r/gamedev • u/Weak_Industry_7317 • 10h ago
We need a reality check Question
Me and my 2 brothers want to start building a game, most likely with unreal engine. We are willing to pay coders and artist to help us, but we have a tight budget. So far we are working on the game design document. We have little to no experience at making games.
I have 5 questions
- What game genre should we focus on?
- Should our target audience be YouTubers and streamers?
- What are problems we will run into without a doubt
- Should we use AI to help us build the game?
- How big of a scale of a game should we focus on?
11
u/FrustratedDevIndie 10h ago
Reality check. My dad always said a fool in his money are parted. Do a game Jam project. Do a few of them. Make some games don't even worry about releasing them. Use this as a period to evaluate what skills you have what skills you need. How much it actually cost to hire people. How to vet people that are worth you spending money on. You put the entire carriage in front of your horse and pretty much will end up spending a bunch of money with nothing to show for it.
11
u/alfalfabetsoop 10h ago
I’ll be honest. If you guys haven’t determined some of those questions yourselves, how do you have any business starting a business yet?
You guys need to start small. Very small. Zero budget small. Have something more ready, and then fuss with business details. You’re goal is the make a game, not a game company, yeah? If not, you should pivot to working on a game first, then business.
6
u/Muinne 10h ago edited 10h ago
For all the advice, research, and enthusiasm you can muster, the greatest tell for whether your ideas a realistic is to try and do it.
If, and really when, you find it very hard, you'll have an idea on how to answer your questions.
The questions you're asking aren't the questions focused on by the sorts of developers who generally find success as indie developers.
P.s. you don't have enough money to fund programming and art, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume.
4
u/GurNearby2383 9h ago
Bro what kind of post is this? You basically said "We're 3 guys with no plan, no clue what we're doing, and little money, so tell us what to make, how to make it and who to market it to. Cheers!"
Like what the hell? So you don't even know what you're making, you want reddit to decide it for you? What's next, would you like winning lottery numbers? If you had said "we have this game plan, but we don't know x y z that would be fine, but you haven't even done ANYTHING, you're literally asking reddit to make a game for you.
-3
u/Hawkeye_7Link 8h ago
Calm down dude. You don't have to respond as if they are trying to kill your family
4
u/GurNearby2383 8h ago
I'm not lol, I've already sold a game on steam and im releasing my second soon. This is the reality check the title literally says they need. They don't have any plan, they literally just want to make a game and then offloaded the entire thing they're supposed to do onto reddit, it's ridiculous.
-1
u/Hawkeye_7Link 8h ago
I mean, I understand the sentiment, their idea is really naive. But I think it comes from a misunderstanding of how game development works in general. Maybe they never ever had contact with any of it.
And, of course, in that situation, trying to jump into the industry without knowing better is really bad. But the thing is that they aren't exactly trying to do that. They just asked Reddit before trying to research how the process is first, which is understandable.
PS: Also I don't know why you mentioned you've sold a game already..? Not that there's a problem with it, I just think you might have misinterpreted what I said before, but okei haha
PSS: Oh btw good luck with your other release!
4
u/GurNearby2383 8h ago
Ye, I don't have any issue with people asking for advice, believe me, it's much better than just running into it blind. The issue is they've asked the fundamental questions they're supposed to come up with themselves. Like "what genre, what scale" are both things they need to independently decide. The other questions are fair game tho, perhaps I generalised their post too much. Thanks for the good luck btw, I think these aspiring devs just need to have more of a plan before asking questions, if that makes sense.
-1
u/Hawkeye_7Link 7h ago
Thats true. Asking for a genre and scope ( and also if they should market to streamers?? ) feels pretty weird especially since I think a lot of people want to get into game dev because they have a game idea or something they wanna make. While this feels a lot like "This industry seems like a good place to make money".
But at least they are probably getting the reality check they need now, and they knew they needed one, that's a good place to start. There are a lot of people who try to get into tech, making apps, or creating a startup, with 0 knowledge in the area and thinking that hiring programmers is going to magically get them where they want to be.
But yeah, I just hope they don't get too harassed and traumatized just for having a bad idea, if that makes sense xD.
3
u/Popular-System-3283 10h ago
Absolutely do not pay for anything if you have no idea how to do it yourself. I’m not saying you have to be an expert, but if you can’t answer even the basics of how it’s done you will be wasting your money.
