49
votes
Have you made a video game? Can I play it?
I've had some ideas for a game simmering for a while now and I've finally committed to learning Godot to see what I can put together. I'm still in need of some inspiration, though, and I know there's a few folks around here who have made games. Complete, polished, sketchy, half-baked - doesn't matter! - I'd love to see what people here have come up with!
I'm a full-time indie developer. Most of my games are at https://gingerbeardman.itch.io including my most recent game for Sega Dreamcast.
To play my game YOYOZO that received GOTY 2023 you'll need a Playdate.
https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2023/11/21/yoyozo-how-i-made-a-playdate-game-in-39kb/
I create all my games using only code starting from a blank file. No Godot or Unity or Game Maker. I'm old school in that regard!
This is really intriguing to me, do you have any advice on a starting place?
As a software engineer the really interesting piece of game dev to me is the coding aspect, I’ve tried to write my own game engine a couple times but I’ve always fizzled out when trying to figure out a smooth game loop with proper handling of sound, user input, etc
So whilst I don't use any engines, I do use SDKs. I code in Lua so I'm currently really into Love2D (multiplatform), Antiruins (Dreamcast; pairs well with Love2D), and previously Playdate SDK (basically a Love2D clone for a specific set of hardware constraints). As you know SDKs are essentially just lists of ready-made functions you can use to do the stuff every game needs to do, for you to use in whatever way you want to approach things. Whereas, for me, an engine does more than that and crucially prescribes the way you have to approach certain things to a larger degree.
I would never write my own engine, because I want to make a game as quickly as possible. Instead I write the bare minimum code, from scratch, to bring up the game. "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler". Start with a basic concept and just build it as simply as possible. Don't get bogged down with implementation details, and don't write an engine, write a game!
Of course I'm using SDK functions for drawing, sound, input, but the scaffold that holds the entire thing together (usually a very simple state machine) is bespoke for each game. I find that starting from templates/boilerplate sends you off at an initial direction, but I want to pick my own very specific direction so I start from a blank file. I enjoy the game design and concept phase (you can do it anywhere, at any time, using only your brain!) and I have the whole of each game planned before I start to write any code, I'm very strict about not allowing feature creep, and I run the whole thing from a simple outline doc of bullet lists (I use Taskpaper app).
The most important IMHO is to get the core game mechanic up and running and proven to be fun as quickly as possible. At that point I shelve 90% of my prototypes, for one reason or another, but given that I've only put a day (at most!) into it I don't mind. The process itself is useful. This is how Nintendo do it, too. If the game gets past prototype stage, I add the first draft of the boring bits like menu system because it's so much more difficult to add those once the game get really fun. And then it's rinse and repeat, play and polish, until it's perfect or my todo list is empty—whichever comes first.
I mentioned that this approach is old school—you could call it the way of the bedroom programmer. This is because I grew up when things were done that way (I cut my teeth on the Atari ST). I simply don't know any different, and so far I've not really wanted to try any other ways.
Know how to code for one. 😜
From there pick a good framework or SDK. I would probably suggest using a language you know fairly well, and just use the most popular framework out there for it. For python you might want to use PyGame, as an example.
I actually started to write a “book” about the concepts needed to write video games using love2d as an example - really something more to cement the ideas in my own head more than anything. I can send you what I’ve written if you want. Not sure if it’ll actually be useful to you.
I personally don't have anything worth sharing, but I invite you to take a look at PICO-8 and TIC-80. They are "fantasy consoles", all-in-one toolboxes that take a code-first approach to make games with a retro feeling, but a modern language.
PICO-8 is closed source and more restrictive, but there is a lively community around it. TIC-80 is open source and less restrictive, but less active.
Purchased! Congrats on the accolades and I look forward to playing it
Cheers! Even thinking about GOTY is still a little surreal.
Bookmarked! I've been really impressed by the PlayDate. It's novel, it's cute, but most importantly, it seems like it has a ton of very very fun games. Congrats on your GOTY!
I've made a few tiny cozy games using Godot 💕
These are great! My wife would love the Pocket Kitten one :)
Thanks so much!! :)
love these!! your pixel art is to die for. love the palettes you use.
Thanks so much for the kind words!
