Here is some advice from someone who made many games, find an old game you really liked, and see if there is anything like it released. If not you have your dream game with potential of success. Honestly guys, it's very hard to force yourself to make something because it's the right genre, or a popular topic. It is much easier to work on a game that you feel like is missing from the market.

I can't code or do art, starting solo game dev at almost 40 years of age, by making own RPG engine in Godot, going for a complex 3D tactical RPG with multiple innovative game mechanics, spanning 3 different game worlds, and hand crafting every one of 2 dozen systems. Autism.. I just can't do normal 😭

I'd argue that having that rigorous time constraints like said in the video isn't always the best. It's a balance between creative vision and polish versus economy. If I have a banger prototype, it would feel premature to just get it out there as fast as possible. Sometimes it can be better to let it brew a bit more. Yeah, yeah, I already hear the 80/20 rule ringing in my head, but who says that the last 10-20% of a project aren't worth the effort?

Good advice, more new devs need to hear this lol

It's okay to think LARGE but aim for a Small or optimized work load. Generally, Thinking small is just shying away from making appealing games.

Very good advice. I wanted him to say, "If you want to make money, focus on building your team." If you have an idea you love, see if you can get help making it. Especially from people with complementary talents. A team of 2 will typically make a product that is much more than twice as good, and much more quickly. And more help is better, up to a point. You probably have to agree to some kind of revenue-sharing, but a product that is twice as good should make more than twice the money. I think the reasons there are a lot of poor games out there that don't sell is 1) it's a poor idea to star with, and 2) not high enough quality because it's made by a team of 1-2. And if nobody wants to work on your game, that might tell you something about the idea as well.

Thanks for all the advice, and happy new game year to everyone!

I think the influencer outreach thing might backfire eventually with all the potential games getting flooded to their inbox nowadays. It's a quick hack to get eyes on your game, and might result in a few sales if you're lucky, but it's not going to work consistently forever. It is a bit of a symbiotic relationship which is nice though, since they need content and you need eyeballs. Marketing a game is a shoot-your-shot kind of thing where it's necessary but at the same time people hate when you push it down their throats or come on too strong.

My favourite Belgians return once again

It's been cool to see your journey and learn along side you with my own studio. I think small games might be the move, low risk and fast learning.

So, looking at my notes: "Open World Stardew Valley", did I get that right?

Very good information

I think it's important when choosing the first game you make, to actually pick something that can be made quickly, and make it to the best of your ability, rather than choosing a game that's fairly large, and doing it as quickly as possible just to get it done so you can "make a good one" later. Doing the first helps you learn how to make a good game. Doing the second helps you learn how to make trash.

Let's not forget the one thing that has been miscommunicated and everything you don't have to have a studio to do any of this. You can very well do it by yourself or with a group of people and pay them or give them a small cut of the sales and that's it. No one has to go into debt you may not have you don't have to lose a business a studio and lose everything to a giant corporation like EA or Ubisoft or something like that. Everything you make can be 100% yours.

it's great hearing you talk about game making and publishing. This is a support comment. Thank you for the content

Respect the honestly you trying to communicate about the industry, real important for people to hear even if they really don't want to.

I think funding your first game is not as hard as surviving with it in the long term. Chris Zukowski made an interesting graph long time ago, where it shows that about 80% of all game developers make one game and then give up on game development forever, whether they become successful with it or not. A small scoped game helps you reduce the financial risk, but if it fails chances are very high, that you just fit into that graph, too.

you make it easy and less stressful. small games it is the way

Great video again Mr BiteMe (i know u are Marnix, i just like that meme from the email example you showed few videos ago). A lot of good stuff to take notes on. 11:49 "the real way to market your game, highest return on investment by far is"..... ..... ... demos and steam online fests? "Influencer outreach". Ok... thats the 3rd biggest.. at least was 2 years ago according Chris Zukowski when he was talking about how free demos are a way to gain instant visibility. Especially thru steam fests (not just nextfest but also the other ones that can have other niche theme such as country, genre, aesthetic or size of a team). His graph even put tiktok ahead of "streamers" (which means youtube video content makers as well). According to the stats he got from 80 different games that were just released/being made during 2022 festivals give bit more wishlists than "streamers" aka influencers do. While i asked myself has he done another graph where "streamers" overtook festivals... i actually found 2024 video with similar graph but now he says "hundreds of games" instead of 80 and the top 3 order is the same as before: festivals, tiktok and then "streamers". Altho maybe it is the same graph and he forgot the exact numbers cuz the bars look very similar if not the exact same. Its just different colors mostly. Am bit surprised you put influencers over festivals as i thought we were watching/reading same videos/blogs from Chris. Mentioning top 3 way to market (or rather "promote") isn't a big mistake tho. Especially since these both are free and both more or less need a demo (altho sometimes influencers can make content even from trailer, playtest or prototype - its just maybe better with freely available demo so their audience can get to play as well). Still a great video. Sry if im nitpicky. Love your content <3

Amazing advice very inspiring. I love the idea of developing 'small scope games' and continuing to work on my lack of discipline lol to make it happen.