How To Actually Finish Making Your Game

Okay. Uh, I got a really awesome question on X, um, from this guy named Bri the 3D guy. Um, great question. This is one of the most important questions I think an indie game developer needs to ask. Uh, he said, "I come up with little game ideas, but I struggle with developing a complete game. What tips do you have for developing a whole game and not just some prototype?" Basically, he's just saying, "Hey, Thomas, I've done prototypes. I'd never finish my games. How do I actually finish my games? This is such an important question because the truth is is that I think most indie gamedev hobbyists, their big problem is they just don't finish their games. I mean, let me know in the comments. I mean, I know how how you guys feel. I do it, too. Let me know in the comments how many projects you've started and quit. Um how many prototypes you've effectively built and not actually completed. It's a big problem. It's kind of like this little epidemic that most indie game devs have. But Bri,

I want to encourage you a little bit here and just say you're on the right track. You're on the right track because at the end of the day, prototyping is insanely important. Uh prototyping, I want to give you two reasons why prototyping is so important and then we'll jump into how to actually turn that prototype into a fullfledged commercial release. And by the way, if you're thinking, who is this guy? Who's this YouTuber? Why is he giving me advice? what does he know? Um, I've released three, well, two commercial games. I'm finishing up my third commercial game. My first game was called Pinstripe. Uh, that took five years to make. Um, it eventually was a success. We released it on every platform and, uh, yeah, very positive score on Steam. It did well. Uh, got featured by Time magazine. Actually, made a game called Neverong that took three years to make that was eventually purchased by Apple Arcade. That was an incredible an incredible day when that happened. And then my third commercial release, I'm finishing that up right now. That's called Twisted Tower. It's definitely my biggest game, my highest budget game. It's taken me four years to

make. I think four years. I It's It's a blur at this point. And it's currently published by 3D Realms. And by the way, all of these games started as prototypes. All of them started as prototypes. And believe it or not, I actually sold the prototype and got paid paid to actually finish the game and went full-time just with a prototype. And that was with publishers, that was with crowdfunding campaigns. Um, there's a variety of different ways to actually take a prototype and turn it into a actual paycheck before you even finish the game. By the way, I go into much more detail about that. Um, I'll put the link below. It's in this webinar. It's really cool. It'll help you a ton. Uh, totally free, easy, easy, simple to use or simple to watch. No gimmicks. So, click the link below if you want to learn more about how to turn a prototype into a paycheck. Um, and for those of you who don't know a prototype is, some would say, so, and I don't know if I agree with this, some would say it's just the mechanics. It's like kind of a gray boxed, super simple form of your game. For me, in my studio, my

prototypes tend to be hyper hyper polished. I know that sounds kind of like a the opposite of what a what a prototype is, but a prototype is really what you're most gifted at and it's put on display to see if people like it. And if they don't like it, it's not worth your time. If they do like it, it's worth your time. So, if you're really really good at gameplay and you want to showcase a really strong gameplay mechanic, then you'll gray box the whole thing and you'll just have the mechanics on display clear as day so that people who are playing like beta alpha testers or whatever or your friends and family, they're playing your prototype and they could tell you whether it's working, whether it's worth your time. For me, I hyper polish the art, the graphics, and the music and the story because that's what the the focus of my games are. My games are typically story games or like immersive sims or whatever. And so I'll I'll I'll fine-tune the art and the music and not necessarily uh some complicated game loop. Right? So that's

what a prototype is. That's what it's for. It's to play with a family member or a friend or an audience, a private audience, and see if it's actually worth your time. Okay? So that's what a prototype is. Two reasons why you should prototype. Number one, it tells you whether you should actually make games. A prototype helps you know if you're gifted as an indie game developer. I know this might sound callous, but I I I think being honest and and truthful is going to help most of you listening right now. Um, gamedev is not for everybody. Game dev is is juggling 30 different art forms, especially as an indie game developer. A lot of uh indie game developers who who dream of making indie games full-time and they want to make their own indie game, they're actually better suited for for being a specialist, being an incredible 3D artist or an incredible composer. In fact, sometimes I wonder if that's what I should have done. Um be an incredible uh game writer, you know, or a coder.

You might want to be just a specialist. or hey, you might actually be really good at juggling all those 30 different skill sets as an indie game developer. Right? So that's number one why prototyping is important. It tells you whether you're actually gifted or not. Number two, prototyping is incredibly important because again it tells you whether your game idea is actually good. You don't want to invest your time and your money and your emotions and your sacrifice your social life on a game idea that sucks. All right, you don't want to do that. So that's why prototyping is important. So Bri, you're on the right track. Good job. You're prototyping. Now, let's move into the three ways. The three ways that help you actually finish your game. Okay, the first way is to choose a game. This is going to sound so cheesy. Choose a game that you want to make. Okay, hold on. Don't stop.

