Hi Iβm a 1 hit wonder with 1k ccu and Iβm gonna share how I got here because I donβt believe in gate keeping and think all developers should have access to information on how to succeedπ
This will mostly be about scripting/game design, since thatβs all I know
DONT START BIG:
This is pretty common knowledge now, but do NOT make your first project a big massive game. Donβt think youβre βspecialβ and can be the one to do it. You canβt. No developers started out special, we all started from the same place. Keep your first game small, in fact incredibly small, my first βgameβ was a shitty button simulator that took me 4 hours, but it taught me a lot about scripting already. Gradually increase the complexity and size of your games as you learn scripting, but never have a game you think will take over a year until you have your first success.
LEARN BY DOING:
Do not fall into βtutorial hellβ and blatantly copy tutorials, you will learn almost nothing. Whatever tutorial you follow, add your own spin on it to greater understand what the code does. You canβt learn just by copying code. Once you have a pretty good understanding of scripting, stop watching tutorials entirely unless itβs on something you need to learn for your current project. At one point stop watching any tutorials at all, and read documentation for anything you need to learn.
DO NOT USE AI (99% of the time):
I understand ai is getting better and better and more useful in development, and I donβt really care what your opinion is on that. Whatever you believe in, donβt have ai script for you when you start out. You will learn absolutely nothing, have no understanding of the code it creates, and eventually drown yourself in so much technical debt that you have to quit the project. Ai CAN be a wonderful tool for explaining code and finding bugs. HOWEVER, I recommend you tell Ai NOT to fix your code for you, and instead explain the issue and point you in the right direction. This will help you learn a lot faster, solving bugs quicker while also learning and improving. If later on you decide to use ai (once youβve learned a LOT) thatβs fine, just understand relying on it can cause serious problems later on.
SUCCESS 90% OF THE TIME IS NOT LUCK:
Do NOT fall into the trap of believing success is strictly luck and believing youβre just unlucky. Itβs not. While yes, it is possible to be lucky and unlucky, the large majority of any success is from game design. If your game is preforming poorly, itβs likely a game design issue. YouTubers donβt blow up being βluckyβ they optimize their videos for stats that get them pushed out into the algorithm. And the exact same is true for Roblox.
2nd part of this thread will be game design π§΅