Watch This if You Feel Like You HATE Your Game

#geniespartner
A big thanks to Genies for sponsoring this video! Here are all the links and dates you’ll need:

✨ Join TheXPlace Discord:

🧞 Nab the Avatar Starter Pack for the Game Jam on Git (will be public by June 12th):

–The SUMMER GAME JAM Details:
Starts: June 13 @ noon PT
Ends: June 19

☕ Coffee Chat Dates:
June 10th 8am Pacific time, 11am Eastern time, 5PM CET
June 11th 9am Pacific time, Noon Eastern time, 6PM CET
June 12th 7am Pacific time, 10am Eastern time, 4PM CET

🌍 Speed Networking Date:
June 12th Noon Pacific time, 3pm Eastern time, 9PM CET

***

If you've been plugging away at your game for a while now and you feel like it sucks or you can't even tell if it's fun anymore, you're not alone.

Trust me, it happens to the all of us, and it’s a crucial stage where many people feel like giving up. Even big names like Eric Barone, creator of Stardew Valley went through similar feelings.

The reality is, when you're too close to something, you lose perspective. You might feel overly critical or worry that your game is just a mess under the hood, even if players would actually enjoy it.

In this video, we discuss how you can power through and not only finish your game but find the joy in creating it again.

Remember, game development is a roller coaster, and the good feelings will come back. These negative feelings are temporary and there are many ways to get past them.

If you're new to our channel, we're Brandon & Nikki from Sasquatch B Studios. We sold our house to start our game studio, and work full time on building our business and making our game Samurado.

---
---
---

Subscribe for NEW game dev videos every Monday & Thursday!

Wishlist our Game:

Follow us on Twitter for regular updates!

---

#gamedev #gamejam

[darronvanaria]

This is why it’s so important to prototype the main game loop, the core mechanic, to test how fun it is. All this way before putting any time/effort into story, art, music, etc

[darkodbd]

Bugs push you to get a better programer.
Your art looks bad? Don't give up and you will be a good artist.
You don't know how to make music/sounds? Try it out and you will eventually learn how to.
So many young devs (me included) tried to jump on the top of the mountain in one go, but the true path is way longer and harder than you think. But if you don't give up everybody can do it.
Never ever hide behind the excuse of "talent". Talent is just something your learned throughout your life and you can learn talent trust me.

[MarushiaDark]

"Familiarity breeds contempt."

I felt this way with the most-recent video on my alt channel where I'd been working on it for two weeks straight, wondering if it was any good, seeing every minor flaw, getting bored hearing the same points over and over again, hating myself for even making it, wondering if I should just pack it in and quit ... and three days after publishing, it went on to be my #1 video by a mile. This is why external feedback is so important because we often tend to be horrible judges of ourselves and our own work.

[derndeff]

Came by your channel from your incredibly helpful input system rebinding video. Agree with everything here. The hard part is that the worry and uneasy feeling you get about the current state of your game *might* be a useful function of worry that causes you to investigate and discover that some piece of the puzzle actually does "suck" from a mass appeal perspective (which is not something you can confirm or deny with mass datapoints). You have to live and operate 99% of time in the dark tunnel of mass number blindness, because collecting data is extremely expensive or impossible for a lot of situations. There's not much of a way around it. Being an objective "mass appeal" critic is a skill that can definitely be improved, but you have to really work hard and constantly form and confirm/bust hypotheses you have with very little of your own data. There is a ton of data out there in the world to study that can help, but then you have to somehow compress this down into your own working model that you can apply to your own games and/or videos.

Part of my current working model of marketing: If mass market numbers aren't as high as you want, it could mean that the external giftwrapping that you have given people is way below the appeal threshold, or just below it. You can't know, and often people won't or can't tell you because they don't know. It doesn't necessarily mean the giftwrapping is completely horrible. But it does mean that something isn't quite right, and there is either something turning people off, or that there's simply nothing new and interesting for most people. (if your giftwrapping for a game is a trailer on YouTube, you can very easily see where people click off and where people rewind... and how many people watched it. It's quite data rich.) What kind of toys did I want when I was a kid? How and why did I come to wanting them (what are the deep down reasons)? What did my subconscious think I would get out of watching a particular video just from seeing the thumbnail and title? What thoughts (or lack of thoughts) keep me watching that video? For me, programming a game requires a very logical, unemotional kind of *conscious* thinking. Creating successful (whatever that means to you) marketing and entertainment of any form, from what I've seen, requires almost the perfect opposite type of thinking.

Sorry for the long post, this helped me summarize and analyze my own thoughts haha. But what do I really know that I won't alter perspectives on in 3 months?

[vast]

I try to regularly switch between different aspects of my game. Be that programming, leveldesign, artwork, sound, writing, balancing, polishing various small matters. At least this avoids the feeling of grinding on one thing for too long.

[LeaveLess]

thanks for the video. i knew before that it's normal not to enjoy your own game. but to hear it from someone else is weirdly positive :D. keep up the good work

[Surkk]

I unfortunately have yet to find the fun in game design, but it probably revolves around my inability to understand code.
It bothers me constantly that I cannot do what I want to do because I cannot comprehend programming even after trying for years to figure it out.
Not sure how to resolve this either, which just makes it all the more painful mentally.

I have technically made one game, but it doesn't reflect were I should be based on the amount of time I have spent trying to figure out code and it annoys me.

[fleity]

Phew stressed and more behind then I was before... I feel this very much

[bluzenkk]

that is exactly how i'm feeling right now...
but nope, i tried all your suggestions and still feeling down.
its so weird how the vision of my game shifted from fun to boring in just 6 months.

[ghostHoodie]

Thank you for this video. You really helping me out

[flamart]

If I hate my game, I wouldn't do it. If I hate doing something related to my game, seems it's because I'm tired or lazy.

[techdave]

The background noise (music) is way too loud. Can't watch it at the speed I want.

[jaulloa]

Only make a game if that game idea has been germinating in your mind it still feels good.

[lxleo-jyfl]

i'm really like your video, it's so gentleman for study

[jameshughes]

what is this 'time off' you speak of? Is it a game or IDE I haven't heard of? I don't understand.

[NoTimeLeft_]

My game and I (vids under channel ) have a love hate relationship. It loves to hate me and I hate that I love it.

[NowKnownMAWO]

But I love my game... can I still watch the video?

[jimkurth]

This is just the motivation I need to keep working on my game. Thanks! Gotta say this feeling really hits you if you're building an online multiplayer game only because there has to be so much development made before you can even have something worth testing out, whereas local games can start testing with a player controller and some sprites.

[AtamanRuslanRFS]

The million memes being forced into the video are extremely distracting and not cool. Otherwise I appreciate the advice.

[samuraikina]

Hey could you play my game, Bounty Hunters is up on steam, its a mining bullet hell roguelike 🤙