anyone here into gamedev/design?

[rekanochi]

i REALLY want to get into making and designing games, but it's been really hard to do that on my lonesome. it's super intimidating and scary to just spontaneously develop the skills to become a completely solo dev. i wanna meet and hang out with people doing that! i wanna be doing that! video games are cool! i wanna make them!!!!

is anyone a part of a community or studio or whatever working on anything? maybe a forum board where people post about their projects? i wanna meet people but i'm not sure where to look. discord servers are kind of terrifying for a great many number of reasons other people have discussed before, lol.

[Starfia]

Hi, Rekanochi –

I don't know whether I can recommend any game developer groups or communities since I'm also very soloistically-minded when it comes to that and have seldom sought them, but I'd say I'm of a similar mind. So, hello and greetings. Soloistic game developers chart their own paths and I'm not sure where and whether ours intersect, but you're more than welcome to raise any game development-related topics and questions if you feel like it.

(Wild site, by the way.)

[Cobra!]

My time to shine!
I've been doing gamedev since 2005, and have I recently released my first commercial game, Operation: Pinkeye. I'm currently working on a spin-off to this game.

I also regularly delve into developing homebrew games, and do 3D artwork for others, mainly game jams. I think the most notable games I've helped with there are Telocation: Gemini and Spirit Harvest for the Nintendo 64.

Game dev is difficult, frustrating, and ultimately there isn't much money in it for like 99% of those who get into it, but it can be satisfying, writing code and seeing what you make come to life.

My game got it's demo released on a magazine demo disc, and if I can sell enough copies on Zoom Platform, they'll do a physical run of the full game! Just having my work out there, and seeing strangers hear about it and recognise it means a lot to me.

There are several Discord servers I'm in that are all about game dev, and generally networking with other people in the industry. I think it really depends on what kind of game development you want to get into.

If you're starting out, it depends on what skills you currently have, generally, I'd recommend something simple to start with like GB Studio or Scratch.

For the community side, I just started promoting on Twitter, and eventually, I found groups to join and people to connect with.

[loaf]

There's always a ton of gamejams happening on itch.io. A lot of times, there will be Discord servers associated with jams, but often there's community discussion in forums & people give constructive feedback on each other's games and such on itch. And most gamejams are fairly beginner friendly. So I'd say doing a gamejam is a good way to get started, and be surrounded by other people (and often other beginners!) working on projects. In my experience, having the deadline of a gamejam really gives me the focus to actually get started & finish. I'm doing the Metroidvania jam with my friends, which actually started just today.

[techramancer]

I do enjoy game dev/design. While I don't have anything super fancy released, I do have an itch.io page with a prototype and a game jam entry, as well as a project on my Github with another prototype (a Zelda-like, Project Ki aka Tales of Kingsgrave; the full source and graphics are available to download), and a clock/timer/reminder application that I abandoned (no source/graphics, just the application.

I'm a solo dev type as well, with my focuses being graphics, writing, and programming.

[RogerMexico]

i REALLY want to get into making and designing games, but it's been really hard to do that on my lonesome. it's super intimidating and scary to just spontaneously develop the skills to become a completely solo dev. i wanna meet and hang out with people doing that! i wanna be doing that! video games are cool! i wanna make them!!!!

Well, here's the thing, you can dip a toe into game development before you join a community. Recreating rudimentary games like Snake, Pong, Breakout, and Tetris can teach you some of the relevant skills you need. There's never been a better time to do self-directed learning about the basic nuts-and-bolts of game development. You'll start to understand concepts like gameplay loops, control inputs, and so on. It can also give you a way to interact with game dev communities in a way that would be more helpful to you.

Now, to answer your actual question, there are a number of communities based around individual frameworks like MonoGame/XNA, Unity, Game Maker Studio, RPG Maker and so on.

[lime360]

I use clickteam fusion 2.5 since 2019, the engine is cool but the price and performance is the only cons I expirenced, so I'm trying to learn cool game engines such as gamemaker, love2d and Godot.

gdevelop feels like an open-source and web-based version of Fusion, maybe I should try making a game for once in there?

[lime360]

If you're starting out, it depends on what skills you currently have, generally, I'd recommend something simple to start with like GB Studio or Scratch.

yeah I also plan using gb studio. as for scratch, it's good and extensible due to the 3.0 version being open-source and extremely easy to modify!