Merrix and I have been doing game dev every single day for a year now – Feb. 17, 2024 to Feb. 16, 2025 – and we’ve learned a lot about our craft and about ourselves. Today is a huge celebration for us, and so I get to write a little bit more than usual, and I’d like to use this to share some of what we’ve learned along the way.
- We learned the resilience required for game dev – how to rise to its challenges, how to endure the weeks of “code’s still broken,” or the ordeal of finding that an entire suite of animations (months of work) was absolutely unusable due to unapplied transforms on the base armature.
- We learned how to learn: Merrix studied Godot, game design theory, what makes the combat in the Diablo games feel so good, and enemy AI design. Me, I learned animation – a discipline I used to be certain I’d never enjoy, but found that I really love (and might have a knack for).
- We learned about ourselves. We are both far more productive, more resourceful, more capable, and more resilient than we’d thought. We’d originally each thought we couldn’t do this, but didn’t admit it openly. I think it was around the 8-month mark that we acknowledged we’d had very little faith in this attempt to work on game dev. Never knew I could be so happy to be so wrong about myself!
- We learned that Leonard Snart had it right: “There are only four rules you need to remember: make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan.” SO many times, we’ve had to watch our best-laid plans fall apart from under us. Staying flexible and resisting the urge to panic or bail when that happens, is difficult, but key to successful dev work.
- Now, on day 365 of nonstop daily game dev, we’re learning that it’s good to start small, but sometimes later you have to pick up the pace. Now that we’ve established a daily routine as familiar and instinctual as brushing teeth or sleeping, we’re raising the bar and challenging ourselves to do an extra hour on weekends and days off.
Where does it go from here? Nobody knows, least of all us – but we’re certain of one thing: We will continue our dev work.
And if you’re someone who’s dreaming of doing the same, our advice is this: You start where you are, as yourself, and do what you can. And you level up from there.
This game dev adventure, so far, is a little bit like a good action RPG. I started out feeling very much a typical human faced with an impossible quest – like I’d have to be superhuman to achieve the goals. No power-ups, and only basic stats. And while I’m a long way from the demigod power-fantasy at the end of a lot of ARPGs, I’m definitely feeling a little bit of the snowball effect of getting stronger and being able to take on bigger challenges with bigger rewards. I’m continuing to be happily surprised by myself and Merrix, how much we’ve been able to learn, make, and do.
We let me write extra this week for the big milestone, but if this is your first time reading one of our devlogs, subscribe for more (shorter!) weekly updates. Until next time!
-Peri