So you want to create a game? If you are anything like me, finding like-minded people as committed as I am and at the same skill level is hard. Perhaps you just want to have a personal project to work on in your spare time, without the pressure of letting a team down due to a tight schedule. Whatever your reason for working alone I can confidently say it is possible for a single person to create a game.
More than ever it is possible for a single person to create a game due to the continual improvement of Game Engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity. Provided you manage the scope and complexity of the game it is a very achievable goal.
In this article we will discuss exactly what is involved in creating a game and ways you can as a single person can achieve the elusive goal of creating a game.
Why is Creating a Game So Hard
There are a lot of components that make up a game. It requires knowledge of various disciplines that in themselves can take a lot of time to master. Having the ability to do them all can be a big ask even for a small team. Such disciplines include
- Coding
- 3d / 2d art creation
- Animation
- Sound and music design
All of these can be very technical tasks requiring different skills and software. These all then have to be carefully managed and organized to produce a finished game.
It’s safe to say IT IS A LOT!!!
What Stops a Single Person From Creating A Game
The biggest issue that stops a single person from creating a game is time. It takes time to learn all the aspects required to create a game and then put it all together.
You may be great at coding but often the logical straight forward nature of coding does not directly assist you with creating 3d art. They are almost in some respects complete opposites.
The second issue is because it takes so long it is difficult to stay motivated. You have only yourself to keep you motivated and not a team to get you through the difficult times. You are more likely to give up when you don’t have someone else pushing you forward.
Ways to Assist a Single Person to Create Game
I’m not going to lie it is going to be hard, but far from impossible. Especially given the current state of game engines which are making it increasingly possible.
There are many ways you can prepare and give yourself a better chance of success, these include:
- Manage the Scope and Size of the Game
- Using a Game Engine
- Using Game Engine Marketplaces
- Prototyping and Iterating Before Polishing
- Celebrating the Small Wins
Managing the Scope and Size of your Game
This is something a lot of people are guilty of including myself. You come into creating a game with plans of creating a AAA game that has taken hundreds of people years to create.
It’s very easy to develop this mentality and look at creating a “Massive Multiplayer RPG with an open world and amazing graphics”.
It’s important to not underestimate the amount of work involved in creating a game. However, for an inexperienced person this can be a bit difficult to estimate.
Some aspects to consider when deciding on the scope of a game are?
- Will there be Multiplayer (particularly MMO’s)
- How many levels will there be
- What quality of graphics
- How much AI is involved
- How many different NPC’s are there
- Are there a lot of models involved
- Will there be a lot of animation required
All these factors can multiply the amount of your time and work involved with creating a game. Planning carefully can mitigate the chances of you biting off more than you can chew.
Using a Game Engine
This seems pretty obvious, after all, why would you recreate the wheel right? For myself this wasn’t obvious. At first I had a preconceived notion that game engines were very basic, and if you wanted to create something great I would have to do it myself.
Trust me when I say do yourself a favor and use a game engine. It’s not cheating, they are complex flexible programs. A lot of game studios use them and you have the freedom to create anything. They are amazing tools and handy ones at that.
Thankfully a lot of game Engines are entirely FREE to use with no upfront costs. Game Engines such as Unreal Engine have no functionality hidden behind paywalls. The only time you are required to pay is if your game earns money. In the case of Unreal Engine for instance you only pay if you earn over $1,000,000 USD.
Using Game Engine Marketplaces
Don’t feel like you have to create everything yourself. As I have already stressed game development requires a lot of skills. Game engine marketplaces such as Unreal Engine or Unity are packed with helpful models, scripts to assist with coding, sounds, animations, and much more.
If you are great at coding but terrible at creating 3d art then buy the models or better yet utilize free models. Unreal Engine for instance gives you access to the Quixel Megascans library which is a huge library of free models and textures.
It’s entirely possible to create the majority of a game utilizing only marketplace assets. If I can’t convince you I encourage you to check out the below video from a Youtube creator called Fat Dino. He shows how he creates games by himself with the assistance of marketplace assets. I find this truly inspiring.
Prototyping and Iterating Before Polishing
Prioritizing getting the game loop and mechanics settled on should be the first primary focus.
Discovering it’s too complicated, or not fun early will mean you don’t waste time polishing your game only to have to fix it or possibly scrap it.
Trying and testing the mechanics early, then iterating until you are happy means you don’t waste precious time on cosmetic things such as creating cool environments characters and sound.
As the saying goes “fail early and fail often.”
Celebrating the Small Wins
It is hard to stay motivated when faced with a project that can take months or even years to complete.
Having the goal to simply finish the game is extremely demotivating, particularly 6 months in with no end in sight.
Instead celebrate the small milestones along the way, such as the first iteration of the game loop, first complete level, halfway there etc.
Having smaller goals along the way can help heaps with motivation.
Conclusion
Hopefully you now have some idea of what it takes to create a game by yourself. It most certainly is possible. It’s not an easy journey but it can be rewarding. A journey I personally cannot say I have achieved at scale, but I hope to in the coming years.
It’s a fun, achievable and rewarding goal to have and I wish you the best of luck achieving it.