Game development

Stage 1 of 8 · 7 lessons · ~3 weeks

How games are made

What a game is under the hood, what an engine does, and how to pick a first project small enough to finish. This stage sets the habits that decide whether you ship: tiny scope, prototypes, jams and version control.

Start: The game loop

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

  1. 1The game loop
  2. 2What an engine gives you, and what it costs
  3. 3Scope control and prototypes
  4. 4Cloning a classic to learn the engine
  5. 52D or 3D for your first games
  6. 6Game jams
  7. 7Version control for game projects

Do this

  • Install your engine and open one of its official template or sample projects.
  • Read the engine's pricing or licence page and write down what a commercial release would cost you.
  • Clone a classic such as Pong or Breakout with start, score, game over and restart.
  • Set up Git with an engine-specific .gitignore and push the clone to a repository.
  • Write a one-page plan for your first original game, including a list of features that are out.
  • Find an upcoming jam on itch.io and put its dates in your calendar.

Start with

  • VideoFree
    Game Maker's Toolkit

    Mark Brown (YouTube)

    Short, clear video essays on why games work, so you start thinking about design from your first clone

Practise

  • GMTK Game Jam

    A large, beginner-friendly jam: the best first deadline for a tiny finished game

  • itch.io

    Browse the jam calendar, play small games, and later publish your own for free

Keep handy

  • roadmap.sh: Game Developer

    A map of the whole field, to see where gameplay, maths, physics and graphics fit

  • Pro Git

    The free Git book, for branching and recovering when a change breaks your game

Also worth your time

Before moving on: Your engine installed, one classic game cloned and pushed to a Git repository with the right .gitignore, and a one-page plan for your first original game with a written out-of-scope list.

Tauseef's advice
The single biggest predictor of whether someone becomes a game developer is whether they finish small games. Pick one engine and stay with it for at least three months. Clone something simple this week, not next month, and write down what you are not going to build.

Mark this stage as not done?