where does the art come from? How do you refine your idea, if all you know is you want a cat game? How do you choose an engine? Do you just start with the basics and get a cat walking around and see what comes next? If you can’t hash out the idea then so you have a right to even try and make a game? Is it best to follow tutorials to get used to making games? I feel the answer to that is no as before I become a software developer, tutorial hell was a thing and I realised I needed to make things for me to actually learn.

Sorry for all the questions, this was just a stream of thought.

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[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Thanks. This is likely very true, I think Stardew Valley is a game where the dude did it all, but I guess that’s the exception and most games are collaborative efforts.

[–] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago

People like that really aren't fair, are they? Save some talent for the rest of us. 😅

It's worth noting the dude worked his ass off and had financial support to pay living expenses from his partner:

For four years, he says, he worked an average of ten hours a day, seven days a week, on Stardew Valley. Luckily, he was living with his girlfriend, a graduate student in, appropriately, plant biology, and to help stay afloat he worked part-time as an usher at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre

Not diminishing his accomplishments at all, but I think it's always good to compare effort to effort, resources to resources, rather than simply team size. Most people can't spend 4 years with that pace without investment backing.

[–] codenamekino@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

If you end up going in the Godot direction, a friend of mine has some useful tools to easily get started on animation rigging and controllers here.

He got started a couple years ago with no game dev experience, and he's done a couple of game jams recently, but most of his time has been spent building workflow tools. A couple months ago he finally got around working on one of the original games that he's wanted to make since he started.