Why Everyone Wants To Make Games But Nobody Does (My Response to @Space Dodo)

by the end of this video I can almost promise that there's going to be something that clicks in your head maybe a line of code or a function that's going to start running anytime you feel insecure about making your game there's something incredibly sad about game developers or people who dream of making games that just don't release games because of insecurity and in fact that's the primary reason why you're not going to release your game it's probably because you're just insecure and that insecurity leads you to just not finish your game it's not a technical problem it's not a skill problem because in this day and age making games is incredibly well easy at least compared to the '90s it's kind of like making I don't know a Roblox game the tools are so easy to learn and so easy to use so really this video is meant to encourage you it's meant to show you that you can do this do not let people tell you that you can't and by the way leave a comment below leave a like subscribe if you want to see more videos like this so have you ever seen a really beautiful game on

Steam and it's made by one developer and maybe it's a walking simulator or like a creepy game where the player has a flashlight and they're looking around a creepy Mansion well these games aren't made from scratch that's something I want you to know they're not made from scratch some of them might be but most of the models and what you're seeing are utilizing tools that already exist models that already exist so let me prove this to you let's first open up Unity we're going to open up a tool called probuilder we're quickly going to draw a poly shape we're going to EXT R the height we're going to flip the normals we're going to add some textures then we're going to go to the unity asset store we're going to look for some Victorian models these look cool I'm going to drop those into our scene here throw in a point like voila we have a very spooky Hotel this was created super quick ultimately this comes down to your security as an individual as a creative person you don't need to think that you're too stupid to create something because most people who seem like Geniuses are actually just utilizing tools and getting inspiration and finding models from various websites

like the unity asset store or Turbo squid now me and my team we do like to make things from scratch that's because visuals are our Forte me and my team member Felipe are very very good at creating a very unique stylized look now most game developers that's not their Forte and so it's totally fine to utilize assets ultimately this comes down to leaning into your Forte I talk about this a lot don't be insecure looking at other people's fores look at your Forte look at what you're really good at what were you born talented with that one little Talent lean into that and then Source the talent from all of the free resources that are available online in this day and age as a game developer now there's a second reason why so many game developers are so insecure that they just don't release games and that's because and I've been thinking about this recently they're placed into a position of submission when I was like 14 years old I was really into this emo band called Copeland I went to their record labels website to see if I could submit some of my cra crappy tracks to see if maybe hey

they want to publish a 13-year-old and the first thing that was written was do not submit tracks if you're trying to be like Copeland this is called gatekeeping this is pushing people into a place of submission and making them feel dumb and looking back I didn't even submit my tracks because that deterred me I wish I would have ignored the gatekeeping because ultimately guys when you get a response from a publisher or when you get a response from a game developer or a judge at some of these indie game festivals these aren't brilliant Godlike game developers and musicians and artists that just have done it right these are actually just normal people that are probably going to get a new job at an ad agency somewhere the next year I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten feedback from a judge at a festival or a publisher and then I find out a year later that they're working at an ad agency somewhere these are just normal people okay don't take all of the feedback that you get as gospel it's not now it doesn't mean that you shouldn't

be taking feedback it just means that you don't need to take it so seriously now there are some Publishers out there they are veterans in the industry and they will give you feedback or they will reject your pitch for a publishing deal or maybe these Publishers don't reject your game but they try and get more out of you okay they're trying to place you into a position of submission why are they doing that well they want to get a good deal so let's say you want to work with a publisher right and you pitch your game and and they tell you that well it's actually not that good and we think you should do this you should do that the reason they're doing that especially if they say they want your game is because they want a good deal they're going to put you into a place of submission so that they can get something out of you so ultimately at the end of the day you need to realize that if you're getting bad feedback or you're getting negative feedback about your game from people higher up in the industry it could be that they're trying to get something out of you now this is not always the case but at the end of the day when you're reading Reddit

comments when you're reading YouTube comments people are going to make you feel small I can't tell you how many times I've been in a live stream live streaming my own game and I'm the one who's actually released games I'm the one who has a pretty big audience on YouTube yet people are telling me how I should be doing things this isn't to say that they're not right however I'm not going to feel insecure anymore I'm just not going to do that because at the end of the day there's so many right ways to make a game you don't need to be thinking that you're doing it the wrong way just make game get it done I think the final reason why game developers don't release games is because they're comparing their games to the wrong games and I do this too I've been making games for 15 years and I'm like looking at halflife and I'm looking at portal and I'm looking at Resident Evil why am I doing this these are multi-million dollar games these games were made for what $40 million $100 million what am I doing I need to be comparing my games to successful Indie Games why is that because my budget is $200,000 or maybe your bu budget is $20,000 or maybe even

lower and some of you don't even have a budget right well you think you don't when in reality you do if you if you're spending time you you do have a budget but that's a totally different video instead of comparing your game to AAA games you need to be comparing them to lowbudget games because 99% of you are making a lowbudget game so instead of comparing to Resident Evil I should be comparing to super hot I should be comparing to hollow night I should be comparing to Thomas Was Alone or maybe even firewatch choosing to not be inspired by AAA games it really does require you to have some discipline it is so easy to be inspired by great games because they're great games but make sure I would highly recommend you write down on a piece of paper stay inspired by the small games and stick that on your wall while you're making your game you think that everyone's going to crap on your game because it's not like Resident Evil or it's not like Halo or it's not like fortnite at the end of the day though guys people aren't buying your game to play those games they're

buying a $15 game because they want to play an indie game this is going to help you finish your game it's going to help you not quit your game because well you're making a game that is small