To be a better game developer (WIP)

  1. Pixel Art

If you’re not much of an artist this may be hard for you to do as a beginner, but everyone can get good at it. The first time I did pixel art I had high expectations for myself to be the best, this proved to be difficult and made me frustrated. One tip I have to make this easier on you is to draw retro-themed, some examples are space invaders, Pac man, and the google dinosaur game. Don’t worry if they aren’t perfect you’re learning and I am too right along with you.

  1. Impossible Vision

If you want to make a game that has a lot of rules and gameplay elements, it may be impossible to make. I’m not saying this to put anyone or any game down, it’s just gonna be very difficult for one person to do all the things you want in your game. Also make sure that the game doesn’t have anything that may be too hard or confusing for your level, at first I would suggest a basic platformer game like mario because there are so many examples for those.

  1. Boss Fights

The best part of any game is getting to the end and defeating that hard boss that you’ve been preparing for. You may feel that your game needs that near to impossible boss battle, but you need to remember that you need to give your boss weaknesses to make sure that the player would be able to defeat it. Look at Minecraft for example. Its boss the “Ender Dragon” has end crystals that you have to destroy to get its health down, that is its weakness. Also make the boss fight fun, I would suggest going to family and let them play your game and try and defeat your boss then ask them what they liked and what needs to be changed.

  1. Thrown to the Garbage

Now when I say thrown to the garbage it doesn’t mean that you can’t shelve games for the future, I mean don’t get rid of your prototypes. I’m guilty of throwing away things that could work and then a week or so later going and making the same exact thing in another game. I could have used the code from the prototype for that game. Just remember to save code or save the game for a later day.

  1. Shyness

Don’t be scared to ask for help, nobody is gonna be judging you if you post about a question you have. People learn from mistakes and asking for help, don’t think you’re the only one that went through it. I still ask questions and I’ve made some pretty good games.

  1. Thievery

I don’t care if you’re friends with the person or have lots of money, DON’T STEAL AND PASS IT OFF AS YOUR OWN. I hate when people do this and argue that they made it and it was their idea first. If you do happen to use someone’s code first ask, and if they say yes, then in game, or in the bundle name if you’re using flowlab, it would make so many people more happy if you did this.

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These are good tips and I can fully back them all up. Solid 10 / 10.

I remember when I made my first Flowlab game, I wanted to make awesome bossfights, but they ended up being a cluttered mess. They were either pathetically easy or pathetically difficult. Now on my WIP game Dark Ninja, the bosses are much more organized and easy to understand than their predecessors. Though I’m still concerned about the difficulty curve. Boss 1 is easy, but boss 2 is super difficult…

Anyways, adding on to what @Pixel_Name1 is saying on point 3, it would also be a good idea to plan ahead on what your boss is like. Try making concept art, or a list of planned actions and conditions. You also want your boss to fit the game. Does it work well with the game’s mechanics? Does it align properly with the difficulty?
You can also try experimenting with the boss’ mechanics to see what works best. And it’s okay if you’re not satisfied at first; trial and error is a good learning experience and can lead to new ideas that can solve previous problems.

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  1. Animations

Next thing I will talk about is animations. If you have a small little project or a huge game you’ve been working on for awhile add animations it may be a difficult or simple task but it makes your games look so much better. Imagine if one of your favorite games didn’t have some of its core animations like walking or jumping it may not look as appealing to the players you are trying to direct it towards. Look at minecraft for example, the animations are very simple but supply the player with thinking that they are the main character.

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