I saw that this type of question was posted back in November of 2010. I’m thinking maybe now… almost a decade later with newer assets and technologies that things may be more accessible? I am just getting into game development and I’m really excited about it. Games has been a part of my life since I was very young and I would love to create memorable adventures for future generations.
My question is two fold:
A) Is it possible to create quality games as a one man army? Right now i’m pretty introverted, but i’m working on that I would like to work with other people, but I would like to also make memorable experiences for others as a solo dev for now.
B) How much time should a solo project take on average? I understand that it’s more of a scope problem. The reason I ask is because I have a lot of responsibilities. I am a full-time computer science student, I work 50 hours a week at my day job, and I am a father of a two year old princess and I am getting married this August. Any advice on how to manage time while developing games would be a big help. I am already feeling overwhelmed and I haven’t even really started yet lol.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post and I look forward to being a contributing member of this community as well.
Usually depends on the day and how my daughter is feeling. If she’s sick or something then I have to focus a lot more on her to make her feel comfortable and help her regain her health.
On an average day, after studies are done and all other responsibilities are met, I typically have about an hour to an hour and a half of time to myself before I go to bed. On weekends I tend to wake up at around 3AM. On those days I have 4 hours of free time before my daughter wakes up at 7-7:30 AM.
I work very early hours, on a work day i’m up at 12:30AM to get to work by 1:30AM. I leave work at around noon and either go to class, the school library, or go home for the rest of the day, depending on the day of the week.
Take is easy my friend. Sounds like you are around 25, and you think you can do anything and everything. Thrust me, if you only got one or two hours per day for yourself, it is not good idea to spend that small amount of time to be productive. Instead, use that time as a hobby; start using Unity for fun (just try this and that, make new project, repeat) Don’t try to do anything too serious for next couple years. Just create something, and have fun.
yeah you’re right on the money, I’m 25 good guess. Idk it just feels like, for me, that i’m falling behind in my life? I don’t know if that makes sense. I just see other people who are either younger than me, or in my age range and are doing great things with their life and I look at myself and yeah i have a decent job and i get paid decent, but i don’t enjoy my job and i’m always tired bc i work so early and i get to bed at 7pm bc that’s my daughter’s bed time. So i feel like I may be putting myself in hyperdrive trying to catch up and be where I feel i should be at this point in my life.
Thank you for that response, puts things in a new perspective for me. maybe i put too much pressure on myself to excel and be a provider for my family. I will take it slower and focus more on the hobbyist side of it and have fun with it. Thanks again for sharing that bit of advice.
Use your spare time to do things that you naturally love (or willing) to do. Learning for example is a good way to self-accomplishment. Even if you don’t do anything special with that knowledge, you’ll have that positive feeling of moving forward, specially when you share it with other people around you.
Welcome to computer engineering. It’s easier if you can focus your dreams on coding at night so you remember them in the morning. after ten or so years your thinking of it all the time, eating, driving, shopping, parties, vacation.
24/7/365 job, and lots of time after that for making games! easy…
B) Your time constraints are the biggest road block. What you need to do is figure out how much time you have available, come up with a reasonable idea that you could build a game around, and properly scope the project (what is going to be in the game, and what is not). Then based on what is in scope figure out how many hours you expect it to take, and compare that to how many hours you have available to work on it and you’ll know approximately how long it will take to complete the project.
For someone working 20-30 hours a week, a simple project could be completed and published in a 6 month time frame. Possibly under 3 months for something very simple and for someone already experienced with the process. Larger projects just take longer.
On a bit of a tangent…
One thing that is difficult to understand the first time is for most single player games getting the game basically working and playable will actually happen very early in the process. For a 6 month project you’ll have something playable in the first 6 weeks. This leads to a false sense of accomplishment that your game is almost done, when you’ve really just started still. All the remaining details, adding various enemies, adding character abilities, adding some kind of advancement system, adding a polished UI, adding options menus, etc, all will take considerably more time than the basic gameplay mechanics took to implement.
As far as building your own game, the most important part is finishing your game. It is really the only part in the process that matters, and is most difficult step to complete.
