Don't WASTE 5 Years!

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💬 Here's a cautionary tale of what happens when scope blows up and continues growing unchecked for years, while also not having a concrete plan. We can all learn something from this, and hopefully the dev as well.
I'll share my thoughts on what I would do if I were in this situation.

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Hello and Welcome!
I'm your Code Monkey and here you will learn everything about Game Development in Unity using C#.

I've been developing games for several years with 8 published games on Steam and now I'm sharing my knowledge to help you on your own game development journey.

I do Unity Tutorials on just about every topic, Unity Tutorials for Beginners and Unity Tutorials for Advanced users.
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[EmergentGameDev]

A minor correction in regards to Stardew Valley. Eric Barone (the creator) actually struggled quite a bit with that game in development and had long periods of time where he was hating the project, hating himself, and not getting any work done. Just pretending to work when his girlfriend was around then slacking off and playing games throughout the day. He talks about it in the book 'Blood, Sweat, and Pixels' by Jason Schrier.

[I.mAlicia]

A month later (about a week and a half ago) he walked it back and said he’s going to keep working. It’s still available on Steam.

[moshecristel]

As someone trying to scope out my first Steam game, I found this SO informative! Thank you!

[YRVANDUK]

When I started learning game programming somewhere arounfd 2010, first advice I got was that DO NOT program games with multiplayer or open worlds, which turns out is actually the best advice for beginners.Some people have to learn it hard way.

[Chronomatrix]

People underestimate how much work it takes to make a game. There's also the fact it's really difficult to come up with a clever idea for a game that is both fun to play and relatively affordable to make. I've been working on a strategy realm builder for the last year and while I've advanced a lot with it, there's always this struggle between keeping it as simple as possible and wanting to add features. Last week I suddenly came up with a new idea for a game that'd take me way less time to finish and can adapt many of the features I have already developed, so I went straight for it, knowing it's the right thing to do. My point is, if you want to make a game keep it simple, learn from what's already out there and put a twist on it, and be aware of your actual abilities.

[ash]

I'm working on my first game, I'm very close to play testing. I'm at about 2 years. I'm content to keep at it, because it's not my job it's just a hobby for me. I make a few hours a day, but the last 2 months have been rough because I've had my father fall into bad health.

You have to do what works for you.

Respect to the dev, who recognized that they needed to step back for their mental health.

[paulojonathan]

This dev was making a low poly version of Skyrim in my opinion, Bethesda took 6 years and a staff of 100, it was quite big for a solo dev, sadly a trap sometimes most of us, included myself fall in.

[virtualmind]

Big respect for being able to push a project for 5 years without seeing the fruits of their labor.
Maybe everything would have turned out easier if they didn't do it alone. Complimentary skill sets of people in a team can exponentially speed up projects.
But its hard to find people... Especially with social anxiety.

[lHuskyy]

The developer did restart making the game like 2 days after that message, saw a video from Rooslahn covering it. It is still a very important topic to cover.

[WyMustIGo]

Those people are not developers, they are doing a hobby and have zero experience.

[direphon]

I released my first game that took me 5 years to solo dev, just a few months ago. I agree, don't go down this path. I was only able to ship a product I was happy with, BECAUSE I cut down on my original scope (a lot), I wasn't financially tied to my game (but it would have been nice), and I was EXTREMELY stubborn.

I am now working on many short projects to test my skills and see which I want to progress with. I highly recommend making a lot of small games first to avoid the stress and pressure that working on 1 thing can bring if it's your sole focus for the same duration as a bachelors degree.

[mandisaw]

My takeaway is more, "Early Access is a trap!" If games aren't your livelihood, taking a couple years to learn & work on a project is fine. Just understand what the opportunity costs are, and know that the longer it takes, the less likely it is to be successful.

Chris Z just did a piece on Jonas Tyroller, and they did some envelope math to compare the value-for-cost of his games. Taking a long time is a high-stakes gamble, that often doesn't pay off. Even if all you want is fun & experience, sounds like this dev ended up with a bad case of burnout - no bueno

[HansPeter-gxew]

Thanks for stressing out again to chose the right scope. Very underappreciated trapp.

[danjo]

i have very strong feelings about the "early access" model that crept into the industry. ive been a dev for long before this practice took place. i always treat early access as what it is, a demo - albeit probably playable. its creates not only expectation for the customer, but also the developer and is what more often kills projects. expectation on the dev usually put onto themselves by imagining they will be the next best thing, or make lots of money - which is 99% of the time further from reality.

[VyvyanTheGreat]

YUP, I’ve def made this mistake before. Pretty sure over scope has snuck up on all of us.

My most recent game has been in early access for over a year and it is very stressful! It always feels like I’m “not doing enough” for the community, but as a solo dev, there’s only so much I can do. Great insight as always!

[hamyncheese]

Dude is back DEVELOPING! He must have been inspired by the honest and encouraging comments of anyone following his journey. Thanks CM, you make the world a better place! :)

[sephinator]

ive gone through this a few times already, but I haven't quit, I learned I needed to think about more simple projects, and I think I got something good this time.

[andrewpullins]

This is a great video, very helpful to have a semi postmortem with suggestions on how this could work. I think it would be awesome to see somewhat of an informal interview with this dev to discuss their road-map and an experienced developer such as yourself giving guidance as to how they may want to move forward. The goal not to change their vision of their dream game, but to guide them toward the best possible game for their skill set.

[PatrickHoodDaniel]

The developer of Starship Simulator does livestreams twice per week, which could be a good alternative to these game developers. This shows the viewers (and updated wanters) how hard it is to make changes and debugging those changes. It also provides a great open line of communication.

[michaelwilson]

I think everyone needs to try to make that super huge dream game as soon as they can, to get that idea out of the way early on. That way they'll understand before its too late.
Pretty sure a lot of us have thought "That wont happen to me, I know I can do the next quadruple A game by myself, I'll just work really hard"
After you realize the logistics involved it's easier to "settle" for a smaller project, that will probably be more fun and less stressful to make.