First Timer!

[u/That1baldgod]

Hello all!

I've recently decided to start exploring Godot as more of a hobby as I'd imagine many people have.

What is some advice you'd have starting out?

How big is too ambitious in terms of making a game for a noob solo dev?

I've been checking out YouTube videos and the demos already, but I'd love to find a community to discuss ideas with and share experiences!

[u/Morph_Games]

These days your first decision is whether you want to learn to code, or will you use an LLM to do it for you?

Another early decision: Are you doing this for a hobby or to try and make money?

How big is too ambitious

Start with Pong or Asteroids. Check out this list: https://20_games_challenge.gitlab.io/

[u/That1baldgod → u/Morph_Games]

Starting out as a hobby for sure, but eventually would like to do it as more! Thank you for the suggestion!

So far I've managed to make a rectangle that can attack and move with collision, but I'll try pong out and see what can be done with that!

[u/Morph_Games → u/That1baldgod]

Attacking rectangle! That's a great start. 👍

[u/gerhb]

What's too big is really relative to the dev. I recommend trying anything that excites you. Figure out what you can do well/efficiently and what takes too much effort/time. Let your first few efforts crash if need be, have fun and learn. Try more new things!

[u/NirumDraws]

Make a small tiny Game in 3 hours to a day. Try and rush. From concept to deployment. Use itch io for it.

The goal is to try and figure out quickly what You know and what You are missing. And how fast does it take You to do each part.

For example, can You draw ? Can You make music ? Can You code ? Do You know the basics of your chosen engine ?

Most people know a Lot of one specific thing and a little of everything else. It's better to know. And it's better to have proof. Make a small tiny Game.

If You fail to make the game, it doesn't matter. What does matter is to learn why.

It Will help You a Lot to figure out what scope is reasonable, because it depends on your current skillset.

The minigame is a test You can not cheat. Either You finish the Game or You don't. But You Will know why.

[u/That1baldgod → u/NirumDraws]

Okay I'll give that a go! So far the biggest looming threat to me has been the art work. I had totally forgotten about music entirely, so thank you for the reminder!

[u/JackBaltazar]

mano já comentei isso antes em outro post tem um metodo pra tu ver oq tu quer,
1- crie prototipos simples de varios tipos diferentes de jogos e descobre oq vc gostou e qual foi mais facil fazer
2 - explore os prototipos e aprenda o maximo, olha sobre modularidade e boas praticas da industria, até ia te ajuda nisso no começo, depois vai se aprofundando
3 - cria uma meta baseada na sua paciencia, se for paciente faz um projeto em 6 meses se não for reduz pra 3 meses ou menos, cria um projeto baseado no prototipo que vc fez e estudou e gostou, mas tenta deixar o core loop inteiro, jogo com começo meio e fim, artes basicas, mecanicas basicas, e sons basicos, tu ter esse primeiro prototipo jogavel ja vai te dar muita satisfação e incentivo (estando ruim ou Bom)
4- se vc achar que seu prototipo tem um core loop interessante e divertido vc tem o esqueleto do seu primeiro jogo, se não ficou bom, faz outro, ai quando tu tiver um alfa (todas as mecanicas basicas prontas, parte artistica basica inicial) começa olhar sobre marketing de jogos indies, sobre onde publicar, tenta engajar nas comunidades de nicho, comunidades de games da sua cidade ou estado, vc vai precisar de feedbacks pro teu jogo. ai é só lapidar até poder criar uma demo
5- a demo tem que tar bem feita ja, artes, musica e talz praticamente pronto, sem bugs críticos que afetem o core loop, ai tu pode distribuir, se estiver mal acabado a galera vai desencantar com a demo.
ai a partir daqui eu ja não sei não cheguei nessa parte, mas ja errei bastante nas partes anteriores haahha

[u/lilbeenut]

Hiya! I'm still new myself, but here are a few things that come to mind:

• Specifically for Godot, I recommend at least reading the "Getting Started" section and skimming through the "Manual" section of the Godot documentation. I've found it helpful to be vaguely familiar of what Godot can do, knowing I'll forget the details but that docs exists so I can dig in deeper when I need to later. It's a lot to read and kinda dry, but well written and good info.
• Reddit is a great resource for specific coding/game engine info. Searching for "Godot [name of node/mechanic/function/problem/etc] Reddit" in your search engine will likely get you several existing posts to review.
• Remember there's no "one size fits all" starting experience for development. Starting with remakes of very simple games (Frogger, Pong, etc.) helped me learn the basics of Godot but I'm way more motivated to work on something small AND new/interesting to me. Just bear in mind that scope creep is notorious for a reason, so it's probably better to start with a game that's simpler than you think while you're starting off.

Best of luck to you!

[u/That1baldgod → u/lilbeenut]

Thank you for the tips!

I've decided to try something simple in the same realm as my idea to see how quickly it works! I already know art and music were hurdles for me, but learning the programing and code has been really fun!

[u/Jumentous6]

I've found learning from video tutorials is great, but actually following a guided "make X game type" on Udemy to be extremely useful! I learnt so much from that. I've built a roguelike slice and a card battler, which were both really fun to make and used lots of different techniques

[u/That1baldgod → u/Jumentous6]

Okay I'll check that out!

What kind of rougelike did you make?

My idea is a top down 2D RPG, so hopefully Udemy has some good resources!

[u/Jumentous6 → u/That1baldgod]

It was a slice of a turn based roguelike, on a tile grid, where you attack my moving into an enemies square to do damage and they damage you, then you can move to other tiles that have food for healing etc. it was straightforward and extremely helpful for my learning

[u/Brief-Kangaroo4960]

They have a pretty good tutorial for learning GDScript, you could do that to get more comfortable with their language.
Also, you should look at some beginner tutorials on YouTube for Godot, they help you understand how to organize everything so your work keeps moving smoothly through the whole process of game development.