[DEV] 11 Months In the past I Could not Write Something Past "Hey World". Yesterday I Printed My Remaining Recreation Replace.

11 months in the past, I knew precisely one factor about programming.

"Hey World."

That's it.

No laptop science diploma. No coding expertise. No thought what a variable was. No clue what I used to be getting myself into.

However for some cause, I made a decision I used to be going to make a sport.

The primary sport was imagined to be a darkish fantasy journey about slimes surviving in a demon world. I spent weeks engaged on it, imagining all of the issues it might develop into.

Then actuality arrived.

Each characteristic took without end. Each downside created three new issues. I wasn't utilizing AI. I barely understood the code I used to be writing.

After two months, I scrapped the complete mission.

On the time, it felt like failure.

Now I understand it was simply the tutorial.

A month later, I watched a video about an indie developer who had earned practically $10,000 from a cell sport.

One thing clicked.

I assumed:

"How onerous might a cell sport be?"

That single thought would come again to hang-out me for the following seven months.

As a result of right here's one thing no one tells newbies:

Making a PC sport is one problem.

Making a cell sport is a completely completely different monster.

I assumed I wanted gameplay.

Seems I wanted adverts.

And in-app purchases.

And cloud saves.

And leaderboards.

And analytics.

And plugin after plugin after plugin.

Each time I solved one downside, two extra appeared.

It felt much less like sport improvement and extra like preventing a hydra.

Minimize off one head.

Two develop again.

There have been moments the place quitting would've been the logical selection.

Moments the place I stared at error messages for hours.

Moments the place completely nothing labored.

Moments the place I puzzled if individuals who make video games are secretly wizards.

However ultimately…

Issues began working.

The sport turned actual.

Seven months after beginning improvement, I lastly printed it.

After which got here the opinions.

Some had been optimistic.

Many weren't.

The painful half?

The damaging opinions had been proper.

Gamers identified bugs. Steadiness points. Lacking options. High quality-of-life enhancements.

For about 5 minutes, I felt defeated.

Then I spotted one thing necessary.

The individuals leaving these opinions cared sufficient to inform me what was unsuitable.

So I listened.

Each bug report turned a guidelines.

Each criticism turned a activity.

Each grievance turned one other enchancment.

For the following two months, I stored updating.

Fixing.

Tweaking.

Optimizing.

Testing.

Repeating.

Time and again.

And yesterday…

I printed what is going to seemingly be the ultimate main replace.

For the primary time since this journey began, there isn't a large checklist of unfinished options sitting in entrance of me.

No game-breaking bugs.

No main programs ready to be added.

No unfinished mechanics.

Only a sport.

An entire sport.

The identical one that as soon as struggled to grasp "Hey World" in some way constructed it.

And truthfully?

That feels somewhat surreal.

The sport known as Galaxy Warfare: House Shooter.

It's a retro pixel-art sci-fi survival shooter the place you pilot highly effective spacecraft in opposition to countless alien fleets, unlock 6 completely different ships, accumulate distinctive skins that every have their very own particular skills, improve your weapons, use particular powers like Nuclear Rockets, Gentle Pace wave skips, Revive Hearts, and Armor upgrades, survive more and more tough waves, and ultimately face the king of all aliens himself:

HELLSTAR LEVIATHAN.

Beat him, and also you've saved the galaxy.

Or maintain moving into Countless Mode and attempt to declare the #1 spot on the worldwide leaderboards.

And if I'm allowed one second of bias as the one that spent practically a 12 months constructing it…

I genuinely suppose the soundtrack is one thing particular.

There are millions of house shooters on the market, however I needed this one to really feel like an old-school arcade journey with music that makes each battle really feel greater than it truly is.

In the event you've learn this far, thanks.

Whether or not you're a developer, an artist, a scholar, or somebody working towards one thing that feels inconceivable proper now, I hope this submit proves one factor:

Being unqualified in the beginning doesn't matter practically as a lot as refusing to give up.

Proper now, the sport sits at round 200 downloads.

Possibly it'll keep there.

Possibly it gained't.

However one factor I do know for positive is that no one can ever take away the truth that I completed it.

And after 11 months of labor, numerous errors, and extra frustration than I'd wish to admit, I can confidently say this:

You won’t love the sport.

It won’t develop into successful.

Nevertheless it's not trash.

It's an actual sport, constructed from nothing by somebody who didn't know easy methods to code lower than a 12 months in the past.

And that alone seems like a victory.

In the event you're curious what 11 months of studying, failing, fixing, and refusing to give up seems to be like, you’ll be able to test it out right here:

Now I'm lastly taking a brief break.

Then it's again to work.

As a result of the following problem is popping this right into a PC sport and getting it onto itch.io.

The journey isn't over but.