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Examples of game dev projects that all starter game devs should attempt

Nuclear_MosquitoNuclear_Mosquito
in Questions and Answers
Hello Everyone,

I hope that you all are having a wonderful weekend. I've recently decided that I want to get back into attempting game dev as a hobby: (To skip to the tldr, scroll to the bold text)

In the past I took part in a few game jams, attempted a personal project with a scope that was way too big and got discouraged pretty darn quickly.

After working my first year in the software industry I've kind of lost my passion for coding and would like to get it back again to the point where it was when I participated in the game jams.

My approach this time round is just to pump out small games as fast as I can comfortably manage, but there is only one problem: I have no idea where to start. I am doing a unity game dev course from devslopes, but I also want to work on my own small projects while I'm busy with that.

My question to you:

What are some ideas for games that all beginner game devs should attempt to build?

Thanks for your time; even more so if you read the entire backstory.

Best Regards,
Nuclear Mosquito (Johan)

Comments

  • StormGameDevStormGameDev
    edited
    2D or 3D? or don't you really care?

    The reason why I'm asking is because there are different types of games built with each and different projects that will help someone learn the fundamentals of each spectrum.
  • ThelangfordianThelangfordian
    I would recommend recreating some classic games: pong, tetris, etc. It is a great way to practice writing good code, learning a game engine or framework, and also for getting familiar with game mechanics and what drives them.

    Another approach to this I have seen is to recreate a portion of a game or mechanic you enjoy.

    This is only for practice of course, but I think it helps stimulate the creative juices, gets you up and running quicker on your own games and helps tap into what makes a game fun.

    Keep at the game jams. I personally always set some goal for them; like doing only graphics in a jam to learn Blender, or to rely on Unity's provided assets and scripts to better learn the engine. I think this kind of narrower focus to a game jam really turns it into a learning opportunity as opposed to just making what ever comes to mind (though that does have it's own benefits when trying to discover an idea).

    Hope this helps :)
    Thanked by 3francoisvn EvanGreenwood Nuclear_Mosquito
  • Nuclear_MosquitoNuclear_Mosquito
    StormGameDev said:
    2D or 3D? or don't you really care?

    The reason why I'm asking is because there are different types of games built with each and different projects that will help someone learn the fundamentals of each spectrum.
    Honestly, I don't really care. 3D would be nice, but it probably complicates the games a fair bit (Quaternion.euler rotation for example). So 2D for now.
    Thelangfordian said:
    I would recommend recreating some classic games: pong, tetris, etc. It is a great way to practice writing good code, learning a game engine or framework, and also for getting familiar with game mechanics and what drives them.

    Another approach to this I have seen is to recreate a portion of a game or mechanic you enjoy.

    This is only for practice of course, but I think it helps stimulate the creative juices, gets you up and running quicker on your own games and helps tap into what makes a game fun.

    Keep at the game jams. I personally always set some goal for them; like doing only graphics in a jam to learn Blender, or to rely on Unity's provided assets and scripts to better learn the engine. I think this kind of narrower focus to a game jam really turns it into a learning opportunity as opposed to just making what ever comes to mind (though that does have it's own benefits when trying to discover an idea).

    Hope this helps :)
    Thanks. I'll try recreating some simple games like you said. Once the code starts to get easy for me I'll start adding goals like you did with the game jams. (Code a simple computer opponent for pong etc...) I might even post them on here if I'm able to add twists that differentiate them from the original ones.
  • vintarvintar
    Nuclear_Mosquito said:

    Honestly, I don't really care. 3D would be nice, but it probably complicates the games a fair bit (Quaternion.euler rotation for example). So 2D for now.
    Personally I actually find 3D easier. Quaternions are also used in 2D anyhow since a transforms rotation is a Quaternion;

  • StormGameDevStormGameDev
    vintar said:
    Nuclear_Mosquito said:

    Honestly, I don't really care. 3D would be nice, but it probably complicates the games a fair bit (Quaternion.euler rotation for example). So 2D for now.
    Personally I actually find 3D easier. Quaternions are also used in 2D anyhow since a transforms rotation is a Quaternion;

    Yea, so do I.

    I would dive straight into 3D dev and skip the 2D. 2D is fairly easy to do once you know your 3D stuff.
    - Do the roll-a-ball turorial
    - Make an FPS
    - Make a physics orientated time(Maybe a rocket league type game)
    - Explore other genres, I find RTS games and Open world games to be more difficult to complete usually because of the time it takes to complete the game. Even these games can be simple though.

    Also if this is your first time using c# I highly recommend doing some tutorials on c#. Unity can promote can promote some pretty bad coding habits.

    e.g. thinking that the 
    public
    keyword is only used to add a field to the inspector.

    So understanding the fundamentals of c# outside of Unity can really help you write better code.
  • Nuclear_MosquitoNuclear_Mosquito
    StormGameDev said:

    Yea, so do I.

    I would dive straight into 3D dev and skip the 2D. 2D is fairly easy to do once you know your 3D stuff.
    - Do the roll-a-ball turorial
    - Make an FPS
    - Make a physics orientated time(Maybe a rocket league type game)
    - Explore other genres, I find RTS games and Open world games to be more difficult to complete usually because of the time it takes to complete the game. Even these games can be simple though.

    Also if this is your first time using c# I highly recommend doing some tutorials on c#. Unity can promote can promote some pretty bad coding habits.

    e.g. thinking that the 
    public
    keyword is only used to add a field to the inspector.

    So understanding the fundamentals of c# outside of Unity can really help you write better code.
    Luckily I code in Java for a living, so C# isn't too big of a jump for me.
    I've done the roll-a-ball tutorial a few too many times, but the FPS sounds like something fun to attempt though. (Might do something fast paced) Currently I'm coding a copy of Tetris just to practice putting known mechanics into code.
  • KuluKulu
    My 2 cents is to do something you will enjoy making, if you like fishing in your spare time. do a "fishing for radiation exposed monster fish , while exploring the now nuclear ravaged 7 seas" . its still fishing , but with your own twist. So thats where I usually start. i take a relatively boring interest or hobby, and mix it with another interest of mine.

    I was recently asked to make a hover craft racer. So I was like , I like hover crafts and scifi settings, but I also think no ones done a steampunk racer , let alone steampunk themed hover craft racer. so i researched both interests. I also researched steam engines and the origin of the steam engine, which took me to "technology from the old days, which also included olden days fashion, architecture, culture etc. " from there Im slowly building the enviroments , characters, props in the back of my head. And this all came from the initial interest i have in science fiction .

    generating ideas, and interests also helps keep you motivated.

    good luck
    Thanked by 1BenJets
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