The best way to become a better game developer
If you have ever tried your hand at taking writing seriously, you’ve probably heard the same advice about writing over and over again.
If you want to be a better writer, write every day and read a ton.
Almost every single prolific writer who has ever talked about writing as a craft has said that daily habit and constant curiosity about the craft are the two most important things to improve your skills.
This is great advice for writers, but it’s also great advice for every single creative profession you could possibly do, including game development. Except, instead of reading and writing every day, you should instead work on games and play games every day.
Make more games
Consistency is everything. If you have read The Power of Habit, you will be familiar with the 1% every day approach. If you get 1% better every single day, with exponential improvement you will get 37x better in a year. If you practice game development, whether you’re a developer, artist, writer etc., every single day, you will see immense improvement over the course of a year.
I highly recommend a “no zero days” approach. This means that no matter what, you get in 5 or 10 minutes of practicing your craft. If you’re on vacation, sure, please take your vacation. Otherwise, take a bit of your day every day to get just a little bit better. Of course, ideally you could spend a lot more time than a few minutes, but often times these few minutes give you the fuel to keep going for longer. Or at least, they moved you just a little bit closer to your goals.
Play more games
Making games in a silo is not ideal. In order to be an engaged and creative game developer, you need to be aware of what is out there and get inspired.
The sad truth that I’ve heard from a lot of game developers, especially moonlight game devs, is that developing games has given them less time to play games than ever. In the same boat here.
But even just a few minutes of playing a game a day is better than nothing. I would just like to also recommend playing a variety of games instead of the same stuff you have always played. I love a AAA masterpiece, but I also try to make some time in my week to play games on itch.io or a rhythm game or something made from a smaller studio. Variety breaks you out of your comfort zone.
You will also need to learn to play games critically. This comes with learning game development, I’ve found, but you will also need to keep an eye open for game design mechanics, art, music, etc. in the games you play. Just like a writer will become familiar with the writing techniques used in a novel they’re reading, becoming more aware of a game’s mechanics will teach you more than if you just passively play.
This article is a part of an ongoing project of daily video game mini essays. If you like the idea of getting these mini essays dropped directly into your inbox, I am cross-posting on Substack. You can subscribe here for free: https://howtogrowroses.substack.com/
If you want to learn more about me or my games, you can find my website here: https://www.heyitsamanda.com/
