How to Make a Game Go From Idea to Publication Avoiding the Common Pitfalls Along the Way

Get a head start on making your games efficiently by avoiding common design and development pitfalls. Video games combine art and programming; this unique position has opened up opportunities for many pitfalls. This book takes you through the fundamentals of game making and the usual mistakes and bad practices that can harm your games. 

We start with the common difficulties and challenges, ways to find the gaps, and game design. Next, we discuss game engines and other tools you need to choose while making a game, how you should choose them, and the design documents you need to make. We also cover simple but important tweaks in game mechanics as well as the look and feel of your game. We will also discuss conventions for naming, code structuring, project structuring, and coding.

Your thought process will be guided in a way that you can look for the proper approach to make a successful game. The book sheds light upon how to improve the overall game experience and finalize the game for release.  Along the journey, we will explore some interesting stories of games and mythology as well.

By the end of the book, you will know about the basic life cycle of a game development process and how to not make a game. 

What You Will Learn

• Discover the fundamentals of game design 
• See some intermediate coding tricks to make your games better
• Grasp the pitfalls to avoid while designing and programming games
• Master the different conventions and practices for file naming and structuring your projects 

Who This Book Is For

People who want to make games. Basic programming experience is assumed.

Chapter 1: Don't 

Chapter Goal: In this chapter, you will get introduced to the core difficulties and challenges of the game making journey.    

Chapter 2: The Fault in Our Stars

Chapter Goal: This chapter will discuss the first encounters with games as well as the process of finding the gaps and lacking. We will also discuss game analysis in this chapter. 

Chapter 3: Don't Reinvent the Wheel 

Chapter Goal: We will discuss the game engine and the purpose they serve as powerful and necessary tools in game development.

Chapter 4: Choose Your Arsenal

Chapter Goal: We will learn about game engines in greater detail including their pros n cons by building a RPG.

Chapter 5: It's All in My Head/ Don't Keep It All in Your Head 

Chapter Goal: Learn to make Game Design Document, writing practices, and hurdles that may be stopping you from writing it. 

Chapter 6: A Stitch in Time Saves Nine  

Chapter Goal: This chapter teaches conventions of file naming, structuring, project structuring, coding (with some examples)

Chapter 7: Git Good

Chapter Goal: We will learn about version control

Chapter 8: Get Smart!

Chapter Goal: This chapter shows the ill effects of hard code. This would enable you to differentiate between good and bad approaches towards code and learn how to eliminate them.

Chapter 9: Game Design - The Three musketeers! 

Chapter Goal: You will learn the overall journey of game design, understanding all the components, their role, and how to roll them properly. 

Chapter 10: Game Feel and Effects  

Chapter Goal: We will learn about camera effect, audio effect, particle effect in this chapter.

Chapter 11: Input Matters

Chapter Goal: Learn about choosing input styles properly.

Chapter 12: Help!

Chapter Goal: This chapter will helping you transcend through reality (pseudo code), dynamic difficulty.

Chapter 13: Platform Choosing (Pros n Cons)

Chapter Goal: This chapter will help you choose the right platform to publish your game.

Chapter 14: The Great Filter/Fermi Paradox 

Chapter 15: Gameover - The Myth of Sisyphus/Insanity Loop/Core Loop

Chapter Goal: In the final chapter, we will evaluate all we have learnt by studying this game, its success, and the future

Minhaz-Us-Salakeen Fahme is the co-founder and CEO of Battery Low Interactive Ltd—a company that makes wishes come true. It started as a game studio in 2015 and over the years, grew into a bunch of wings- each working dedicatedly on serious games; web and app development; business and marketing solutions using augmented reality and virtual reality; digital marketing; and small-scale indie games. With their outreach campaigns, Battery Low has reached half a million kids with the experience of immersive technology for the first time. Fahme also conducts sessions on AR, VR, MR, game design, entrepreneurship, career, and leadership for youth and entrepreneurs in educational institutions, national, and international events. He is a blogger and game designer/writer by passion while cats, travels, live concerts, epic fantasies keep him running.

Tanimul Haque Khan is the head of the Unity department of Brain Station 23, a service-based company. He along with his team has been providing AR/VR enterprise solutions since 2018. He has been working with Unity technologies since 2015. He has played an uncountable number of games across multiple platforms mostly on PC and console. He is one of the most well-recognized Unity developers in Bangladesh. Aside from the tech industry he has also co-founded the very first cat cafe in Bangladesh known as Capawcino.