Back onto scope, one of the biggest mistakes I made on my first game I put on Steam was changing the scope of the project. I had entered a partnership with someone else at the time, and with the game nearly completed my partner insisted that the game also be released on mobile. Well I had developed the game for desktop this whole time, I tried to push back, but eventually agreed. What would have been done in 6 months turned into 8 months adapting the game for mobile, and trying to optimize it better for the platform while still looking great on desktop. In the end due to unrelated reasons we ended our partnership, I released on Steam, and decided to not release on mobile because I was never happy with the result. 2 months wasted, except the game now was awesome on Windows tablets or 2 in 1 laptops in addition to mouse/keyboard or gamepad controls
Sure - here is a small selection of a variety of solo released games. Bold are Unity built games, Bold italic are Unity games created with visual scripting tools.
Environmental Station Alpha
Axiom Verge (had help with music and marketing)
Stardew - what’s it called? The Adventures of Elena Temple
Bannerman (had help with music)
Papers, Please
FTL Slain: Back from Hell
Heat Signature
Devil Daggers Felis: Cat Saving Platformer Heroes of the Monkey Tavern Invicta Beam Pinstripe The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians WARSHIFT (contracted a lot - but all game design created by one guy) Ghost of a Tale The First Tree
Probably 85% of all mobile games
Probably 90% of most stuff on itch.io and gamejolt
Varies based on scope and time availability/commitment.
Wow - you have very little time available. You might consider building a game but I think the best suggestion is to focus with the limited time you have on learning and keeping up with the tech as it changes for the next 2-3 years.
If you do consider building a game - think of something like this. Very minimal scope, single mechanic. But don’t fret - check out the steamspy on this one. Not bad. http://store.steampowered.com/app/578850/640/
It’s not good for the mind to compare yourself to others, especially if those others have not made exactly similar life choices as you have.
I spent nearly 6 years working, taking care of my youngest son, spending quality time with wife and family, while learning about game design and doing a tiny bit of modding on the side.
It wasn’t until my son turned 6 that I was able to dedicate a little more time on my desired game development passion.
Pretty spot on, so double plus 1/2 if you are only able to spend 10 hours/week on a project. At minimum triple the time commitment if you are only able to spend about 5 hours per week on the project.
In the situation you’ve described your chances are not good.
Basically, making games alone is a fairly insane idea to begin with, and requires a lot of dedication (ultimately with next to no payoff). In the worst case scneario you’ll need to be decently skilled in multiple fields - modeling, drawing, programming, music, sound.
With 50 hours/week for job and a kid I’m not seeing much chances to pour enough energy into this.
You’ll be better off making idea/design document and hiring freelancers to make it happen.
At least that’s the way I see it. I may be wrong, of course.
If I were you, I shall develop my princess instead of developing games:)
The family time you have now is the most valuable, don’t learn Hughes, he died too soon.
I was in your situation 4 or five years ago (cant remember exactly but I started with Unity 4.6 at the time)
I have a full time job (as C# programmer Desktop application and some php website stuff) and i am married.
I decided i wanted to make a game in my free time again (as i did in the 1990’s on Amiga and later on PC) and was first thinking of writing an own engine to make it. Like i did once with Directx6 to make a 2D game.
Luck had it that i cam across Unity and I decided to use that in staid.
As i have very limited time and my wife does not like it when i get home i go sit at the computer I decided to wake up 2 hours earlier before i go to work to work on my own game project.
In the weekends i work on Saturday mornings maybe 3 or 4 hours also.
Now 4 or 5 years later my game still isn’t finished. Aldo i came a long way with it.
There are a few reasons my game still isn’t finished:
Firstly and most importantly it is frustrated to not be able to work at it for several hours at a time. (only Saturday morning if i am lucky) In the morning you first have to get your bearings where you left off. Do some very limited work.
When you need work on stuff you wrote 1 or 2 years ago it takes much more time to figure it all out again.
Most harder stuff i save for the Saturdays.
Secondly programming is only a very small part of the process. Searching and buying some gameart is hard. Drawing my own content artwork for items I can’t buy took also many hours. For example I spend over 120 hours on drawing and animating a steam train.
If I knew then what i know now I would never have started. But after spending so much time (and money) on it I want to finish it.
An other problem i haven’t tackled much is marketing and if I understand correctly about 30% of development time (should) go into it. Its also hard to do marketing when you yourself do not know when (if ever) the game gets finished.
Sure i write some info at times on twitter at @traincarts or write some stuff on facebook
And i finally have an open beta on Android here: Link
Some shameless promotion here of my hard work
I haven’t done the iOS version at all as an developer account costs $100,- a year so I will make an account when i am very close to a first release.
When i finish it I am not sure I want to start an other project. At least not on my own anymore.
