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What Projects would you Recommend a beginner to make when starting out

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by indie_sarah, Oct 27, 2021.

  1. indie_sarah

    indie_sarah

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    I'm new to game development using unity, what sorts of projects or tutorials would you recommend a beginner to make when they're just starting out in unity or game development in general.

    Should I be making clones or variations of popular games, or should I make a totally new kind of game with different sorts of mechanics, should I be focusing on completion, or should I be coding right from the beginning? There are a lot of choices on where to start from 2D games or 3D games and with them a lot of projects to follow. I had a friend who started by making text based adventure games and is now making very good-looking and complex 3d role playing games. However, I have another friend who started by making 2d games of very low effort and is still stuck on making the same sort of games.

    Are there any resources which I should be aware of that would help me in making games, at this stage should I participate in Game Jams. Moreover, what projects did you guys made starting out, what resources or tutorials helped you the most?
     
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  2. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

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    It honestly doesnt matter as long as you:

    • Scope small, smaller than you think your current skillset is
    • Challenge yourself - try to learn things rather than just copy/follow tutorials. Tutorials are fine, but always make sure after to test and practise so you actually learn
    • Actually finish - its easy to get carried away but scope small and keep it small, finish and release and move on
    • Scope a little bit bigger / challenge yourself a little bit more the next time

    If you rinse and repeat that, it doesnt matter what you are making - you will become a better and better game developer and slowly get a portfolio of projects.

    It takes many pieces of poop before you lay that golden egg, so best to keep those pieces of poop small and frequent in the meantime ;) (Terrible analogy I know, this is what lack of coffee does to a developer)

    Welcome to the community! Post what you are working on in the relevant sections, do not be afraid to ask questions, and have fun! Join the discord too!
     
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  3. indie_sarah

    indie_sarah

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    Thanks for replying @MadeFromPolygons I agree with you, personally I would like to experiment a bit with different projects instead of starting one big project and realizing that I don't like it later on but still making it because of the sunken cost. Specifically my question is what kinds of projects I should make, should I start by making a rolling ball game or a match 3 game, or should I start with making new versions of old school games.

    Also, that was a hilarious analogy and I get the point. I have been taking a look at the community, most of the questions a person usually has in mind have already been answered, but it is still helpful that people are there to help if a new one pops in. I might not join the discord, though, it's too fast-paced and unfocused for my liking.
     
  4. ToshoDaimos

    ToshoDaimos

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    Make a tiny mobile game from start to finish. Release it to the public and see what happens. This will teach you a lot. DON'T attempt to make a big game. A small puzzle game is enough of a challenge for almost all beginners.
     
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  5. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    1980s arcade games. Pong, frogger, space invader, asteroids, breakout. This sort of things.

    Not much point, as you won't be able to complete a game in a short amount of time requires skill. That's if you're alone. If you have a team, you could try.

    I programmed XO on a programmable calculator. Youtube and google didn't exist and there were no tutorials aside from a single book.
     
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  6. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    Infinite runner.
     
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  7. ToshoDaimos

    ToshoDaimos

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    My friend made an infinite runner. He is a professional programmer. He had an artist. It took six months after work. It made ZERO money.
     
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  8. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    Yeah, most games make zero money.

    It’s about the experience.

    And you don’t need an artist, just make crude models with primitives
     
  9. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Welcome to reality.
     
  10. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    Yeah honestly, what does money have to do with game development?

    If you want money get a job, lol.
     
  11. Billy4184

    Billy4184

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    I disagree with the idea of doing random generic games. Make your dream game, in whatever form is within your skillset. If a text game format is all you can muster, make that.
    The reality of game dev is pain and hard work, and the only way to make that worthwhile is to aim at something meaningful. Theoretical golden paths of learning are for schools and universities. When you're six months in sitting in your basement alone in front of your computer, having just had the bittersweet experience of finally understanding where one tiny piece in the jigsaw puzzle of game development goes, the only thing that will keep you coming back is firing up your project which, when you play it and stretch your imagination to its limits, starts to resemble the game you've always wanted to make.
     
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  12. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Here's the reason why it is a common advice.

    A person who is just starting out is often unsure about their skills. If they were sure, they wouldn't be asking for advice.

    So, the reason why it is suggested to start with small projects, is because it is something they'll likely be able to finish. By finishing the project, they'll realize "Hey, I can do it", they'll give their positive emotions and they'll be able to keep moving.

    What will happen if they will tackle their dream project instead? Their dream project will be far beyond the scope they can handle, so they'll try to fight it for a while, will try to make it happen, and then the project will die, and they'll experience their dream being crushed. At which point they can just abandon all this completely.
     
