What have you learned from your latest project?

What have you learned from your latest project? Or what is the most important or interesting thing you've learned from any of your projects?

 

Save often.

Unless you are pioneering something new, don't waste time trying to figure things out the hard way. Look it up.

Don't get complacent with the tools you are comfortable using. A lot of times, there are more efficient ways to work. Once you get comfortable with a certain workflow, start looking for the next way to improve it.

During breaks, take your mind away from the small technicalities you are working on and look at the bigger picture. Am I allocating my time right? When should I compromise and when should I devote more time to certain areas? For instance, in my case, I am working on my first character model. In my mind, it is an epic masterpiece, and if it takes a thousand years to build it then I will take a thousand years. But realistically, I am still in the infant stage of 3d modeling and it will benefit me more to work on a quantity of projects, rather than trying to build a masterpiece at this early stage. So eventually, even though the model wasn't perfect, I had to say "good enough" and move on to the next stage.

 

Largely, I've learned to organize and address bugs and unintended behaviors in a way that doesn't bring my workflow to a halt. Small issues and glitches that don't stop the show can be dealt with later. Don't spend hours and days on perfecting them early on unless they are directly blocking progress to the next step. It's better to get a flawed and rough prototype than to fine-polish a whole system just to find it isn't very fun.

Also I've learned,

Don't panic if you come up with a seemingly crumby or boring game design early on. Think of it as an item checked off of a list and use it to make a bigger iteration.

As much as I dislike making this comment, I have to say it: Don't assume that the latest release of Unity on the download page is a stable or viable platform for starting a new project. It's better to stick with a familiar version and only use the latest releases once you've had time to play around with them and find their faults and strengths.

 

Everything takes about 3x as long as you initially expect it to take.

 

No kidding. I thought I'd be making a prototype of my game by now.

I'm still learning to model and make textures, and will be for quite some time.

 

I thought I would have my MMO game in a playable state to start getting some player feedback back in March.... It is looking like I was correct after all, just the wrong year.

 

Just the wrong decade, in my case.

 

Have fun! Sounds lame, I know, but it's easy to forget. With my earlier projects I would get really stressed about bugs and anything that didn't work correctly. I took a step back for about a month and used that time to consider what the problem was... turns out it was my perspective.

Also, find that someone who you are comfortable sharing your progress with. Not every new feature needs to be subjected to the online critics immediately. Watching someone else play your game knowing that any criticism will be constructive provides a comfortable way to see things from a new - you guessed it - perspective.

 

Ground detection and jumping in 2d is easy. It's a different story for 3d lol. I spent hours trying to get it all working, just to instead buy a template project and edit it instead.

 

Don't do multiplayer on your first commercial project if it plays well solo

 

-Focus on setting up good workflows early on in the project

-Do some project management, even if solo. An excel sheet with tasks and dates in it is never a bad idea