Introduction

I remember the first time I turned on my computer and knew that games were what I wanted to spend my life doing. It was a huge eureka moment, and it’s taken me years of preparation to finally get to where I am today: about ready to release my first major game that’s built from the ground up. While this process has been rewarding, it hasn’t always been easy. In fact, there are plenty of challenges unique to releasing your first game that can make things harder than you might think. But if you’re like me, these challenges are just part of the fun! So here are a few of the common ones you should know about before you begin:

The Challenges Of Creating A First Video Game

It’s Not Too Soon To Start Marketing

Developers who start marketing early have a greater chance of success. This is especially true if you are developing a niche product that requires a lot of effort to promote. A well-timed marketing blitz can help build the game’s popularity, which will make it easier for other developers and publishers to take interest in your game. Developing a good marketing plan from the beginning is essential for this reason, so start thinking about your audience now!

It’s More Than Just A Project

If you want to be successful with your first video game project, then you simply cannot treat it like any other project. It needs special treatment because there are many things that go into making a great game beyond just having fun playing them (or even making them). The most important thing is the actual design: what makes it fun? What makes it unique? How do we playtest this? If these questions are answered correctly then everything else should fall into place much more easily than if they weren’t considered at all beforehand since they influence every other aspect including art direction, sound design etcetera

It’s Not Too Soon To Start Marketing

When it comes to marketing a video game, the first thing people think of is getting the word out. But creating a great marketing campaign isn’t just about telling people that your game exists. It’s also about establishing a community and building loyalty.

Think of it this way: if you were building a house, would you start by putting up the drywall? Or would you make sure there was something holding up all those sheets? In other words, even though there are many aspects of game development that require careful planning, marketing shouldn’t be one of them—it’s too important to let slide until later in the process.

It’s More Than Just A Project

Building a game is more than just a project. It’s also the foundation for your business. To make sure you succeed, it’s imperative that you think about both at the same time, because one has to support the other and vice versa.

A common misconception amongst first-time developers is this: “I’m building a video game! I don’t have to worry about anything else!” But if you want your video game to be successful, then yes—you do need to worry about other things.

The Woes Of Content Generation

Creating content for a video game is one of the most time-consuming parts of the development process. You need to create assets, which are basically anything that will appear in your game. This can include characters or items, as well as animations and background images.

Content generation is an incredibly important part of developing any game, but it’s also one of the most difficult parts to get right in an independent team setting like ours. It can take up so much time that people working on it might feel frustrated by their lack of progress when compared with their teammates working on other aspects of development (such as programming).

Designing Tweaks Generate Changes Everywhere Else

Designing tweaks to one part of the game can have a domino effect on every other aspect of development, especially if you don’t plan for it. Even if you do plan for it, there’s still no guarantee that what you’re working on will actually work out as intended.

For example, let’s say your company has an idea for a new game that involves pirates and ships. You give this idea to an artist who creates some artwork based on it (some of which is shown above). Then a programmer starts working on making this concept into reality by coding up some scripts that control how the ship moves around in real time—and maybe how its cannons fire at enemies or how they reload themselves when empty. All this coding requires tweaking and adjusting until things feel right—but that’s where problems start appearing: because we’re now talking about several aspects (artwork design, code implementation), each affecting the others indirectly or directly!

Establish Your Team’s Tone Early

The tone of your game is vital. The tone helps dictate how you should create, who you should hire, and what kind of people will enjoy playing it. If your game is ambitious and exciting but also funny, it’ll attract the right players. If it’s funny but complicated and confusing at times, then maybe not so much. But if it has a flat voice that sounds like every other “serious” video game out there—well then I wouldn’t get too excited about that one either!

When we started working on our first title (called Bubsy), we had no idea what our tone would be—and in fact I think this was part of the problem: We didn’t spend enough time thinking about how we wanted to sound and what kind of person would play our game (the answer: someone who loves cats!).

The creation of a video game is more than a single project; it’s the beginning of something bigger.

As you’re working on your first video game and preparing for the launch of your project, it’s easy to get caught up in all of the challenges that come with creating a video game. But we wanted to take a step back and look at the bigger picture: what are some of the overarching challenges that will affect your entire team?

• Marketing
• Team building
• Tone setting and content generation

These three categories are crucial when building any new IP. Without them, you won’t be able to reach out to new fans or build on top of what you’ve already done in previous games.

Conclusion

With all these challenges, you might be thinking that creating a video game is an impossible task. But don’t let that deter you! For every challenge there are countless solutions, and your project will be no different. If you can work with your team to focus on the fun, and then deliver that fun in a way that feels authentic to your audience, then you’ll have created something special. Good luck!