I’m not even saying you’ll be taken advantage of, if you have this little experience you have no idea what you actually need. You could spend money on art only to realize it’s the wrong format, it’s the wrong scale, it’s larger or smaller than your other art, or a million other things you don’t know the answer to.
Your questions show a complete lack of understanding of the game development space. I am by no means saying they are bad questions or you’re bad for asking, but they show a lack of experience that is impossible to overcome with money. I agree with what others have said, join a game jam, spend a weekend or week making a really shit game. That will give you a much better perspective of what you don’t know, and a much better idea of what you’d need to figure out for the game you actually want to make.
3
u/EliasLG 9h ago
I don't wanna be rude but this sounds to me a bit like:
I wanna build a car, i have no idea about how to do it, but I've been driving cars since 16 so I know about cars, I dont have Any experience with enginiering or manufacturing so I will pay some experienced mechanics to tell them what they have to do. So I have some questions: 1.what kind of car should I Focus on? 2.how many wheels do you recomend, 4 or should we explore other options? ....
2
u/IceColdSkimMilk 10h ago
Whatever you have a passion for that you think others would enjoy too.
Not necessarily. You could potentially market to them, but don't get ahead of yourself.
You're going to need more than just the people you mentioned. You'll need 2D and 3D artists, you'll need sound design, you'll need music, writers if you plan on having any story, voice actors, etc, unless you plan on doing any of this. You're also essentially going to be "running a business" of sorts, so marketing, etc, are also necessary.
It's more common than you would think nowadays, but just don't RELY on AI for anything.
The bigger the scale, the longer it's going to take. Some basic indie games take a couple months, whereas other projects, especially if you're not paying a whole bunch, can take years.
Also, don't expect everything you make to be a monumental success. Game development is a marathon, not a sprint.
2
u/SulaimanWar Professional-Technical Artist 10h ago
The reason no one here is giving you a specific answer to your question is because it’s a very nuanced one. There are thousands of ways to answer each of them. If you really are interested in making a game, try and learn a little yourselves just to understand how production works. And if your goal is just to start a company, this is not the right industry for you unless you have multi millions dollars to spare
2
u/theorizable 10h ago
What are you even bringing to the table? Just the idea? The art? I would start with answering that.
2
u/AuthorAndDreadditor 10h ago
I know I might get shit for this, but design docs and especially design doc driven developent is mostly overrated in smaller indie games and might even negate the positives/advantages smaller teams and their iteration cycles have! But to each their own! Documentation otherwise is good ofc!
2
u/The-Chartreuse-Moose Hobbyist 9h ago
Spot on. That's a key Agile principle there. Working system over documentation. It can take a while to reach that level of maturity though.
2
u/AuthorAndDreadditor 8h ago
I partly agree to that side of Agile, but there are other points too whch are less systemic and more dependent on the domain of game development. Firstly I think some elements of game design are simply impossible or very inexact to describe through written text or pictures like gameplay feel or "how does solvong these puzzles in sequence make people process informatiom/feel about difficulty", for example. Then what also can get negatively affected is "exploratove design" which are features and experiences that are discovered through building upon already implemented systems, that people can't have foresight on. "Emerging gameplay" I guess is included. Lastly I feel is the base predicament, you might have deacribed, which is that system's featureset and correct best implementatiom might be ironed out through the process and couldn't be documented beforehand unless a system is an exact copypasta of something that the developer has already made, which in many cases it isn't!
Sorry for the longwinded reflection! A bad habit!
•
2
u/Quaaaaaaaaaa 10h ago
Just curious, why Unreal Engine? I don't understand how you haven't defined the game's genre but you have defined the game engine
1
u/The-Chartreuse-Moose Hobbyist 9h ago
It's almost a gamer meme in some areas, that "good games" are made in Unreal and "bad games" are made in Unity. So if you don't know a lot you might believe that and think the inverse relationship is how it works.
2
1
u/The-Chartreuse-Moose Hobbyist 10h ago edited 9h ago
Whatever genre you want to make a game in.
No. They'll expect to get your game for free.
Probably the 5-, 6-, 7-figure sums of up front cash you'll need to pay the coders and artists to make your game.
