We did a similar video on game development mistakes - check it out: ukposts.info/have/v-deo/gJKZmIqra3-YsZ8.html

#9 mistake - watch random youtube videos instead of actually making your game :)

Another mistake, that I'm unfortunately guilty of repeating over and over: abandoning one game that's in development to begin working on another. When you have many ideas, and the current project is at a point where the necessary work is a bit boring or tedious, it's so easy to just tell yourself, "Well, I'll just work on this new thing for a little, then come back to the main project." And then suddenly, you haven't touched the main project in months and have lost all motivation for it. I think a solution to this problem (that I really should take my own advice about...) is to write down ideas for other projects. Keep design docs for them, but don't actually start working on them until the current project is either done or dusted for some other reason. Especially if game development is currently more of a hobby, and you have a day job taking your time, motivation is a key factor.

30 years in the industry and I've found how to perfectly estimate the time any large project is going to take using the following formula: 1. Break the design down into individual, precise and bounded tasks. 2. For each task, estimate how long you think it will take. If there's no answer, then the task needs breaking down more. 3. For each task, add on time until the revised estimate is longer than it will possibly take. 4. Tally up the times. 5. Double it. That's how long the project will take. Don't know why but I've never known this fail.

Video starts at 1:23

I think Yandere Dev should see this

Ah yes, the classic "throw the ball at the hoop and it collapses and catches fire" bug. Really plagues a bunch of newbies with their new sports game.

Another tip: Always precise everything. Schematize, illustrate and prototype as much as you can so your team can share your vision of the game. Particularly true for game jams and new projects. Often you think everyone is on the same page but then realize each member has a different mental image of the final product, thus you fail maintaining a coherent vision. While it's important to allow room for everyone's creativity, as a GD you've got to be as precise as you can in your design documents so to avoid team members going in all directions then asking you to clarify points every 10mn.

So yeah, I got a degree in bscs major in game dev. And I live in a province where there's only 3 companies that develop video games. The (one man) CEO/Client/Producer of the company I applied to, pitched the game to my face and I got all excited because in the back of my head it's a very hyper casual game and it's on mobile platform. And yes I got the job as an intern until I got absorbed in the company as a technical artist. 3 years later I'm already working on a call center as an agent. Why? What did I miss? For the whole three years we got stuck on developing a mobile game. Why? It's supposed to be hyper casual and supposedly done in 3 months. #7 Arbitrarily Adding Things In this video is very agreeable on my situation. Our one man genius CEO/Client/Producer is a retired lawyer and has no background in the video game industry, nor game developing or even pop culture of games. What he did is he lives in the Capital of my country and fly by plane twice a month to check us and visit the studio in the province. Everytime he comes back in the studio he has a new fresh ideas and he calls it "juicy ideas" because it's fresh. What happened is he keeps adding features, new codes, new art from scratch that needs to be polished for months and all the shit he wants to say on a 5-7 hours of nonsense round table meeting. We don't clearly see the end. Or the finished product of the game, we can't even have feedbacks because he wants this tactic of secrecy, and avoid alphas and betas. He didn't even know what's the word PATCH for fuck sake. After 3 years the company pulled out. Because the employees are planning to resign for already a long time plan but one day our best programmer got hired on a different company, fused the bomb, and made everyone to make one decision. To boycott and do a mass resignation. Why did it took that long for us to realize we are going nowhere? Because he's bloody rich. I got blinded and got a raise TWICE. A big money every month for a game development? So good to be true. Now my consequence is I did not grow in that company. Not even a percent. I got rejected to the 2 other game dev companies. I took everything for granted now somehow I'm out of the line in the video game industry. Now I got obsessed and retracing everything I did wrong. Making my own indie game, selling 2d & 3d assets online, bought a high end PC just to make my portfolio stronger. consulting my friends consulting my mentors, teachers. Opinions here opinions there, ideas here and ideas there. Yada yada yada. That at the same time my current job is not even in game development. Moral lesson: is don't take Game Dev (especially when you're on a start-up indie company) unless it's a calling for you. If it is then take the leap of faith and prepare to be hurt, prepare to be in pain, prepare to be criticised, prepare to lose. And hope that one day it will all be worth it.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if the protagonist had a crush.”

