Shadowing Practice: Everything You Need To Start Making Games (As A Beginner) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Everything in every game is a choice.

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Everything in every game is a choice.

An intentional decision made by some developer or some designer that you probably don't think twice about.

The speed that dialogue shows up on screen.

The positioning of respawn points.

Whether the camera is static or whether it follows the player.

Think about all the sound effects that create an environment.

As someone who has the ability to make a video game,

so, you, hi, all you're doing is making choices.

And now that you've chosen to explore game development,

or you're at least a little bit curious,

the first choice that you'll need to make is deciding what engine or software you're going to use to make this game.

This is the place you'll probably code in,

lay out your levels, assemble all the nuggets of your game in.

It's not just a tool or a medium,

but it's a skill you're going to get better at over time.

Chances are you'll end up trying a lot of different things,

but I'm going to give you a rundown of your options.

You can either make your game through a game engine,

which is a software dedicated to game development,

or you can use what would be referred to as an IDE.

Now, a game engine might have things that are built in for game development,

so like a physics system or templates,

but it also might have more limitations.

Whereas in something like VS Code,

there are no limits per se,

but there's also nothing to hold your hand.

So if you are confident in coding,

you can use virtually any text editor and just raw code your game.

That is how a lot of popular indie titles have been made.

But for 80% of people probably watching this video,

you're going to want to use a game engine.

So I'll go ahead and give you all the options for your game engines in like probably,

hopefully, maybe under 60 seconds.

Ready?

Yeah.

This is arguably the most popular engine out there.

It's good for 2D or 3D games,

and you'll be coding primarily in C Sharp.

It's a bit overwhelming in my opinion.

It definitely has that professional vibe to it,

but it's a very powerful tool.

Maybe one to learn eventually, but not start with.

This one's my personal favorite it's what I started out with because it's fairly uncomplicated.

All your code will immediately connect two game objects for you.

You'd be making a 2D game in GML,

which is basically like if JavaScript and C++ had a baby.

If you're making what would be considered a typical RPG,

so turn-based combat, lots of dialogue,

this has all of that built in.

So you wouldn't really have to code a lot if you're just wanting those basic systems.

But if you have any unique mechanics,

you will be coding in either Ruby or JavaScript depending on the version.

If you're making a visual novel, use this.

I've used this one a lot too.

It uses what's called a node system,

so it's a little quirky.

I've always found it to be a little more complicated than it probably should be,

but a lot of people use it and a lot of people are migrating from Unity to Godot,

especially for game jams.

So it's worth playing around with it,

seeing if you like it.

This one is the industry standard for anything 3D graphically intensive.

If you're doing any heavy rendering and graphical stuff,

this can handle it and you'll probably be using C++.

Now remember, when you're first learning to make games,

you don't have to commit to any of those.

Sure, you do have to invest some time to really get a feel for things and make something,

but you will have all the time in the world to experiment,

figure out what works for you.

I have tried literally every game engine under the sun by now, so...

you'll be good.

So now that you've got your engine,

you essentially have the brick and the beef behind what's going to power your game.

But how are you going to learn to code?

How are you going to learn this engine?

And how are you going to ultimately make that game?

You're probably going to gravitate towards following a tutorial online,

which isn't bad, but it can be very easy to fall into what's called tutorial hell.

This is when you follow so many tutorials and you copy down so much code,

you trick your noggin into thinking that you learned how to code.

But then when you go and open an empty project,

you don't know what to do.

When you follow a tutorial,

you gain familiarity with what programming or using your game engine is like,

but you don't really do that actively unless you put in some extra steps.

So every line of code you copy down,

think to yourself, do I understand what this is doing?

What this variable is now storing or what this built in function is doing?

And if you don't, that's when you go online and you're gonna find what's called the documentation.

Every game engine and every programming language has its very own documentation.

This is basically a big document that talks about how code works and how to use it,

kind of like a manual for programming or just learning how to navigate an engine.

