How to Develop Your Own Game: A Guide for Beginners
Thanks to numerous technological innovations, games are looking better than ever, becoming increasingly complex and immersive. However, with the technical advancements in the gaming industry, not only do the games themselves evolve, but also the tools and resources that game developers use are becoming better and, most importantly, more accessible. Time-consuming processes are being streamlined, programs are easier to use, and this lowers the barrier for creating your own game. The indie developer scene is growing, with games like Stardew Valley and Undertale clearly demonstrating that individuals with enough passion can develop great games. But how do you develop your own game? What should you consider? What software should you use, and how do you start game development? For beginners asking these questions, this article provides answers and tips to hopefully help you develop your own game soon.
This article is divided into two parts. The first part focuses mainly on the approach to game development and the design process itself. The second part will discuss specific tools, engines, and sources for game assets.
What Kind of Game Do I Want to Develop?
Before you sit down at a computer or start crafting game pieces for a board game (yes, people have done that), you should ask yourself what type of game you want to make to get a rough idea of what you aim to achieve. Ask yourself questions about your game and try to answer them. This will shape your game idea. Questions could include: “A digital or analog game? A board game? A card game? A shooter? An RPG, or perhaps a building game? What will it be about? What kind of mood should it convey?” You don’t need to know every detail about your game yet; you’ll discover many things in the process. But having a starting point and a rough goal will help you get started.
In this article, we will primarily refer to digital game development. The technical hurdles in this realm tend to be significantly larger. However, the design processes outlined in this guide can certainly be applied to the development of analog games as well.
Don’t Think Too Big!
Many who want to develop their own game tend to think too big. “I love open-world RPGs with crafting elements and beautiful graphics, so I’ll make my own open-world RPG with crafting elements and beautiful graphics!” I’ve heard this many times. The point is: that won’t work! I don’t want to demotivate you, but you definitely won’t be able to pull that off alone, especially if you’re just starting your game design career.
Such games are typically created by teams of 40 to 200 people, all of whom are absolute specialists in their fields. You think the nature in Witcher 3 looks fantastic? It does! But those people worked on almost NOTHING else. For the beginning of your game design career, it’s better to choose something small that you can realistically implement in a short time. A project that you can complete in a maximum of three months, or even smaller: a week or a day. This way, you can achieve quick successes, ensure that you keep enjoying the process, and learn new things within a manageable scope. You can always make your second and third game bigger, building on what you learned in your first projects.
I usually only create small games. For me, it’s a hobby, and it should be fun. I enjoy the time constraints and focusing on a few essential concepts. Moreover, by working on many small projects, I can gain experience that I bring to the next project. In our podcast Tech und Trara, we spoke with indie developer Philipp Stollenmayer, who also focuses on simple games based on strong ideas—he even won the Apple Design Award.
Developing Your Own Game: The Design Process
In this section, we will discuss the actual design and development process. We’ll address questions about how to begin the development of your own game, the steps in between, and the necessary mindset.
Where Do I Start?
Now that you’ve decided on a rough direction, you can get started! You can begin to elaborate on and specify your ideas. How quickly you can dive into actual implementation depends somewhat on the mental groundwork you’ve already laid. For example, if you’ve only determined that your game should have a “dark mood,” it will be challenging to come up with something concrete. If you’ve already settled on a genre, you can start implementing the genre-specific mechanics and elements. Let’s take an example:
If you want to make a dark 2D platformer, start by integrating the fundamental mechanics. Your character—best represented in a stylized way at this point—should be able to run and jump. If you haven’t decided on a genre yet, start from the beginning. Take any typical genre and experiment to see if you like it. If not, scrap it and choose another genre, implementing different mechanics.
Build your game in this early phase using simple graphics that you either create prototypically yourself or find online (you’ll find hints about “game assets” further down in the article), and create a level. Now you have a first small prototype. Play it and see how it feels.
Prototyping: Think in Iterations
Very important: When developing your own game, don’t just think about the final product. Instead, think in small iterations and develop playable prototypes repeatedly. Play them, improve them, and expand them. Of course, it’s wise to keep your ultimate goal in sight, but always be ready to change that goal if you discover even better ideas while testing your game. Let’s stick with our earlier example:
Your game is still in its infancy. Your player can run and jump. Now play this initial prototype and ask yourself whether these basic mechanics—“running” and “jumping”—are fun. The actions that the player performs most often should be enjoyable and feel good. A shooter where shooting isn’t fun would be a pretty bad game, wouldn’t it? If mechanics aren’t enjoyable, change them and try to optimize them. This way, you’ll iteratively tackle your game and continue to build it out. It might not be very exciting to hop around in a level without a task or goal. Should your game have enemies? Yes? Then add some! Should the player only avoid these enemies, or can they fight them?
If you’re unsure about these questions, try out the different variants. See what feels better and what fits your game better. What feels more like the game you want to create?
Let Others Play Your Game
Through various iterations, your game will gradually take shape, and eventually, you’ll reach a point where it feels somewhat complete. You know the essential mechanics of your game, the player has some kind of task or goal (there are also games that consciously avoid this and prompt the player to set their own goals, like Minecraft), and the game is playable.
