i need some guidance. i have several projects i’m excited to make, and the ui for each one is already complete. i’m a ui designer by profession, and i usually rely on chatgpt to handle the scripting. the problem is, one small error can break everything—and that makes it hard to finish anything that’s actually playable or ready to publish.
so here’s what i’m trying to figure out. how do i move forward without any startup capital? how do i find investors or collaborators who care about quality? and how can i start building a community around my work when i don’t have a finished game to show yet?
Simply put, you’re not going to find an actual investor worth anything.
You simply can’t start a game without any startup capital, especially when relying on generative AI, like ChatGPT, Gemini, or even Deepseek.
It’s better to take your time, and work on learning how to write code properly and write your own code, or maybe try to join an actual game studio where you can do UI design on your own.
The tough reality is that you can’t do everything on your own, and quality developers, more specifically scripters are not going to work for free. If you find anyone working for free you’re likely to get someone inexperienced, or someone who isn’t worried about quality and it’s just gonna cause issues later on.
In order to get startup capital maybe join a developer community like HiddenDevs, and then focus on getting comissions to grow your startup then hire people to do things.
thanks for the honest feedback. i get where you’re coming from. it’s tough out there, and no one is going to hand out money for nothing. i know i have a lot to learn, and i’m working on my coding skills every day. i’m not looking for shortcuts. i just want to build something real, and i’m ready to put in the work. i’ll check out hiddendevs and keep focusing on commissions and learning. thanks for the advice.
I’d like to mention that sticking to smaller projects is a great way to expand skills in various development sectors, just make whatever comes to mind without really thinking about it. I am originally a scripter, started in 2019, then practiced some UI designing from 2020 onwards, now learning how to model from 2024 and thinking about composing as well in 2025. The more you end up learning the more you can fit on your plate and the faster you go through it. Imho, scripting is the hardest to really nail down, but eventually you can get everything on a comfortable level to do solo projects to build up some capital.
And for some scripting advice, don’t rely too much on AI, it can mess up your skills, take the time to browse the forum, the documentation, or just anywhere on google. You have to learn the very basic things but from there on you can piece together how to make something, and doing it on your own will make the concepts stick in your head faster than any AI help could.
If I’m trying to perfect lots of skills such as building and ui design, do you guys recommend getting a tutor and if so, where I can find a reliable one? You did mention starting small projects to hone your skills, so if you believe that is the best way to learn, do you start small projects mainly cantered around a certain development aspect such as building or coding OR do you just start a small project which uses all the different development aspects but on a small scale? I’m only asking because I am very serious about upgrading my game development. But obviously that comes with time, time I unfortunately don’t have a lot of, so I’m trying to see what would be the most time effective.
Honestly, many different ways to learn exist and its all up to you to pick and choose what fits you best.
I found out how to script by just tinkering with whatever came to mind, such as those small projects. Everything lacked in them except the scripts, just making something thats fun and interesting without focusing on releasing it or making it an actual playable game. Make a system here, do a fun experiment there, whatever comes to mind first really.
So yes, you could make small projects that focus on one or two skills, mix and match them if need be, or if its better for you do all at once, but don’t increase the scope of it. Unfortunately, there needs to be a lot of patience with this process, so if you fear you won’t be able to achieve anything in a short time due to constraints, consider finding a way to increase how much time you can sink into it.
If possible, avoid focusing on being a jack of all trades, do get good at some skills, but leave some of them for others to do just to simplify your routine. You won’t need everything to publish a game, especially if you do something smaller.