You're gonna want to find this,

bookmark it, kiss it on the lips,

because it's gonna be very useful.

It's also theoretically possible to learn game development from the documentation alone,

because that's how useful it is.

I've taught myself basically everything that I know from tutorials,

but that's because I forced myself to not go on autopilot after a certain point

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and just tell myself I understood things that I didn't.

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Follow tutorials enough to understand some of the fundamentals of programming or just the way to navigate your engine,

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but after a certain point,

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you do have to take that plunge into just trying on your own.

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And at that point, it's okay if you have to look back at your old code or Google some stuff.

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You can also start learning game development by teaching yourself introductory programming.

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There's always courses online where you can do that,

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or if you're in school,

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definitely check out if there's a class offered for it.

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I took my first coding class my sophomore year of high school,

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and now I'm a computer science major.

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That has done me wonders for understanding the logic of how systems in my game interact,

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what connects to what, knowing the options for how I could code something or just the best way to do it.

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Coding is the backbone of game development because at the end of the day, it is development.

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A lot of people get into game development because they like to play games,

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which, you know, makes sense.

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I think that does check out.

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But if you don't really like logic puzzles,

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thinking critically, problem solving, it will be more of a struggle to get into.

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I myself am not a math person.

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I have never been.

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I do not like it at all.

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But I did kind of have to retrain my brain into enjoying some of that stuff.

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At the end of the day,

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I think the results from making a game and coding is so great that it makes it all worth it,

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even if I don't love every step of the process.

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But do know it is really important to understand the logic of programming,

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and a lot of the tutorials that you will follow will emphasize that.

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Who are you?

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Allow me to introduce you to Carson,

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my new C7M chair from today's sponsor, Flexispot.

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Being at a computer all day,

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my poor little back gets tired,

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my head hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts.

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Unless I'm with Carson.

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His backrest has two modes,

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one for relaxing and one for productivity.

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But either way, he has a latex padded seat

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that can hold 300 pounds with adaptive lumbar support and up to a 128 degree recline.

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His seat itself is nice and big,

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so someone like me, who tends to edit like a frog,

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can stay comfortable in any position.

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With my last chair, I'd always have to use an extra pillow to brace my back,

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but this guy's got it built in.

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He's also got the most adjustable headrest you've ever seen,

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five levels of backrest height adjustment,

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adjustable seat depth, and a lot more,

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so anyone can have a personalized seating experience.

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I'm usually pretty skeptical about buying chairs online because they're usually built for adult men,

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and I'm not an adult man.

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I know, that's a shocker.

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But every part of this chair is adaptive.

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The armrests especially.

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If I don't want them,

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I can push them away or rotate them sideways.

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I genuinely love it.

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There's even a version of Carson out there in the wild that has a footrest.

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Flexispot's C7M chair comes with a 30-day return policy for a risk-free trial

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and a 10-year warranty with direct replacement for any damaged parts.

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So if your chair needs an upgrade,

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or maybe you're just feeling a little lonely,

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you too can have your very own Carson.

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Go to flexaspot.com and use code 24BFC7 to save an extra $50 on the C7M chair.

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Where was I?

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Oh yeah, if you're more of an artistic little duck like I am,

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the good news is that in this day and age,

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there are so many resources online to do it yourself,

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if you want to.

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Because let's look at the choice here fundamentally.

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Why choose to make your own art for your game,

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or why choose not to?

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If your goal is to develop a fun game one day,

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one that's on Steam, other people will play,

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understand that time spent learning art is time spent taken away from coding and actual development.

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Art is its own wormhole of a skill, and it's very rewarding.

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It's my favorite part of the entire process.

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But it is a finishing touch that's very often mistaken to be a fundamental step in the process.

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Art can be edited or added into a game whenever you want to,

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if that game exists, which means learning the engine and actually making that game should probably take priority.

