10 videos that changed how I make games
The things I'm studying while making my next game
50 years ago in October 1975 the Sears Christmas Book included a full page showcasing the new Pong TV Table Tennis game from Tele-Games. Earlier that year, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell had promised Sears that he would deliver 150K units of the home console version of their hit arcade game just time for the holidays. Atari quickly ramped up production after acquiring a new factory with funding from Don Valentine, famed investor and founder of Sequoia Capital. By the the end of that year’s holiday season, Sears had sold all 150K units of “Home Pong,” and in 1976 Atari went on to produce its own branded version of the console.
The release of Pong for the at-home market in 1975 effectively kicked off the modern video games industry as we know it. Within the broader scope of the entertainment industry, games are relatively young. The Victor Talking Machine Company, one of the first major record labels, was founded in 1901. Auguste and Louis Lumière hosted their first commercial film screening in a theater in Paris in 1895. The music and film industries saw more than seven decades of rapid growth and billions of dollars in commercial activity before video games even existed. But in the last ten years, music and film began to lag behind games within an increasingly zero-sum attention economy. Matthew Ball explains:
[…] the real challenge for Hollywood is that for decades, whenever “leisure” won over “work”, TV was the primary beneficiary. In recent years, the leisure decision has changed or “moved up” a level. It used to be “what to watch” and now it’s “whether to watch” – and the answer is increasingly “no, I’m going to play a game”. Neither Netflix nor Hollywood has a good solution for this problem. And no one chooses not to game because there’s a branching narrative available instead.
As I shared in my recent post 50 things for game developers, it has never been easier to make games. Like many other independent game developers, I am entirely self-taught largely thanks to all of the free educational resources available in the form of podcasts, newsletters, blogs, and videos. Over the years, I’ve gathered hundreds of useful talks and video essays on YouTube about making games. Below, I’ve narrowed this list down to the 10 best videos you should watch to become a better game developer.
Let’s get into it…
1. Start with understanding what actually makes a game successful
2. Then go “shopping” for new game ideas
3. Next come up with an appealing fantasy instead of a hook
4. But remember, your goal is to actually ship something
5. Just make sure you don’t ship the wrong game
6. Think of your game as a “series of interesting decisions”
7. Beware of these “cursed” problems in game design along the way
8. Make sure you playtest early and often
9. Make a great tutorial, it’s more important than you might think
10. Finally, once you’re sure you’ve made a good game, follow these best practices for marketing
Thanks for reading and have a great day.
Awesome list and resources to dig into :) Thanks for sharing!