Watch THIS Before Making Your First Game!

in this video me and my buddy Jason the creator of cultic discuss his biggest mistakes when making a game completely alone and how you can avoid them and if you stick around through this entire video you're going to walk away with top tier advice from one of the most brilliant full-time game developers I've ever met Who Sold over 50,000 copies of his first game by the way the sale for my new course YouTube gamedev starts today you're going to learn how to build a YouTube channel dedicated to showing off your game and building a massive audience that could generate six figures in income it's 40 % off and lasts for just 14 days 200 seats left and you're going to join Over 400 students worldwide the links below I'll see you there for the the people listening who want to be solo game developers can we try and think of maybe like four or five mistakes that you've made as a solo game developer and how you can avoid them and why why their mistakes why are they so problematic mistake number one uh being a solo game developer no I'm just kidding uh so it it's like um I would say the number one mistake in this isn't this just like a solo Game Dev thing but this this is just like a starting out

thing and this is any anytime anybody asks me for like advice for game devs it's this one is like never ever ever ever ever ever go into Game Dev thinking that you're going to make your dream game first no you're making pong first that's what you do like you start small and that's it's so important especially when you get into so start small turns into like controlling scope um so maybe you can I don't know which one you want to call we'll say controlling scope right and that's it's actually that's actually really uh really timely cuz I just today released an update for cultic that uh adds ability mode into the game and abilities like kind of like Supernatural Bioshock abilities were something that were in cultic way like in the first year development just because I was like this would be a fun thing to make and then you realize really quickly that a like it didn't fit the game at all like it it was a really bad fit for the pacing but the bigger thing was like adding that kind of complexity into the game now means that I have to like I have to tutorial IE this for the player because the system is deep enough at needs tutorial isation I have to justify it which means like trying to it's it's like um like you I

assume you've played Bioshock one right the first one first oh yeah I mean Twisted Tower our game Twisted Tower is basically the same thing yeah so like that it would be like if if they gave you your first e or your first plasmid without like the cut scene of your guy like injecting it into himself and go like you have to kind of explain why you have these powers and that and that's not something I wanted to do in CTIC cuz CK's kind of got that like Dark Souls hands-off storytelling a bit to it and so it was just like the more I looked into it it was like this is going to blow my scope up cuz now I also have to design combat scenarios around the player having these powers and it was just like it took what was a really clean and simple gameplay Loop and ble it out of scope and so that's I would say I say I almost did that thing where I got off the interstate um so yeah number one big thing start small and don't and don't blow your scope out of proportion because so like I would say the second most common thing I hear besides oh my nephew likes video games when I tell somebody I'm game developer is somebody who's like oh man I've always wanted to make my own halo or whatever and it's like open world yeah

yeah and it's like no like but it's like start small I guess is a big one oh for sure I totally agree in fact I I say and then we can move on to the second one but start small start as a turd like release your first crappy game as fast as you can so that you know what it feels like to release a game yeah and I don't know if you did that but I I released like four crappy games before I actually did like a good game that actually made money CK's my first commercial release so uh no I i' never even finished the game before cultic so no I would say I didn't make it that far awes that's awesome that's that's a that's a anomaly that's amazing I'm trying to think of I'm trying to think of other other Game Dev mistakes and if if you have suggestions that we can talk about I would I guess um another one would be like I guess this kind of goes hand in hand with starting small but um play like you have to play to your strengths um like one and this uh this this is really nebulous it has overlap with 0.1 I apologize for that but originally culk had a lot more more like

story telling and narration and like characters and voice acting and and I got into it and I started look and like once I started working on the game and I started like considering how I was going to develop those things it was like I don't know how to do any of that I don't know how to write I'm not a voice actor I can't write jokes like I don't I don't know how to hire voice actors like that's going to be a mess and so I cut all of that right away cuz I was like I can't do any of this so you played your strengths with with the art the music yeah and the gameplay yeah and I was and you know I mean the art style is you know one of my favorite parts of cultic but it is a crutch you know like like a big part of working a big part and and it's the same reason why like PS1 aesthetic games are are surging is because like you you can get your point across without having to spend hours and hours and hours on on Art assets um which is great and I and I mean like I I I don't fault it at all cuz that's basically CK's just like a more refined PS1 core really you know it's it's using it's I I'm rendering my crappy 3D models down to 180 pixels so you can't see how bad they are