Table of contents 1. 1:22 Starting too big 2. 2:38 Not considering how to onboard the player 3. 4:01 Being too committed to an idea 4. 5:06 Creating an overly rigid design 5. 6:18 Focusing on story too much upfront 6. 6:59 Underestimating polish 7. 7:42 Arbitrarily adding things

This video is so clear and spot on! I would have to disagree with the examples given for making a game less rigid, they felt far too specific. Open world games can still feel heavy handed if the game tries to make you travel to certain locations and avoid others too much. Destructive levels can still feel boring if there is 1 way that best destroys the terrain (like destroying the base of a building auto-destroys everything above). etc. A big thing is making sure multiple decisions are balanced against each other to prevent a dominant path. I guess what I'm trying to say is those items don't automatically add more choice to a game, there's more to the story than that, and some people may not pick up on that after watching this. There's also the fact that sometimes you WANT to lead a player down a specific path that's more fun, rather than trying to throw every available gameplay option at them. It's like salt and pepper, you need both.

I like this video a lot, but the minute and a half wait to get to it nearly made me go to something else. The intro stuff could be cut down and the credits could be at the end. Other than that, I think this video is very well put together and touches on some very good points.

working on games for 8 years I'd like to add "not starting with a plan" - this is a huge factor that plays into your chances of completing a game - of course your plan is going to change but it gives you a good sense of direction - just remember, not having a plan is the same as planning to fail - goodluck on all your games

Here's a tip for people working on their first project: Figure out what size the screen is going to be as early as possible, and scale your assets accordingly. When I started my current project, I was so proud of my sprites that I zoomed the camera in too far. After building a super basic tutorial level, I realized that there wasn't enough space on the screen to make more complex encounters. You can't artificially change asset proportions in-engine without warping pixels and making your game's art style look inconsistent, so I had to build a bunch of sprites all over again and re-design my tutorial level from the ground up. Don't do what I did - Plan your screen size!

I'm so freaking hyped that I was able to analyse, put words and work toward solutions for all those common mistakes, as a solo amateur game creator since 10 years ! I lived to know and see countless "collegues" fall down, and me surviving and growing strong, by understanding those mistakes. I still struggle with some of them, of course ! But yes, I can testify how right those advices are. Ideas are legions so just consider those who get factually produced, start as small as possible if you want to build gigantic skyscrapers, adapt and don't waste too much time being stubborn on details or potential deadends, give your players several ways to play and let them choose, never leave behind new/clueless players, etc... This all resonnate so much... Thanks for sharing!

Have you made any mistakes in game design? Share your game design stories with your fellow subscribers in the comments! Thanks for watching!

This channel is infinitely better than Extra Credits, so much care goes into being as objective as possible in these videos and being about real solid and universal advice that can apply to anyone in any situation, and isn't extremely opinionated about principles and types of design that are very subjective.

Oh wow, it's like Extra Credits back when they made video about games. I miss Dan.

I’ve learned so much from this video. I’m heading a project and felt a bit over my head. This video helped to bring things more to perspective and now I have a better idea of how to tackle it!

I always underestimate step 6, even though Polish is my first language.

One game design mistake that annoys me immensely is restrictive controls that don't account for different player situations. This might sound minor, but for instance, enforcing WASD in detriment to arrow keys (especially when using the mouse as well) has turned me off several indie games... because I'm left-handed and that just doesn't work for me. Be flexible, people, or at least let us configure it!

Always enjoy watching some of these videos as reminders and a bit of general encouragement honestly lol. We stay focused pretty well and I'd like to at least THINK that we are on the right path with avoiding these issues. Only time will tell though lol. Appreciate the videos though for certain.

Not being dedicated enough. I started so many games with people from college, but never finished one game. Because we met once a week. For an hour. For about 3 weeks. After that everyone was busy with something and then it was once a month. once every 6 weeks. Never again

4:18 great, now i want to make an excite bike sequel... as if i didnt have enough half done projects, thanks a lot ask gamedev!! lol no great vids guys!! as a programmer making games on spare time, your vids on project management and post game development are exactly what i need, real thanks this time!

7:00 never underestimate Polish just because of WW2

Very useful tips! I'd like to emphasize one thing though: while trying to follow tip 4 (overly rigid design), try not to fall in all the other pits. It's extremely easy to overcomplicate a game trying to make it less rigid, ending up with a massive feature creep. Honestly, I'd put it as the very last tip: do it after everything else already works and you feel you need to add some diversity in the gameplay. Other than that, awesome video! The production quality is top-notch! :)

Me not knowing a lick of code or anything in general: "ah yes...stonks..."

- "Polish, polish, polish" - "Feature *progess* bar"

Really enjoying my time on your Discord and going through all these videos from start to finish.

