How I Would Start Game Development (If I Started Over)

[Music] Hello guys, welcome back to the Thomas Brush channel. Uh, hey, got a really good question from Triplet Tap Games on Twitter. Uh, I got it yesterday. I wanted to try and answer it today. Uh, Triple Triple Tap asks, "How do you approach the first steps of starting a new game?" Well, first off, I could just tell you exactly the the number one way to not start a game is to watch a bunch of YouTube devlogs. That's the first like right out the gate, that is the first way to not start making a game. And the reason why I say that is I guess information overload, content overload, gatekeeping, the feeling of inferiority, all of this stuff is not conducive to making games. Now, obviously you're watching a YouTuber right now who talks all about gamedev. So, it's totally fine to obviously watch videos about gamedev. It's certainly helpful, but don't especially get wrapped up too much in

watching devlogs because everybody's process is going to be different. Every game developer's process is going to be different and they're going to tell you certain things that you absolutely have to do. They're going to say what worked for them, blah blah blah, and you're just going to get overwhelmed and you're going to get confused. Okay, so first thing, stay away from devlogs if you're I think if you're just obsessed with watching them. Okay, that's the first step. The second thing before we jump into the steps of starting a new game, the second thing I don't want you to do is I don't want you just to assume you have to make the game as a hobby for the entirety of the game. Believe it or not, you can actually take a demo and possibly go fulltime before you even finish your game. And I apologize if I've got a raspy voice. I got a cold. Uh, it's totally possible to monetize your demo. We'll talk all about that in this video, but there is a webinar below that goes into high detail. It's pretty long, but there's a ton of details. It's

totally free. There's no weird gimmicks. You watch the webinar, learn how to turn a demo into an actual paycheck before you finish your game. You may be wondering why I have any right to tell you this and to teach you about it. Well, I've done it three times, whether it's Kickstarter or getting publishers or uh investors to invest in your demo. I'm going to show you how to do it. The link is below. So, I wanted to give you those two two things that you should not do out of the gate. And now let's move into well what I would do if I was going to make games or start over making games. And truth is I kind of am next year once I finish up my third commercial release. I'm starting fresh with another game and I'm going to follow these steps here. So first off, you might be wondering, man, who is this guy on YouTube giving me advice? There's a lot of YouTube game devs out there who are giving you advice. And I it's fine that they are, but they're just they're

not they haven't released a game. A lot of these people have not released a game. And I'm not calling out anybody. I promise. I'm just saying there's some people out there who give advice and they haven't made a game. They haven't released a game. So, I have released games. So, I've made this game called Pinstripe. Has very positive on Steam. Um, how many reviews are there? I think there's like 1,700 reviews or something. So really artsy artsy game that I released I think 2017 2018. Um I did everything. The illustration, the artwork, the music, the code, the design, the marketing, all of this. I mean I had a publisher. They helped a little bit with the marketing, but I did the trailer and the artwork and the cover art and the logos, all that stuff, right? Uh I also made a game called Never Song. Never uh very positive score on Steam as well. didn't get as many sales as Pinstripe on Steam, but I did sell it to Apple Arcade. That was an amazing day. And I apologize if you know all of all of this

and you you're one of my subscribers, but I just wanted to for people who don't know, just offer up some credibility. Again, artwork, music, sound. I did not do like 80% of the code, which was awesome. I had a developer help me with that, but other than that, um, did pretty much everything else. And now I'm working on my third commercial release. Man, I sound like I'm going through puberty. Sorry about my voice. Now I'm working on a game called Twisted Tower. And this is the demo. Very positive on Steam. Um, over a thousand reviews for the demo. This is my big boy. This is my big boy game. Okay, this is my third commercial release published by 3D Realms and it's 3D and I love it. A lot of you watching right now, you're thinking, I want to make games. I want to start making my game, but I can't because I'm in college or but I I can't because I'm in high school and I'm spending all my time as a student or I can because I'm a father. Right? All of these weird excuses, some of them aren't super weird. Being a