  13. ToshoDaimos

    ToshoDaimos

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    The problem is that most people have a terrible idea of their "dream game". It's almost always some kind of high concept, like "Skyrim, but in Arabia", or "WoW, but with action combat". They almost NEVER want to make the "next Tetris". They very often want to make an RPG. Why? Because they want to "tell a story". Why? Because they are completely unable to design good gameplay, so they think that you will "unlock new story arcs by winning cool fights". This kind of "designs" are very common among beginners and it always is a failure and a MASSIVE amount of wasted effort.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2021
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  14. giyomu

    giyomu

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    get a 8 bit era game commodore or arcade..look at it and try to reproduce it ...on the way mess with unity ..that7s a not so bad approach ...learn by doing is usually the best
     
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  15. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    This I Full heartedly agree with.

    I very much like systems design and for the life of me I cannot figure out why so many people want to get into game design and start off with a story.

    As for the whole “make your dream game” thing, I half agree.

    I worked for a long long long time on my first game while learning to code and use unity.

    It was pretty good.

    Looked good.

    And people who tested it gave me lots of positive feedback.

    Then I had a bit of a crisis (major death and change of career) and by the time I got back to it I just couldn’t find the energy to return to it.

    It was a cellphone game.

    I don’t hate phone games, but after 30 minutes on one I’m done.

    So I really don’t know why I ever picked a phone game to work on.

    I may return to it just to finish it off in about the 20 hours it would take to complete, but right now I’m reinvested in something I ACTUALLY would play.

    It’s a Doom Metroidvania, and will probably take a couple thousand hours to make.

    But I’m okay with that, because I’m having fun.

    And if you aren’t having fun, why do it at all?

    That said, I’m not foolish enough to try and make my DREAM game.

    My DREAM game is likely 20,000 hours of work and requires millions in art assets.
     
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  16. giyomu

    giyomu

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    it is will look on 8 bit will look else where haha , ok joke sorry :D
     
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  17. giyomu

    giyomu

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    there so much game you can take and get inspiring for that era no need wheel, just pick one
     
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  18. Joe-Censored

    Joe-Censored

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    I think 3D is easier than 2D for a first project. You can get some 3D models off the Asset Store for cheap or free. Game mechanics and complexity, keep it as simple as Atari 2600 games.
     
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  19. indie_sarah

    indie_sarah

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    wow! so many replies. I guess the consensus is the same, to make a game that wouldn't take too long to make and can be finished. Most of the suggestions were about making 2D games, maybe because they're less complex and the assets are less difficult to create, but I do agree with @Billy4184 there is no use of making generic games, it can be pretty daunting to complete a game if the heart isn't in it.
     
  20. This is not true. Depends on the game. They are recommending simple games so you learn and you don't give up half-way, when nothing is working and you're all alone and everything is a catastrophe.
    That's dev-life. That's why they recommend _short_ games. You can learn and can not give up.
     
  21. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    The use is improving your skills. A decent programmer can complete arcanoid in less than 4 hours using only software rendering and raw C++. Can you do that? Give it a try.

    Like @Lurking-Ninja said, that's a short project where there's a little doubt that you'll be able to finish it. You can also build on top of it and make it fun.

    Putting a heart into it may lead to you aiming too high and experiencing a massive failure. That's why you don't start with your dream project. Because having your dream destroyed can result in many unpleasant experiences.

    Lots of fun can be had while making those basic games. You can build on top of them, add twists and end up with something completely unique.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2021
  22. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

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    I started making a vertical scrolling shooter similar to old arcade games - something like that is always a good starting point. I would take a look into various arcade style games

    A game like arkanoid/breakout would be perfect as a starter game!

    But my point was that it honestly doesnt matter what you choose it matters more how you go about making it. I recommend just picking anything that interests you from old school games (old shool games tend to be naturally smaller in scope due to the limitations of hardware and software at the time)
     
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  23. GimmyDev

    GimmyDev

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    Prepare to roll your eyes, because I do make games for the story!
    Also Story is hardest part in game anyway, when you care about fancy things like theme and coherence, and from the production angle, story tells you the list of what you have in the game, so changing the story is potentially tossing big amount of works. And try making the action (gameplay) coherent with the theme too, that's hard, that's heartbreaking. That's why people fail, and other people frown at it and they don't have the skill for it anyway because they haven't invested in having it.
     
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  24. indie_sarah

    indie_sarah

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    Sorry to be a little direct in the sense but I completely disagree, story is definitely not the hardest part in a game, there are plenty of games with bare-bones stories which are great and the lack of having a story sometimes makes them better for example racing games or sports games or even a lot of arcade games, and then there are plenty of games with good stories but some people won't even consider them as games an example would be Gone Home (which was terrible), Video games are definitely at their peak when they have stories or let users create their own stories, but mechanics always come first. It's just that when we think about a game, we usually remember the story.
     
  25. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    It is, if the genre is story based.

    For example, a decently made visual novel is 40 hours long. That's the time it takes to read everything in it.

    If it is an adventure or RPG, you're going to need an actually skilled writer, and even if you do without it, you can get drained implementing characters, descriptions, backrounds and making lore coherent.