Don't stop watching the video. What I mean is, let's get a little bit more specific here. Choose a game that you're okay with working on for three years. Now, I'm not saying you're going to work on your game for three years, okay? God forbid. Don't do what Thomas has done. I've worked on games for a long time. Uh, one of my games took five years to make. I think I mentioned that earlier. It's hell. It's so hard to do. But you want to at least choose a game idea that you know that you can commit to for three years, that you're going to love making. A good way to know this is honestly to pick a game that you love, like that you're obsessed with. I love Resident Evil 4. I know that I could probably make a game that's similar to that. I could spend 10 years on a game like that just cuz I love it so much, right? So, yeah, think about a game that you love and that's probably the kind of

game you should make and commit to for three years. Do not do not pick a game idea that is based on a popular genre or you think it's going to be a commercial hit, so you're going to choose that game idea. Or you see the trends on Steam and so you're going to pick a game idea like that. Instead, you need to be picking something you love. Pick a game idea or a prototype that you just love. Indie game development is a lot like marriage, okay? You need to commit to some idea just like you commit to a person. You don't just pick a random person. You pick someone. Hopefully, you pick somebody that you're like, "Man, I I think I could spend the the rest of my life with this person. With games, three years. Man, I think I could spend three years on this game." That's kind of my rule of thumb. Okay. So, pick a game that you actually want to make. Otherwise, you're going to quit it. All right. Easy enough, right? Number two. This is where it gets a little bit more complicated. Okay? And I think if I'm

being honest, I think this is where most of you struggle. You need to make a finish line for your game. And I think the the best way of knowing whether you've actually committed to this game and you've actually created a finish line in your mind for this game, the best way to know that, and this might offend some of you. I I apologize if it does. Not really, but because I'm trying to help you. If you have a Steam page up, you've committed. If you don't have a Steam page up, I'm I'll lovingly say you probably aren't committed to this game idea. Like you and but maybe you think you're committed. If you were though, you'd have a Steam page up. Now, this isn't always true. I think it's just a good rule of thumb, which is when you have a Steam page up, suddenly you're committed. And the reason why is because

you start getting wish lists. Even if you got 10 wish lists, sudden you're like, "Hang on. Oh, wow. There's 10 people in the world who want to play this game. I got to finish this, right?" Or, you know, imagine getting almost a 100,000 wish lists, right? Or more. You're committed. It's almost like you're being sort of forced to finish the game by an audience. And that's a good thing, right? For me, Twisted Tower is at I think almost 100,000 wish lists. I'm committed, you know, I'm committed to this thing. So, how do you create a finish line in your head? Well, one of the ways is to create a Steam page. That's that's that's a quick way to do it. Another way is to sign a deal with a publisher because you're now legally bound to finish the game, right? The third way, and I think this is probably the most effective way, is to just visualize visualize what exactly you're trying to achieve from this game. Okay? So, that could be a lot of different things. Most of these things are

shallow, okay? And it's okay. You don't have to feel guilty about them being shallow. How much money do you want to make from the game? What's a specific number? Is it 60,000 bucks? Is it 10,000 bucks? Is it 100,000 bucks? Dream, daydream about that specific number. What could you do with that cash down payment for a house? Or maybe it's just paying for the next game, right? Going full-time indie, right? Um getting a new car, paying off student loans. Don't be afraid to visualize how wonderful cash can be, right? Making some money off your game. It really can be a lifecher. It's changed my life several times. Um, and it was honestly I I would visualize it. And I don't I don't fully believe in like I don't even believe in manifestation, but visualizing something basically creates a thirst for it. And it's really hard to let it go once you've kind of tasted a little bit. So, when you close your eyes and you imagine, hey, what would it be like to make $50,000 for my game or

$100,000 for my game? It'll be harder for you to quit your game because you've tasted in your mind at least. It's amazing how you can taste things just by visualizing them. You could taste your, "Oh, wow. That would be amazing." You just sort of taste it. Just a little taste. Hopefully, that motivates you and helps you not quit your game. It could be what the press says about your game. Maybe you're just you've always really wanted a review on uh I don't know Kotaku, right? Maybe you've really wanted coverage from PC Gamer. Same for me. I always dreamt of that. And when it finally happened, it was amazing, right? Um I think honestly dreaming of getting coverage for PC Gamer is why I got covered by PC Gamer because it motivated me to actually make a great game that PC Gamer would actually cover. Right. What streamers do you want to play your game? Maybe you want me to play your game during a live stream. I don't know.