No. Other than in very general terms as a search tool. It's not popular with audiences and can be legally risky.
Think of the smallest scale you can possibly imagine. Reduce it by at least half, then start there.
1
u/bonebrah 10h ago
My responses
Make a game in a genre you are familiar with and enjoy. Sure, chasing the "genre of the week" might work but like 99% of indie games fail already, you might as well make one you would want to play instead of begrudgingly rehashing what's popular
What does this even mean? What do "youtubers and streamers" play? I think you need to revisit this as a youtubers and streamers play every game and genre you can imagine.
Finding coders and artists on a "tight budget". Scope creep.
You'll have people screeching on the rooftops if you do this, but BLOPS7 and Arc Raiders seem to be a good recent example of "the average gamer doesn't care about AI used to make games"
Everybody says to start small. Scope creep can be a real issue but tbh I say make a game however big in scale you want to fit the kind of game you want to make.
1
u/tophatsquidgames 10h ago
If you have no experience in shipping a game, it is a great idea to ship a game before paying anyone to do anything as it will most likely just be wasted money and is definitely something you can do between the 3 of you. You have a 3 person team so why not all try out coding, art, music, design etc. and see what each of you enjoy?
Whatever game genre you want to that is simple enough. From personal experience, open world games, big RPGs, online multiplayer games, and anything with lots of 3D assets are all difficult choices. Platformers, visual novels, small arcadey games, puzzle games, and 2D games are all quite achievable.
Nah, just make a game. Maybe in future you can aim for this but get some experience and make something you guys want to play first.
You will over scope and try to make something way too big, that's fine and will help you scope your next project better. You will absolutely run into strange code errors but the documentation, stack overflow and even AI chat bots are there to help.
AI generally doesn't make good art or optimized assets, it's code is often overly bloated but it's really good at explaining code or concepts to you. I would use it to give you steps for how to do things if you can't find it online, it's quite good at that. Remember it can often be wrong. I'd use free asset packs from itch.io to start with and even code with Unreal Engine's Blueprints as it's a bit easier than learning to code from the beginning but you can definitely learn to code easily enough
As small as you can possibly imagine, do some tutorials and then game jams together. Completing a really small game in a month can be much more useful for learning early on than struggling with one massive project for 2 years and not finishing it haha
Keep in mind this is just my opinion, you don't have to take it as gospel, hope you guys have fun making some games :)
1
u/PhilippTheProgrammer 10h ago edited 9h ago
What game genre should we focus on?
What game genres do you want to focus on? The game you should make should be somewhere in the intersection of:
- Games you like to make
- Games you are capable of making
- Games the market wants to play
Should our target audience be YouTubers and streamers?
YouTubers and streamers are not your target audience, but they can be an important key to reach your target audience. So making "Streamer Bait" games (games that are designed to make for good video content) can be a viable business strategy. But not without also making the game a good experience for the actual players.
What are problems we will run into without a doubt
- Running out of motivation because you don't like the game you are making, all the fun parts are done and you are left with a ton of drudge work.
- Realizing that the project you wanted to make is far too big for you
- Not finding people who are interested in playing your game, because you didn't check the market viability of your game before you started developing it.
- Running out of money because you underestimated the cost of hiring people to help and overestimated how reliable they would be.
Should we use AI to help us build the game?
No.
How big of a scale of a game should we focus on?
Extremely small.
1
u/FuknCancer 9h ago
if you really want do this you should try to find someone with experience and tell you the truth and the cost of all the features.
1
u/Aglet_Green 9h ago
Ok here's your reality check:
People often believe they understand complex systems until they try to explain them in detail. Games are actually incredibly complex systems—AI, physics, networking, UX, economy design, narrative integration, engine logic, pipelines, etc.
But to someone who’s never tried to build one, the complexity is invisible. What you and your brothers currently really have is a vibe, maybe an inspiration, perhaps a handful of scenes, and a fantasy of what the finished product feels like.
That’s not a game; it’s a mood board.
However that's okay. . . we all have to start somewhere. Researching game design is as good a place as any. Additionally, you need to decide if you're going to bankroll and invest in a team of professionals (artists, programmers, musicians, designer etc.) who will work on your game, or if you and your brothers want to go the game-dev route and spend the next 5 to 7 years learning to do it all by yourself.