    Myst. Then there are Lucas Arts adventure games.
     
  26. ToshoDaimos

    ToshoDaimos

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    Minecraft has no story at all and is worth billions. It's possible to make a GREAT game without ANY story. The focus on storytelling is a CANCER of game industry, because it greatly increases costs without providing any new value over older media, like movies and books. Developers spend countless hours animating characters from dialogues instead of focusing on innovative gameplay. We don't need more games with stories. Most stories in games are laughable. This is caused by the nature of games which is similar to sports. In games there is very little focus on relationships and that makes for very shallow stories. The result is that most games have trivial, childish storytelling which is extremely primitive comparing to great novels. Games aren't suited well for storytelling, because it's inherently linear and good games often aren't linear. This conflict of structures creates countless problems in practice. If you want mostly to tell stories, then simply write a novel. Good novels are ALL about fancy storytelling and you can write such a novel SOLO without spending any money.
     
  27. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    Which is why I think the best answer here is to meet halfway between @Billy4184's suggestion and the suggestion that you make an arcade game. Most people suggest an arcade game because the mechanics are very simple and very well understood but you could just as easily pick a non-arcade game as long as it meets those qualifications.

    Final Fantasy or Zelda for the NES would qualify for people who like RPGs. Writing your own story, designing the layout of the dungeons, and so on are ways that you could take the game and give it your own spin without having to overly change the mechanics.

    Whichever you choose just keep in mind the goal isn't to keep you occupied for months like a dream project would but to make a game as quickly as possible and get it out on the market gaining experience in all of the steps to do so which can then be used to improve the likely hood you'll succeed in making that dream project.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2021
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  28. GimmyDev

    GimmyDev

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    Only sith deal with absolute, it's the best game after Edith finch what do you mean?

    That's my point, story in game is hard because of that, people get distracted
    THEREFORE it's a skill problem not game problem, which is my point, non linear story telling also exist and is good, game don't have monopoly over non linearity.

    You don't have to like it, leave it to the rest of us who want it, you don't have to play it either, it doesn't cancel childish game with no story either, it's not twitter.
     
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  29. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    Sure, but don't confuse scope and uniqueness. They are different things. You can make a game which is small in scope and yet which is not generic.

    Flappy Bird is an example of this. Tiny in scope, can probably be made in a week by a dedicated newbie, but it's recognizably different from the game Helicopter which it (probably) derives from. It probably does seem generic now, but that's because a bajillion people copied it after it was made.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2021
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  30. spiney199

    spiney199

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    When I started learning this game dev thing, the Unity Learn's Junior Programmer course structure of using very small, bite sized games to introduce concepts, for me, proved to be a good means of putting together my starting knowledge. I also tried to push myself a little further than the tutorials by adding extra features than the course was instructing. Ended up learning a lot of stuff I might not have otherwise come across hadn't I pushed myself.

    So I agree with the approach of starting something small. But start off with something small and try to go that little bit further. Make an arcade but put your twist on it, and hopefully one that pushes your experience/skills that bit further.

    As for the topic of story in games, the whole reason I started learning to do this was because I have about... 4 different story/world ideas I thought would be great for a game, including the one I'm working on right now. Though this is a matter of preference so I don't really get why it's being discussed with so much vinegar.
     
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  31. That should be the second step in my humble opinion. First, make it work like the original, next, put something unique in it. And the reason for this is that when you arrive to the point where you start to put something unique in it, and you don't follow some tutorial or whatnot, you already have some knowledge about the entire game. So it's a bit easier. Meanwhile if you make something unique on the first try, you may not be able to finish it, because you will have less resources to turn to when you stuck somewhere.
     
  32. spiney199

    spiney199

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    Yeah I suppose I was trying to say it the way you did; I just muddled myself up there. I generally (mostly) followed the lessons/tutorials I was given, and afterwards went about doing my own thing after I had a working example. Though at this point I don't need to follow tutorials for wrote any more.

    I admit I'm was already familiar with how games are constructed, and I do have 3d art degree... so that's something. Your mileage may vary I suppose!

    Nonetheless, don't go too crazy too quickly, especially if it's all new to you.
     
  33. Billy4184

    Billy4184

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    Yep that's why I say to do the dream game in whatever format one is capable of, text game if need be.

    When I started off I did the 2d space shooter tutorial, which was the closest tutorial I could find to my dream game (a 3D openworld space game at the time) and then my first project was a 2D side view space game. I simply started making the game this way with as much of the style, atmosphere and features of the dream game that I was capable of adding to it.

    After a while I learned how to do 3D, and that it was in fact a fair bit easier and more intuitive for me, so I moved on from that. But if I had started doing random games that I wasn't interested in I doubt I would have made it very far, there was a lot of coding and artwork skills to tear through and things never moved fast enough (and still don't). The fact that the game was a clear, visible step toward my goal gave a lot of motivation to get through the early days of everything looking and operating like crap, and not even knowing how to fix it.