PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:
Hey, I'm Andy, a 33-year-old hobby gamedev from Germany. I'm happily married and work full-time as a software developer (not in the gaming industry).
At the end of 2021, I released my first commercial game, CLOUD ESCAPE, a 3D precision platformer, on Steam. After releasing a few game patches for my first game and creating a handful of new game prototypes, I finally started working on VELKYN in 2023: a classic 3D Zelda-inspired action-adventure game featuring a small open world.
TELL US ABOUT VELKYN
It has always been my dream to create an action-adventure game in the style of classic 3D Zelda games like Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. Classic in the sense of: there are fully-fledged dungeons, lots of different items that introduce new mechanics and a combination of combat and puzzles. I'm also going for a SMALL open world to bring a good amount of exploration into the game.
HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN
Why this was not my first game project? The project is too ambitious for a beginner and even with 7 years of experience I'm learning new things regularly.
WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
Although I had already worked with RPG Maker as a teenager and also created maps for 3D games such as Counter-Strike 1.6, my actual gamedev journey started as a hobby in 2017 when I opened the Unity game engine for the first time.
At the time, I had to choose between Unity 5 and Unreal Engine 4. I chose Unity for the simple reason that I get on well with C# and neither Blueprints nor C++ appealed to me in UE4.
I still use Unity today and also for my current project, VELKYN.
WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?
My biggest hurdle? Accepting that you have to do EVERYTHING yourself and will NEVER be good at everything. Once you've accepted that and get help in certain areas (contract work, asset store, making compromises, ...), it's actually really nice.
The only things that really slow you down and get on your nerves are legal and marketing aspects. Your game can be as good as you want it to be, but if you don't start marketing your game early on, you won't get good sales.
ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?
- Take breaks when you need them and also distance yourself from time to time. Nothing in the world is worth putting your mental health at risk.
- If you're also a Solodev, focus on the things you're good at and enjoy. There's no shame in using assets from the store. Especially if you don't have a big budget and you can't afford commissioned work at the moment.
- Get feedback on your game as early as possible! From as many different people as possible. Feedback is valuable but remember that you are not obliged to implement suggestions from testers.
- If you're working on a commercial game, get a store presence early and get people to wishlist the game.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
- Gamedev is a beautiful and creative hobby. Please don't let it be ruined for whatever reason :)
-Andy
❤️
