every year we get a lot of requests to
do sponsored shows and we end up turning
the vast majority of them down but every
once in a while somebody approaches us
and suggests something really
interesting
like those Punic Wars episodes we did
it's usually something that as soon as
they pitch the idea we all go WOW why
didn't we think of that well recently
the folks at unity asked us to do a
series on creating your first game
frankly I'm actually shocked we haven't
addressed that before now so time to fix
that the truth is I have run into too
many people who at some point decided
they wanted to make games and they
picked up an engine and they started
diving in and they quit before they ever
finished their first game because the
experience was just frustrating it
seemed like it was going nowhere and I
don't know if we can help but this team
has quite a lot of collective game
making experience so hopefully some of
our advice here will help you avoid the
common pitfalls the first thing you're
gonna want to be careful about is scope
many many people pick up a game engine
dreaming of making the types of games
they play unfortunately this often just
is not possible games like God of War or
Final Fantasy are made by teams of at
least 40 people sometimes way more than
40 people over the course of several
years even if you're just amazing and
you throw your whole life into creating
your game you're not gonna make a God of
War or a Final Fantasy not even close
and especially not on your first attempt
truth is you're not even gonna create
something like Super Mario Brothers as
your first game you may create like 1
levels worth of Super Mario Brothers but
even that's kind of pushing it your goal
with your first game should be to get
something built that you can actually
play even in the most rudimentary
fashion as soon as possible think of
your first game as a learning exercise
not your masterwork if you start with a
huge project you'll find that you don't
even know where to begin and you'll get
bogged down doing little bits and pieces
that have no tangible result and it'll
seem like you're not making any progress
at all and you'll hit roadblocks that
you don't know how to overcome simply to
be left flailing for what to even work
on next trust me
keep it simple if your first attempt at
making a game turns out to be a 1-room
platformer with bad collision that you
took three weeks to build be proud of
that because you built it you actually
got it done you made a game that's more
than most people ever managed so play it
and show it to your friends and don't
worry when they don't
understand it or are critical because
they're still thinking in terms of the
big-budget games they're used to playing
you know how much work went into making
that game and more importantly you know
that next time you'll be able to do it
even better and faster
soon you'll be building games that
people are asking you to let them play
second thing to keep in mind and I know
this is gonna sound weird but don't go
into your first game with a specific
idea learn what you can do and design
around that don't lock yourself into an
idea and beat your head against it for
weeks or months instead learn a few
tricks watch a few tutorials then start
working towards something you're pretty
sure you can build it's okay if there
are still a few parts of it you have no
idea how to even start to do but make
sure it's only a few parts when you're
breaking your project down and planning
things out which of course brings us to
tutorials any major engine has tons of
people who happily make tutorials about
pretty much everything go find them
watch them study them then if you're
stuck or if you can't find an answer to
your question just ask you'd be shocked
at how many people are happy to help you
through things if you just post on a
forum or throw your thoughts onto the
message boards and don't be afraid of
coding lots of people say they can't
code but if you design your game right
you would be shocked at how little
coding you actually have to do to get
something done it's a small enough
amount that any of you out there
watching this right now can't handle it
again just start small
keep it simple you'll learn as you go
and here especially there are plenty of
sites out there that'll help get you
started
Stack Exchange is a fantastic place to
look if you have questions which leads
us nicely into one of the big ones
design your game around your skills part
of understanding your scope is
understanding your resources and in this
case you are your resources are you a
great artist but you've never coded in
your life in that case have your game
lean on your art skills while pushing
you just enough on the code side that
you learn some new things are you
somebody who can't draw or model or
animate that's alright there are plenty
of games out there that get away with
what you'd call minimal graphics accept
that and embrace it as part of your
design constraints force us to be
creative and if there's something you
really just have to have if there's some
coding task or some piece of art that's
your game just can't live without but
you just don't have the chops to do it
yourself go to the asset store there is
an amazing amount of stuff that you can
get there for next to nothing
James just talked to a professional
studio that picked up their
voice-chat code from the asset store for
less than it would have cost them all to
go to the movies James really wishes he
had this sort of thing when he started
out working in games so take advantage
of it finally don't give up there is a
lot of life that's gonna get in the way
most people start out doing this between
juggling a job or a full school schedule
and it's very very easy to let days and
then weeks pass before you get back to
working on your game it's gonna be a
struggle at first no question I wish I
had more comforting words for you but
all I can say is that most things worth
doing are a struggle and if you stick
with it maybe one day you'll have the
option to make games instead of having
to do all that other stuff but that's it
for the basics I know that was all broad
basic stuff that most of you probably
already knew but I think it's important
to start there because when you're deep
in the process of making a game it's
often that really high-level basic stuff
that people forget but join us next
episode for more of the practical nuts
and bolts of making your first game see
you next week
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