Share some advice you wish you had when you first started developing!

[Chase]

I feel like a lot of us have knowledge and tips/tricks that we've found and developed over our time improving, what are some things you wish you knew when you first started out?

I'll start!

Something I've learned that I wish I knew starting out, especially with Pixel Art and Tiling, is how to do hue shifting when finding colors!

For example, say I'm making an overworld sprite (using my own as an example):

Sure! You can use the same base and shift as needed for your shades and it'll look fine!

However, if you take your base color and shift the hue you're using up or down (for example, the hair shifting from Light Blue closer to Blue-Purple, rather than staying Light Blue), your color tones feel a lot more vibrant and natural in comparison!

 

[AveryTubeHD]

IT IS OKAY TO START THINGS OVER.

What I mean is, if you don’t like your game’s style or changed your mind about a plot thread, feel free to redo it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending several years on something small because you’re indecisive. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

 

[bonzairob]

1. Don't make your own engine!
2. Planning is separate to doing - spend a good amount of time planning things and then do them, don't plan on the fly

 

[Ott]

Some advice I can give for pixel art:

Don't be afraid to NOT do pixel art. Pixel art isn't just making stuff, it's also demaking stuff, studying and learning, spending an hour or two looking at something and messing with it.

Go to Spriter's Resource, find stuff that you like, that you find interesting, analyse it, deconstruct it, try and figure out how it was built. Literally open Aseprite, paste something in and mess with it. Here's an example of something recent; I grabbed a building from Mother 3 and demade it trying to understand it, before making what I wanted to. It helped me figure out how to do similar effects and how to tackle my work.

We learn not just by practise, but by analysing too.

Some advice I can give for time management, useful for Game Jams:

Plan first, execute second.

Planning will greatly help you figure out your scope and give you a guide to follow when developing, especially for limited time events. Of course, also be aware of your own abilities and limits when planning.

It doesn't have to be a big and complex plan. Just open Word and write 1-3 pages and spend some time refining it. Basic plot, how it develops, what critical scenes are a must, what features do you want in, how will those features work.

Spending a few days "not" making physical progress by writing is saving days later on that you'd waste when you eventually overscope and need to cut stuff down, or when you realise the game took a sudden shift in narrative and feels disjointed.

 

[Deukhoofd]

Your initial product does not need to be perfect, so launch what you have instead of tinkering on it forever. Done is better than perfect.

 

[LilyInTheWater]

Ok so your scale? Yeah make it smaller. "My scale is already small." Make it smaller. Make it as microscopic as you possibly can. Make it a Tech Demo. Did you make it as small as you can? Good. Now you can work your way up.

Also you don't need to make a mindblowing product, just something people will enjoy.

Make a game you yourself would enjoy before anyone else. If this means scrapping the conventional pokemon game loop, then do it.

Be sure to have an idea how to execute something in your plans.

 

[pkthedragon]

Plan everything before you even touch RPGMaker.

A lot of new devs will try and rush into their projects and start mapping and whatnot but that’ll A) make development unfocused and take longer and B) increase the chances of burnout.

Instead, I recommend being completely aware of what your gameplay will look like (mechanics, graphics, length) before you even start, and also fully fleshing out your plot in what I call The Five Step Process:

1. Flesh out the world: What goes on in your region? What’s the history behind it? What does the geography and clime look like? Any notable locations?

2. Make a basic overarching plot: What is the major plot thread in your game? What does the endgame look like? This can be vague at first and you can slowly refine it as you do the following steps.

3. Flesh out characters: The most important step. Come up with a cast of characters and flesh out everything about them, from what they look like to their backstories to how they act and carry themselves.

4. Plan smaller story arcs: If you’ve done the prior three steps properly, you should know what the overarching plot is like, what the characters in your story are like, and know everything about your world. At this point, making smaller plot threads, miniature story arcs and conflicts as the game progresses, should be a piece of cake!

5. Get to writing: This’ll be done as you event and make the actual game itself, and why doing the prior steps first is so important. Being intimately familiar with your characters and the details of your world and plot will make writing dialogue so much easier, since you know how each character behaves and why. One thing to note though, is that game writing is not like writing a book. It’ll be much easier for you if you write scenes out like a drama or screenplay, since it’ll be easier to translate over into the game that way.

Obviously you don’t need to follow this to a T, but following the general structure can really help, I’ve found. Also, thinking about the events that’ll occur in your game in the future can be really exciting, and a great motivator!

Another piece of general advice is to learn to do things on your own. New devs can get caught up in the recruitment process, but don’t worry about all of that and gain the skills needed on your own. You’ll become a much better developer this way, even if it’ll be rocky at first, and once you do recruit people you’ll be able to give them better direction.

Hope this helps!

 

[A¹¹]

You can't please everyone.

Simple as that, do what you like and what you feel is right for you, you are not (I forgot the word lmao it's way too early here) to anyone. If you like something it's pretty much guaranteed that someone else will like it as well. (and while this next part isn't referring to me, I've sadly seen it enough to be worth talking) It's not bad game design to do what you like and not try to make a game to fit every single person, that's not how games work, genres exist for a reason.

 

[-FL-]

I made a guide with this on mind.

Resume:

• For scripters: Extract your game script and use a good editor (this made a HUGE difference for me).
• Spend a good time searching, testing and making tools, like a turbo button for debug.
• Think of your game from a dumb user perspective who will give up at first issue.
• Don't reinvent the wheel. Search for resources instead of making them may save time.
• Plan a lot before starting, like 90% of main places/dungeons/bosses.
• Train before starting big projects.
• Feedback is very important.
• For scripters (2): Test several possibilities and use systems who help you to find errors. Like, if you have a system who give you random items, do a check before if all items are valid, or this will crash at some 1%-rate item.
• To be popular, advertising a game may be even more important than making a good game.

 

[HollowGap]

The difference between genius and insanity is how many features you want for your magnum opus of a game.

I'd say the sky is your limit.

 

[Almeidarts]

DON'T START WITH YOUR MAGNUM OPUS!!!!
ALSO IT'S FINE TO SCRAP PROJECTS YOU'RE NOT HAVING FUN DOING!!!!

 

[Xeru]

Advice I can give just from a dev point of view: Communicate regularly with the other members you are working with in your project, even if it's just to be like "Hey hope everything is well, checking in." Not all of us can constantly work on it but making sure people aren't dead or afk quit can help prevent you from suddenly being caught off guard when you need to rely on someone who isn't available. Communication is very important. And by regularly I'd say a simple weekly/biweekly check in the least wouldn't be too much :)

 

[thatguythathasnolife]

DON'T START WITH YOUR MAGNUM OPUS!!!!
ALSO IT'S FINE TO SCRAP PROJECTS YOU'RE NOT HAVING FUN DOING!!!!

I really wanna start with my magnum opus and just work on small aspects of it to learn. Like I started last week and coded my starter quiz to learn ruby and made my starter town to learn mapping.