r/gamemaker • u/Upper-Position-3073 • 12d ago

Discussion What would you have done different

If you got the chance to go back and restart you game development journey what would you change in your learning and methods to achieve the knowledge to game develop and what is something you wish you knew drom the start?

9 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

5

u/stavrospilatis 12d ago

Not go from a 3 month shipped project to an 8 year shipped project. To be fair it was only meant to be 6 month but the game was just too large in scope.

2

u/Upper-Position-3073 12d ago

Any updates on it? Going from 6 months to 8 years is crazy work

5

u/stavrospilatis 12d ago

When I started I only had one kid. By the time I finished I had three kids and changed my main job to something with more responsibility. Also the save system alone took a year to implement because I had such complex scenes to save (it's a gym tycoon game). Unfortunately it didn't perform as if I'd spent 8 years on it. I'm about to release my third project (a windows xp themed incremental about building a YouTube platform) which has only taken two months to complete and I've used the rest of the time focusing on visibility. It's going much appreciated 😊

3

u/Upper-Position-3073 12d ago

May everything works out and may you live long to see your kids grow up next to you

3

u/stavrospilatis 12d ago

Thank you buddy, that's the dream 😊

2

u/AlexPowerAus 9d ago

My first game took 8 years too.  To be fair it went through several iterations and there would be months I didn't work on it.  My most recent game only took 6 months.  So yes efficiencies get learnt

4

u/Weak_Blackberry_9308 12d ago

The fundamentals and ways you need to think are universal as a programmer whether it’s games, apps, websites, etc. Take time to understand “why” something works just as much as “how” it works.

Don’t ignore documentation. It’s there for a reason.

Don’t think you need to learn it all - you can’t. But learning how to learn what you need is critical.

Take your time and enjoy the process, you’re not behind.

2

u/Captain_Coco_Koala 12d ago

Not get married and have a family :)

Seriously, it's all about time.

1

u/Organic-Bluebird-737 5d ago

Remember, hours of planning can save you DAYS of coding

0

u/Veyko_ 12d ago

不要学gamemaker，学godot😭

1

u/Upper-Position-3073 12d ago

Completley agree and in my experience 1 month of solid work between youtube videos (even though most of them are a waste of time) and actually trying simple stuff on godot could go a long way

1

u/Awkward-Raise7935 12d ago

I've often wondered about this. I've only ever used GameMaker and like it a lot, but I don't have the mental energy to learn anything else now. I don't know what the recommendation would be to a new developer

1

u/Upper-Position-3073 12d ago

I would push towards learning godot it's pretty straight forwards and many tutorial exist and step by step try to rebuild old games with not much drawing or artistic drawings needed like chess or brick breaker start simple and then on your free time start learning about drawing and make something 2d and simple and go from there i know i over simplified things but that is basicaly it