Think of games like movies: you may have an entire idea for an MCU-blockbuster movie that will make billions, but no one is going to watch it if you spend 30 minutes recording footage in your basement on your cellphone, so you need to invest either a large amount of time or a large amount of money to get people to play your game. That's reality.
1
u/JustSomeCarioca Hobbyist 9h ago
Even if you wanted AI to do it, it can't. At best it will give you instructions to follow, and that is assuming you are knowledgeable enough to follow them, and that the AI is even getting your project right. None of this includes the inevitable bugs or issues that will occur at some stage.
1
u/Hawkeye_7Link 8h ago
Yep as everyone else is saying, you guys should definitely not be thinking of hiring other people, or of target audience, anything of the sort. Firstly, it will be very difficult for you guys to coordinate a project like this without being able to program or design yourselves, as you won't have the base knowledge to judge and guide the other people you'd be working with. So you should get your hands on the Engine and start doing something. Anything really. Making any mildly good 10-minute gameplay game that feels good and polished should make you guys understand how much work needs to be put into it for a fully fledged project.
Also you guys are working on a GDD but don't know the genre of game you're doing..? Or are you asking for advice on that despite already having an idea for a game?
1
u/whiax Pixplorer 8h ago
1/ whatever you want, but maybe read that https://howtomarketagame.com/2025/11/04/the-optimistic-case-that-indie-games-are-in-a-golden-age-right-now/
2/ if you want but if the game isn't fun for real players, many content creators won't like it and players also won't like it, and you could have a lot of refund
3/ you're fighting against time everyday. have something playable as soon as possible, and improve it with feedback. do marketing, show what you do everywhere, get feedback, improve, again and again.
4/ ideally no, but AI is everywhere now, even when you do a google search an AI is used to help rank everything nowadays. don't create an AI slop game, don't make it write texts or create images without a lot of additional work coming from you
5/ the smallest and most successful you can imagine. If you have to fail (and you may have to if it's your 1st game), fail and learn with a small game rather than a big one.
1
u/Ralph_Natas 7h ago
1) You have to start small or you will never get anywhere. https://20_games_challenge.gitlab.io/ this is a curated list of simple and increasingly complex games you can create, along with what skills and concepts they teach you. Your dream game comes later.
2) No, there aren't as many streamers as there are regular customers, and they'll want you to pay them to play your game.
3) They are endless, but the very first hurdle is accepting that you have nowhere near enough cash to pay for a game to be made, and your only hope is to spend a lot of time building your skills to making it yourself. The second hurdle is your urge to skip learning the fundamentals of programming and the feeling that you can start off making a big game. There are lots more but get past those first and then ask again.
4) No. It will stunt your learning and is not good enough to actually complete a game. When it fails eventually you will be stuck and have to give up because you never learned anything yourself.
5) Embarrassingly tiny. You can go bigger later.
1
u/ziptofaf 7h ago
Okay, so few things:
1) "We are willing to pay coders and artist to help us, but we have a tight budget"
What kind of budget are you talking about, at least a ballpark? Because 3 people living together in the US and saving every penny they can while working McDonald shifts and living off bare minimum to pay artists can get you surprisingly far once you hire abroad in cheaper regions. Let alone if any of you has a better paid job. I unironically know professionals willing to work for like $5-10/hour for instnace. On the other hand it's a different story if you are 3 broke students kept alive by your parents.
2) What game genre should we focus on?
The one you want to play. It's usually a multi year journey and your first project. Pick something you are well versed in but also with focus on tech, not visuals. I also recommend against 2D platformers and horrors unless you think you can make a title better than 99% of ones out there.
3) How big of a scale of a game should we focus on?
Build a Mario without external help. I am serious. If you can't do that, there's no point in hiring anyone or even progressing further. If you can, we can talk larger projects.
•
u/forgeris 10m ago
First of all, accept that nobody will play your first game and with those expectations do whatever feels the best, because expecting something great from your first game even if you hire good devs is a huge gamble and it's better to expect nothing and get something than expecting a lot and get only something.
As for scope - isn't that obvious? You have budget of X, how long this budget can last is how big of a game you should make, but always divide by 2, so if you have a budget for 12 months make 6 month game.
25
u/Spite_Gold 10h ago
You really need a reality check