father is particularly difficult. I mean, if if any of you have kids, let me know in the comments. You don't have time. You do not have time. So, you've really got to fight to make it work and find time. But look, guys, I I've I've started making games in college. Um, I was getting a degree at Clemson University and um, I I had to work my butt off. I didn't I I sacrificed a lot of friendships. In fact, I sacrificed every friendship. I didn't really have friends in college. Uh, I worked a desk job. I made my game uh, Pinstripe. I made that game in in at my desk job. I'd work in the mornings through lunch and in the evenings. Um, and now I'm uh, a dad. Um, and we're currently building a house on some land, but um, I'm a dad. I got some beautiful children. Um, and so I know what it's like, right? Granted, I'm doing this full-time, right? I'm a full-time game developer right now and a YouTuber as well. So, I do have more time than a lot of you who are dads, but point being, I know what it's like to be

a dad and to be insanely busy. Okay, we've got all of that to preface what I'm about to say. Okay, let's start off talking about what I would do differently. In particular, what I do differently with the idea. I was talking to uh the creator of Choo Choo Charles and I told him my next game idea. And this is also true with Jonas Tyroller. I I talked to Jonas Tyroller as well about my next game idea. And both of them were so gracious in their bluntness. They were incredibly blunt. They said, "Thomas, cool, cool idea, buddy. Just be careful. Just be careful choosing that first idea. That first idea and committing to it is so important. Do not just pick some random idea and go with it. You need to be extra extra accur extra particular with your game idea." Because at the end of the day, and I've talked about this in my previous videos, you should really be

willing to commit to that game idea for 3 years. Again, I'm not saying it's going to take three years, but you need to be okay with it taking three years. Now, let's talk about the ingredients for a great game idea. And by great, I also mean a healthy one. A healthy game idea. Here's what a healthy game idea is. Okay, a healthy game idea. This is the most important thing. It should be directly correlated to your greatest gifting. When you came out of your mama, what was that gift you were born with? Most of us were born with a gift immediately upon entering the world. What was the greatest gift you were given? For me, it was everything. I'm just kidding. Well, I do have a lot of giftings, though, to be completely honest. Uh but not to sound too humble here, but my giftings in particular are um aesthetic,

atmosphere, and story. So it's really like sensory things that are visual sound that the the way the atmosphere feels. That's my greatest gifting. Now, you may be wondering, how can I lean into my greatest gifting if I don't know what it is? You just got to start releasing stuff. You got to release crap on H.io. I mean, that's where the dumping ground of most, you know, first timers games are. So, just go ahead and start dumping your games on H.io and discover what your greatest gifting is. Once you know, that's when we can really start to fine-tune that first commercial release and come up with this great game idea. You need to lean into your greatest gifting. If your greatest gifting is game design, which by the way, I I some of my friends, their greatest giftings are game design. And I think one of my brothers, he's incredibly gifted as an artist, but he's just a really good game designer. That's his that's that's what

really makes him tick is game design. That's not my gifting, oddly enough, as a game designer. I'm not a game designer. I'm more of a storyteller. If your greatest gifting is composing music, make your game lean so hardcore into great music. Make that one of the hallmarks of your game and your game idea. If your gifting is art, your idea should be showcasing that art form. Okay? And here's what I said here. The greatest gifting you have should be used as the primary way of showcasing your game's hook. The thing that grabs people's attention. What about your game idea is unique and special and ultimately hooks a potential buyer in your trailer, in your in your screenshots, in your marketing material. What about your game idea grabs the player? Your gifting should be directly correlated to that. Meaning,

if it's a story or if you're a storyteller, you need to make a hook that is strong story. Okay, for example, I think the world building in Hollow Knight's amazing and it's pretty prominent in just the way the game feels in the marketing material. That hook and that gifting, it should be immediately evident, immediately evident in the game's marketing material, in the first five minutes of the game play, in the game demo. It should be so obvious. There are so many games that I play on my live streams. When I play your games, often times the gifting of the developer is not immediately obvious. It's just not really clear to me what that hook is. And again, just to clarify here, the hook should also be directly correlated and it can be your gifting. They're

almost one and the same. that that hook, that gifting that you have, that talent, that forte that you have, it should be immediately evident. So, for example, in my game, Twisted Tower, I tried my very, very best to make my gifting immediately evident. Okay? Atmosphere, art, aesthetic, style, mood. Okay? It's clearly an atmospheric, moody, horrifying world with a strong story. That's evident in the marketing material. And by the way, this is also true in We Harvest Shadows, which one of David Why, he's the creator of this game. One of David Whyy's greatest giftings is story. He's a great storyteller, right? It's obvious and evident in this trailer

