Hi interesting article and kind of agree with making Shumps or shooting games, I managed to clone asteroids ☄️ type shooting as my first game just to learn Unity Engine, but scoped it even down further but kept things like shooting and enemy gen. It was a good learning experience.
Another game genre to try next is endless runner since it’s simple controls, and repeatable assets you can use.
Which types of games should you try to develop if you are just getting started? SHMUPS make sense - flat terrain, easy to repeat and clone enemies, and you mainly need to focus on weapons and bullet spray patterns to tweak the gameplay. I also think match-3 puzzles are a good choice.
Avoiding tower defence makes sense. TD fans can lose patience quickly with a shallow or lacking TD game, so you really need to test the gameplay mechanics.
This is part of why I am focused on phone games which have long gameplay for the relatively small amount of code.
My first Godot game was a MERGE game. Lots of images that "merge" together into various merge trees. Generators make more images. Each image added to the tree increases the number of merges to get there exponentially.
To make it "fun", you need the balance of different trees and different goals to work together to require the player to strategize the desired outcome.
My game only had 1 gameboard / level which leads to HOURS (potentially unlimited) gameplay.
If you wanted to make it a multi-level game, then the clear goal needs to be readily accomplishable for every level that would then end and start the next one.
The other option (my next game) is the Match3 game like Candy Crush with its potentially infinite flow of pieces to match and act on. Candy Crush has many levels; there are other ways of doing a Match3 game that doesn't require "levels" per se.
Lastly, you can combine x game feature with y game feature to make a combination game that is unique to you yet still fulfills the intended premise of potentially infinite game time with minimal code. For example, RPG + Match3 or Match3 + Merge or Merge + RPG or Platformer + Merge or Racing + RPG. In many cases, the combination encourages the player to "farm" the same levels repeatedly for more materials for upgrades.
Add on a PvP aspect and a simple game with a few pieces (like Chess or Checkers) becomes a deep discussion in game theory and psychology.
Hi interesting article and kind of agree with making Shumps or shooting games, I managed to clone asteroids ☄️ type shooting as my first game just to learn Unity Engine, but scoped it even down further but kept things like shooting and enemy gen. It was a good learning experience.
Another game genre to try next is endless runner since it’s simple controls, and repeatable assets you can use.
The game I made: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rH--XXWEL10
Endless Runner, you say... Makes sense.
Gives me an idea for an article :D
Which types of games should you try to develop if you are just getting started? SHMUPS make sense - flat terrain, easy to repeat and clone enemies, and you mainly need to focus on weapons and bullet spray patterns to tweak the gameplay. I also think match-3 puzzles are a good choice.
Avoiding tower defence makes sense. TD fans can lose patience quickly with a shallow or lacking TD game, so you really need to test the gameplay mechanics.
Pong
Chess (but only 2-players mode). Then again, maybe a port of a simple tabletop game?
And then iterate on them until you milk it dry.
This is part of why I am focused on phone games which have long gameplay for the relatively small amount of code.
My first Godot game was a MERGE game. Lots of images that "merge" together into various merge trees. Generators make more images. Each image added to the tree increases the number of merges to get there exponentially.
To make it "fun", you need the balance of different trees and different goals to work together to require the player to strategize the desired outcome.
My game only had 1 gameboard / level which leads to HOURS (potentially unlimited) gameplay.
If you wanted to make it a multi-level game, then the clear goal needs to be readily accomplishable for every level that would then end and start the next one.
The other option (my next game) is the Match3 game like Candy Crush with its potentially infinite flow of pieces to match and act on. Candy Crush has many levels; there are other ways of doing a Match3 game that doesn't require "levels" per se.
Lastly, you can combine x game feature with y game feature to make a combination game that is unique to you yet still fulfills the intended premise of potentially infinite game time with minimal code. For example, RPG + Match3 or Match3 + Merge or Merge + RPG or Platformer + Merge or Racing + RPG. In many cases, the combination encourages the player to "farm" the same levels repeatedly for more materials for upgrades.
Add on a PvP aspect and a simple game with a few pieces (like Chess or Checkers) becomes a deep discussion in game theory and psychology.
That is an interesting insight!