Oh I keep a handy list of .... some of those ideas.
https://omnicrola.com/#projects.html
Aside from the Asteroids clone none of them ever got to point where they where playable by anyone but me. And all of these where before I started my current job, where I learned to use Unreal and a lot of other tools. Happy to go into more detail on any of them if you're interested.
I just started learning Godot too! Well, a few months ago, and I've been picking away slowly... I'm trying to make a surreal/liminal walking sim thing to use as my digital art gallery. Wish I had something to actually show you, but I'm real bad at coding and I keep scrapping and starting over.
But if you want a motivation buddy for learning, lemme know!
That's awesome you already have some art to use. That will be the biggest hurdle for me, I suck at any sort of drawing art. I'm trying to workout a style that won't be too hard to pickup.
I just created a new Github account for these efforts, so I'll eventually be putting somethings up there. Probably mostly Godot tutorials to start haha. https://github.com/tenon-dev
Just to be clear, pics of my art (which are largely physical collages) will be going on the walls, the assets for which (the walls/floors/etc) were made by someone else. Godot has enough of a learning curve for me, not gonna add learning Blender to that pile for now.
So if the big hurdle you mean is the scene assets, highly recommend Loafbrr's asset packs on itch.io. They're mostly free, so great to start with, and really well done! Once I get my feet under me I plan to toss some money their way, because man, they do great work.
Awesome, thanks for that suggestion! Having some asset packs available definitely removes some hurdles.
I have been making games in Godot for a few years now. Only done game jams so far, so nothing is super polished, but I am proud of a few of them.
https://jasontherand.itch.io/
In particular I think Our Family Quilt, Steamship, and Title in Progress are the most polished and enjoyable.
I try to make sure to do a different kind of game than I have done before to really stretch myself, but one day I will sit down and really commit to a game and flesh it out enough to publish.
Good luck with your journey, Godot is great, but not without its flaws. Exporting games is a bigger issue than you think compared to playing it from the editor, so always make sure to test your exports, especially if you are doing web builds.
The only game-jam game I was able to fully complete was this dominion inspired puzzle game:
https://nemoder.itch.io/wizards-dominion
It's fugly and UI is a bit awkward but I'm still fairly proud for having completed it in that short jam time.
That's awesome! Really impressive for a game jam
Thanks! It was a lot of fun to do, it would have been cool to update it but I don't have very good art skills and the artists I've tried to collaborate with keep bailing on me. I guess they don't enjoy working for free quite so much. :)
I’ve been wanting to jump into Godot and start making a game for a while, but my job just takes so much out of me that I have no desire to code when I get home. My partner and I have a really fun idea for a cozy farm sim that we’d like to make, it just feels so far off. I wish I could quit my job and dedicate all my time to working on it. For now, it’s so tough to get started.
I’ve been there. You should do what I did and quit the job. 😜
Maybe what you should do is try to think of it as learning the program instead. That way the feeling of usefulness will lower the activation bar for you. From there any progress you make into making your game is just practice.
What I really need to figure out is how to feel not exhausted all the time. After I get home from work, do chores, dinner, there is still time left before bed but I’m just so tired that I can’t get motivated to sit at my computer and dive in. And then on the weekend, I end up sleeping in because I’m so tired, then it’s errands and cleaning and a little bit of a social life, and then suddenly it’s Sunday night. I don’t know how people with children get anything done at all.
Quitting the job is the right move. I did that before and worked on my own project for years. I’ve got the discipline. I think, though, this time around I’d have to have a big chunk on the game finished and an even bigger chunk of cash in the bank to leave gainful employment for yet another dream. But I think you’re right. I need to find the passion or motivation or whatever to sit down and really learn the engine. I’ve read that GDScript is a lot like Python, so I think it would be a quick onboarding for me. Just gotta do it.
I made a small arcade-style game for a game jam.
https://quodroc.itch.io/one-slime-army
(playable in browser but very hard to control on mobile)
this is fun! what's your high score?
Furthest I got was wave 26 with 330 kills.
Some people over at RetroAchievements have insane scores though.
How cool! That must feel awesome making a game that got a bunch of competition on a leader board on a popular website. Good shit friend
I released a game I've been working on myself since 2018 called 'The Garden Path' last summer, a smell the roses kind of game. It's built in Godot and we were able to get it on Nintendo Switch and Steam for launch. It's also here in itch.io with a couple other of my more experimental games
https://carrotcakestudio.itch.io
I'm a big advocate for Godot, and I've really enjoyed using it over the years. It was the first multi-purpose game engine I committed to and I'm glad I chose it. For simple 2D games I think it's very well equipped, and it's improving fast elsewhere.
