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The original was posted on /r/godot by /u/alphadax on 2024-09-25 02:10:38+00:00.

Getting back into Godot after a year or two off, I thought I could just start making games with no issues.

However, the engine has changed quite a bit in a short period of time; and also my skills were rusty.

Having done tutorials before with pre-made assets–for my first project I wanted to finally make a game with all my own assets: art/animations, music, sound effects, etc.

I spent a good amount of time trying to learn pixel art in Aseprite, getting back into FL Studio, looking up tutorials for audio middleware such as FMOD etc. But I didn’t spend any time trying to re-learn how to use Godot.

I ran into a number of roadblocks for things I thought would be easy to implement. And I had no plan for the actual game other than “I want to use my own assets.”

I got a demo working but I lost motivation after I realized I had no clear plan for the game. And the art/music didn’t really match the vibe either, because the actual game was so poorly defined. I also realized I don’t really have the time to make brand new assets for every project that I want to make. I have a full time job, 40 hrs per week, and only so much time to dedicate to game dev. I need to be able to take breaks and come back to things later. I need to be able to learn and accomplish a lot in a short period of time.

In order to make games more quickly, I decided I needed to focus more on the actual game-making aspect, and less on the asset-making aspect.

I found a cool site online called the “20 Games Challenge”:

https://20_games_challenge.gitlab.io/challenge/

It has a large library of common / simple games and challenges you to re-create these games, starting from the simplest (2D, Pong) to the most complex (largest scope and/or difficulty–3D / Minecraft / Portal.)

Over the last 2 days I did the Pong challenge, and I must say I found this a great way to learn. I love that it provides a concrete scope and goal (which I was lacking before.) I was able to get a quick prototype working in a couple of hours which was perfect due to my schedule. Then I just polished from there until I was happy with the result. In total I only spent 2-3 days on the project.

I guess I’m posting this because I want other people to know that you can still make cool things without it having to consume your entire life. I see a lot of stories on here of solo game devs, or people with families / other obligations working for 5 years on a game. Major props to those people–but right now I’m not sure if I want to make that kind of commitment. I find it comforting to know that I can still enjoy this hobby (and make good progress) without investing massive amounts of time every single day (like I previously thought.)

Cheers fellas!

Here’s a link to the game if you’d like to check it out: