Industry veterans Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* are back to chat about how to actually get started in game development.

Game development is an absolute monster and knowing exactly where to start can be a scary thought! Luckily, there are some great tips on this Devology Livecast.

(*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. Tim Ruswick is a successful YouTuber and indie dev, who's created more than 30 games in the last 5 years (wow!), and joined GameDev.tv as our marketing monster).

Listen to the whole chat here: https://youtu.be/KQhqcsJ5sQE

Our 'AHA' moments

  • Don’t be afraid to test your knowledge
  • Make new games out of existing projects
  • There is no right or wrong learning path
  • Join us next week for some hot game tips from Vimlark
  • Prepare yourself for a challenge

How To Get Started In Game Development (0:45 - 6:46)

Getting started in Game Development can mean lots of things. For some it may be they've never written code before, others may just need help to launch on Steam or don’t have a project idea in mind.

When it comes to getting started in game dev, a good idea is to have the courage to know you’ll start bad but will improve. When learning new skills, go over them again and again until you become comfortable. Skills such as collisions, variables, scores and timers, knowing these 4 skills will help make your games interesting and fun. Focus on the skills you have and don’t worry about those you’ve yet to learn.

After all, your first game isn’t going to be your last. You’ll always be improving and making better games.

How Should I Learn? (9:54 - 13:12)

Students of game development always wonder how they should learn. There’s many options, including online courses, YouTube videos and University.

The place you learn doesn’t matter, as long as you trust the tutor and they offer good practices. Courses can be free or paid, if you're progressing and tutors keep you motivated, you are on a good path.

When following a course, don’t blindly copy and paste. Try to make the game your own. For example, instead of a fast plane, try to make it a slow plane.

If you start a course and the later sections aren’t sticking in your head, go do another course that can help cement the information. There’s no right or wrong way to learn as long as you remember it.

What Do You Wish You Knew When First Learning Game Development? (1:30:06 - 1:34:02)

Tim wishes he knew it would be the hardest thing he’s ever done, it required motivation, willpower and discipline. But, once he got over the first big hurdle, everything became a lot easier moving forward.

Getting something very difficult under your belt is important, especially when working as a solo developer. It gives you the confidence and experience for your next projects

Be prepared for turbulent times in your game dev journey, you can’t get these amazing game dev results and experiences without the difficulties.

Check us out on social media

https://www.facebook.com/GameDevTV
https://twitter.com/GameDevTV
https://www.instagram.com/gamedev.tv/

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!