It's Hard To Make Games

Unsurprisingly, solo game development is actually really hard -- yet many see it as the default path for those wanting to enter the industry. So let's take a look at a few existing games and how much effort went into them to set expectations for our own endeavors!

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Music:
Afternoon Break - Persona 3 OST
In A Moment's Time - Skullgirls OST
Junes Theme - Persona 4 OST
This Mysterious Feeling - Persona 3 OST
I'll Face Myself Reincarnation - Persona 4 OST
The Path Is Open - Persona 3 OST
Midori Eyes - Paradise Killer OST
The Poem For Everyone's Souls - Persona 3 OST
Sandgem Town (Day) - Pokemon Diamond OST
During The Test - Persona 3 OST
Like A Dream Come True - Persona 4 OST
The Poem For Everyone's Souls - Persona 3 OST (Perf. Acerola) (Arr. Theishter)

Thanks for watching!

This video is dedicated to my friend, Alotryx.

#acerola #gamedev #unity3d #graphics #shaders

[Acerola_t]

Had to put the monthly project on hold because some things came up so I decided to write a bit about some stuff I've been thinking about lately. I don't think there's anything particularly enlightening or deep in this video but hopefully it can put the industry into perspective for those interested in entering or prevent someone from wasting years of their life on a dream they aren't seriously actualizing. I suppose this is also an argument against the jack of all trades approach many try to take, but really, you can do whatever you want. Also, everyone that hated on me for my simple poll question can submit their apology forms to my twitter dms, thanks. See you all at SIGGRAPH!

[omicron]

I'm a little disappointed you didn't mention Cave Story. Developed by a solo developer, Pixel, in C++ from scratch in his free time over 5 years. The Quintessential Indie Game made by the Grandfather of Indie Game Development! He's such an inspiration

[captainawesome]

Sick.
The Stardew valley guy also had a girlfriend that paid all his bills for about 3 years. Even when you have a budget of $0, you are costing someone something.

[BernierBrandon]

Another factor that was only kinda hinted at is time. As someone who hypothetically has all the skills i would need to make the game i want to make, but also has a completely separate unrelated full time job, it is incredibly easy to burn yourself out. Doubly so if you dislike your full time job. Not having enough free time can be just as much, if not more of a hinderance than not having the needed skills.

[ButterByteStudios]

Having started game dev and programming a year ago i was pretty shocked at how people underestimated how complex simple looking games actually are, especially after seeing the poll you made

[caden]

10:47 Slight correction: Lethal Company actually begun development sometime around early 2022 according to Zeekerss’ patreon, so it took about a year and a half to make

[ZeekerssRBLX]

Hey, good video, I also loved your video about Lethal Company's wacky rendering and I still come back to it sometimes. I'd like to note that development on Lethal Company started in April of 2022 with very little knowledge of multiplayer game code. But when I think about it, I didn't really make the game alone at all; I leaned heavily on assets others had made for me, whether it be the Unity game engine, the netcode framework/API, the tutorials and forums, the random level generation logic, or the textures and sound samples. My friends constantly playtested with me. And I was able to spend basically every waking moment working on the game as I still lived in my parents' home. If all those people didn't have my back, this thing would not exist. True solo projects are probably even more rare than it would seem.

[amergingiles]

I am 25 years old. I work full time stacking boxes in a warehouse. I wake up at 700. Walk or run my dogs at 730. Brew Coffee around 800. Until 1200, I have time to waste. I play games for a few hours, work on Godot for the remainder of time. Sometimes I am bored of my Steam library, and spend all of that time on Godot making a game that i would actually like to play. Sometimes a new game or DLC dropped and I compensate the next morning. I make breakfast around 1030, 1100. I leave for work around 1210. Around 1430, I go on break and eat my lunch. I occasionally do jumping squats or push-ups inside of the truck I am stationed in for exercise. Lifting boxes is not exercise. I Work the rest of the day until lunch at 430, break at roughly 630, and leave work at least 730 to at most 100, at which point I shower, eat dinner, and sleep from 2400 - 700, 730.

On weekends, I do whatever. Practice making assets. Play with my dogs. Meditate like those feel good scam artists tell people to do in ads. Maybe I spend a whole day on Deep Rock Galactic or something, or maybe I have a manic episode or strange mood and forget to eat prototyping a new top down tank tread script for several hours.

So far, its working out nicely. Most people have time. Most people have plenty of time. But: they waste it. They waste a lot. They waste their money. Live at or above their means. They waste time, doing nothing, scrolling Social Media for hours, consuming meaningless noise. Learning nothing, having no fun, not a single critical thought bouncing around in their heads by the end of it. Effort becomes more effort than its worth. Why do when others are doing it better? Why live when you can live vicariously through a screen? You have to rehabilitate yourself. If you practice 10 minutes a days on any instrument, every day, you will become better than most musicians, but nobody does that. Why? Its only 10 minutes. They don't want to, and they don't want to want to. You just have to force past the inertia. Complacency is death, however melodramatic as that sounds.