that that is his greatest gifting. Hollow Night. What is What is Team Cher's one of their greatest giftings as a team? I believe the artist names is is Ahri. What's immediately evident? The art, right? You want that to be immediately evident in your marketing material. So, do not choose do not choose a game idea that is not directly correlated to your gifting. I know that sounds obvious, but it's even for me, even on my third commercial release, it's so funny how, weirdly enough, because something comes easy in your mind, you don't want to do it because you're like, "Ah, that's too easy." It's like this weird paradox where you want to choose the hard thing because the hard thing seems valuable because you can't do it. How many of you know friends or family and you look at their gifting,

let's say at playing piano and you're thinking that is so valuable that they can play piano because I can't. Now I'm a really really good storyteller but who cares that I'm a good storyteller? I can't play piano. So, I need to invest all of my time in my next game in doing the things that I can't do because those things are valuable. It's kind of a backwards way of thinking. Whereas, this developer here, this game I'm so obsessed with on Twitter. It It's so cool. Uh, Jimzle, Jzle, I think is how you say that. This game is so clearly leaning into the giftings of the developer. Now, let's talk about it. What what what is immediately evident with this game? Is it like, "Wow, it's super rich gameplay." M maybe I've played it. It's not super rich. It's not very unique if I'm being completely honest. What is it? What is the players

gifting? What What are the developers gifting? Can Can anyone think what is the one thing that this game is doing so freaking well? And it's not what you think. Nostalgia. The developer has a a unique skill set, a forte, a talent of bringing nostalgia into from the ether into reality. And that, by the way, is not easy. That's not an easy thing to do. But I I see this and I immediately see something like King's Quest or something, the 3D ver the the 3D adventure one that that got terrible reviews. One of my favorite games. or like Castlevania 64 or like Elder Scrolls, right? I get that that nostalgia. That's a skill set and that's a talent that this developer is leaning into. And that's why this game, by the way, is doing really really well on Twitter. Every post that the the developer does on Twitter, it always catches fire

because there's this nostalgic feeling when you see it. That's their forte. That's what they do really, really well and they're leaning into it. Okay. All right. Let's really quickly just briefly go over the tools. It's going to take like 10 seconds. It doesn't really matter your engine. Unity is for like 3D or 2D games primarily. Really good for 2D. Unreal is great for 3D games. If you want to use a lot of assets, Unreal is great. Has really good lighting. GDO is great if you want to be part of a cult. I'm just kidding. Kind of. It really is. GDAU is great. It's open source. It's free. They're not going to charge you for stuff. That's awesome. Great job, GDAU. Hooray. All right. 2D or 3D, take your pick. Blender is a great tool for 3D. Photoshop is a great tool, or you could use if you want to use open source and free for 2D art. You can use assets all you want. Doesn't really matter to me. Just know that being human and having a voice, the execution of your game idea, the execution of your forte should be very

human. Okay? If you think that AI is the future, and by the way, it is. If you think that, it doesn't mean you have to have AI be the front-facing thing for your game. Meaning like the art, the music, the voice acting. It that's not the place to use AI in my opinion. Be as human as you possibly can on the front-facing stuff. Every time I would choose human over AI, except I think co-pilot is here to stay, guys. And I think it's very very helpful to use an AI tool for code and I'm not really ashamed to say it at this point. I think we need we all need to embrace Copilot to some degree and get some help from AI for code. It's just so so important. I mean it'll like 10x your your your coding speed. Um really quick just to say this and before we talk about executing on the idea, I want to talk about music. Um,

and and by the way, what we're discussing right now is just the tools and the assets you're going to be using and the things you need to learn. Uh, this for those of you who just don't really know what to do. Um, but I think most people watching do, but this this final part with music is probably something most of you don't know. You always need to write or purchase your own custom music. Always. And the reason why is we live in the streaming world, the streaming culture. That is how we sell our games as developers. It's one of the primary ways. No, Thomas, the Steam algorithm does. Yeah, but streamers drive traffic to the Steam algorithm and then kickstart the Steam algorithm. Streamers are insanely valuable. If you got copyrighted music or hey, but Thomas, I bought it from Pawn Five. But Thomas, I bought it from Epidemic. But Thomas, I bought it from Artlist.io. It doesn't matter. if the streamer doesn't have the license to the music. It doesn't matter if you