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Especially if you're like me

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and you tend to get carried away by the more creative stuff

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and suddenly you have an entire sprite sheet made for a game

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that doesn't exist yet what so

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when you're first learning to make games i would strongly recommend finding free assets out there

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so you can focus on the actual development process and see

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if you like it most major engines out there have their

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own asset store where you can search by free 2d 3d pixel art

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and if you're following a tutorial series most good ones will have assets linked in the description

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so hopefully you don't have to put too much brain power into learning art

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when you're first starting out but with that being said

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if you do want to try and learn how to do art i will point you in in the right direction.

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When it comes to pixel art,

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that direction is a software called Asprite.

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It does cost $20, but it is fantastic for not just pixel art,

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but applying game design elements to that pixel art.

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It's super easy to make animations and export them as sprite sheets,

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make symmetrical tile sets, all that stuff.

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I've been using it for a really long time now,

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I think it's fantastic.

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If you're looking for a free alternative,

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Piscoll is a web-based engine that kind of does the same thing.

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It's a website, it's free,

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so it's definitely a lot more limited,

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But if you're just trying to see if you actually like pixel art,

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you can always start there.

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Photoshop is also used pretty commonly because all you have to do is just set up a grid.

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So if you already pay Adobe,

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the small price of your soul every month,

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you can just keep doing that.

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When it comes to non-pixel art,

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my understanding is that virtually any digital drawing app can be used.

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Procreate is a really common one on mobile,

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but otherwise there's GIMP and Krita on PC.

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If you have never done art before and you want to make art for your game,

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pixel art is the path of least resistance.

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I wouldn't say it's outright easier,

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I don't know if that's true,

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but there are a lot less things on average to worry about.

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Don't get me wrong, you still have to worry about proportions,

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perspective, stylization, composition, color theory.

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But with pixel art, you're usually working in smaller resolutions,

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so it's a little less scary.

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You don't really have to worry about the precision of lines or shading as much.

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Overall, I'd say there's less of a learning curve than traditional art,

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but you can fight me on that if you want to.

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So if you do go that route,

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you should also check out this website called LowSpec.

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It's a website that's filled with color palettes specifically for pixel art.

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There is no reason to try and teach yourself color theory when you're first getting the basics.

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Having an existing palette means that you don't have to worry about color,

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and you can focus more on shapes and lines and just the fundamentals.

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So on LowSpec, you can find a small palette that has just a few shades of every color,

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and your art will look a lot better.

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To this day, I only ever use existing palettes,

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because it's just one less thing that I have to worry about.

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Now, I'll say the same thing about music and sound design that I said about art.

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You shouldn't really worry about it when you're first starting out.

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There's not really a reason to.

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But if you want to,

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there is this thing called Beatbox.

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B-E-E-P-B-O-X.

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All you have to do is just choose your instruments,

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kind of click around, maybe understand a little bit of music theory.

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So that's Beatbox.

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LMMS is another more professional looking one out there.

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It's more similar to something like FL Studio,

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which is what the industry standard is for making actual music.

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But again, just like art,

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there's plenty of asset stores out there where you can just import music,

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import sounds, and you don't have to worry about it until you have to.

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By now, I hope you realize how much goes into making a game,

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and you will have to keep that information organized.

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Chances are that you have a description for your game written out,

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either in your notes app or a Google Doc,

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but as that idea expands in complexity,

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you're gonna probably want something dedicated to organization.

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I've used Microsoft OneNote to organize a good amount of my stuff.

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It's basically like Google Docs,

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but you organize everything into books,

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and then those books have chapters,

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and those chapters have pages.

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So for example, I'd have a book for my game,

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and then in that book,

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I'd have a chapter for worldbuilding.

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And then in that worldbuilding chapter,

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I'd have a page for biomes, a page for characters.

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Fun fact, right now that's how I manage all my content stuff.

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So I have a chapter for scripts that I need to do,

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and then another chapter for scripts I don't really know what to do with yet.

