Do you ever wonder how you can get better at game development? If so, keep reading for some great tips and watch the Livecast for all 12 ways to get better at game development.

Laurie (Avocado Fire) joins Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* to discuss these 12 simple ways to get better at game development, from playing more games, showing your games to your friends and joining game jams.

(*Rick has more than 14 years experience in the game dev industry, working on IP's that include Mario, Transformers, Captain America and Mortal Kombat. He's done it all, from Game Designer, Producer, Creative Director and Executive Producer to GameDev.tv's very own Instructor extraordinaire).

Listen to the whole chat here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7c5ZUaaaKg and see below for all 12 ways to get better at game development.

Our 'AHA' moments

  • Playing more games can make you a better game developer
  • Join game jams to improve your game development skills
  • Form a community of game dev friends
  • Playtest each other's games and offer valuable feedback.

Play More Games (0:38 - 3:00)

Playing more games can improve your skills as a game developer. Be sure to play a large variety of games, including genres you don’t usually like. You may discover something in the game which inspires you.

Xbox Games Pass is a great platform that allows you to try out lots of games you wouldn’t normally consider playing. Who knows, you may discover a new favourite game and a great idea to implement into your own game.

Join Game Jams (13:35 - 14:55)

During the early stages of game development journeys, a lot of people skip game jams and add them as something to do later.

Participating in game jams, even as a newbie to game development is a great way to practise your skill and improve your understanding of making games.

Itch.io has regular game jams you can join, try to concentrate on making a game which has a beginning, a minute of fun and an ending

You’ll be surprised by what you learn doing this!

Show Your Game To More People and Get Feedback (33:49 - 37:49)

Showing your game to others can be scary when starting out. Some may not have nice things to say about your game. However, there’ll be others who do say positive things.

It’s helpful to take both negative and positive feedback into consideration when trying to improve your game. Sometimes negative feedback is more valuable than positive, because it can help you understand parts of the game which may not be as good as you were expecting or hoping.

12 Simple Ways To Get Better At Game Development

Find all 12 points with these handy timestamps

  1. Play More Games - 0:38
  2. Watch Let’s Players / Streamers - 6:28
  3. Join Games Jams - 13:35
  4. Build Smaller Things - 15:05
  5. Seriously, build EVEN SMALLER THINGS. LIKE SMALLER THAN WHAT YOU’RE THINKING RIGHT NOW - 21:31
  6. Show Your Things To More People (and get feedback) - 33:53
  7. Give Feedback (and play other devs games - 41:46
  8. Make Bad Things On Purpose (and try to make them good) - 39:13
  9. Make Friends With People Interested In Game Dev - 42:30
  10. Freelance Game Dev & Make Client Games - 46:39
  11. Commit To Hobbyist Development (and never make commercial games) - 53:07
  12. Launch A Game On Steam (lots of people will tell you what’s wrong with it) - 56:42

We hope the 12 simple ways to get better at game development in this Livecast help you get busy with making loads of games. Check out the Livecast for all 12 tips.

Follow Laurie/Avocado Fire on Social Media

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Remember, we host live develogy livecasts every Tuesday at 10pm BST on our YouTube channel. You can catch all the recordings, including this episode, in the Devology Livecast course - it's free to join, and also on our YouTube Channel.

Until next time, happy dev'ing!