At this point, you’ll probably be completely blind to your own game. After all, you know exactly how it works. You know what will happen, when, and why. With this knowledge, you can no longer make the best judgment about whether your game is actually fun. So: Let others play the game. Observe them. Do they understand how your game works? Do they react in ways you hoped for at certain points? Ask them for feedback. What can be improved? What’s fun? What’s not fun?
This feedback is worth its weight in gold for a game designer. You now have opinions about your game that you can incorporate into your game design.
Keep Shaping the Game
If you’re working on a game alone, the development process basically consists of three pillars. First, there’s game design, which encompasses the rules that determine your game. Then there’s the technical pillar, where you need to implement the rules you’ve devised. Whether you need code for that or you’re working in a program that doesn’t require coding is irrelevant. Lastly, there’s the design pillar, which involves graphics, sounds, and the overall aesthetics of your game.
All three pillars are important, and all need to be considered. However, it’s unrealistic to expect that you can give equal attention to all pillars from the very beginning. All these areas of game development simply involve too much work. In large studios, there are separate teams dedicated to the different areas, focusing solely on specific tasks. Because all of this takes a significant amount of time and effort, I advised you to start with simple prototypes. Build your levels out of simple blocks and keep your player and other characters as simple as possible. Focus first on game design and its implementation. Because the implementation can often require a lot of work, you may need to understand many things and experiment a lot. When you feel that your game is technically implemented well and you think it works and is fun, you can gradually enhance it. You can integrate better 3D models and depict your characters in more detail. You can implement a better UI and ensure that colors and lighting are coordinated.
Get to the Point
In reality, there’s never a single moment when you can say, “Alright, my game is finished!” There’s always something to improve or tweak. However, you will sooner or later reach a point where you have to come to terms with it. Eventually, you simply can’t see the forest for the trees anymore, and at some point, improvements may not even make the game better. Therefore, definitely set a deadline by which you want to be finished. Even if you don’t stick to this deadline and take an extra week, you’ll have established a time frame that helps you reach a conclusion and finish your game!
How to Develop Your Own Game: The Programming Aspect
Do I need to know how to program to develop a game? If you’re developing an analog or board game, the answer is: No! If you want to create a computer game, the answer is: It depends! Let’s take a closer look.
The Different Ways to Create a Game
As already mentioned, you have different paths depending on whether you want to create a computer game or an analog game. If you want to develop an analog game, you mainly need creativity, a sense of design, and the ability to structure your rules. This also includes playtesting to ensure that your game is fun.
When it comes to digital game development, programming often plays a role. However, it’s not always mandatory! Many modern game engines allow you to create games even without coding. This often simplifies the process for you as a designer significantly and also leads to faster results. In addition to Unity and Unreal Engine, which are both among the largest engines in the world, you can also create 2D games with software like GameMaker Studio, Construct, and Godot without the need for coding.
However, if you want to develop your own game and dive into programming, you can choose from many programming languages. JavaScript, Python, C#, and C++ are the most popular ones. Depending on your project, you can look into which programming languages are the most suitable for your project. If you want to develop games with 3D graphics and complex mechanics, C# or C++ will be appropriate.
If you want to develop games more quickly and work in a more visual way, you might want to choose one of the aforementioned engines that don’t require coding knowledge.
A Simple Engine: GameMaker Studio
GameMaker Studio is an intuitive engine where you can create games using drag-and-drop mechanics or scripting in the programming language GML. This means you can make great games without needing to know how to code. However, it’s also worth learning GML if you want to push your game design further and explore more complex ideas.
Finding the Right Tools for Your Project
Regardless of whether you want to develop a board game or a digital game, there are certain tools and resources you’ll need. Here’s a list of some tools to consider for your game:
Game Engines and Tools
- Unity: A versatile engine suitable for both 2D and 3D games. Unity is popular for its extensive community support and wealth of resources. While it uses C# as its programming language, you can also create games without coding.
- Unreal Engine: Mainly for 3D games, Unreal Engine offers fantastic graphics. It also allows developers to work with visual programming through Blueprints.
- GameMaker Studio: Great for 2D games and offers an intuitive interface, enabling users to create games with minimal coding knowledge.
- Construct: Another option for 2D games that focuses heavily on visual programming.
- Godot: An open-source engine that supports both 2D and 3D game development and allows you to work with GDScript, a Python-like language.
Graphics and Asset Resources
- OpenGameArt: A free resource where you can find graphics, sounds, and music for your game.
- itch.io: A platform for indie developers where you can find game assets and even sell your games.
- Unity Asset Store: If you’re using Unity, the Asset Store has a wide range of assets, from models to scripts.
Conclusion: Game Development Is an Ongoing Process
In this article, you’ve gained an overview of how to develop your own game. Remember, game development is a continuous learning process. Don’t be afraid to experiment, make mistakes, and iterate. Every project teaches you something valuable. Whether it’s a small prototype or a larger game, the most important thing is to enjoy the process of creating something unique.
Now that you have a better understanding of how to get started, it’s time to take action and create your own game!