One of our regular collaborators, Joel Steudler, has put together a video with advice for aspiring game developers. For the video, Joel asked me what my No. 1 tip was for new devs. Of course, I couldn’t think of just one off the bat. I had to write down everything that came to mind first. I was able to distill it into the following, digestible tips.

Advice for Aspiring Developers

Early-on, it’s most important to gain experience. Plan something small and get into the development phase ASAP! Otherwise, you’ll begin to procrastinate.

Try not to self edit too much early-on; keep moving forward. Your goal is to finish something even if it sucks by your own standards. As you complete more projects, you’ll gain more experience and confidence in your abilities.

If I have to give ONE tip from the battlefields of game development and production it is to set a completion date. It has to be a specific date; it’s not good enough to pick “sometime in Fall” or “next month”. Set a date and move backwards on your production schedule. What gets measured gets done!

I generally don’t like to give advice, but rather share what I learned through my experiences as a game developer and producer. What I shared here are surface level tips, and I plan to do a deep dive into the lessons I learned in future articles. Make sure to watch Joel’s video as well for more advice from other devs! This should be a good starting point for newbies.

If you would like to share your own advice for new game developers, please leave a comment below!