bought one and so it's going to get flagged. They're not going to be able to monetize the games uh the let's play footage or the stream and they're not going to play it again and other streamers won't play it. So, you've got to write your own custom music. Okay? Or you've got to purchase it from somebody and don't license songs. Buy them. Buy them outright. Get the IP so that you can sell them on uh streaming platforms as well. Now, obviously, you want the the the the musician to like get a credit. So, I guess it would be kind of like a a license to a degree, but what I mean is don't get a non-exclusive license. You need an exclusive license where you solely have the right to that music and it cannot be put in other games, okay? Because then suddenly you're going to start dealing with all these copyright infringements and again, streamers and YouTubers won't be able to play the play the game and monetize their videos. And that's at the end of the day, that's what we want. We want our games to make money for other YouTubers and streamers

because if they do, they're going to play more of it. And that's what we want, right? Okay. Do not This is the next step. Once we have a great idea, once we've built once we know how to build the game, don't build don't build a prototype. Now, obviously, I'm being a little bit uh a little bit uh what's the word? The word is uh spicy here. I'm saying an unpopular opinion for clicks maybe. But I I I really actually kind of agree with this. I don't want you to build a prototype. Okay? So, here's what a prototype does. A prototype is typ typically like the simplest like grayboxed form of your game idea. It's hyper simple. A lot of game developers will tell you, you know, no sound, no music, no game feel, nothing. Just super simple gray box to see if the loop and the mechanics work. And again, the goal is to showcase the

the the game's core idea in a in the in the most boring state. If that's fun, then the polished experience will be even better. And ultimately, you know, a prototype is there to disprove or prove a game idea. The goal of prototyping is not it it the primary goal is almost like the scientific method, right? And I was I was taught this by Jonas Tyroller. He did an incredible job teaching me this. Effectively, it's the scientific method. It's hey, I have this hypothesis. I'm going to build out this prototype and my theory is my theory is it's going to be fun. And then it's proven or disproven by what? Some kind of testing, right? Maybe the team tests the game. Maybe it's just you testing the game and you realize it's not fun. Maybe you get your mommy and your daddy to play the game or your brother and your sister, your friends or your family. Okay, maybe you get them to play the game and you find out, "Oh, this game sucks, right? That's the point of a prototype."

Now, you might be thinking, "Well, Thomas, that's great. I should prototype my games then." Well, let's talk about the big problem with prototypes. And I I haven't heard a lot of developers talk about this. I I have had a few actually. I've had a few people agree with me on this. Um, and it was kind of a nice feeling. And even the director of Minions, Kyle Balda, he said the same thing about making animated movies and games. Uh, prototyping sometimes is not enough. Um, so here are the three big problems with why prototyping isn't necessarily enough. Okay. Sometimes a prototype isn't fun until it's polished. Okay. Sometimes a great great game idea is buried beneath polish meaning you have to figure it out and you discover it. Well, it's like working out a a word problem on a test. Um you can also think about uh there's a book called on writing by Stephen King where he talks about the process of sort of unearthing

what a story is even is as you write it and the only way to discover what the what the story is is by writing it. Sometimes the only way to know what a game is is by making it. Sometimes you just cannot figure out what a game is with just a prototype. And again, it's kind of bad idea to just throw out a game because the prototype isn't fun. Because again, the polish is sometimes what makes it fun. I know that might be an unpopular opinion. I've had people disagree with me on that on X, but that's my opinion. You know, after 15 years making games, that's what I found to be true for me. Some gamers, this is the final point of as why prototypes aren't fun or why prototypes sometimes aren't enough. Some games are just not really about mechanics. They're more about feel. And again, that might be an unpopular opinion. Sometimes it's not really about the mechanics of the game. Sometimes the mechanics of the game are the delivery device for the toppings, right?

