Questions about the time required to learn/develop a unity3d game.

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1

How much time am I required to put together a game, if it’s a short game(a shooting gallery game with 3 levels) or a game with AI keyframe animation(done in blender, maya, etc) and optimizing.

I thought about DIY and trying to market it if it’s freeware on a site like kongregate.

So what do I need to know?

2

This questions cant have an accurate answer really. There’s a lot of factors that come into play:

  • do you have experience developing games on other engines?

  • if so, how much experience/

  • what’s you’re specialty? are you an engineer/programmer? artist? vfx artist? what?

  • have you ever shipped a game before? worked at any studios?

  • how complex is your game? I know provided a simply few words to describe what you are thinking of doing, but it’s still too vague to put any estimate on

  • how long does it take you personally to learn new things? for example, if you’re not a programmer, how long do you think it will take you to learn? a year? two? less?

Like I said, there are too many variables and factors that will determine what you are asking. Some are under your control, and some are not, like for example how much time do you have to dedicate to your game? are creating an indie studio to work on it fulltime? are you a one man/woman show with a fulltime job, kids, family, etc.?

You also asked “what do I need to know”, well if you’re making a game by yourself, you’re going to need to know:

  • programming (advanced; I don’t think being a complete beginner to programming will cut it)

  • game design (it’s not enough to simply know Java Script syntax, you need to understand the principles behind putting an interactive game together)

  • excellent organizational skills

  • self motivated

  • art (know how to make 3d assets; UVmap, texture, rig, animate, etc.)

  • modeling
  • texturing
  • rigging and animation

  • level design

  • and lots more

At least these are all things I personally believe you should know for what you are asking. Game development is just naturally a pretty complicated, time consuming, and specialized endeavor. Of course some games are simpler than other ones that can become really complex, but even the simplest professional looking games are pretty heavy workloads.