What to focus on

As I am currently not able to motivate myself to work on my beatgame (no idea why, I just find it not engaging?), I do stuff which is kinda gamedev related but not as productive. The most productive thing I can think of is creating code. I scrolled through reddit gamedev feeds and as often I found a “do this when u start gamedev” or “things I learned in gamedev after x years” or “why my game failed” post, which I found really annoying as you have to invest a lot of critical thought to maybe find something valuable in these kind of posts. Hence why I asked AI to quantize the core of these kind of posts into something compact.

1. Scope tiny on purpose

Pick something you can plausibly finish in 1–3 months part time.

2. Define one clear core mechanic

Write down what the player mainly does in one sentence.

3. Prototype fast and ugly

Get the core mechanic working with placeholder shapes in days, not weeks. Only continue if the prototype is fun.

4. Ruthlessly cut features

Make a list of “must have” vs “nice to have”, then cut most “nice to have” for this first game.

5. Plan to actually finish

Set a rough deadline for a small, shippable version.

6. Work in tiny, trackable tasks

Break the game into very small tasks you can finish in under a day: “add jump sound”, “make level 1”, etc

7. Build a playable loop early

Iterate on that loop instead of endlessly adding systems in isolation. Tweak only what you (or testing people) actually struggle with or find boring.

8. Let other people try it

When it’s barely playable, have a friend play without guidance and watch where they get stuck or bored.

9. Keep tech as simple as possible

Use whatever tools let you move fastest (premade engines, asset packs, tutorials) instead of reinventing everything.

10. Treat this game as practice

Assume this first game is mainly for learning how to start, finish, and release something.