Kind of like thinking about like a dessert. Dessert is it's almost like empty calories sometimes, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't eat it every once in a while. Sometimes a game is just all about the polish and the story and the atmosphere and the music and the feeling. Now, it might not be super commercially successful, but there are games out there where it's all about the polish, right? So, that's why I have a big problem with prototypes. And it depends on what kind of game you're making. Um, so for example, like Jonas Tyroller, I don't disagree with Jonas, you know, about his he really values prototypes and that's how he made Thronefall. And god forbid I I I argue with Jonas. He's done incredible. Thronefall is an incredibly successful game. And his process with Grizzly Games was prototype, prototype, prototype, prototype until they got this idea,

right? But there are other developers that I've talked to like Thomas Vanderberg and he's told me that his process is kind of the Stephen King way or the Thomas Brush way which is just unearthing the idea as you make it. Okay. So you may be wondering well this doesn't really help me Thomas. It's like what where do I go from here? Do I prototype or do I not? Well I'm going to come up with a new word here. Instead of prototyping, I want you to prove me type. Okay? And honestly, this is this is this has been my approach for a long time, and this is I'm going to probably lean pretty heavy into this for my next game. Sure, build a simple prototype, meaning like super gray, boring, simple, gray box it, very blank, you know, simple characters. But we're going to change the goal a little bit. The goal is to make something that proves the concept.

Period. Hard stop. That's the goal. Prove the concept. The problem with prototyping is sometimes it's not about proving the concept. It's about proving the mechanic or the loop. It's about proving like like gameplay stuff, but not necessarily the game as a whole. Like here's an example. Uh, can you imagine if Night in the Woods, if that game was purely based, if prototyping, maybe they did. I don't I doubt that they did, but can you imagine if Night in the Woods was prototyped, it was just gray boxed and you didn't have the cool characters and didn't have the cool music and the the color theory and all this like super unique art style. If that wasn't in the prototype, my opinion is the game would be boring, right? But because of the art style, because of the music, because of the sound,

all of it put together, that's why this game was successful. So ultimately, the goal is to prove the concept, not necessarily just the mechanics or the loop. Make sure make sure that everything everything points to proving the concept. So for example, if my concept if my game concept is I want to make a game that feels like a horrifying Disney World and it's an immersive sim and it kind of feels like Bioshock. By the way, that's my game Twisted Tower. If that's the goal, if that's the concept, notice how it's not just mechanics or not just a loop. If that's the whole concept, then I need to create something that proves the entire concept. So, it's going to have to be polished to some degree. We're going to have to use music, sound, art, story, voice acting,

all for what? a 15minute prove me type basically a vertical slice. If this prove me type, if it still with all of its polish of trying to prove the concept, if it still fails and people don't like the game and they don't enjoy it, like whether it's your friends, family, mommy, daddy, whoever, if it still isn't fun, if it's still not a good game and it disproves itself, if the prove me type has not proven itself, kill it. Get rid of it. There's no reason to work on it. But if it does prove itself, it did its job. You want to finalize it, tie tighten the screws, make a main menu, make a credits, uh tell people to wishlist the game on the main menu, do all the things necessary for a solid demo and get a demo completed. So that's our next step is once the prove me type proves itself, we really just make a few tweaks and

turn it into a demo. Now, here's the thing. I want you to make sure that this demo is perfect in every way. Now, you might be thinking, "Well, I don't want to release it to the public." I don't care. Make a perfect demo, and we'll talk about for who in just a sec. If it's not for the public, who's it for? We'll talk about that in a second. But I want you to make this demo perfect in every single way. Make this thing a tiny shiny diamond of perfection. If Jesus Christ were to play this game, you this demo, you want him to give you a standing ovation at the end of the demo. Okay. Now, here's the thing. You might be thinking, "Well, I got to make the rest of the game. I don't have time to polish the demo." The first 15 minutes of your game are the most important anyway. People don't really beat games in their Steam library. They have thousands of games in their Steam library. I doubt that your game is going to be the one that they beat front to back. So, spend the time on making this demo

hyper hyperpolished because well, that's also going to be part of the game and it's going to make the game sell as well. So, we want Jesus Christ to give you a standing ovation at the end of the demo. Okay? What's my point there? My point is make the demo amazing. And look, the goal of the demo is ultimately money. It is a product. Now, you might be thinking, how am I going to make money on a demo? I'll tell you. Hang tight. Hang tight. There's three ways to make money on a demo. And it might be very uh it might surprise you. Um, so let's talk about like what a a demo, even if it's private, what it should look like. Um, We Harvest Shadows, again, we've talked about We Harvest Shadows. We Harvest Shadows is an incredible experience as a demo. It showcases everything that David Why is talented at and more because he has a team now. It's perfect. It's a perfect demo. He would say it's not, um, but it's perfect

