7 Mistakes Everyone Makes In Game Development

Looking to start your own Game Development studio? When you create a game, you can make about 10 billion general mistakes and further 100 billion technical errors. Here are a few common mistakes that span the Game Development spectrum.

We've been wide-eyed, committed and full of ideas and energy when we start making games. But along the way, we made more than a couple of mistakes that cost us time, money and opportunity.

#1 Remember to back up your work

You have 1 million lines of C++ code in 50 modules, and it all sits on one hard drive. You've been working on it for six months and — bang — there's a fire, a robbery, a crazy one-time significant other, or a crash of a hard drive that destroys everything. Make sure you back up your work onto tape, ZIP disk, CD-ROM or remote server every day. 

#2 Failing to test correctly

You just wrote a killer Game Development and it works fantastically on your computer. Well, then what? You had better test it on a number of different machines — and let other people test it, too — because when you test it, you're probably (unconsciously) too easy on your game.

#3 Using old technology

Try to keep as much updated as possible. Even if you can't afford to purchase the latest C / C++ compiler or the best 3-D modeller, you at least know they exist. You might be able to ask the firm for a demo version or an evaluation unit. All excuses aside, however, Game Development is a high-tech business and you need to be up-to-date as much as possible.

#4 Lying to the general public

The crowd is brutal. They love you for one minute and see all your movies; the next one is in a chewing gum ad all the work you can get. Don't lie — do it too much, but don't lie. It's better to hold back and blow the socks off the audience and the critics than to hype your Game Development to the point that everyone's expectations are too high, and they'll be let down.

#5 Refusing to advertise

If you market the Game Development yourself, set up a website that is simple and gets some interest. Start sending out betas to game sites when you are about one to two months from release. Upon finally getting ready to release your game, go all out. Upload it manually or with an Internet spider or bot to hundreds of sites to place the Game Development all over the place and let people at least know it exists.

#6 Feel free to comment in your code

Working with code that isn't commented enough is a nightmare. Comment on your Game Development Script, with at least one comment per section. Rarely anyone can program as fast as he or she can type for any sustained period, meaning that you always have time to add comments to it.

#7 Not to read post-mortems

What exactly is a postmortem? A postmortem is a process that is usually carried out after a game is released to determine and analyze project elements and document what went wrong, and what went right. A lot of devs were where you are, some failed, some did ok for themselves, and some captured lighting in a bottle. You have people who share their mistakes and give solid advice on what not to do and you also have other devs who share their tools and secrets for their success.