PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:

Hi! I am Geert and have been making games for 2 years now I think, but working in esports for over 15 years as a broadcast engineer/visual maker/fixer. My first game, Better With A Friend (BWAF), is a collection of mini games for the Steam Deck that you can play together and was mainly made for the boring hours during production with colleagues and when I travel with someone else. My current project is Game With Balls where you move the Steam Deck to guide balls through handcrafted mazes.

TELL US ABOUT GAME WITH BALLS.

The idea for Game With Balls was already there before BWAF, but for this one I wanted to take my time to explore so that it became a finished project in the end. BWAF is something I just add to when I feel like it or when someone else gives me an idea. For Game With Balls I experimented with different ways on how to implement real life mazes into a game that feels still as a game, but also looks unique. Mostly like the process of making the game as it gets me away from working behind a screen for a large part of the development.

The idea itself is simple and I think a lot of people will have some childhood memories of playing with a similar toy. I think it came to me when I was toying with the gyro settings. Coming from more Xbox history I never really used gyro before getting a Steam Deck and funnily enough mostly reminded me of the old iPod Touch games that used gyro when I was in high school.

HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN

The challenges are different. For broadcast you often can just throw hardware at the problem. Maybe I am oversimplifying it a bit, but what I mean is that I can just make sure that it runs on a RTX5090 or A series card and don’t have to care if someone can run it on a i3 laptop. For games you already have to plan ahead when making it. That is one of the things I love about making a game for the Steam Deck as you learn way more about optimising everything as Game With Balls needs to run in 60 fps otherwise it breaks the immersion.

WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?

Was already using Unreal Engine for the past 7 years for different purposes in broadcasts as there were not really other engines fit for what was needed back then. It made sense to also use it for my games as I knew the ins and outs.

WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?

Probably what most other developers struggle with. Doubt if your game will be any good. It comes in waves and then you just remind yourself that you are making the game only for yourself. You want it to exist. No one else asked for it.

I love coding hurdles as then I have an excuse to tinker lonely behind my computer until it works. Some people say that programming is not creative, but they never put a cube on a camera to gain 4 fps in a project.

ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?

Watch YouTube gamedev channels that tell you how to do it and then do something else. I see solo gamedev more as a form of expression than a business so there is not really a right way of doing it. There are wrong ways of doing it, but you will only discover those if you try them yourself.

My other advice is that feedback from other people is important, but not ruling. Don’t change your game if someone else wants something changed or that person thinks that he/she knows better. Sure, bugs need to be fixed, but that is only using others to find them. I am talking here about artistic, story, etc. Use feedback to enrich, but not to change your vision.

ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?

If it is no fun, don’t do it.

- Geert❤️

Game With Balls Demo on Steam