Starting your First REAL Game – A Guide!
So, you want to start making your first real game, all developers start from these humble beginnings, and here’s a guide of what to expect and how to manage your game development – and tips I wish I knew before starting my first real Roblox game.
Section 1: Your Schedule
Yes, your schedule – one thing you will need to manage all through developing your game. It’s one of the most important things while developing all the time. Without a good schedule, you will not be able to finish your game, and you’ll be slowed down, and you need to ask yourself: “Do I have the time to finish this?” or “Do I have any responsibilities that might get in the way?”, and most importantly “Do I really want to do this?”.
If the answer is no to all of the questions, it’s probably best not to start developing because you’ll have a poor schedule and you’ll probably get nowhere.
If the answer is mixed up, you’ll probably have to look over everything and come up with a decision yourself. It’s best to start a game with knowledge of what you’re doing rather than running into development and going out disappointed.
If the answer is yes to all questions – congratulations, you’re ready to start your first real game! But before starting, you need to plan your game out.
Section 2: Funding
Funding is a very important thing when it comes to making a game, when making a game – you have to have funding, either to pay your employees (unless you do percentages, which I’ll review later, or if you go solo – this isn’t needed) or advertising.
Advertising funds are the way many games take off, only a few games do manage to get success without any advertisements running, and if this is your first game – you probably won’t get into that circumstance.
Ways to get funding include doing commissions for your work, earning money to then buy Robux, and there are many other ways. I would recommend getting about 7,000 to 10,000 Robux for advertisement funding, and payment for your employees will be explained in the next section.
Section 3: Solo or a Team?
Your Team is very important when it comes to making a game, and some developers decide to go solo, I will explain the pros and cons of solo/team development.
Solo Development
Pros
- Not having to give out percentages/payments for your employees, so you’ll only have to do advertisement funding.
- Not having to manage your team.
Cons
- Solo Development often leads to your game development length to be much longer.
- Having to take more responsibilities when it comes to making your game (scripts, UI, building, etc)
Team Development
Pros
- Faster game development experience.
- Fewer responsibilities when it comes to managing your game.
Cons
- Having to pay your employees, so you may have to earn more funding (unless you do percentages)
- Managing your Team is now a responsibility
Personally, I recommend doing a Team Development if this is your first game, it is unlikely for you to finish your entire game being a newer developer. Team Development saves more time, and it is worth giving the funding or percentages.
Section 3.5: Opening the Baseplate
(Skip this section if you’re doing solo development.)
Finally – we have gone to the section where you can really start your game. But before we do this, you got to start progress on your game. Before you start hiring your team and all – you got to start your game progress. Whether this is building, scripting, or whatever, you have to show some progress before you invite your team to go and start working.
You cannot expect your employees to do everything for you, that makes you seem lazy and nobody likes an owner who expects their employees to do everything while they sit back. You have to do some progress, and then hire your team.
Section 4: Payment Options
(Skip this section if you’re doing solo development.)
If you’re doing Team Development, you have two options to pay your employees, direct payment, or percentages. If you’re doing direct payment – you’ll have to pay your employees in Robux/Money weekly, daily, monthly, or per asset – it all depends. Then there is the option for percentages, percentages save money and you’ll only have to pay your funding in percents. The con with this is not getting the full payment of the game, because you have to pay a cut of the game to the developer.
Section 5: Progress
Congratulations – you have built your own schedule, built up some of your game, and created your team! Over the course of the next few weeks or months, you’ll be making your game. Do not expect it to be very easy though, development is hard. You will have obstacles around the way, so make sure to be prepared for that.
If you want to continue reading about development over the course of the next few months, here are some articles I recommend!
https://devforum.roblox.com/t/tips-to-help-newer-developers/603915
https://devforum.roblox.com/t/cores-of-having-a-good-roblox-game-development-team/789897
https://devforum.roblox.com/t/mid-development-hell-how-do-you-cope-with-it/717034
Thanks for reading my first community tutorial!