(How To Succeed) At Indie Game Development

In this series I'm always sarcastic and pointing out how to fail, but for this special episode, I say it like it is, and show you how to succeed. This time there is no sarcasm (okay maybe a little) and only helpful advice.

Contact:

Music:
Doh De Oh by Kevin MacLeod

[Enbynails]

Imagine the video being ten seconds long where he just says "if you'll never try, you'll never fail, and that's how you fail at failure" and that's it.

[jonathanjohnjohnson]

One monitor, playing games; the other monitor, YouTube open with How To Succeed premiere.
This is peak.

[Lampshadecollector]

this video is a monumental moment in the gaming industry

[Jacob-Jack]

I initially expected the "how to fail at failure" to be you trying to give sarcastic advice that accidentally loops around to being good with you constantly going "oh wait... that's good advice!"

buuut, here it being actual straightforward advice while still having funny visuals and other usual sprinkles was a very welcome surprise!

[That-KidDo]

That watermelon was animated very well!

[CircleGuyAndEnemies]

This is revolutionary! Holy crap, i love failing at failure!

[artman]

Some more tips:
Game feel: A good game feel can also double as a the invisible UI. Screenshake can be used to notify something happening offscreen, loudness and punchiness of a sound can indicate damage, enemies showing damage removes the need for health bars as focusing on the enemy itself gives you an idea how much health they have left etc..
Art: While I don't recommend using generative AI to make art for you (tech is not there yet), it still can be very valuable for prototyping, placeholders and trying to decide in which direction you want to take your art.
Music: You can often use genres others don't expect to make your music more memorable. Also, if you don't want to use few-note riffs as leitmotifs to tie the soundtrack together, you can use other elements such as soundfronts, instruments or even time signatures.
First game: Tile-based puzzle games are also excellent at being first games as it makes it very easy to see how different mechanics interact. Plus they're much simpler to code.
Arcade game: If you add scoring system, ensure the game rewards the most skillful play with the most points, meaning that try to avoid situations where you can farm points.
Puzzle games: While adding extra fluff consistently to make your levels more complicated than they appear, sometimes adding some extra steps outside the "main trick" in the level makes the player think about which parts of the puzzle are the hard parts. This avoids the problem of players becoming too complacent to the puzzle elements shown to them.
Story: Generally, try to avoid the situation where gameplay and story are extremely segregated. For an example, if you beat the boss with a gun to pulp, the following cutscene shouldn't involve the player surrendering to the same boss pointing the gun at the player.
Level design: Even if a level gimmick can feel out of place at first, you can still make it work in a way that makes them use at the style of your game . Think of the jumpscare and golf levels in Pizza Tower.
Horror: Not every horror game needs to have danger of death. Sometimes horror can be found in the most unexpected places. If players don't feel scared while playing the game but still get scared when they think about the game afterwards, you've succeeded.
Survival game: Consider whether base building actually adds or removes to the survival element of the game. If filling meters feeling like routinely taking pills once the base is established, perhaps you should get back to the drawing board. Three main routes: Add more dangers, force the player out of the base from time to time, or remove the base building altogether.
Roguelike/Roguelite: RNG: Bad roll, now adapt! = good idea. Bad roll, game over = bad idea!
First-person shooter: Add a separate volume slider for gun/explosion sounds.

[keenantheho]

I love how the fromsoftware games do the cardinal opposite of what should be done in bossfights but still make them really fun somehow.

[colinvarley]

how am i supposed to know how to fail now

[Zedorfska]

I am so used to hearing this voice and mentally mapping the opposite of what they are saying that this video started tripping me up

[TheSweetestAutumn]

Good stuff! I'm very pleased by the tacit implication you don't plan to quit any time soon with the mention of "episode 50"

[achomatico]

So much good advice in one video wow 👍

[tehquiper]

This seems like the final boss to the How to Fail series

[ndspringtube]

I guess this is the final episode then ?after failing at everything there’s just one more thing to fail at, and it’s failing at failure

[IDOLL_Dev]

happy 25th episode! Thank you for making this series, always super helpful and entertaining, I look forward to more.

Also I watched the other episodes so many times that my brain is now confused hearing your voice giving advice and it not being sarcasm lol

[gameus_Splatuber]

This is Great, i already liked your advice but now its neatly packaged into one video and I dont have to think backwards

[Roroprin]

I loved your new sarcastic video! I'll be sure to do the exact opposite of all of this so I actually succeed!!

[Artindi]

Please don't do any of this stuff.




Obviously that's what I'm going to say. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[verbugterherrderdunkelheit]

The end bit should have been "that's how you fail (guy with head on the desk) at failure (guy smiling at the screen)

[Stormsong]

I'm so thankful for content like this. I've always wanted to tell just 1 story in life, whether through writing or an RPG game. This is so helpful in making that goal possible!