for the public. It is. It is an incredible demo. And the reason I bring this one up in particular is yes, it's perfect, but also David worked on this thing for years. He worked on the demo for years, and he knew just how important it was to get this thing launched perfectly. We'll talk about why this demo is so freaking important. Uh, dare I say that the Twisted Tower, I think it's good, you know? I mean, there were there were definitely some hiccups when I launched it, but I think the Twisted Tower demo is also a good example of a solid demo. It may even be too long. Um, so it's like 20 to 40 minutes depending on who plays it. But I polished the crap out of this thing. I may I had a whole QA team at Saber testing this thing. Saber is the parent company of 3D Realms, which is my publisher. I had a whole QA team um posting all the QA feedback on what is it? Jira, Gyra um and I had to fix a bunch of bugs.

So that's what you need to do next is make the demo. Turn that prove me type into a demo. Again, if the prove me type doesn't prove prove itself, kill it. If it does prove itself, make a demo. All right, next up, sell the demo. Okay, and again, this is the plan. This should be the plan if you're starting game development and making your first game. My hope My hope is that you're able to sell the demo. Now, you might be thinking, I'm going to drop off. I'm not going to watch this video because I don't want to I don't want to make money on a demo. It's not about money for me. Well, hold on. There's different ways to sell things that don't necessarily involve money, okay? And it's called wish lists, but wish lists really are money. They really are. We'll talk about in a sec. But when you have a hyperpolished demo that's private or public, it doesn't matter. You could sell it to publishers

like I've done. I've done it three times. And by the way, there is a link in the description if you want to go into detail on to how to sell a demo to a publisher. It's a it's a really long webinar. It's like an hour long. It teaches you how to sell to a publisher. How to sell a demo to Kickstarter. How to turn a tiny demo into what? A paycheck so you can go full-time. It's free. It's my gift to you. It's it's below. No gimmicks. It's not weird. It's not gimmicky. Just watch the video. You know, enter your email, watch the video, and you'll learn a ton from an actual indie developer like me who's done it, who's been in the trenches and knows how to sell a demo and turn it into cash. I've done it three different times. So, you could sell a game to publishers. Uh, also I sold my game Never Song to a publisher. This is Serenity Forge. They're amazing, by the way. If you want to submit your game to them, I highly recommend it. They're amazing. Um, they they helped out so much with the game's marketing and just making this game. Uh,

helped develop the game as well. Um, you could sell it on Kickstarter. This is a this is a game called Spilled. Um, and it's great. It's it's by this developer named Lenty. uh she lives on a boat and she made a game about a boat. This was funded, €31,000. Did a great job. Took a small little demo and was able to make money before she even finished the game. Thomas, I don't want to be a I don't want to work with a publisher. They're evil. Thomas, I don't want to do Kickstarter. That makes me scared. So what? At bare minimum, you've got to start getting what? Wish lists. Okay, now you might be wondering, that's not money. It really is. Okay. What if somebody said, what if they said, "Hey, do you want to get uh a thousand shares of Apple?" You wouldn't just say, "No, that's not that's not actually money. That's not real." Yes, it is. It's not realized,

but it's still insanely valuable. How how much is how much is a,000 shares of Apple stock? A,000 shares of Apple stock is $175,000. Okay. The same is true the same is true with wish lists. With wish with wish lists are effectively game sales. The question is you don't know what the percentage is going to be. It may be 10%. Right? 10% of your So, if you had 100,000 wish lists, you converted 10%, that's 10,000 purchases on launch. Or it may be 20%. I think a good range is like 5 to 20%. That's it's I know that's kind of a wide range, but bare minimum it's 5%. Okay? So, if you make a decent game and you get wish lists, those wish lists are effectively worth money. You're just going to realize those when the game is launched.

