How To Make A Game Alone (In 2024)

In this video, me and my buddy Gavin, the creator of Choo Choo Charles, discuss his secrets to making an indie game completely alone. We're not only going to discuss the tools he used, but also some major mistakes and misconceptions game developers make and why, frankly, they end up failing. And if you stick around through the entire video, you're going to come away with top tier advice from, frankly, one of the most successful indie game developers alive today. I hate you, man. I'm sorry, Thomas. when I watch your devlogs or when I just observe you from a distance, it seems so easy how you make games. Like, you're so you're so fast and you're a solo developer, yet you basically made a double A looking game. So, let's go all the way back to the beginning of production. I I would love it to be a more technical conversation about the tools you used and how you made this game cuz I look at it and I'm like I was pretty frustrated to be completely honest with you when I first saw it cuz I was thinking how did he do this? I mean, I think you started it when you were 19, right? Um, uh, yeah. Yeah, that was like when I first kind of came up with the concept.

So, yeah, take me back to the beginning and just tell me the story of making this thing. Yeah. So, I guess I'll just quickly go over the tools that I use just for for reference for everybody. So, I use Unreal Engine 4 for two tutorials. I'm now on Unreal Engine 5, which basically the same thing for anybody wondering. I use [ __ ] for all of my 2D art, and then I use Blender for any custom 3D stuff that I have. What's your 2D art, by the way? just just for clarity. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh 2D art, that's going to be anything like marketing materials, poster art, stuff like that or texture art. What I did with a lot of Choo Choo Charles in order to kind of set apart the style because I think that, you know, just having a just a unique art style is it's good for your branding and it's good for a game's recognizability. So, what I do is when I download assets, which is something that I do a lot in order to speed up development, I'll take the textures, throw them into [ __ ] and I'll draw over the textures just real quick. Just kind of a nice scribbly style. Kind of helps feed into the horror aspect, so it's it's a little rougher around the edges and makes it a

little bit quicker to to actually execute. Mhm. But, um, in any case, so that's like kind of what the the 2D side of stuff looks like from a production standpoint. I think one of the main things was the pre-production on Chuji Charles was very fast. It was very very fast. Uh rushed even. I spent probably about 2 weeks concepting the game, trying to think of unique characters that I could throw in there. Uh some fun gameplay with like an easy easy enough to make gameplay loop. And so after 2 weeks, I had a pretty solid idea of like kind of the kind of the foundation of the game. Like I didn't know I didn't have a full list of all the missions that I wanted, for example. I didn't have a full list of all the different guns that I wanted, but I knew that I should have a handful of different guns that you could get from missions. I knew that I should have a couple of required missions, and I knew that there should be a spider train. Now, I hope you don't gloss over that because that's why this game is wild. I mean, I don't want to I I don't want to discredit your ability to create a great

game that looks beautiful, but the spider train is why it correct me if I'm wrong, but that's why the game was wildly successful. That's why it was viral. Yeah. Which Yeah, for sure. Which was needed, right? I mean, you you do you need that virality? That's crucial. Okay. Absolutely. If you don't have that, then you get no marketing and that's a problem. I mean, did did you just you don't have to tell me where you came up with the idea. Maybe you found it on creepy pasta on Reddit. I don't know. Or did you just wake up one night and like spider train? I was trying to think of ways cuz I was seeing kind of this trend and it's become a a very popular trend in in horror these days to the point where a lot of people are actually pretty sick of it. But at the time this trend didn't really exist. It wasn't a widespread thing that people knew about. So, I had noticed that games like Five Nights at Freddy's or Bendy and the Ink Machine were taking characters that were kind of nostalgic and then they would put them in a horror context. And so, I was trying to think of things that most

people would have been familiar with as kids that I could turn into a spooky character, right? And so, I was realizing, you know, there's really not that many horror games based on um kids TV shows. And so for me, my favorite TV show when I was growing up was Thomas the Tank Engine. What I did, I was I was like, "Well, well, I'll just take Thomas, take Thomas, make him spooky, make him scary, make him evil." So that was really what I kind of based the game around. So when I knew that, okay, spooky trains were going to be involved, I figured, well, it'd be fun to drive around on a train. So I was like, okay, well, I have to have a train that you can drive around in. And then in order to make that more engaging and feel like a more personal experience, I was like, "Okay, well, I'll throw in some upgrades, throw in some custom weapons, maybe you can uh color your train." Yeah. So, just kind of figuring out what all the game mechanics, like all the foundational mechanics should be. So, pretty much I decided, okay, these are the confines that I'm going to work within, and I'm going to stick to this cuz I think this is really solid. and

all the, you know, figuring out how the individual missions are going to work, figuring out specifically how the AI is going to function, exactly how the game is going to end, things like that I'll figure out as I go over time throughout development rather than trying to spend 3 months in pre-production just, you know, kind of wasting time walking around figuring out how this stuff is going to work. In the first month of development, my goal was to create a trailer and screenshots and a description of the game that I could use to launch a Steam page and the game trailer and kind of gauge interest to start gaining wish list so I could start um taking part in online events and stuff like that. And so that blew up, got a lot of traction. And then from that point, it was just production time. It's just time to really focus in on building out all of the systems. You said earlier, I figured that I needed weapons. I needed a train. I needed to be able to color my train. Was this all just written down or was it a

