The very first thing about making a game is figuring out what to make. But before you start pouring your ideas into shape, you are about to figure out what engine or language to use for creation. The choice of your genre and complexity can heavily influence what is a good choice. Most content can be created in anything, but there are always advantages and disadvantages.
The very beginning
Let’s start the story from the absolute beginning. About 1 year before this exact project, I started making a game by programming it in Python. It was very simple. I just followed a tutorial first and hoped to reach some level of understanding, then maybe add some of my own ideas. If I continued doing that, I think I would have ended up on a very different path, different problems. I mean, developing anything is solving problems. Not aa negative thing, just generally untangling stuff. A proper engine gives you a good basis, since it contains tools. You basically don’t start from zero. Proper tools mean easier, faster work. Though learning the toolset is a challenge too. Python is good too; I do not intend to pull it off! I’m just saying, that might add extra difficulty. The idea of creating a game was in me for a long time, I just never really put myself up against this task. One day, a YouTube tutorial came across and I just gave it a try myself. This was a sideview platformer called Ninja. I just watched and copied the work. It was very explanatory, but I lost interest soon.
Just a bit later of my first try in Python I started to consider using a game engine. The big and famous Unreal Engine came to mind. I already knew that was a good one, at least for big titles. Since I know and liked a few made in that, it was a charming option, though it’s quite complex and requires very good hardware. You won’t run that on a toaster. Eventually I ran into a tutorial video explaining how to make games in Godot. Never heard of it. This first tutorial about it gave me some momentum for the time being. I progressed through the tutorial, did everything accordingly, I did not add much to it yet, just gave it a test drive basically. Meanwhile I was thinking about what would I make. I had several ideas, but had to choose a serious one, I could make. The point was to be feasible alone within reasonable timeframe. I made some napkin notes (notes made on a napkin, if that is the only thing you have available at the time). For example, I figured out I would one day make an RPG (Role Playing Game). I envisioned something cloudy about where the story would play. What would be the base concept and what kind of monsters you would find there. Although an RPG can be quite complex, the idea was to make it a pixel game and have a small world, a solo manageable one. So far it seemed like a good start, but suddenly I put my momentum in a drawer for year. I had other things to attend to and I almost forgot about it.
The tutorial is still available on the link below. Big thanks to the Brackeys channel!
~1 year later
In March 2026, the idea of making a game made it’s nest again in my head. I considered some ideas about what to make. Still, the ideas from 1 year before were relevant, but that was obviously a big one. I was searching for something smaller, not a 5 years project right off the bat. An RPG is still an RPG, even if it’s a small pixel world. I mean small in that genre is still relatively big. I leant for the idea that I would still do it, but for start, I would make something way easier. I did some notes, sketches, made bold plans over a week or two. I think I ended up with at least 5 separate ideas, that one day I may try to realize. Took out Godot from the drawer again and tried my wings. Not so surprisingly, I barely remembered anything from before, since I spent very little time with it previously (about 2 afternoons). When I’m writing this post, actually months have passed again, but this time, I was actively working on it. I was not ready to start a blog about this project right after starting it though, as I never had a blog before. I did not know I would start one now at the time either. I rather spent the months with learning the basics, experimenting, creating some assets. I needed to reach a level to have some of my own experiences to talk about and progress to show. There is a bit of lag between the current state of progress and what I plan to share, which I think is a good thing, so I have something in stock when I decide to write about it. It’s also a bad thing, because I need to work from a bit distant memory. Harder than telling what happened yesterday. I think I will aim a smaller gap and catch up to it. Time will tell.
I consider this first post as kind of introduction. Thanks for reading through! I hope I sparked your interest!