How I Would Start Game Development (If I Started Over)

How exactly would I start my game studio if I had to start over?

[thomasbrush]

Thanks for watching guys! What about you? What would you do differently if you started over?

[bezzdev]

1:04 define the game hook
2:06 define the game loop
3:23 play similar games
4:56 create a prototype
5:35 define the sizes of all mechanics
7:24 create a visual bible
9:02 make a 10 minute demo
11:16 create a team
13:03 use a project management tool
14:37 start a youtube channel

[MikeGemi]

Locking in your measurements is such an important and understated thing. Its ridiculously important

[manliestdev]

Developer of the game seen at 2:00 (Pushing It! With Sisyphus) here, haha I didn't expect to see my own game in a Thomas Brush video! Guess I've finally made it as a game developer

[jackcarren]

Devs that don't play games, make worse games.

[jamesjohnstone]

Love how the binary converts to "Wishlist Twisted Tower" 🤣

[victordayet]

I'm a simple man, I see a Thomas Brush video, I click

[fxy]

Thomas how many effects do you want in the video?

Thomas: Yes

[danielronhovde]

It's nice to demonstrate how helpful YouTube can be to a indie game dev, but it's also useful to point out that success at something like YouTube also in part requires a large amount of luck

[exoZelia]

youre not allowed to do this topic again until 2026

[MG-bmdw]

I'm trying to get into game design, and your channel is literally the best one I've found. I feel like the topics you make videos about are all the things I didn't, and wouldn't have ever thought about starting this journey. Thank you for what you do Thomas!

[cGameDev]

this video is

crazy you doing this for free. thank you for sharing knowledge like this you the man

[BravoPhantom]

Your videos are awesome now, I used to get a little bored from straight and linear paced videos before, glad to have you back as interesting again 🤩

[ghostgiant]

I really like the comedy spin you are adding to the videos. Great work!

[papafhill]

I'd take that publisher offer. It feels like in that given scenario you have (1) the core mechanics sorted/tuned, (2) the art style established, (3) your workflows established, and (4) really just need to put in the legwork to add the content to finish. A year to do that would be amazing, because you can determine how big your game can be be the amount of time it takes to complete the workflow to add new content (not mechanics).

[josueibarra]

The Bite Me Games shoutout was quite the surprise! BMG x TB crossover soon?

[surraldsign]

The first rule of making indie mmos being "dont" makes me wanna devote my life to making one just to prove everyone wrong aint gonna lie 😂.

[dinoeebastian]

I've heard pretty much all of these recommendations and I think they're great, but I think the one I liked the most that I haven't heard all that often is the 10 minute demo

[mythrando]

I get the ten minute demo idea, but I think it's more appropriate to go for a sized demo that fully demonstrates your core gameplay loop(s) (not necessarily all of them). How much effort this will take is one of the things you should consider when figuring out what scope you can handle. +100 on scaling up a team AFTER your polished demo is completed. Game studios struggle with this as it can leave so many people sitting idle burning cash, and that's a tough pill to swallow.

[TimM-kzvl]

I play SOME games but I'm one of those people that's been playing mostly the same games for ten years. I's pretty rare I get something new. I like the creative outlet of making more than the entertainment of playing.