prototype? Yeah. So, this is just written down. Um, you need a GD in the first couple. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. You need a GDD. Everyone watching, you need a GDD. If you're working on any project larger than a game jam game, you need a game design document. you know, organize your thoughts, organize your ideas, um, keep track of what you're doing, and make notes. When I look at Choo Choo Charles, I look at a game that has a very unique flavor. It just looks like it's handcrafted despite the fact that you used assets. And I'm curious, by the way, why did you choose to do a custom model for for the train when you could have probably just downloaded something from Turbos Squid? Partially I had a specific kind of some specific look and design needs for that train specifically, you know, like I knew that I needed um like a walkable perch on the back of the train where the guns would be mounted, right? So that that was a very specific thing that I needed. I needed a small interior that you could walk around. I needed a little

dashboard with three levers on it to, you know, to control it. Um, and I had a specific kind of look that was similar to, you know, like the trains in Thomas the Tank Engine and stuff like that. So, that was one of those things that I just felt would be best to do custom so that it would really fit the branding that I was going for and the design needs. So, that was that was the main thing there. Which which things in your game were assets? It'd probably be easier to start with the things that aren't assets, honestly. So, all of the wooden buildings are modular pieces that I put together or that I created. So, I created kind of a modular wooden building pack for myself. Nice. And I use that for all the wooden structures. The trains, I made the trains myself. I made the guns myself. I think that's it. I think that's it. I think everything else is based on an asset. Let's move on to Unless I'm missing something here. Can we move on to sound? Cuz the sound is great in the game.

[Music] Can Can you break down what you used for sound, including where you're sourcing some sounds, if you did source them? Yes, pretty much all the sounds used in the game are based off of sounds I got on freesound.org. And then the music I have in the game is it's mostly custom music um from a musician I hire Tom Bellingham. He's he's awesome. He's really good. So for the sound effects, what I'll do is I'll have a sound in mind. Like let's say I've got um a drawbridge that falls down in a mission and it and it hits some wood planks and I want to have a a loud echoing sound as as that drops down. So what I'll do is I'll do a screen recording of that action in game. First thing I do is, you know, I create the the scenario. I record it and then I put that into a

video editor. So I I'll use either Premiere or sometimes I'll use Wondershare for my audio editing. And so then what I'll do is I'll go on to free sound and I'll look around for, you know, maybe a wood hit sound effect or, you know, maybe as the draw bridge is coming downwards, I'll have like a creaking wood. And then I'll just kind of splice them all together. Uh, you know, do whatever pitch adjustments, reverb adjustments, things. Did you mention the tool you're using for that? Yeah. So, I use usually just Wondershare or Wondershare. I got you. Okay. I wasn't sure what Wondershare was. Okay. So, that's Yeah, it's a film editing software. Ah, okay. Yeah. So, so what I do is I'll I'll take the recording of the game play and I'll edit the audio right underneath that. So, I can see a live preview of how because sometimes you can create a sound that sounds good, but then when you match it up with the with the visuals, it's just off. it just sounds really off. Like that's my biggest trick when it when it comes to audio editing. Let's move on to launch. We don't have to talk about specific numbers, but I

just love to hear how launch went for you. Yeah, so I was definitely nervous. I think the biggest thing that I was worried about leading up to launch was just the player reception. It had gotten enough attention prior to launch. I I launched with 550,000 wish lists. So crap. It's like I knew that people were going to buy it. Um, I just was really worried as to whether or not they would like it and if they would be pleased with their purchase. So, that was the biggest thing that I was nervous about going into it. Ultimately, I think the launch was about as as chill as it could have been. Um, pretty much I I am a big fan of like tools down like a month before launch. like have a solid build that's completely done, the build that I'm going to publish, and sit on it for one month. Now, that doesn't mean I'm just sitting around for a month. That means that last month there is spent just strictly doing tons of marketing stuff, making trailers, making videos, writing up press releases, getting uh lists of

influencers to send keys to. It's a busy time leading up to launch. Just getting just that hype machine rolling and being able to do that without having to worry about the game at all. That's very important to me. But uh yeah, so the the reception ended up being better than I expected, you know, from like a a review user review side of things. The game got I think like a 100 million views across social media on launch day, which was incredible. I it was 50 million I know 50 million on Tik Tok and then I don't know the exact figure on on YouTube, but it was quite a few. Um I hate you, man. I'm sorry. So I'm so jealous. No, I'm kidding. I think that's it's just amazing what you've done. That's so cool. Are you willing to disclose copies sold? Um I'm not. Okay. It peaked at over 4,000 just over 4,000 concurrent players. That's public info.

Um see that on Steam DB. It Yeah. So it it was it was good. It was good for sure.