"When you don't know how to make a game so all you can do is story." Rip

Hi Ask GameDev, My friend always talks down on 2d games like side scrollers and refuses to admit that there are certain game design advantages to both 3D and 2d games. Could you make a video describing the pros and cons of 2d and 3D game design? Thanks for the videos!

New sub, loves your video! Number 4 is a bit of a weird point tho, I think it depends on what kind of game you wanna create. For example, Rhythm Heaven is an amazingly fun series! Yet the only inputs you can do is hit the corresponding buttons at the right timing.

This video proves that you are experienced in game development and these facts are really important if you are doing creative work, thanks bro and I subscribed

You can just skip ahead to 1:20 Everything before that is rubbish fluff

Your first mistake was not getting to the point till 1:24. :P Thx though! I love how you put the points you covered on the side for reference. More people should do that!

Thank for the advice, I really need to polish my game a lot and make sure it's not a boring nightmare to play- I have a good story concept so far, but I lack characters and features. This game is my homework for University. It's my first real attempt to built a game and I try to learn from Example Games not to steal but to borrow ideas to make my unique very own Alien game.

I really don't understand why you don't have 100k+ subs, right now, no one makes videos like yours and personally i think every game dev should watch this, what i understand though is everything you talked about, awesome video as always :)

“I SAW DESIGN” well someone’s a dad

5:56 this is also known in the geography of a game as "Linear design", levels with long hallways and corridors make for good atmosphere, but unless you branch off from this design your game is going to suffer majorly: there are actually some linear segments in amnesia the dark descent some have labelled as boring because it was walking through a curved hallway that is moreso just a straight path with no hazards.

"A delayed game is eventually good but a rushed game is forever bad" Meanwhile MGS:5 and FF15...

ive start my game too big, now i know that's a wrong idea haha thanks, you explained it well, ive learn so much💖 waitching here from: philipines🇵🇭

Great Video! Like+subbed. I find the comments here especially interesting!! Im currently in a situation where I have enough time for personal projects but for abot two years I just do online courses because I wanted to improve skills... when is it time to stop the courses and do my own projects again?

Hi Ask Gamedev , I'm really glad I found your channel .

Good list. Pretty accurate for me at least. It took me 3 finished games to learn all those lessons.

I think rushing and scope creep might be my biggest mistake, but this video got me thinking of the rest too

Great tips thank you! I’m making my first rpg and these tips are very helpful.

I agree with all of your points and i get #4 overly rigid design, but just adding open world elements is not a good general formular, it can help a lot of times, but sometimes a linear experiences is exactly what you want. It is more about introducing new things, learning and mastering them. If i only have the option to fight three enemies and end the level it may look rigid, but the combat requires enough skill to make it challenge and just before the player masters those fights he gets a new twist to his weapons arsenal or abilities. It is more about the flow chart that is quite commonly known.

Nice tips, while watching this I realized i had an ongoing problem with my current project, thanks!

I should've watched this video years ago, haha! I've made every single mistake in this video 😂. Great video though!

I'm making my first game, and this helped a lot! Thanks, and I subbed!

"Don't make a game too big with too many features" "You should make your game have a ton of features and possibilities" Kinda goes against itself, doesn't it?

concept for my first game: You play as a circle thing that was broken into six pieces, and you have to complete five levels to get the pieces you're missing. the only mechanic is jumping. that's it. you move constantly, can move boxes by pushing, and can pass by motion sensors/buttons to push them. First level teaches you everything you need to know. there's a box here, you can move it. but you can't get it to this tower thing because there's already a box there. you double jump and get to the other side, collecting your inner shell, giving you one more hit point. second level: same thing, but there's only one box to push. you push it, jump over the tower, congrats, you beat second level, get outer shell. Third level: two sensors, sensing when something is in front of them. each one opens a door, but the door closes after you pass it. push the boxes in front of sensors, you beat third level, collect first antenna. Fourth level: finally, some platforms. jump on them, hit switch, go back, collect second antenna. Fifth level: a combination of all the other levels, with sensors, boxes, towers you gotta jump over, and platforms. the only threat being some dark circles that hurt you, giving you a crack. this is why you need the extra hit points. there is also one dark circle in all other levels, just to show you that they are a threat, as well as showing you that your layers give you hit points. when you complete the fifth and final level, you get your eyes, walk through a door, done. There is, however, another way to play the game. when you beat it, you unlock different characters, and have to revise on how to play. There's even a "moveable" mode after completion that unlocks the ability to destroy or move everything. boom, new ways to play. it's a fairly decent concept for a first game, especially considering it's a first. don't go for something big. sure, the media only focuses on one member of a team, saying "This man made [insert game] all by themselves!" but that's not true, they require dozens of workers for something good, at least fifty for something great, and about a hundred for something awesome. one person is only gonna be able to dispense one piece of God of War if they're skilled enough, but it'll take about fifty to make an entire God of War. anyway, what do you think? what should i name it? seriously, what should i name it, i'm out of ideas.

