11 Common Game Dev Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

I talk about 11 of the most common game development mistakes and pitfalls that developers make! I share my thoughts and stories in game development as well.

Serious about success in game development? Wanna make indie games that ROCK?! Join Underground ELITE:

*** FOLLOW ME: ***

*** FOLLOW GDU: ***

If you are an indie developer and you are looking for a fantastic community and help to refine, manage, and market your game, join us!

[marscaleb]

You forgot the biggest pitfall of all!
Spending all your time watching videos on YouTube about game development instead of actually making your game!

[DePistolero]

1. Be a gamer
2. Make the game that you find fun and awesome to play
3. Be ready to study(S T U D Y )
4. Be ready to be stuck.
5. CUT and Rethink( things will get complicated quickly )
6. P L A N
7. Write that documentation and critical bug/error list
8. PROTOTYPE( a game is just a good enough prototype where you decided it is enough )
9. Have bloody FUN!!!!
I failed a couple of times in all from 1-9 in my two projects. :)

[magnusm]

The number one pitfall today is: I've started off with making this kind of game for mobile. This is good enough, I don't need to get better or bigger.
You have a media that's constantly evolving, always made easier and grander for solo developers and groups, tons of potential and genres people love. And you decide to stick to simple 2D flash platforming games with the same art style, same format, same scale and that's it. Why?
Do you have ANY idea how many people can't even handle learning about variables?! It's annoying how many people pretty much throw away their potential for small scraps. Not even trying something in their spare time.

But my personal favorite anti pitfall is core basic structure. Make a bunch of scripts for controls, physics and maybe something else basic. No game, no gameplay prototype, just the basics.
Cause then you can re use them over and over again for all your games. It's annoying rewriting basic movement controls over and over again.
Simple script of input. Control input based on camera direction, with or without ProjectOnPlane and return the Vector3.
You can just make a new instance of the class and call the function. And now you can make a running class, crawling class, helicopter class or a rolling class. And all you have to do is pass in the method call in their parameter and apply anything else you want.
Making repeated written lines of code into simple calls.

[nightsistersmusic]

As someone who's just learning, I keep discovering new things and realizing "I can do this?" And then I try to add it in my game

Also scope bloat

[tyelork]

The number of likes and comments shows that people tend to like the more upbeat videos and with editing.

I know that they take a lot more time and effort to produce though Tim, so thanks for always putting out good content brotha!

[OneAndOnlyRocker]

happy i finally found a game dev channel by someone who isn’t a gamedev wannabe and actually knows shit. very useful advice, i know for a fact i do some of these things. thanks!

[omegablast]

how can this have any downvotes? literally every single thing he touchs on are spot on....amazing advice. if something he saids hurts your feelings then maybe really take in this advice and see why it makes you feel bitter.

[mechacrafter]

optimizing to early is my biggest problem both in code and level design.

[karldilkington]

The only way to create a masterpiece is to finish it.
How to consistently ship on time:
Get feedback from day 1: Get everyone involved as early as possible where it is easy to make any significant changes.
Limit the number of inputs as you get closer to shipping date.
Break every single project into smaller tasks and everyday, find 3 tasks to accomplish that will bring you closer to shipping.
Be accountable for the shipping date : never make a committee decision. Stamp your name to the decision and be prepared to ship on time.
Be clear of your definition of success — are you satisfying your critics or are you making art. Decide on your own matrices and worry about them alone. Nothing else.
-Seth Godin

[RamonChiNangWong]

Have to disagree with 8.
Many things do change and sometimes is better to work on a clean slate instead of working on top of broken functions and bugs

[wilcombebolger]

Hey Tim I can relate to you on so many levels about game design, firstly I am quite an aged newbie developer (52) having just left university studying game design, secondly I am a sole developer off the bat. Your advice positive or negative enlightens me thank you. I watch you nearly every day.

[blitzercreg]

Telling the wrong people about your game as it’s in development! That is - if you want enthusiastic reactions, tell the people that you think would find this interesting. Even if that one person is your cat...

Also great advice, you sir have another subscriber

[egi]

Hey Tim, I love your videos lately, they are getting better and better!

Keep it up!

[rafaelocariz]

Hi, I have a suggestion: 10 tips of what to do to have a job in the game industry (portfolio, games published, age, etc.)
As game industry I mean ArenaNet, Naughty Dog, EA, that kind of company

[AMastryukov]

I think the new video format works very well. Keep experimenting!

[MicahBuzanANIMATION]

Super helpful advice. All this applies to animating a film.

[RaidenKaiser]

JRPG developers can get lost in feature frenzy it's not just an Indie dev issue it seems to be like it can be the entire industry that can end up in this.

[JordanMillsTracks]

shiny object syndrome is my #1 pitfall

[AlexanderTHaselton]

Noticing some great editing in this one, well done!

[jamiecovell]

Thanks for all of your videos Tim :-) they are all super helpful!