This may not count as I never finished gamifying it but heres my tiny town builder.
It counts! That's neat - seems super chill
I made lots of games as a child and teenager, most of which are lost or won't run anymore. Most of them were MSDOS or windowed mode games. For example, I made a top down puzzle solving game in the style of Chip's Challenge, and a fly swatting game inspired by that minigame in Mario Paint, with horrible original art. I also made a full 16 bit style JRPG with art borrowed from early Final Fantasy and Zelda games. I vaguely recall it had some massive design flaws, like requiring a bunch of trial and error as well as having to figure out an obscure puzzle to access the super good magical sword's completely unassuming hiding location if you wanted to be able to survive later boss fights...
I made a lot of games! Most of them are game jam games, so they were created in 2 days, I think I made about 20 game jam games already. I'd highly recommend joining game jams when learning how to make games. You can learn so much in one weekend, and you can end up with a cool simple game that you can show to your friends, it's amazing. There should be a Ludum Dare coming in about 28 days, so you might want to mark that in your calendar :). I also work as a game developer as my day job for a few years now.
Also one of my games I released on Steam -- I'll send you a code for it in DMs (if anyone else would want a code please feel free to DM me or write a comment here and I'll send you one). I wrote some posts here on Tildes about the development of it too, this is the last one and it has links to previous posts.
Thanks for the Steam code! Game jams do seem like a great way to learn.
I've made a couple react SPAs that could be considered video games, I've posted some but not all to Tildes before:
Wait and how could I forget!! there's also https://sorcerer.river.me/ which is more of an art piece with social commentary than a video game, but also it's a video game :)
Actually as an educator I have technically made a number of games, but they are all made under the guidance of a curriculum and aren’t terribly interesting or worth release - games like Simon and mad libs, both with zero frills.
I used to love Mad Libs! Such a simple concept, but they can be hilarious.
I just started learning Godot too.
Haven’t made anything releasable yet, (still working on my first game), but I’ve liked the Godot workflow so far.
Currently working on adding dialogue via the Dialogue Manager add-on.
I've made a bunch of prototypes but never got all that close to releasing anything real. I'm pretty happy with what I've put up on my itch though: https://tesseractcat.itch.io/. I'd say I'm most proud of my concept for a flipnote style heist game, and a somewhat unique 3d modelling/drawing software.
My new years resolution was to put a game on steam but I don't think that's going to end up happening -.-
OK, that 3D modeling thing is amazing! It hurts my brain a bit, but what a cool idea.
My buddy and I have been making a game. We started with GB Studio and once we complete our Game Boy game, we'll be transitioning to Godot. Check out the GB Studio progress on Skull Bob's Adventure: https://doubledropdown.itch.io/skullbobs-adventure
I made sudoku in F# but it only ever ran locally in the console. It's something I've been meaning to dust off and take a stab at again, and getting the render logic split out so I can have it run on console/web/whatever.
Almost finished with Acid Web, a straight forward arcade twin stick shooter oriented around combat puzzles, with a generative acid techno soundtrack. You can play the demo! The full release is scheduled for the beginning of April.
I've previously released Jupiter Sumo for the Atari 2600, a couple of smaller Pico-8 games and SNAKE SHOOT for the VIC-20 (which because of my gag is now listed in TOSEC as actually having been released in 1983, lol), but Acid Web is my first commercial game project.
I've posted it on Tildes a few times but I have a collection of games I've made on https://gametje.com. They are all inspired by Jackbox games and can be played on any device with a web browser. Some need a main/host screen but I am slowly converting them all to also be playable/hostable on a single device/browser tab.
Check out my latest blog post of the newest game: https://blog.gametje.com/posts/2025-03-06/
I've got all my work on https://python-b5.com/. Most of it is game jam games, but a few of those have been updated since to be more polished. I usually try in game jams to make a small, complete game, rather than a prototype, since usually I am not interested in continuing work on these games after the deadline. The first few of them I made when I was very young, and am not particularly proud of - from about 2022 on I think I improved.
This is probably far less interesting to the general crowd here, but I also work on an Undertale fangame as a programmer. If you heard of Undertale Yellow's release last year, it's kind of like that.