25 Game Dev Tips for Beginners - Tips & Tricks

New to game dev, or maybe you've been doing it for awhile but struggling? Today, I'll be sharing my top 25 tips and tricks. From pixel art to coding, I'll share with you what I've learned over 10 years of making games.

┈ Software I use! ┈

┈ Who is Goodgis? ┈

I’m a full time Graphic Designer, Game Dev, & Youtuber. I specialize in making cute, colorful games in Godot and telling my story through my videos. I also run my own little game studio called Firith. My dream is to hire my friends and make Firith a full-time job. I’m known for games such as The Keeyp, Wizbirds, Snomes, and Dewdrop Dynasty.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:09 Tip 1 - Always Prototype Your Game
0:15 Tip 2 - Take Inspiration from Everyday Life
0:27 Tip 3 - A Game is Like a Marriage
0:36 Tip 4 - Game Dev Takes Twice as Long
0:44 Tip 5 - Get Feedback as Soon as Possible
0:54 Tip 6 - Reuse Your Code
1:03 Tip 7 - Start Marketing Your Game
1:12 Tip 8 - Make a Devlog
1:23 Tip 9 - Game Engines Aren't Important
1:35 Tip 10 - Stick with a Tool
1:45 Tip 11 - Free Software is Good
1:54 Tip 12 - Watch a Tutorial Everyday
2:11 Tip 13 - All Engines have Bugs
2:22 Tip 14 - Copy Peoples Art (But Don't Post It)
2:35 Tip 15 - Use a Color Palette
2:45 Tip 16 - Create a Moodboard
3:03 Tip 17 - Keep Your Art Simple
3:15 Tip 18 - Never Delete Your Art
3:28 Tip 19 - Fundamentals are Key
3:48 Tip 20 - Watch CS50
4:03 Tip 21 - Make Small Games
4:21 Tip 22 - Learn Your Language
4:38 Tip 23 - Naming Consistency
4:52 Tip 24 - Write Readable Code
5:15 Tip 25 - Create, then Optimize
5:31 Bonus Tip
6:09 Shoutouts

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#gamedev #gamedesign #indiedev #Goodgis #pixelart #gameart

[Goodgis]

✨Tip 26 - Make sure to LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for more awesome game dev videos.✨
(Okay...so maybe that was less of a tip and more of a suggestion.)

[lendrigangames]

My reflexive advice for someone that's picking between art styles is, "err on the side of what you can crank out because you can more reliably finish that."

[ShafterPlay]

4:54 Totally agree with writing readable code, I just don't think && and ! are the problem at all, in my opinion, if someone sees that as "hard to read" they should probably take a step back. I think bad/inconsistent indentation, confusing variable names, repeated code and organization in general are way greater problems that beginner coders do very often.

[lukeystuff]

My unofficial Tip 26:
Comment your code. It makes it _SO_ much easier to fix bugs or change things when you can see what pieces of code serve which purposes.

[half-live]

These were lesson's I had to learn the hard way over my four years of development. Thanks for getting this crucial tips out there for people starting out!

[stickzman]

Great vid! On the "controversial" tip, I agree keep your code readable! But I'd argue this is more about naming properties and functions, and not cramming too much on one line. Replacing !variable with variable == false leans towards being overly verbose to me (I would read !variable as "not variable" personally), but whatever makes it easier for you to understand your own code when coming back to it

[AgentChick]

A BIG tip I have to give programmers is to avoid micro optimizations. As a coder it's generally very easy for me to sometimes fall into a pitfall of seeing a piece of my code and trying to optimize it into oblivion.

If you have fun, then power to you, coding is a hobby after all, but if you're just doing it to save those precious 2ms, it's not worth it by any means, you can do so much better stuff with your time than spending a couple hours optimizing a system for a negligible boost in efficiency.

[lorgarmor]

"NEVER EVER EVER DELETE YOUR ART!"
*stares in slience after deleting three whole folders of scrapped project files*

[jaerker]

Dude, your videos are the ones that keep me going back to game programming, or programming in general, when my head just gives up.

I´m so bad at motivating myself, and ADD plus 3 kids and life does not help that much. Ever since I was like 13, I´ve had dreams of making games. It was not as easy then as it is now, or at least did not have the right people around me for that, so that really makes me a bit jealous on the kids today that can start with such a good base of programs and learning material.

I can´t thank you enough for the videos ^^ Keep it up, you´re awesome! You are making some changes on people here :D

[victor_creator]

On that readable code tip (#24), I'd refine that to say "make sure you can read your own code." In a game I'm currently working on, I've added some variables that I could very easily get away without using. The only reason I have them is because they make my code cleaner and easier to work with.
Also, make sure you can understand your own code and follow exactly what it does line by line. It is a good idea to create some model or system to define how your code will work, and stick to that model unless an adjustment is absolutely necessary. To that end, I will create empty methods if that's how my model works.

[flaschenzuglp]

Fantastic video!
To the apple ==false thing.
The better thing is normally if(apple) or if(! apple) the problem is your variable name. So it's more of "use better names for variables" - > if (isAppleEaten) makes more sense :)

[SquidGodDev]

4:52 My first thought: "How would this be controversial?" Then after seeing the examples *_*eye twitch*_* Haha just playing - great tips! My tip is using easing functions, particles, and sfx makes your game look/feel a million times more satisfying and when it feels better it's more motivating to keep working on your game, and for me motivation is the hardest thing, not necessarily the knowledge/skill.

[maxrdev]

I’d love to see more videos like this! It was snappy and quick to the point. Really useful and I can see myself using some of these tips!

[worthasandwich]

I come from the TTRPG space. My big bit of advice is to keep your old drafts. You never know when you will want to go back and look at them. It gan be easy to get lost when writing and it can ground you to go back and see older versions of your game.

[eboatwright_]

These are great! I'm working on my ANSI / ASCII Roguelike, and I keep getting caught up in tiny details like changing the color of the player and enemies when they're frozen or poisoned, and tweaking the UI :')

[Smaxx]

One bonus tip for tip 24:
I hate writing documentation and extra comments. I bet many of you do, too! So, instead of wasting tons of time on documentation and comments, which you don't want to do, just get used to use more expressive names. `square_root_a` is a lot more readable than `sra`, even though it might be longer to type (which auto-completion can fix for you, too). Never ever use one-letter variable names, unless it's just some counter or [i]ndex. The finished game (or program in general) won't run any slower or faster based on the length of your names.

[treysonsearle]

As a web developer it's preferred to just ! And && over the == false or and. So tip 24 is subjective just make sure you don't go back and forth from and and &&

[danuvip]

Thanks for the nice advices!
I knew much of them already but here are the Tips & Tricks i recommend focus at:
1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 24, 25
But it can change depending on what your goal is though (efficiency, quality or quantity)

[rolloASMR]

Thank you so much, I always feel I don't get any support when I make my games and everyone thinks I'm going to give up. This video helped me get back on track. Thanks❤️

[al_my_pal]

Your tone in this video is encouraging, very appreciated amongst the sea of other youtube videos that make game dev more intimidating than it needs to be.