What Is THE HARDEST Thing About Making A Game SOLO?

In this Devlog we will look at what the hardest thing about game development is, and what we can do to overcome it.

I have been writing an FPS game in unity for the past two months. In this time I have learnt so much that I don't think one video could possible cover it all. But as an overview - I have looked at character control, artificial intelligence, animations, 3d modelling and texturing and much more.

Through these past two months I have faced many challenges, and I have been forced to continue learning an researching, which is honestly one of the best things about game development.

One could say that any of the above items are the hardest thing about game development, however, I would say that none of these things are too difficult for somebody to learn. Especially not with all of the resources that are available out there right now.

So - use your time carefully, as managing your time, and using it effectively, is definitely the hardest thing about game development.

Is game development hard? No - no it's not. It just takes time to learn everything that you need to know to put a decent game together.

#gamedevelopment #Unity3d

Stock footage credits:

[iamagenius]

For other game devs this is like making stand up comedy. So relatable and honest that is funny :))

[AndreCasanova__]

The point is not even art or coding, the hardest thing ever in game dev is to make the game interesting and funnier

[schonkigplavuis]

It took me THREE years to master zbrush, substance painter, photoshop and… being kinda ok in blender, to build my own stuff. People think art is easy, but really designing art is incredibly difficult. I wish more people would understand that it’s not as simple as just make something and be creative.

[thefrieber_]

The neat part is, you do it one time, then you can copy paste it

[Amelia_PC]

For us artists, coding is the hardest part, even with AI assistance (which is still rather limited for Unreal Blueprint). ChatGPT often gives me weird answers that I have to adjust later. It functions more like an "advisor" rather than a direct solution for Blueprints.

But the art part is the most frustrating and time-consuming aspect, where you invest a significant amount of time only to end up with something "meh"...

[bradjones]

knows how to code, buys assets off store. Truly he's a man of great wisdom.

[GameForThought]

I watch tons of solo game dev videos, but this one was particularly good! Well done!

[xinoHITO]

I was just scrolling by but your video is on point. Loved the way you perfectly tell how difficult it is to be a solo dev. Unpacking all the thousand little things that need to be done to get a game playable.

[AltamishM]

Rabbitholes within rabbitholes... and finding time to investigate them is incredibly challenging.
Keep up the amazing work, man! It will defo be worth it 👍🏽

[NoneNullAnd]

Nothing is more magical about game development than the asset store.
I'm making a fairly large game, but I've explicitly designed around only using downloaded assets for models, sound effects, music, animations, and VFX.

[renishadesra]

A 4 min video taught me too much more than the time stamp! And yeah, DONE is great!!!!

[PandemonicHypercube]

As a programmer, I'm very grateful for the many quality assets that you can get on asset stores these days.

Unfortunately it seems there's no way around learning to do some basic animation if I want to create an FPS though, since most weapon packs on asset stores don't come with first person animations

[KamranWali]

This is a well made video and points are spot on. Totally agree with you here. Also the game is looking good. Keep it up! :)

[rocketpoweredchimpgamesphi]

THIS is literally the MOST accurate video on solo game dev (been doing it for last 3 years)!

You literally had me nodding at EVERY... SINGLE.... OBSERVATION!

ESPECIALLY the "write a character controller, realise my character controller sucks" - Yes, been there, spent days looking up s**t on camera rotation, look direction, wondering why it didn't work, days of Googling (every variation of the same questions), and then used the free Unity one instead lol!

And have you ever come across the "keep the forward key pressed down" to keep moving forward, lift off, and your character keeps moving, on, and on, for seemingly hours!!!! LOL!

Classic video, keep it up, and to anyone reading this comment, don't forget to finish your game (even if it ends up not perfect, as they NEVER are) lol! :o)

[elitetwin]

What Is THE HARDEST Thing About Making A Game SOLO?




Making A Game SOLO

[connorwilson-long]

Most relatable video I've ever watched. Subbed.

[reckless]

Yeah its funny cause now I've used about 3 years to learn to code, and now my next big thing is learning art, and its 2 VERY different things Haha

[franconeale]

I thought it would be the endless amount of possibilities :)

[Armadous]

As a solo part time game dev, my mindset has shifted over the years from working on project goals to making skill building the project. Learning the 40th new tool is so demoralizing when I just need a feature to work. You never know when you're about to step into a black hole of infinite time suck on a related problem.

[pandalovercrumxoxo]

I know exactly how you feel as a solo game developer because I’m also one working on a game