In this video, I share how long it took me to develop a game engine from scratch. Fortunately, I've documented everything about my game engine development and can provide a concrete answer to how long it will take you.
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The one thing I struggle with as a game engine developer
As a game engine developer, I like to share the progress of my game engine. And I do so through the development of a game. In this video, I share with you the one struggle I face every time I want to showcase or test my game engine.
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Can you make money as an indie game engine developer?
I've been thinking for a while about how to make money with my game engine. And the only strategy that makes sense is to make money using something I'm going to call Compounding Core Loop.
Let me explain the strategy with a concept that we all know very well. The Game Core Loop.
If you've ever played Doom, you can see that the core loop is:
Or if you've played Fifa, the core loop is:
You repeat these actions over and over throughout the game. The complexity of the loop changes as you move through the levels, but the loop's essence stays intact.
Well, what if you could use the same Core Loop idea to grow a business? Instead of Run, Aim, Shoot, your Strategy Core Loop can be:
- Market
- Generate
- Reinvest
You Market your product, Generate earnings, and Reinvest the profits back into your business. You keep doing this until you have achieved your first financial goal. Once the goal is reached, you start a second business and repeat the loop until you have enough capital to start a third business. And repeat the whole process.
So, instead of making money directly from your engine. You make money indirectly using a Game Core Loop as a strategy.
Now, can this work? I don't know, but it seems doable. You can start a business that requires little investment, apply the core loop concept and grow financially.
I'm going to put this strategy to the test. I've invested $1500 to start a marketplace for indie-game engine developers. I bought two titles, twenty copies total, of books that I know are popular among indie-game engine developers. And I'm going to market them through my blog and channels, generate earnings and reinvest the profits.
My goal is to make $10,000 in profits from this initial business. Once I've reached this goal, I will start a second business and repeat the process.
Now, you may be asking what your value proposition is? As opposed to Amazon, I give you the flexibility to Buy Now, Pay Later. I know how expensive engine books are, and not everyone can pay $100 on the spot. But if you can pay $25 in installments, that may work better for you.
Let's see if this game loop works as a strategy to grow a business. So, subscribe to my channel and join my Discord Server because I will share how things are going periodically. I will share what worked, what didn't work.
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Thinking of quitting your game engine development?
Trust me, I've been there several times. Many times I wanted to quit because I thought my game engine sucks. In this video, I share some reasons why you should not quit on your game engine and how your mind may be tricking you into quitting.
Here is the transcript of the video.
So, you have concluded that your engine sucks....well, before you throw the towel, let's have a quick chat.
Before you make some rash decisions and throw your engine away, let's talk about human psychology. Yes. Let's have a psychology conversation among engine developers.
Point 1. Don't compare your beginnings to someone else's middle.
You know this already. Humans compare everything. "I'm taller than you," "I have a nicer car than you," etc. Now, I don't think we can make our brains stop all the comparisons. That's just part of us. However, the problem is that we tend to compare our beginnings to someone else's middle.
You are saying your engine sucks because you compare the few features that your engine has to the thousand features found in Unreal or Unity. However, this is not an apple to apple comparison. You are an indie developer working on your engine. These commercial engines have thousands of engineers working on them every single day. See, the comparison is not fair.
What you should be doing is comparing your progress. How much have you done in the past week, month, year? Does your engine work better or has more features than a day, month, a year ago? Does it run faster or break less often? If the answer is Yes, then your engine does not suck. It is merely evolving.
Point 2 - "burning out" makes you nearsighted.
Remember all the energy and motivation you had when you started? At that moment, you only saw possibilities and had endless streams of ideas. Like everything in life, that honeymoon stage will wear off. Real-life will settle in. And after a while of hard work, all that vision you had for your engine will start to wear off. It will become nearsighted. All of a sudden, you only see problems, roadblocks, and issues. And to top it off, this is the moment when you only see how far you have to go, instead of seeing how far you have come.
If this is you, then my friend. It would help if you took some time off to recharge some energy. You need to take a break and refuel your motivation. I did a video a while back that shows you a trick that can help you out.
Point 3- Think Evolution
Yes. Evolution. Realize that everything that grows in complexity will have to go through an evolutionary mess. And this "messy" phase is necessary for the evolution process. It's how you will learn what works and what doesn't work. What you should keep in your engine and what to throw away. And your engine will go through this phase. It may be in it right now, and that's why you see it as "not good enough."
Every living organism, every product, great companies go through this phase. Heck, I can guarantee you that even the Beatles went through it.
All you need to do is keep adding energy and time to your engine. And eventually, you will have something extraordinary in your hands.
So, to conclude. If you have given up, then your engine does suck. But if you are putting the time and energy, then your engine is merely going through a "messy" evolutionary phase. Just keep going. Don't compare your engine to others and prevent any burnout.
Make your game engine API simple to remember
The purpose of a game engine is to make games easy to develop. If your game engine API is too hard to use or too confusing, game developers will not use it. In this video, I share a simple technique to make your game engine API easy to use.
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