While creating a game I have learn so many things about myself and my skills at programming. I thought that I could do anything and was confident about how amazing it would be Make It! I wanted to become an indie developer with a hit game. I wanted to be everything I could without a plan for attack.

You Need Focus

One of the biggest things that I noticed and observed is that a lack of focus with kill any plans of doing anything successful. Without this key concept you will be a boat out of water and just do any and everything other than what you need to get done. The way that I found my focus is following this these couple steps and I believe that it could work for you.

Step 1: Brainstorm your core plan

What should be your first plan of attack is by taking a piece of paper and just make a list or just jot down some ideas of what you want to achieve from your game. Is this game going to make money? Is it an RPG? Action Adventure? First person Shooter? Do you want to make a game that is for your entertainment? These are just a few questions that you need to write down to start your focused idea.

Step 2: Narrow your Concept

Once you have all your brainstormed ideas written down, this is the time that you want to really think about your concept. I want you to take each idea and write down a pros and cons list about the work ahead of you. This will help you figure out what will work and not work out realistically. This way you will want and love to finish the game and not want to stop working.

Step 3: Playtest everything!

Once you have decided what your idea is and settled on the concept. You will want to play test your idea after coding the basic concept. During this part you are trying to see if your idea is something that you will have fun with it. Keep in mind that nothing has to be prefect or pretty at this point. All you want is a rough idea about what going to work and what’s going to need tweaking or removed.

Step 4: Beta Testing

Now it’s time for the beta test. This is where you gather all your friend and beta launch your game. Keep in mind that your game doesn’t have to be the best because you want them to find bugs, glitches, and other game breaking issues. This is so you know what to fix before the real launch of your game.

Make sure that every bug that is found that you do document it. You need a list of all the problem you must fix. You want all your problems ironed out before release. Reason for this is because a small issue will become a bigger one when full launch is over. I have seen a simple missing texture issue because a game breaking bugs that deleted Window files. So please fix all your bugs even if you delay your game for another month or two. This will help you out in the long run.

Time to Celebrate

Once you have a fully released game it time to celebrate for a little while. Just keep in mind that once a new glitch or bug pops up it’s time to get your coding pants back on. For now though enjoy it cause you deserve it after your hard work and effort!