How To Make Your First Game CONFIDENTLY

I was wondering when you'd show up my name is Thomas Preston creator of a game called pitch stripe I'm also working on a game called never song click the links in the description you can check out those games alright today's gonna be a fun day I like this video I like this video because it's about an email that I've received I really like answering emails so send me some emails okay so this email is all about confidence and this is kind of like beating a dead horse because if there's anything that game developers lack its confidence that's kind of the mantra of most game devs but we're gonna we're gonna try and address this email because I want to try and help Kamal out Kamal sent me an email and said no matter how well my I get my game ideas sound I as of now can't find myself confident enough to make the leap of faith and release the game I know it took you some time to do that but you had a rather tight focus on your game idea did I that's a that's a good question I don't I don't know if I did and we'll talk about that I am honestly not that confident in mind so I'd like to at

least initially keep it smaller release a casual mobile game every couple of months and see where it goes from there what kind of process do you think can be adopted by casual game developers so we'll talk about that process what's the best approach for a casual game developer in releasing games before we get started guys I want to thank our sponsor Nord Locker I can't tell you guys how many files I share on a daily basis whether it's with my editor or my publishers or you know accountants or business team there's a ton of stuff that I want to be safely encrypted and done correctly and it can honestly be a bit scary if you're any kind of creative you know exactly what I'm talking about so that's why I love Nord Locker Nord Locker is actually from the makers of Nord VPN surprise surprise and I kid you not encrypting and sharing your files is as simple as dragging something from your desktop into a folder it works on Windows or Mac and you could send and share to anyone with a password and it's for your eyes and whoever you share it

with the best part is guys this is completely free you can use all functionalities of the software as long as your encryption is limited to two right now if you want more than two gigabytes it's just a dollar 49 a month now if you decide to pay for a full year that's a 32 percent discount that's just a dollar a month that is a good deal I did not have a fully fleshed concept for my first game Pinstripe which was released on eventually released on console and steam you know what's funny about youtubers which I'm certainly one of the smaller youtubers but people look at youtubers and they think they got you know all their stuff together everything's in line especially when you have a really nice camera or at least you know I think my camera is kind of nice it's a nice little Sony and everything looks pretty we've got a nice bokeh is that the word Boca Boca effect really beautiful I got my lights set up makes me look kind of pretty as pretty

as I can look but if I took this camera that I'm talking to you if I took it and I walked around my office you guys would be like Thomas there's a lamp just sitting on the floor and what's all that trash and why is there a bunch of two before it's leaning against the wall and why don't you have any blinds there's just a piece of paper hanging on your window that's kind of the way my games are as well it looks pretty once I release the game right and and everyone thinks wow Thomas must have really known what he was doing and he had a GDD all prepared and ready to go by the way a GDD is a game design document that's BS I like when I make games it's kind of a mess I don't have everything fleshed out and specifically with pinstripe that game is about a minister who goes to hell it did pretty good on launch still still doing pretty good but it took me three years to figure out what that game even was and by the way I'm not your role model that's terrible that it should not take you three years to figure out what your game even is but it

did it I didn't even know it was about a minister I just knew I wanted it to be some abstract thing about Hell or the afterlife so it took a long time before I even wrote down the plot he even now I don't even know what that game even is the concept it doesn't fully register in my mind that's especially true for game developers who are super attached to their work it's really hard to have an understanding of the concept of your game because you're so attached to it and you remember the game from the beginning when you started it and then you have an idea of what the game is when you finish it so it's just this blurry timeline of not really knowing what the concept is so my whole point is is that it's really hard to get a grasp on what the concept of your game even is as a game developer and this really reflects on your confidence your confidence is always going to be shaky with your project now some of you might have an godlike sense

of confidence and congratulations but for me you know my confidence is shaky all the time and have learned to just let that be you know that's the way it's gonna be and I'm not gonna worry too much about feeling a lack of confidence right there's a what's that book called art I'm not giving up F basically the concept of the book is just because you feel something doesn't mean you need to feel bad about it right so if you don't have confidence in your work don't feel like you're stupid for not having confidence that's just the way it goes so I would just recommend to you right now if your lack of confidence is stopping you from actually even starting your project or finishing your project then you're not gonna be a game developer because all game developers who release projects they don't really have confidence in that project and I can only really speak from me I guess but that's especially true for me I'm always lacking confidence but just

because I'm afraid just because I'm insecure doesn't mean I'm not gonna take the next step to get something done the most successful entrepreneurs are not the ones who are fearless they're the ones who know how to deal with fear write that down that's a quote from Thomas brush whoever Kamala is I think this individual has a really good point they say they're basically basically going to create small games and release those every other month or something like that that's a great idea kamal seriously and i think we could all take it by from Kemal why is that a good thing to do to release small games at the beginning of being a developer well the reason why is because you want to build up a thick skin you want to be able to release games get feedback sometimes negative feedback in fact if it's your first game people are gonna probably take a dump over all over your game all day long get bad reviews but the point is is for you to learn to not care or at least you're

gonna care you're always gonna care but I guess not make it not let it stop you in your pursuit of making great games so for those of you who have never released a game before release a game get it done even if it's a piece of flaming crap release your game release it on HIO or mobile or something like that this is gonna give you a thick skin and help you move forward with making your game when I released Pinstripe which was not my first game but it was my first commercial release I was so nervous you know I was very miserable launching that game on Steam I was so nervous that I needed a bottle of whiskey to get through the night and that's terrible right you shouldn't be that way you shouldn't have to numb the pain of entrepreneurship you should learn to just live with it live in the beauty of the journey right even if the journey is scary and insecure just learn to enjoy it well that game was really difficult

for me to launch because I spent five years working on I was really nervous about the reception just just learn to live in it don't you don't need to to drink whisky like I did on pinstripes launch and the truth is is now I have a thicker skin I'm not as nervous to launch things I've launched pinstripes on other platforms it didn't bother me I got bad reviews sometimes didn't bother me and you know I actually got a really bad review okay was it game spot is a game stopper game spot they gave me a really they gave me a 5 out of 10 for Pinstripe that was the worst day one of the worst days five years of making a game and then they drop a five out of ten and you know I at that point I just kind of stopped caring about reviews I just didn't worry about it and I recommend you guys learn to do the same stop worrying so much about what people think stop worrying about how you think about yourself just move forward kind of treat yourself like a robot right just move

forward what's the mission what's the protocol get it done and you'll thank yourself in the long run right you'll look back six years and go you know I got really bad reviews but who cares right it was part of learning it was part of the process all right come all thanks for that email wow that was amazing anyways guys click the link in the description to get a free copy of Pinstripe by supporting on patreon also oh man I forgot to say follow me on instant thanks subscribe notification Bell comments that's about everything thanks for watching bye [Music] you [Music]