Introduction
When someone says game development or video game making, people may think making a video game is like playing a video game which means it’s a “Kids’ play”. Well, some others are not interested in this at all, and others professionals would say it’s graphics with logic. But what do passionate developers and I say about “game development”? Game development is an “art” as well as a “craft” which means its need creativity, passion, intelligence, ideas, skills and also it differ to make a game from one person to another if you asked him to make the same exact game. What is special about games? Well, everything! It’s the feeling its give you when you pass a level, the confidence and the persistent to be a winner. We gonna admit that most kids and lots of adults play video games.
Note
If you’re not passionate about developing video games and love to do it, I warn you it’s going to be difficult on you, but if you are passionate, keep going and you’ll reach your goals.
Game development basics
Gaming industry is a multi-billion industry but as @DUTOUIT say, 5% succeed, the other 95% starve (which is failing). Now, if you ever made a great game but it was not played for some reason, I want you to know this basic rule: Games rely mostly on luck. Who would know that a game with a cow “Hay day” and a game that only require tapping “Flappy bird” are going to be so popular? Well, if you made a trending game, at the appropriate time and a good marketing, you might get chance to get to the top, but we must also know that marketing a bad game will make it worse than it was before.
The secret for making a good game is practicing. If you’re a new developer don’t rush on making a game like most of them do because it will have bad impact on the players who will see your first games, thus they will expect you to make another bad ones. I advice that you must make games but keep it for yourself, and when you see it is an appropriate time to submit a game online (a good game), just do it and see the feedback, starting in the right foot at the right time is going to give players a boost to play your new games. Learn the basics; if you are willing to work on yourself, try to do your own graphics, learn the events system well, and make new games with new ideas and genres. I that way you will be able to handle the work and it will be easier to make a game in a less time.
The key to success
There are a lot of people who like to make video games but they don’t know that it is going hard. If you ever want to succeed in this industry, you must seek for these particular things which players also seek:
Creativity
Creativity is a main factor in game development. The person who makes a game and its game design should be very creative to make the game come to life. Players seek for a game full of life, filled with crazy twists and extra things in the game. If you think you don’t have creativity, you are not going to succeed then.
Passion
To make a successful game, you should be passionate about what you are doing, love it, and feel happy when you make games. You should also make a game that you like. With passion, it will push you forward to make games until they are totally complete, because some developers give up developing the game in the middle of the development or sometimes they shortcut its levels and some designs that to save time and publish it earlier.
Intelligence
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What do I mean with intelligence? It is the ability to make a game with hard events and complicated logic without referring too much to tutorials, because there are not tutorials for everything you want, you must be intelligent enough to make your own events and logic. But if you knew something useful that everyone needs to know, it doesn’t hurt to make a tutorial about it and share it with others, because a game development community is very important by the way. For example, I made logic magnet effect and the scoring system and I got positive feedbacks and compliments. You must notice that compliments and feedback boost your self-confidence in you.
Ideas & concepts
I have talked before in other tutorials about ideas and concepts. Without Ideas you will get lost and headless. To get ideas you must always check what’s in right now, check the top grossing games, and always find the right game to make at the right time. The proof of ideas’ need is that I once had a time that I open Construct2 and look at it unknown what do; that means no ideas. But what I always warn game developers about is not to imitate the game or make a clone of it, take the concept and develop it on your own. People hate too many clones and we can take flappy bird as an example. Players want to play original game not crappy clones, and what they think in their mind is, “Why should I play a bad clone and I could play the good original one?”
Skills
What do I mean by skills? A skill is a combination of experience, creativity, intelligence, and a gift. Skill is mainly experience, which takes some years to develop. We should always practice making games, do test projects and many projects and try different events and behavior. Learn every element you need. As I advice above, don’t publish bad games, yes you may feel excited to submit your first game but it has bad effects. One of the skills is to detect bugs and know what go wrong because with enough skills and experience, you can avoid bugs and try to make more realistic game, especially if it includes physics. It is a great benefit to start in early years, because it will give you enough time to practice it and discover yourself so if you’re young and you are surely want to do that, keep practicing even if you felt that your games is not good enough, continue and then you’ll reach your main goal.
Things to focus on
After you have all the things listed in the above heading “the key to success” there are extra factors and elements that helps you to get your game successful and well known, that you should take them into consideration:
Luck
You must admit that luck plays a large role into making your game popular and known. There are many awesome and great game in the app stores but there are few downloads, it’s all about the right game in the right market at the right time (Or as I call them the 3Rs). So don’t get mad if you ever made a game and no one saw it, it could be something missing from the 3Rs.
Marketing
The marketing gives you lots of benefits if used properly. It is costly but it boosts the views and players. Let’s take as an example “Hay day”. Most of us know it, every time I play a game on the mobile, pops an ad of the game “Hay Day”. I didn’t like it at first but my cousin recommended it to me, and then I tried it and I like it. I asked him how he knows it; he says he clicked the ad, so advertising is very good if your game is great.
Fans
Fans, fans are the most important part of the game development, without them there is nothing you can do. Try to build up your fans’ base. As long as you gain fans and give them a way to communicate with each other, you will be safe from not getting views or plays. Fans can always support you, don’t be surprised when you lose fans, because they may increase or decrease at anytime.
Time
When you publish a game doesn't rush to check the game and say, “Nobody saw it, I’m a failure’, you must know that it takes time to get most views, it may take days, weeks, or even months.
Game Dev Community
The game dev community provides the best way to share experiences, ask questions, interact with other developer, learn tutorial. Community is the best way to build your strengths and power. We can prove that by all the help that experienced developers on Construct2 gives to the beginners and to the well known users. Always check your account on Scirra, interact with others, discuss, and try to help others.
Multi-items
Putting multi into your game is a good way to make your game popular. Make multi-control (touch and mouse keyboard), multi-platforms (androids, iOS, Windows, Linux, Macintosh) and also promote on multi-websites. In that way you guarantee that different players with different devices can play your game.
The End
Game development is an awesome thing if you’re passionate about it. I want to say if you’re not doing well now, just keep practicing and keep this proverb in mind: “If there is a will, there is a way”. Hope this tutorial helped you to understand more about game development.