Those are shallow, honestly, shallow things that will make you motivated, right? And you don't need to be ashamed of them being shallow. It's totally fine to have shallow motivations because at the end of the day, look, making a game that changes the world, that's a noble motivation to have and I'm happy for you. But the shallow ones, those are actually the ones that motivate you the most because at the end of the day, we're all pretty selfish. Okay? So, it's okay to have those motivations. Um, and those motivations will solidify the finish line. they'll create, okay, this needs to be done in a year and I need to make this much money and I want to get press coverage from these articles and get these streamers to play the game. That finish line suddenly it's now in your mind and it's a destination and it's a motivation to move forward. Imagine imagine if somebody said, "Hey, can you come help me move um move furniture from my house to my new

house?" And you said, "Cool. Uh, when is it?" They would say, "I don't know. Uh, how long is it going to take? I don't know. Um, where's the new house? I don't know. Uh, how much furniture do you have? I don't know. How many people are coming to help? I don't know. Will there be lunch? I don't know. Will you have beer? I don't know." You're not going to want to commit to moving, helping your friend move if there's everything, the who, what, when, where, why is all I don't know. In fact, I I think I I'm feeling a little bit passionate right now. So, I'll just say it. If you don't have the who, what, where, who, what, when, where, why of your game, you will not finish it. Why would you? So, you've got to have the who, what, when, where, why. You've got to have that, you know, finish line to know why you're even doing what you're doing. The dream of just making games is not enough. You need the dream of releasing a game and getting it finished.

So Bri, that's the second way uh that motivates me. The third way that motivates me to finish my game is just it's so simple. It's a simple understanding that not every meal needs to be a feast. What I mean by that is in the West in particular, uh in America, I I can just speak for America. How about I just speak for me? Uh, I live my life expecting everything to taste delicious. I want every meal to be delicious and to be fully satisfying. I want every day to be perfect. I want the bed that I lay on to be perfect. I want the friends that I have to be perfect. I want the projects that I have to be fully satisfying. At the core, I think of most people, it's this desire for everything to be perfect and for the motivation for a project or the feelings I get when I work to be perfect and everything's

great and awesome. I think that's a really spoiled mindset and I have it. I have that mindset. It's okay. Alternatively, it's okay for you to hate your game. It's okay to be burnt out. It's okay to be exhausted. It's okay to feel fear and stress about your game. It's okay for you to feel like your game is a house of cards. It's okay that your code is imperfect. It's okay if you don't know what the future holds for your game. Uncertainty, dissatisfaction, these are not signs that your project is not worth your time. That is a lie. Every entrepreneur I've ever met and my own experience indicates to me that you never know. You never know how much money your game's going to make. You don't even know if you're going to lose money on your game. The production of the game tends to suck a lot of the times. Burnout is a real thing, but I

power through it. Feeling insecure about your project. You don't really know if the loop is good. You don't know if the art is good. You have this constant insecurity and anxiety that people are going to hate your game or even hate you. This is normal. Get used to it. We need to be okay with suffering a little bit. Maybe I sound sound a little bit like a stoic here. And honestly, the older I get, I be I feel more stoic. Um, it's okay to hate your game. It's okay. It's okay to be feel burnt out. That's that's kind of normal. And in fact, the game developers who understand at the outset of their project, and this is this is this is basically my point here with the third tip, just understand on the outset that you're going to hate your game and that you're going to be stressed and that you're going to be anxious. When you understand that, it's so much easier when those moments come. I had a friend who used to say you need to budget for

budget for like anxiety or budget for depression or budget for stress in your life or budget for temptation. Um that's a really I that's stuck with me for years. budget mentally have this say, "Okay, I know that I'm gonna need courage and I know that I'm gonna need um energy and I know that I'm going to need to lie to myself a little bit and encourage myself maybe more than I'm I typically do and and power through anxiety. I I know that I'm going to need to have that emotion in the future because 3 months down the road after you've lost motivation for your game idea or your prototype, you're going to need to tap into that extra courage and that uh e extra uh anti-anxiety and and that okayess with being in

chaos. you're going to budget for that and you're going to need to access that budget. Hopefully that makes sense. That's helped me a lot. Okay, so that's that's all I've got for you. Hope that helped Bri the 3D guy. And by the way, seriously guys, if you want to take a prototype and actually turn it into money, that's actually possible. You can actually go full-time with just a prototype. I'm not going to sit here and say it's easy. Um, but I've done it three times. I've done it three times. And this was before I had an audience on Well, the first two were before I had an audience on YouTube. The third one, I did have an audience on YouTube. Just so you know that it's possible for, I guess, uh, like a normie or a beginner gamedev to do this. You can work with publishers, you can work with crowdfunding. There's several ways to turn a simple prototype into an actual paycheck and go full-time. I quit my job with just a prototype, okay? I've done it multiple times, so I want to show you how to do it. It's a webinar below. It's completely free. Click the link below, check it out. No gimmicks, no weird gimmicks. You just enter your email and

then you can watch this. Um, honestly, it's a it's a long webinar with tons of information. Um, and hopefully that helps you. In fact, I know it will help you. I wish I had something like that when I first started making games. Okay, love you guys. Hope that helped. Bri, thanks for the question, buddy. I'll talk to you guys later. Cheers.