Beginner in Game Development? Don't miss these tips!

It’s a bright sunny day out, you just finished a game of Minecraft…and on one of those dreamy days, you just know in your heart that you wanna make games! If you’re reading this, I’ll safely assume you’re one of them. Now you got a dream, you have your inspiration, you might even have a community of gamer friends…but the big question is, WHAT NEXT?

So we sat down with a bunch of young Star Chef 2 developers with their debut games still fresh in their memories, and here are some pro-tips decoded for budding game developers just like you:

Follow the Trends

In the gaming industry, to snooze is to lose. Being one of the fastest evolving industries, it demands budding professionals to religiously follow the news and changing trends. A particular game genre or UI style might see howling success in a particular timeframe, following which an influx of games follow suit saturating the genre and paving way for a new trend – all in the nick of time.

Find your Niche

Game development is not one size fits. Do you have a knack for smart GUI? Or are you one for coding and decoding logics? Or maybe you like pulling the strings from behind the screens by structuring the backend? Find what you really love doing and focus on that. You gotta be in it to win it, right? The game development industry is dedication, sometimes irritation but most times a lot of fun. While it’s always handy to be a jack of all, it’s not smart to be the master of none. Find your niche and stick to it, you don’t want to end up resenting what you thought was every gamer’s dream job.

Know your Trade

This goes without saying, programming is the most basic prerequisite! Solid technical knowledge is a must-have, especially in concepts like OOPS, which is heavily applied in game development.

- There are a number of game development tools. Decide the appropriate one based on ease of use, your requirement, the programming language associated with it, etc.

- You'll be using the engine you decided to go with, a lot. Familiarise yourself with its various components.

- Understand how the engine works along with the programming language.

- Start off simple. There are plenty of tutorials online to help with this.

- Gradually expand to more advanced game elements and see what else your tool has to offer to tackle these.

- Start exploring different genres of games as it helps understand requirements better.

- Use versioning tools such as SVN or git to keep track of changes.

Get Handsy

Try developing mini-games on a platform like Unity. Play similar games and test them rigorously to learn from others' mistakes. This will build an impressive portfolio and once you have a game or two under your belt, you’ll need some industry experience. You can easily bag an internship and/or freelance for companies. If you live in a small town with no exposure to gaming studios, there are always remote working opportunities – the gaming world is your oyster!

Pro Tip: Don't take an unpaid Internship. 

So research your industry, dive deep into your niche, fine-tine your technical skills and finally get into the playfield. If this helped you, share the article with your peers and help them out as well. Post any queries in the comments below and the developers here at Star Chef 2 will help you to their best knowledge.