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And then in those chapters,

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I have pages for all the scripts individually.

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But anyway, that's just what I do.

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But if you want something free that's not a part of the Microsoft bubble,

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there's Notion, Trello, or ClickUp,

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which I've used a lot before.

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One thing I will recommend is that in whatever organization app you do choose,

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you keep track of your progress.

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See, every day that I worked on this one project,

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I would go to my OneNote and write down for that day everything that I did.

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Oh, I watched a video in C Sharp,

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or I finished this frame of this animation.

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That way, when a month went by and I didn't really have anything tangible to show for my game,

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I still felt like I did something.

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A lot in game development happens behind the scenes and it doesn't necessarily have a direct output into your game.

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So if you don't keep track of that stuff when you're first starting,

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it can be hard to stay motivated.

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But just because your progress or your learning isn't visible doesn't mean that it isn't progress.

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Which is also why it's really important to have people to share with.

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Having people in some capacity,

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whether that's a Discord server,

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a club, or just a group of friends that share the same interest as you,

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they're gonna make game development infinitely easier.

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Some kind of community where you can show your projects,

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get feedback, bounce ideas, and ultimately just feel seen for your efforts.

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That's the stuff.

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It makes you realize that what you're doing isn't just you alone on an island.

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Being 100% self-motivated is very impressive,

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but I really do believe that there's a limit to how fulfilled you'll feel without connecting other people to the process somehow.

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Whether that's having people play your game when it's done or just brainstorming with.

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Creativity is such a gift,

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so why not share it, you know?

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Not to get deep, but somehow every game development video that I do ends up that way.

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But anyway, if you don't have friends or a work or a school environment where you can share your stuff,

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RIP, there are sites out there like Itch.io that let you publish your stuff for free.

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People can then see it,

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play it, interact with it,

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or even buy it if you want.

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You can also put art on there too,

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so it doesn't have to be finished games per se.

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They also host a lot of game jams through this site,

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so if you want to see the most confusing,

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overwhelming calendar that you will ever see in your life,

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you can check that out too.

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Game jams are basically when you have a small period of time,

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so like a few days,

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maybe one day, maybe a week,

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to make a game that's usually based on a theme.

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Those games are then judged,

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sometimes there's a winner and a prize,

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but it's a really good way to get practice once you

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kind of are past the hump of being able to make some small game on your own.

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If Itch.io isn't your thing though,

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you also have the option of joining a game development discord.

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Every major engine out there has their own discord server and they usually have like a help needed channel.

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So if you get stuck,

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you can always go there or you can show off your stuff.

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And these are people that probably hopefully care.

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There's also a lot of small servers out there

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that you can find with websites like Disboard

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and they're usually founded on building a community for game developers where you can make friends,

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get feedback, brainstorm, all that stuff.

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That's kind of what I'm trying to do with my Discord server,

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so if you do want to join that,

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it's in the description, I guess, or whatever.

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It's stupid anyway.

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People need people, and the harder things get,

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the more people need people.

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So find your people.

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So that's basically everything you need to know to start making your own game.

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We talked about game engines,

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how to start coding, art, music, organization, community.

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Nice.

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Later down the line, you'll probably want to build some sort of marketing skills,

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business management, maybe social media presence how to get better at overall game design,

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so pacing, gameplay loops, level design,

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mechanic design, all that fun stuff.

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I believe in you, okay?

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You will get there.

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If this helped you in any way,

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it would mean the world if you subscribed.

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I hate saying that.

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I'm so sorry.

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It's disgusting.

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It's fine.

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Thank you for watching.

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I'll see you guys in the next one.

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Bye.

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Say bye, Carson.

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Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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Shadowing Practice: Everything You Need To Start Making Games (As A Beginner) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing Practice: Everything You Need To Start Making Games (As A Beginner) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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About This Lesson

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What is the Shadowing Technique?