What I Learned Failing to Finish a Game in 2024
28 comments
·January 13, 2025Trasmatta
One of the reasons I got into software development was that I wanted to make some games (even just small ones that I release for free).
I've now been coding for like 14 years, and I still haven't done it (besides a number of prototypes). And I'm so burnt out on writing code that I never have the mental energy to push through and get one done.
diggan
> I've now been coding for like 14 years, and I still haven't done it (besides a number of prototypes). And I'm so burnt out on writing code that I never have the mental energy to push through and get one done.
I was basically the same. Played video games before programming was even on my mind, and first exposure to programming/structured data was trying to mod GTA Vice City vehicles, and then eventually got drawn into programming while trying to game dev by night basically.
On and off I've tried Gamemaker, Unity, Phaser, Godot, Unreal Engine and everything in-between, for the last two decades or something. It always end up the same, game logic so complicated I can't make head or tails of it anymore, and it was really hard to decouple things enough so I could be as confident editing game logic as I am reading/editing other types of codebases.
So I never really got anywhere, until I found Bevy. I'm not particularly fond of Rust, way too verbose and strict for my taste, but ECS turned out to be a god-send for organizing game code (in my case). Suddenly writing decoupled game logic became a breeze, and since discovering Bevy (but really ECS gets most of the credit here), I've even shipped some games during game jams that I'm moderately proud off and placed well in the ranking compared to my expectations.
If you're of similar traits that you need code to be of a certain quality to be able to effectively work with it, ECS might be up your alley too, and worth a try if you haven't already. It made a huge improvement in terms of how flexible the architecture end up being, and made it a lot easier to incrementally work on games.
redbell
I’m not entirely sure why, but I find myself drawn to reading about failures and the reasons behind them, far more than success stories. There’s something uniquely compelling about failure—it often teaches us hard, invaluable lessons that are nearly impossible to grasp when everything goes smoothly. Success, on the other hand, can sometimes be attributed to a stroke of pure luck, leaving fewer insights to learn from.
Similarly, when I’m considering a purchase, I tend to focus on the negative reviews (those rated 3 stars or below) rather than the glowing, positive ones. Negative reviews often provide more logical, specific reasoning as they shed light on potential deal-breaking issues. That said, they can sometimes veer into irrelevant complaints that don’t resonate with me. For example, when I’m browsing book reviews on Amazon to decide whether a book is worth reading, I frequently come across one-star reviews criticizing the print or paper quality. If I’m planning to buy the digital version of the book, those complaints become irrelevant to my decision-making process—even though they might be incredibly important to someone else.
In essence, I find value in the nuanced, sometimes brutally honest critiques that failures and negative feedback offer. They paint a more realistic picture—one that helps me make better decisions and understand the world a little more clearly.
dxuh
Multiplayer game development just stinks. It's not because of the networking and the tricky bugs and cumbersome testing setups (fake latency, packet loss, a bunch of open game clients) if you like these sorts of things (though of course that can suck sometimes and does frequently), but if you get far enough, you just depend on everyone you know for play testing constantly. The more people you need per game the worse it is. I worked on a 3v3 game for a couple months and it got really hard to find people to test towards the end. Just imagine making any plans for a group of 6 people. That's almost always annoying. Now try to do that once a week and some of those people don't really know you, so they don't care about being late or flaking out. This is not just annoying, but it really impacts the game. The game requires design and tweaking and experimentation just like any other, but if you can properly play test your game once a week for an hour or two, game design progress is very slow and tedious. I'll never work on a multiplayer game again solo, only with a team at least as large as the number of players the game is designed for.
macromaniac
>you just depend on everyone you know for play testing constantly
I had this problem, didn't figure out the solution till the end of the project- it's bots. Even bad bots are HUGELY important for multiplayer game development because now you can iterate every second instead of every week. I thought bots would be too hard to make for my game, but they really weren't as they don't even have to be good. With LLMs i'm fairly sure almost any type of game can be botted at this point too.
zipy124
I used to be part of an indie play testing group which was spun off from the community who took over developing natural selection 2 after the dev team moved onto subnautica, it was great as we all got to play new games every time, with the same people and just have fun. No idea if it still runs now but it was a great idea!
nkrisc
It stinks but sounds like your compensation for their time was too low.
dxuh
I think putting off polish for later as the OP and multiple comments here recommend is a fallacy. There are many popular, successful games that would just not be fun if they didn't have good animations, no effects and everything was boxes. Every game that relies on "feeling good to play". It might be fine for an RPG or an RTS, but it's probably not for something like Overwatch or Doom (the new ones). Just imagine Vampire Survivors without sound or effects. Some games live off the art style alone. This is a very controversional opinion, but I think if e.g. Ori and the Blind Forest had bad art, no one would have played the game. Some games you can evaluate really well with bad art and no juice or polish, other games need some and there are even games that need a lot of it, before you know if they can be fun. It's not that simple imho. I remember working on games that were not really fun until I added some effect and suddenly it was really addicting. People like flashing lights and noises and pretty pictures. If good, unique or interesting art was irrelevant, no one would invest in it, but people do.
cartoffal
> Just imagine Vampire Survivors without sound or effects.