[StupidEdits]

In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook." But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*. - Ratatouille's Monster, Ratatouille

[idrios]

I saw an interview with the Stardew Valley guy where he said something like "yeah some days it was just not happening and I quit early, and some days if I thought of something I thought would be cool to add, I'd stay up all night to make it work". So he's still human like the rest of us and not a 10-hr-every-day machine, he just found a project that was really well suited to his skills, scoped appropriately, and fit an unrealized popular niche.

Omori ended up in development hell for a while where people thought the game wasn't ever going to happen, and Omocat (seems to have) switched a lot of her focus away from the game and towards maintaining her online store because that was what was actually paying her bills. But I'm also pretty sure Pedro Silva never stopped making music while the game was trying to fix its issues because holy crap he put out some phenomenal music for that game.

I know a number of people attempting to be solo game developers and the biggest challenge for everyone isn't so much technical because anyone can learn anything, but it's hard for everyone to stay motivated or not fall into depression when you've been working at it for a long time and are keenly aware of how far you have left to go. If you put a lot of early focus on art, you'll be well into the project and the game will feel too simple and boring. If you focus too much on mechanics, the game will feel like a toy/pet project using placeholder art for depressingly long.

Also, Acerola, your style of art looks a ton like a game I've been playing called World of Horror, and I would totally play a game by you if you made something similar.

[twosoup]

In general I wish more people were open to the idea of making stuff on RPGmaker and other similar programs to start with. Game dev isn’t easy, but it gets a lot easier if you start small. I think a lot of people forget that basically every breakout indie hit has a wealth of history behind it rooted in creating romhacks, mods or other, simpler games. If your goal is to become the next Toby Fox with your first game, then it’s no wonder it seems daunting - you’ve set a standard for yourself that you simply cannot feasibly attain. Start small and learn a little with every small thing you try and things get a lot easier

[nickybakes]

I like that you mention the extra time to learn skills outside of the actual development cycle time. Its something a lot of people never mention and thus it sneaks up onto new people. A mechanically complex game could be made in 2 years, but it took 10 years of studying in or out of university, creating personal projects, and practicing on larger projects you eventually abandon to get to that point.

[semtimmy]

i think the biggest issue with peoples expectations of making games is that they don't factor in the time it takes to make an enjoyable, cohesive, and polished experience. Making all the features and assets for a game like undertale seems like it wouldnt take too much time, but bringing them together, testing, iterating, and polishing these features to make for an enjoyable gameplay experience is what takes up most of the development process imo

[naxxtor]

Working at a AAA studio (a PSS one) on build systems and CI and automation and source control has made me wonder how on earth anyone works efficiently without all of the support you get from having a team who can focus on optimising all that stuff. Mad respect to indies who just about have enough people to cover the requirements and just have to get by with all the non essentials.

Also: the piano piece sounded great! I have almost the same piano but mine is red 🔴

[costcobongwater]

I love how most other Acerola videos are so complex that the one about making a whole ass game is the one where I go: yea I think I could do that

[analgesicproductions]

game dev here! I'd just like to note that the point at 9:38 about avoiding redesigns via a better game design doc is not quite right - any preproduction phase is likely to consist of a handful of design iterations/revisions which often only come about through actual prototyping / building the game (not a document). In other words, it's very normal to not get something right at the start, and in fact the entire process of pre-production/production it's very natural to be reworking things as you go. (Rather than it being possible to make a perfect GDD that'll somehow have you avoid the various revisions)

[FredyyDev]

Might sound weird, but this actually motivated me! I guess I've convinced myself I'm stupid for not being able to make my dream game in 2 months completely solo with no art skill and no budget and college homework and constant pressure to get a "real" job....
Sounds crazy when you say it out loud...
So now that I have a realistic perspective, I actually feel relaxed and hopeful.
Starting small will feel good this time.

[quackncheese]

By the way, Zeekerss made all of the Lethal Company dev-logs on his patreon free-to-view, so you can actually follow the full development cycle of Lethal Company :)

[maelovessleep]

Rather than demotivate me, this video allowed me to realize that the progress I'm making on my own game is actually going well. I was getting very bummed out that the first level of my game was taking several months, but considering I'm learning programming as I go, making all my 3D assets, texturing it by hand painting, and want the game to have very interactive features, I'm probably doing alright! Especially considering I work full time and can only dedicate 3-4 hours a day to it. Thank Acerola! Your videos are what keep me going on this journey(:

[TheBigYC]

Like you said. Don't take "indie" and "solo project" at face value. A lot of "small indie teams" are actually not that small and received contribution from several temporary workers, even if they can't be considered AAA. A lot of publishers love to sell stuff as "indie" and "small personal project."