⚙️ What Does It Feel Like to Release a Bad Game
5 Lessons I Learned from My Failure - With Niki from GameDev's Journey
Alex:
Hello friends, today we have another special guest on our channel.
, the author of . is a amazing newsletter space where he is writing about marketing, assets, tutorials, quest design, productivity, tools, worldbuilding, crafting stories and more. And ever since I landed on Substack, I’ve been enjoying every piece of content produces.We’ve been talking for some time about doing something together and this day is finally here! Be sure to check out other content on
as it’s truly great!
Have you ever released a game that you think is the worst game ever produced?
I have. Two years ago, I pressed the publish button of a game that I genuinely thought was terrible. It was far from being fun and had every newbie mistake in the book.
Then why did I release it?
Well, that’s what this issue is about, the 5 lessons I learned from it and how it shapes my current path. Let’s go.
The Journey in a Nutshell
Before we get into the meat of this article, let me summarize how the journey started and how it went.
I've always loved storytelling, worldbuilding, and playing games.
The idea of making a game crossed my mind during high-school when I played Undertale.
At university, I discovered Unity through a random tutorial. Then I spent around 1.5 years learning C# and Unity, making small games.
After graduating and starting a full-time job, I wanted to create a short and simple game for Steam.
Mistake 1: I started without any vision. I just created a project and started adding random things.
I launched a Steam page for "Niki in the Ship" (NitS), a first-person exploration game where you hunt a god. And you also fly your ship around?
Mistake 2: I didn’t do any self-reflection on the game. I just continued adding random things without knowing where it was going.
Mistake 3: Didn’t make any special efforts for marketing. Just sparse social media posts that didn’t attract any attention. (There was only one reddit post that stood out.)
After working on it for around a year, I realised the game wasn’t going anywhere. I started working on new mechanics to make it fun, again without any conscious decision.
I realised I needed to build lots of things from scratch to make it fun… But I was bored with the game, and I didn’t want to spend more time on it. I didn’t want to throw it away either because I've had already spent 1.5 years on it. So I decided to publish.
Lessons Learned
I learned more things than I can fit into this article. Most of what I learned can already be found in other people's post-mortems because I made almost every mistake known to game devs. In this issue, I will try to talk about the ones that are relatively less discussed.
1. Leaving things undone can be as hard as finishing things
Seeing a project through to the end is incredibly hard. New ideas constantly bombard you. You realize how difficult it is to finish and how much more effort it requires than you initially thought. Or sometimes, life simply gets in the way.
However, the opposite is also true. As hard as it is to complete things, it's just as hard to leave something unfinished and move on. This was one of the reasons I pushed myself to finish the game and publish it, even in its current state. I hate leaving things incomplete. This applies not only to projects but also to the games and books I start—I rarely abandon them. I'm not entirely sure why. I suppose I love the feeling of finishing something. Leaving things unfinished makes me feel like the time I invested was wasted.
Yes, you do learn a lot from finishing a game. But sometimes, you need to kill your darlings. So, lesson number one is that it’s okay to leave things undone.
2. Great games have intention behind them
One of my biggest mistakes was never approaching the game design process consciously. Almost all the decisions I made regarding the game were intuitive. While intuition can be helpful at times, building a game solely on it is risky.
It's crucial to be aware of why we make certain decisions to create something that has intention. This was one of the main reasons I started GDJ: to research, learn, and write about game development and become more conscious. The biggest problem with NitS is its lack of a distinctive identity and purpose. It doesn’t know what it wants to be.
How can we become more conscious? The easiest way is to keep a development journal regularly and explain to ourselves why we are making the decisions we choose to make. So, lesson number two is to write things down and reflect on your decisions.
3. Shoot for the sake of shooting
There's a tale about a renowned archer who is known for his exceptional skill and accuracy. This archer hits the target dead center every time. But whenever there's a prize to be won, he misses. Because now he's thinking more about winning than shooting the arrow.
It’s so easy to get lost in dreams in game dev. To imagine the game becoming a hit, making millions, and having everyone play your game... These dreams are important for motivation, but they shouldn't make us forget the most important thing. Focusing on what will happen after the game is released (whether positive or negative) shouldn't overshadow the real priority, which is mastering the craft and developing our skills.
We need to shoot for the sake of shooting, not winning. Once the arrow is out, it’s no longer in our control. So, lesson number three is journey before destination.
4. Shutdown Ritual
There are so many elements that make up a game: programming, visual design, sound design, marketing, story, worldbuilding, and so on. Trying to handle all of these can feel like juggling 20 balls at once.
The thing that has helped me the most with this is Cal Newport’s Shutdown Ritual. I spend the last half hour of each game development session reflecting on what I’ve accomplished that day, updating my to-do list, and planning what I will do in the next session. This not only helps me become more conscious about the game, as I mentioned in point two, but also eliminates the need to think about what I’ll be working on the next day.
Another benefit is that writing down what you’ve done gives you a sense of accomplishment; you generally don’t feel like you’ve wasted the day. So, lesson number four is reflect, plan, and end the day.
5. Some people will play it, no matter how bad it is
Knowing that nobody but my friends would play it gave me the confidence to hit publish. It also made me more relaxed and less meticulous about the details.
But to my surprise, there’s an audience even for bad games. The game was very buggy and barely functioning, yet people played it and even made videos about it. So, the final lesson is that no matter how bad it is, some people out there will give it a try.
How These Lessons Are Shaping My Current Game
I'm currently busy with my second game. I launched the Steam page about a month ago. Just before this game, I was working on another 3D adventure, but after a couple of months, I realized that I didn't want to waste my time juggling with 3D assets so they fit into the game. I started making a game that focused on my strengths. So the process is going much better. I take notes regularly and write down almost everything I learn.
Every now and then, a sudden anxiety attack paralyzes me and makes me go “Oh shit, I’m making another terrible game”. That might be true, but that’s also part of the process. I really like this quote from Eliot Pepper:
"If you know something's going to work, it's not worth working on. It requires no courage. It requires no faith. It requires no skin in the game. Whether you're a spy or a teacher or a spouse or a painter or an abuela or an astronaut or a monk or a barista or a board-game designer, the bits that matter are the bits you make matter by putting yourself on the line for them. The unknown is the foundry where you forge your chips. Everything important is uncertain. Sitting with the discomfort of that uncertainty is the hard part, the wedge that can move the world.”
If you feel like supporting me and my work, consider Powering-Up GameDev Relay 🎮
Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay
Loved this!
This was great, thanks for sharing your experience!