7:36 Take that, Sega.

Definitely helpful, thanks for this list!

5:55 Metroidvania games are a good example of this concept

Wow this is awesome I'm starting a gaming channel but I wanted to integrate actual game design and knowledge to the discussions/reviews

I make games on scratch, so I don't have to worry about money and all that stuff, but I do get frustrated when I get carried away with ideas and end up not finishing the game, this list is very helpful with all the tips.

Thank you so much for excellent videos like these guys! you rock!

Great video! Playtesting really is crucial!

You're right, don't underestimate the Polish! Polen can into space! xD

I really need to learn how you animate. What program are you using?

“Akin to painting by numbers”? If I can recall correctly, that was a very successful app.

Some good advice here. Develop a simple prototype and add ideas as they present themselves. Also game testing needs to be done by the general public, early on in the development. This is a good test of intuitive design. If the game really is intuitive, then they will be able to play it straight away. The best games are easy to play straight off and take time to really master.

Great tips! Thanks guys! :)

Skip to 1:24 for the actual list because you dont have time

This video is actually dope. Great advice!!!!! Thanks!

great video! thanks Ask Gamedev!

Hey what do you use for your video graphics? It looks great!

love the animation that goes with the tips thanks

Woah, this vid is so useful! You deserve more subs :D ty!

I'm wanting to learn how to Game Design at home. I got the Game Maker app on my phone today. What's the best advice you can get me? Possibly I could do the online Video game Design class at Southern Illinois University sometime and maybe one day, I'll get in the Video Game industry. I'm going to be doing another career path too, but the Video Game industry is definitely one of them.

Totally brilliant Video, Amazing tips

Handsome Boy Modeling School reference! Nice!!

Thank you, this was helpful : )

I'm a solo indie game dev and you really give good advices. I already subbed and watch your videos a lot!

my first big issue was overscaling.. it came down to rendering issues and distance glitchyness. had to redo all the levels and systems in order to fix it. after that the performance was upped big time and everything runs just fine afterwise :P it was a stupid mistake to make but autoit and irrlicht arent the most explained/supported codes /engines to work with..

I am starting out as a ytber and honestly this video helped me a lot.Recently i though i make really shitty videos and wanted to make a good one with awesome editing just like the pros,it ended up as a 3 hour waste because i just couldnt understand how to put up an idea properly and didnt want to let go.This taught me its okay to do that :)

A problem I suffer from too much when I wanna make a game: Starting too big and not having the commitment to finish it. It seems good on mind and on paper, but when I actually try to make the game I either stop when it gets too hard for me to understand it myself or I give up before I even make a sprite.

I fall into many of these mistakes. I had big ideas but I don't know how to code, so I picked up RPG Maker (I know... I wasn't warned until after I got it, but I want to see it through and make my first game) I had to let go a lot of ideas due to a mix of its limitations and my lack of knowledge of the engine and coding

This Vide4o Taught me a lot. Thankyou so much.

For one of the mistakes are actually one I want to do it is the story upfront the game I am working on is a game about a story so that one doesn’t really matter to me now but I see how it could be bad in other games.

7:35 "A rushed game is forever bad" Patches and remakes: Allow us to introduce ourselves...

I just found this channel it's awesome.

I'm at Worcester University in the UK studying video game design and development great advice I'm making a game inside of Unreal Engine

This video was great! Totally educational, only sad part is I'm about 3 years late in watching it!

Great video ! good job ;)

Some of the best game dev content on youtube !!!

Thank you for the tips!

7:00 Underestimating Polish. Meanwhile Polish people: Kurwa!