I can't help but feel that this completely undermines your point - Vampire Survivors is bashed together using rudimentary knockoffs of sprites from games from the 1990s, in an engine which barely supports the idea of particles let alone proper visual effects.* It is the gameplay that carries Vampire Survivors, not the aesthetic.
Game feel is of course essential to producing a good game all-round, but a competent game designer can and will tell the difference between a good game design and a bad one, way before polish and juice are layered on top.
*I don't say this as a criticism - Vampire Survivors is fantastic - but the idea that it's propped up by its look is just daft.
Trasmatta
I don't think they're saying don't polish it all before you release it, but to not worry about polishing it until you have a solid gameplay foundation
You might spend a ton of time and money on art and polish only to suddenly realize your game isn't fun at all. Many such cases.
meiraleal
The idea behind postponing polishing is that if you can’t build a strong foundation using the skills you’re most comfortable with (coding), there’s little point in starting with the harder parts. It’s better to make as much progress as possible with the tools you already know, since the areas you’re less familiar with will require more research and move slower.
Most indie projects die before getting there.
Havoc
The point about art being hard for programmers hits home. I hit the same thing when dabbling with game programmer (at a much less skilled level than OP). Difficult to stay motivated when the early drafts look like crap and you’re coding against stickman art.
I’m guessing these days there are placeholder art libraries available?
diggan
> Difficult to stay motivated when the early drafts look like crap and you’re coding against stickman art.
I think learning to see past this and be able to evaluate "Is this fun?" regardless of it looking like shit is a skill to learn like any other.
A great way to train this is to start playing random games people publish on low-stake platforms like Itch.io. Most of them lack in the art department, but even some of those have really addicting gameplay hooks, or otherwise novel gameplay elements you can notice shines through the awful art.
Hopefully after a while you'll be able to discern more between "Is this not fun because it doesn't look fun, or because it doesn't feel fun?"
dlachausse
This is an unpopular opinion on here, but generative AI is getting very good. I think it will soon be the way non artists create art assets for a variety of purposes. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s rapidly improving.
krapp
There is an entire vast ecosystem of services and a community of artists offering production quality assets of every conceivable type, often for free. Generative AI doesn't solve any problems in this space.
caspper69
100% this.
I have done work in embedded game dev off and on for about 20 years, and I could have done so much more had I had even one ounce of artistic ability.
And (other than hobbyist or OSS), it's very hard to use canned artwork. Everything just needs to be unique for a commercial offering.
But in all fairness, I don't think many of the artists I worked with could code. Just seems to be opposite skillsets (beyond just the creativity).
helboi4
I can actually draw pretty well but art for games is a whole other thing. Like, my ability to draw portraits doesn't really help that much haha. I mean it probably does but it's a slightly different skill and the sheer amount of assets needed is overwhelming, so it still takes ages.
petemir
This came up a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42671472
lovegrenoble
Free art bundles for gamedev:
dazzawazza
Learning how to prototype a game is a skill. I've prototyped hundreds of games over 30 years for work and pleasure. Seeing the potential is genuinely hard but it IS a skill you can learn.
Understanding that the general public should not and indeed cannot be expected to see the potential is also a hard lesson. Games like VVVVVV are unicorns. Never bet on being a unicorn.
oliwary
I really enjoyed the article, especially the focus on a gameplay loop, and leaving polish for later. Often I have found that I can tell if a game will be "fun" after a super low fidelity prototype. One of my games began as a jupyter notebook, for example. Of course, the rest of the process is also very important, but I am not sure a game that is not fun from the start can be made into a good game.
In the same vein, I can recommend this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34376766-blood-sweat-and...
It shows that even big companies and development efforts can often struggle to create a fun game, even when the people involved have a lot of experience. It is a hard thing to accomplish!
Sxubas
I have barely done anything in game development, but in terms of engine, what has been better for you as a solo dev?
Risk of rain comes to mind as a great multiplayer videogame with a small team, it was made with gamemaker studio.
I am curious how is the ecosystem right now and if Godot has become a more attractive option for solo/indie development.
manuelfcreis
Really liked the article, I think there is also something to be said about the difference in learning game design and game development. I think people tend to want to do both at the same time, but spending some time just on game design can help you feel less helpless when learning development.
desdenova
If I learned something every time I failed to finish a game, I'd know a bunch of things now.
BriggyDwiggs42
Dont you?
wkjagt
Maybe they didn't read the article and thought it was about someone failing to play a game till the end.
akoboldfrying
I really enjoy living vicariously through indie gamedev retrospectives like this. Both technical and non-technical sides.
Nice work and best of luck with taking game #3 forward!
While thinking of making a game I’ve found these helpful:
1. The Art of Game Design, A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell - https://schellgames.com/art-of-game-design
2. 20 Tips on Making Games by Jordan Mechner - https://www.jordanmechner.com/downloads/library/20tips.pdf
3. Liz England’s blog - https://lizengland.com/blog/