When one thinks about being a video game developer, it’s very easy to associate game development with gaming. From my experience, developing a game and playing it are two sides of the same coin.

For what it’s worth, I have developed multiple games. Starting with simple text-based games and, at the time of writing, ending with a tower defence game, I have come to understand a few things.

First, having a plan before one starts developing a game leads to multiple successes. If a developer has a plan of how the game should look from beginning to end, there is a greater chance that the developer will complete the game. The developer will know what has to be done as their plan acts as a “roadmap” for the game’s development.

Another success is that when the game is in development, the developer(s) can relate all development choices to the plan. For example, if the developer(s) know that their game will include a multiplayer aspect, they can introduce flexibility to the game’s code to allow for that.

Second, group and separate everything the game requires on a multitude of levels. Every line of code, function, class, and file should be grouped and separated in a relevant way. For example, lines of code that handle player interaction should be grouped both on a lower-level (group player attributes separate from player movement) and a higher-level (group all player information in one file and/or directory).

To give a visual representation of this type of organization, check out the organization of both the code and the directories for Block Defence (the tower defence game I developed).

Third, the developer(s) should bring in a third-party to test the game after the game is developed. Remember how I stated at the beginning of this post that game development and gaming are of the same coin? If the coin represents the game and it’s two sides are game development and gaming, is it possible for one side to fully experience the other?

From my experience, once the game is near completion, it is better to bring in a third-party to test the game than for the developer(s) to test it themselves. If the game is not near completion, I would recommend that the developer(s) test it themselves as there are most likely fixing bugs and other non-gameplay issues.

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help! There are only so many things that the developer(s) can do themselves until they start sacrificing quality for time and/or cost. If the game requires many different sprites to be illustrated, find someone to do it for you. Same thing goes with sound and music. This way, you will most likely end up with better illustrations and/or music and a better game because of it.

So, these conclusions come from my experiences with video game development. I plan to continue developing games in the future and thus might add a few parts to this post.

Please feel free to leave your experiences with similar ventures as I would like to hear them!

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What do you think about the suggestions I made in this post? Can a developer be both the gamer and the game’s creator? Let me know what you think in the comments below!