Interested in making your own game? The field is more active than ever, with many new people entering it on a daily basis, and it’s one of the best times to get started right now! Technology in that area has advanced quite a lot too, allowing anyone to get started with relatively little effort and knowledge. All you really need to know are the right tools and communities, and of course, have a solid idea to experiment with!
Engine
The most important point to consider is what engine you’re going to use. While it’s possible to code your game from scratch without relying on one, this is not very advisable if you’re inexperienced with programming, as you’ll usually be able to progress faster and learn things more quickly by starting with a comprehensive solution designed for the purpose. Unity and Unreal are the two most popular choices right now, and they’re both free for hobbyists, so you can get started right away and see which one suits your current needs better. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and it’s a good idea to compare them carefully before settling on either one.
Task Management
You may quickly find yourself overwhelmed with tasks if you’re not careful, and working on even a smaller game can quickly make this a problem if you don’t organize your work in some way. Finding the best Kanban software with metrics and learning how to use it properly is a great idea, and it can optimize your workflow significantly if you know how to break down your different problems into small, fundamental task pieces. Even if you’re not that experienced in this field yet though, this is something that should come with enough experimenting, so just find a tool that looks good for your current skills and get started with it!
Testing
You’ll want to make sure that your game works properly before sending it out to other people, and if you’re developing for the desktop, this is usually simple enough. But for something like a mobile game, you’ll want to look into getting a device that can run the game properly, or at least an emulated environment that can show you any obvious problems with the product. Keep in mind that an emulator will rarely give you a good enough idea about factors like performance and compatibility, but it’s still a good starting point. In the end, investing in a real device is the only way to go.
Above all, remember to have fun! Making a game can be a thrilling experience that can teach you to work with many advanced modern technologies, but it’s also something that can be quite overwhelming at first, and can seem like a huge mountain to climb for newcomers. Just take it easy, organize your work in logical small steps, and before you know it, you’ll be juggling major tasks around and planning a large project that’s entirely within your scope of knowledge. As long as you get involved in the community too, you’re pretty much all set.
