Acknowledge Your Limitations

When you are starting to think about what kind of game you want to make it is important to first acknowledge what your limitations are.

This is a mistake a lot of new game designers fall into, because they immediately start trying to make the game they've always wanted to play.

This will set you up for heart ache and failure.



If you are a new developer, then ask yourself these questions:

Do I have substantial experience with programming?

Can I build, texture, and animate objects with 3D software?

Am I a good sketch artist, or painter?

Don't worry if you said no to more than one. These questions will help you identify your weakest areas as a game designer, which will help you limit the roadblocks to your first finished game.

If you are not comfortable with programming yet, then use an engine that has a drag and drop scripting option, instead of the traditional programming one.

This will save you a substantial amount of time, because you would need to watch tutorials, as well as research errors as they arose.

This is fantastic if you are trying to learn programming, but if you are still working on your first game, then this is not the time to learn everything.

Instead, pick up the pieces one at a time so that you don't get overloaded and burned out.

If you aren't comfortable with 3D modeling, but skilled when it comes to sketch drawing, then make a 2D game with either Photoshop or Gimp.

If you can't draw, but you have experience with 3D modeling, then make a 3D game with Maya or Blender.

To take it a step further, if you are comfortable with building 3D objects, but haven't done any animating yet, then try to design your game with that in mind.

Maybe you can build humor into your game by not having your character's movements be animated like in South Park.

By first identifying your weaknesses as a game designer, you can then build your game with those weaknesses in mind, thus eliminating unnecessary roadblocks.

 Once you've built your first game, then you can take the time to pick up a new piece or skill and try to incorporate that into your designs.

You will always learn more from completing a game start to finish, than from working on a single game for an extended period of time, while trying to learn everything on the fly.