So, the goal of that demo, the goal of that Steam page, the goal of a trailer, everything you've created, that hyper polished demo, the goal is to get wishless bare minimum. There's so many of you watching right now, you don't have a you don't have a Steam page. Uh, you haven't posted anything on Twitter or X or Blue Sky or whatever, Instagram or YouTube. You you haven't posted anything. There's no way for anybody to effectively tell you that they want your game. So, what I'm trying to say here is if you're starting game development, get that demo done. Don't get the game done. Get the demo done. And even if you don't watch the demo, you still have footage and you have a trailer and you have a Steam page that's there like a fishing net ready to catch fish. Okay. Now, here I am making you think like a sleazy marketer, but you're going to thank me because you're going to

start getting wish lists and that feels so good. Now, obviously, you can also sell a demo with early access as well. Okay, Project Zomboid, great job. Great job doing this. Obviously, I think there's like 100,000 reviews. Early access is not for everybody. If your game is linear, like my game, Twisted Tower, it's a bad idea to do it's a bad idea to do early access because players don't want to keep playing the same linear experience. You need a game that's kind of like multiplayer, it's online, co-op, uh, you know, it's a crafting game or it's creative or sandboxy, um, open world. These are the kind of games that are great for early access. So again, there's that webinar below if you want to learn more about how to do that, how to actually turn, you know, a demo into cash. So don't forget about that. But ultimately, at the end of the day, now you're selling the game,

okay? No matter what method you're using, whether it's selling it to a publisher and striking a deal with a publisher and them giving you money in advance, whether it's Kickstarter and somebody's giving you money right now because they want to see your game happen, whether it's wish lists, it's basically kind of a commitment or a pre-order for a game, or you sell it via early access. Those are four different ways to effectively monetize a demo before it's even finished. And if you're not doing one of these, I don't know what you're doing. You eventually need to do one of these. Okay? It's it's kind of foolish not to this one at bare minimum. You have to at least do this one. Sell it with wish list. All right. So, why is the demo so important? Obviously, you can sell it before it's done. You can obviously sell it before it's done, but it's also important because the demo tells you what. It tells you

what's working and it tells you what's not. Okay? Regardless of whether the the demo is public or it's private and it's just you and a small group of friends who are playing the demo or it's just private with your publisher or it's private with a, you know, a small group of Kickstarter backers. It doesn't matter whether it's private or public. You get a group of people to tell you what's working and what's not. Now, you may be thinking, "Well, I just want the whole game. I'll just finish the whole game and then get people to tell me if it's good or not." You don't want to do that. That's a highly risky thing to do. That's like That's like putting all of your eggs in one basket. The earlier you can get people testing your game, the better. Now, it's important that they test a polished version of the game so that they know what your gifting is and that they're testing the elements that, well, make your game special. This is again why you want to get approve me type instead of a prototype. Approve me type is everything that makes you gifted and it's polished into that tiny little diamond of a demo. So again, whether

it's private or public, it's valuable because you get what people to tell you what's good and what's not good. They tell you what works and what doesn't work. And it's not just a few things that don't work. You're going to find out that there's like a thousand things that don't work. And that's what's so important about this demo is because now that the game is being sold or wishlisted and it's public, you're going to discover what's working and what's not. And you're going to find out really quick. Take what works and extend this into a fully fleshed out game. What's so funny is that this is we're nearing the end of this video. You're probably thinking, "This is the hard part. Fully fleshing out the game. That's the hard part. Nope. This is finding out what the game is and what works.

That's the hardest part. Fully fleshing it out. It's rinse and repeat. Okay. It's so hard to know what your game is. It's hard to know what your voice is, right? It's kind of like talking to a camera like I'm doing now. I used to talk like to a camera like this and I was really not sure how I felt about talking to nothing. It's a black plastic box that's not a human. Being able to find my voice and talk to a camera, it took a lot of practice after years and years of doing YouTube. The same is true with game development. It takes a long time to kind of figure out what what your voice is. What is this game? What is it? What's its flavor? What's its taste? How does it smell? How does it play? And it's I'm using smell metaphorically, obviously. Once you find out what the game is and

you've tested that small prove me type or that demo to an audience, then you know exactly how you're going to extend it to a fully fleshed out game. and then you release the game. This is a whole other video about marketing, but hopefully you get my point. I hope that helped you guys. And again, if you want to learn how to take a demo and you want to learn how to ext uh turn that into actual cash with a publisher, link is below. It's totally free webinar. You're going to learn a ton about how to use Kickstarter or publishers, crowdfunding, how to actually make money on your demo and go full-time before you even finish your game. The link is below. I love you guys. I hope that was helpful. I know that was a long video, but hey, congrats if you stuck around. Cheers.