that's and that and that's and I was able to make a game work around that which was which was which was great U but it is a crutch it really is the hook of your game is the the style and the aesthetic do you agree uh yeah I I was definitely part of it okay that that's definitely the like that's like the that's like the thing that gets you to stop and look at it on your timeline that's right that's right and actually um Justin at 3D Realms he was talking to me about that is is just how important that stop that that I call I call it the stop and stare Factor the thing that about your game that makes people stop and actually pay attention and so that for me is the third mistake if I can throw in one of my Mist which is uh which is it's probably a good idea this sounds really corporate and Commercial and monopolistic but I'm just going to go for it I feel like game developers would be so much happier if they would just test their ideas first on social media before going for it and really finish in the game out because some

ideas are trash and you shouldn't even make the game and sometimes you just need an audience or or a 100 followers to say Hey you know this isn't really that interesting you know it seems like that's what you did like yeah you signed with 3D Realms but until you got the feedback you needed to know that the game actually had sort of viral potential you weren't fully you weren't fully two feet both feet stepping into the project right yeah I mean I don't know like if you're wanting to make a career out of game development like if you want game development to pay all of your bills then then yes like Commercial Appeal is very important because like you can go like you can go you can pause this video right now and go to steam and look at the new releases uh and and see how many games that were released in the last day alone and it's like you're competing with all of those but when it comes to game development as an art form um which is more of what I view it as and that's a little hypocritical because yes it is my job and I am making money off of it but I am very much a passion for first developer which is why like

which is why I'm working on bone rooms like bone rooms just sounded like a fun game to work on so I'm working on it if you're making a game because it's it's it's an idea that seems really cool to you like other people will think it's cool too but yes like if you if you're getting near the release of your game and and you haven't manage to crack 100 you know like 100 wish lists it it it might be tough for you to make a commercial success out of that and so part of that I guess is determining what you're what your goal is like if your goal is to release your game and make a ton of money and and and have that pay your bills then yeah you know a bit of the corporate like you said like the soulless corporate side of it a bit of that's required because the because the industry sucks it it it really sucks so any other any other mistakes you can think of as a solo developer that you wish you you you had known at the time Productions schedule anything you could think of here yeah I'm sure I'm sure there are um I'm just like I struggle to think of any because CK I got really lucky I got really really lucky with CK I I was making it at a time where Boomer shooters were hot if I had tried to make

if I had tried to make culk 2 years from now or like 6 years ago it probably would wouldn't have had a blip on the radar I got a lot of it was luck you know like I got I got a following because some tweets of mine happened to blow up a little bit 3D Realms picked me up because they happened to see you know my tweets you know it's just like I I like I will never deny the fact that a big chunk of cultic success was luck and and unfortunately I think that's a big chunk of of Game Dev in general like some you know sometimes the difference between your game succeeding and not is a is a YouTuber playing it you know it's uh and and and I mean like heck even like like think I think Among Us is a great example of that where it was this really and and it might have taken off on its own but like to my understanding it was kind of a kind of like a not very well known that all game until it got you know it got the right people playing it and then it and then it just exploded and there's probably a lot of other examples of that but that's just the one that comes to mind but like I said I mean there's so like go look at the steam new releases today after you sort through the six or seven uh games that are there um look how many games came

out today and it's like you're and you're competing for you're competing for people's money with like all of these games and and so I think there is a good chunk of luck with it and had CK not have had that and I had to earn my following more honestly we'll say you know like through through good oldfashioned hard work I think there would probably be a lot more mistakes to speak of because it would have been a much more painful process all right guys thanks for watching and just remember you can join my new course YouTube gamedev starting today you're going to learn how to build a YouTube channel dedicated to showing off your game and building a massive audience that can generate six figures in income and no it's not a gimmick it's taught by somebody me someone who's actually in the trenches doing all of this oh and you're also going to get my course fan base framework which is all about building a massive email list that could generate revenue for you in your game and also hey I'll throw in stream my game totally free this is a course dedicated to teaching you how to reach out to top tier YouTubers and get them to play your games this course is 40%

off and guys this is going to last for just 14 days the link is below I'll see you [Music] there