So a long story short. Just have some tinkering fun with Unity and find some people you can trust to develop the game with you. I decided to write this to you in my development window in the early morning so not much work will be done on my game this time but at least I have done some promotion as well grin
I have to stop. It’s Almost time to prepare for my day job. Working on your own project on a very limited time frame each day truly feels like a never ending story! It’s hard so choice wisely!
Take care!
Thank you all for taking the time to share your insights on my situation. I never expected such wonderful advice from all sides of the spectrum from experienced people such as yourselves. Thank you all, I have hope that I will build my first game. Right now, I will focus more on learning and tinkering like what most of you have said, and maybe in that process build meaningful relationships with others so that when the time is right for me to create my first full fledged game I may have others that will want to join up with me and we can create it together.
Thanks again everyone. I loved all the feedback given. You are all great
We are two guys with a pretty much complete game, so I guess if you double that you get the figure it would have taken for one guy. We started in May 2016 so soon 2 years. So that would make it 4 years for a single guy.
Let me give you a basic comparison. Pixel, the person responsible for the game Cave Story, is notorious in the industry for having made that game all by himself. It is one of the common success stories trotted out for one-man studios. Another example would be the developer behind Stardew Valley, who made the game all by his lonesome. Both of those games took their creators 5 years to make. Both of their creators were experienced programmers with some level of development expertise before they started making them. And I’m fairly certain that both of them had more time to devote to their efforts than you do. The Stardew Valley developer worked on his title full time for those five years, frequently putting in 15-18 hour work days, seven days a week.
While I don’t want to dissuade you from pursuing this hobby, I can say that being able to devote only a single hour a day to it does not look good. And I certainly don’t want to encourage you to shirk your other responsibilities in favor of your hobby. There are plenty of things that are more important than game development. Sadly, game development in general is a very time-intensive discipline, and it doesn’t sound like you have an adequate amount of time to make significant headway at this stage of your life.
On a slightly more encouraging note, I would say that you shouldn’t give up entirely, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to succeed immediately. Taking a more long-term approach, and patiently learning what you can and honing your skills is fine. There’s nothing wrong with taking a more reasoned, balanced approach to this, and not trying to force yourself to rush into anything. The primary reason why so many game developers tend to be young has nothing to do with making quality games while you’re young. It’s a result of poor business practices in the industry causing a lot of game developers to burn out young, and quit the industry before they get older. This is actually quite the shame, as gaining life experience is more likely to improve your skills as a game developer, not degrade them. There’s nothing wrong with pushing harder into game development after you’ve put a few years on your soul. (and presumably, have a few more hours per day to devote to it)
My personal recommendation would be to start on the ground floor, with tools that will allow you to dive directly into content creation with as little technical know-how as possible. I usually point people to Twine for this. It enables the creation of choose-your-own-adventure style text games with the option for adding programming, scripting, and graphics later. (after you’ve gotten some experience in those areas) It basically allows you to jump directly to content creation, and pick up technical skills as needed. It’s a good starting point for someone who wants results in as little time as possible. If you don’t mind spending a little, I would also point you towards RPG Maker MV. This is a similar tool that does the same thing, only for Japanese-style 2D RPGs. If you see it on a Steam sale you can get it for quite cheap. It involves slightly more scripting and interface work, but is simple enough for beginners to jump into and immediately begin making content. It even comes with pre-built graphics to use.
What a great thread! Lots of great advice from everyone. I’m a solo dev who also dabbles on the side. I have a full time job and a young son. Yet solo dev is possible! I’ve released three games and am working on my fourth— all weekend warrior. I think everyone is right on the mark when they say start small. Pick a super simple idea as your first project and you’ll be surprised how much work it takes. But that’s how you learn! Solo game dev is a marathon— a half hour a day will eventually take you places if you’re really committed. I’ve found the journey to be super rewarding. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it if it’s truly our passion. Good luck to the original poster and all the other devs out there. I have a lot of respect for anyone who puts in the hard work to take a shot at doing what they love.
Design Document. (all you need to get started is a text editor)
Every hour spent on this will save 10 later.
Before even starting you should know exactly what and how your going to accomplish everything.
Stuck on something in the design phase? do a little test project figure it out and put into the Design Doc.
repeat, until the design is finished.
Most ideas/products Die in the Design Phase. Well over half.
Also as you get into games development try your hand at all aspects of game development, art/animation/music/soundfx as it is fun and will give you an idea of how long and the skill levels needed to make something you would class as good.
I would like to work with other people, but I would like to also make memorable experiences for others as a solo dev for now.
