Hello,
Some of you have been reading these for a while. But I realized I know pretty much nothing about you!
Are you a game developer (or do you want to become one)?
What are your goals? Are you facing any issues I could help with?
I’m thinking of updating the format of these emails so I could expand on more subjects.
Here are some things I could write about:
- My journey, goals and numbers (how many sales can you expect when publishing a game on Steam?)
- Devlogs where I share my progress with you and what I’m doing every week (on my game Space Gladiators)
- Technical tutorials (how to display armors on your characters in a 2d platformer game?)
- Game design ideas I get from books, videos, playing other games or working on my own
- …
What would be the most interesting to you?
Please respond directly to this email. I’ll read all the replies.
But for now, here are this week’s ideas!
3 Gamedev Ideas
I.
Your motivation is a resource just like your time and money.
It’ll deplete when you work too long on tasks that have no visible outcomes. (refactoring code, cleaning up art assets…)
It’ll fill up when you get positive feedback or see tangible progress on your game. (new enemies, new levels…)
You have to manage it correctly if you want to make it to the end of your project.
II.
English speaking gamers represent less than 40% of Steam users. (source)
If you’re not localizing your game, you’re missing out on a lot of potential players.
III.
A game doesn’t have to be a masterpiece to make players happy.
People can look over balancing issues, ugly NPCs or stiff animations if they enjoy the core loop of the game.
Don’t wait for perfection before sharing your work.
Until next week,
Thomas Gervraud,
Developer of Space Gladiators: Escaping Tartarus