A year exploring game dev
Looking back on a year of learning game development
I love games, especially video games, and want to bring my own ideas to life, so over the last year I’ve been learning about game development.
You can check out my full learning logs here.
I’ve focused on:
- 2D games with Godot
- 2D games for the Playdate with Lua
- Game music with Ableton
- 3D games and experiences for the web with Three.js
Projects
I’ve finished 6 course projects and 4 of my own games (or at least prototypes 😅):
- Salmon Cannon - Angry-birds clone prototype
- Out of the Woods - grid-based adventure game for a game jam. Horrible and boring, but I learned a lot!
- Color Mixer - a game to learn what colors make when mixed using the Mixbox algorithm
- Parasite Party - a survivors-like clone for a game jam. You can play it on itch.io!
Resources
- Godot Action RPG by uHeartbeat - excellent, free Godot course on making an action RPG.
- Godot Slay the Spire clone course - intermediate and very thorough Godot course.
- Three.js Journey - comprehensive course on Three.js, 3D graphics concepts, and some Blender.
- Game Programming Patterns - helpful design patterns for game dev.
What I’d Do Differently
I over-prioritized courses and should have worked on more projects. Parasite Party was a solid jam project, but I wish I had something more substantial to share from the last couple months as a bit of a capstone to the year.
My intent for this next year is to spend time on a more substantial project. Courses are fun, but they often give the illusion of learning and I don’t want to get stuck there. I have a few game ideas that’d work well for PC or maybe the Playdate! I’d love to ship something to Steam in 2025.