Just today I finished and published my new game Impulse 2D ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Money_Tree.Impulse_2D ), available exclusively on the play store and it’s completely free with no ads or anything, and i’m just here to document some of my thoughts related to game development after finishing and publishing my first title. Feel free to ask me anything as well.
Firstly, what a journey it’s been to make this, and not all smooth sailing. Many times the game would crash and preform very poorly, for seemingly minor and inconspicuous reasons. For example, in the days before release, the game would chew up a ridiculous amount of memory when viewing the achievements, leading to crashes and frame rate problems. The problem? The spriterenderer mode for part of each achievement icon was set to tiled, where something as simple as changing the mode would have fixed this problem. And trust me, this was just one of a myriad of problems i ran into on the way.
Also i want to give a few tips to any aspiring software / game developer.
- Follow things like video tutorials initially, and don’t be afraid to use google even as you become more experienced. looking things up is still very commonplace for someone like me.
- Be realistic with the scope of your game. Even the most simple games can take awhile to complete, and it is really easy to underestimate the time and effort it will take to finish something. (particularly if it involves networking)
- Try to finish your games. Whilst towards mid to late development it can seem more rewarding to start on a fresh new project, (and to be fair, sometimes it is better to ditch a project). There is nothing more satisfying than finishing, and publishing!
- START TRYING. Even if you don’t really understand initially or it feels too hard, give it your best shot. Learning how to write code is a really great skill, and developing a game or software is infinitely more productive than wasting time watching youtube or scrolling social media