Number 1: To me. Think big, start smart. I have a grand big vision. But I know exactly what I want and how hard it it. So I watch and play games with similar feels and gameplay I want so I focus on one single part first to make it perfect enough to be a starting point to be able to test things with it. Like the controls. I start simple making him move, then accelerate, then jumping, making a good jump, fine tuning it, making it possible to change and vary the jump, then the speed. Once it's done I do it again, only this time I use a different method and design. Number 2: My approach is to think like an mmo rpg. You stop playing for a few days or weeks and come back and suddenly you have 15 windows pop up and an inventory of stuff you have no idea what it does or why you made it like that and then you have your strategies and builds that you don't remember how they work or what they do. Start the game with nothing and subtly teach the player new things. Like having an enemy or npc use or demonstrate an item randomly somewhere without it being a cutscene or a must watch. Just another enemy doing stuff in the background. And keep the controls simple enough to easily pick it up and play as usual without having to practice for 30 minutes on your killer combos. Number 3: Make it, play it, share it and improve it. Simple. Number 4: This is the most difficult part. In Blood or almost any old game you can see these awesome and hilarious tricks like throwing a dynamite and flying to a key you'd need another key and path to get. Or some really awesome ability combos to really experiment and develop new strategies like the Pyro in TF2 firing a flare gun to launch himself at the enemy and ambush them. This is actually very hard to make as it must also work with the level design and physics and gameplay in the game. Number 5: Game first, story after. You need to make the game and then figure out how the story is told through the gameplay and world like how one enemy suddenly has a slightly different pattern or reaction to it's prior encounter or other encounters to tell their story in a subtle way. A perfect example is in Mother 3 as every foe has a heartbeat that beats to the battle theme and you can combo in sync with it but one particular foe has a lack of rhythm and later has no heartbeat to tell a little about him and both to make the gameplay a little more interesting when fighting him. 6: 100 little bugs in the code 100 little bugs, you take one out patch it around you got 125 little bugs in the code. Back to number 1. Start with the main controls and polish the mechanics to *perfection* nothing less. It must be flexible and have as little bugs and glitches as possible so you can easily apply and test new enemies and actions with him. So if you make an inventory and equip and item then use it and it fucks up. Then you know it's the item's code that is wrong not the player. And if you have polished the player enough then you're familiar enough with him to be able to work in new things and make sure it works. Keep your code and functions organized. The only problem is PUBLISHERS ARE IDIOTS! They need to be told games are hard and take TIME lot's of time. It must be perfect and can't ever be rushed or it's gonna suck. It's their fault if it fails cause they don't know anything about making a game. 7: I want to add a glider and a hook, but how would I implement that? Taking all of these ideas I have, I develop a simple fun solution. I make a new category of utility items that are activated on command by pressing the f key. How will it react with other items? Can they combo? Should they combo? How does status effects work on them? Work on the core system to easily be able to add, change and remove stuff while also being able to test them and implement them. But MAKE SURE they are relevant to the gameplay. A glider ability isn't much fun in an underground cave area with little space to fly in or enemies and levels designed to be on the ground and gets easily skipped over by the glider ability and removing much of the game for no reason. Though I don't like Thomas Was Alone and I don't encourage simple designs and looks as it's just too much right now with so many low poly games and bland 16 bit games that look nice but don't have much to show

I never published sellable game so advice from me is something you could consider by yourself, But I'm currently working on my first sellable game so feel free to check my G+. My advice is - Don't forget to plan things(Story and Setting, Features, etc.) Because from my experiences since 2014 I worked many projects and ended up the same way - I cannot go beyond Alpha stage. Cause is I didn't plan from the beginning where I want to go, and from the lack of both experiences and knowledge I ended up tinkering randomly and the whole project just being messy. Last project before I decided to make my first sellable game is something like playing with balance and keep adding new stuffs, in the end it's just the same. While I said plan things, it's not meant that you have to plan everything first. Keep it as good pace with prototyping > no matter how project direction change it will be always the same theme and with that change it means you have to building the prototype again. But what happen if we didn't plan ? it'll ended up such a mess, it's fun to add things into our world but while at that those things wouldn't be much meaning in the world itself. >>Without direction, things get messy.

Is that a Great Value Mega Man?! XD

7:00 well now you've just triggered the Germans

How did I just now find this channel? I have been a game designer for almost a year now.

What software did you use to make those animations?

#6 underestimating polish Me, a Polish person: damn straight

Thank you for the helpful information

Small correction: Mega Man 7 was not designed (nor directed) by Tokuro Fujiwara and Keiji Inafune. Fujiwara was the Producer, and Inafune had nothing to do with this game. Inafune isn't even a game designer. He's been an illustrator and later became a producer since MM8.

6.5k already, #ROADTO10k!!!