It won’t be done in 3 months

Good things take time, and great things take even longer. Usually a great game won’t be finished in 3 months, at least 1 year is more likely. Of course it depends per title, but it’s something to keep in mind. It will probably take twice as long as you think.

When the basic idea is laid out, it’s often easy to think you’ll have to develop a few of its core mechanics and it will be pretty much done. While in reality, a solid groundwork needs to be laid down and everything ‘just’ has to work. Generally you want it to be understandable from the start, have the mechanics interact in sensible ways, don’t let the player be able to cheat, no clipping, consistent save games, no lag ever, no loading times, no bugs, playable with keyboard/controller, make it work on any resolution and on any computer/mobile. Oh and the game itself should be fun too.

All together, making a complete game is quite a task and it takes time to do it well. That doesn’t mean it’s all a drag, but there is definitely some ‘busy work’. But the more games you complete, the more familiar you get with it, and the better your games will become.

 

Making a game feels like making an apple pie from scratch and having to build a universe first, but in the end you’re only judged on the pie –William Chyr‏

 

Note: Circles took 2.5 years to make