The Adventures of Asset

Hey Raven! Hope you are doing fine!

We talked a couple days ago on lumiradio about gamedevving and getting the drive to work on projects, remember me? :) I’d told you I’d do some research and get back to you on itch, so here! Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, I had a busy couple of days.

There might be a lot of points you’ve already worked on/are proficient in. You’re free to completely ignore those -- it was just easier to organize like this, since I don’t know what you’ve already done. This is also one perspective, one way of working and, because my own project is very different from yours, there are a lot of areas in which I don’t have any experience (ie looking for professionals, for instance). This is far from perfect, but hopefully it’ll give you some pointers and resources you can use to work on your own stuff and keep the fire going!

(I haven’t gone far into Adventures of Asset, as I have an AZERTY keyboard and am not used to arrow keys anymore, but I really like the concept)

This is a HUGE comment. It includes links. Use whatever you want in it, and good luck with your future projects! :)

Planning & organization

• Know the scope of your project from the beginning: taking, for instance, the example of a game designed to help learning maths: what type of game (this you already explained to me, iirc)? How long do you want it to be? What type of structure will it have? (worlds, levels, something else?) How do you reward progress and failure? What assets would it include? (among those, what can you make yourself, and what will you need external help for?) And, as we’re talking maths, what level of knowledge/specific notions will the game cover? Do you need external advice on how to include it in the game, or can you manage? The more you work on that, the less trouble you’ll have mid-development.
• Know your strengths and weaknesses, and think of what it means for your project: If there are some things you need and cannot create by yourself, you’ll have to either learn, use free resources, or commission others to have it done. Thinking of what you need or don’t need, what you can allocate to the project or not, and finding a compromise before what you want the project to be and what is possible for you will also help you have a clear view of it.
• Don’t hesitate to iterate: you were talking about acquiring more game creation experience, but the version of the game you develop now doesn’t have to be your final one! You’ll always be free to refine your concept, even if the game is published, and lack of experience/resources needn’t necessarily be a reason for you not to get started on it. Alternatively, you can create a demo or a first build that’ll give you a better idea of what the final game will be, and refine that until you’re satisfied -- and then work on the rest.
• Find an organization method that works for you: allocate space, be it on a hard drive, a cloud storage solution, or even notebooks, depending on the type of person you are. Creating a space specifically designed for your project will help you be motivated, as well as allow you to keep better track of all the assets you’ll have to use throughout.
• Find an entourage/your own moral boosts: having people you can talk about your project is important, whether or not they can take part in it. Even if they don’t help with the tasks, they’ll be keeping you on track.

Since our conversation, I’ve looked into dedicated Reddit channels, and /r/gamedev/ might be an interesting/inspiring place for you to visit, get info and encouragement. You can also come up with your own dumb things to do to help with your determination. Personally, I keep tiny jpgs of my cast of characters that I made in an image creator (https://picrew.me/) when my project was just a vague idea, in my project drive. It’s silly, and they’re caricatures, but it helps with my focus, as well as keeping my art consistent.

• Draw up a timeline: for a big project, this will also matter. Depending on the type of game, what you need, and what you, as a person, can do, you’ll need to divide your workload into a series of steps.
Again, choose the format that works best for you. People having been trained in project management will tell you that Gantt charts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart) are the bomb, but honestly, you can write your steps on a calendar and do just fine. Note that overestimating the time you’ll need for each step is always better than underestimating it. If you don’t make your own assets, dedicating specific periods of time to looking for them/people who can create them will still help you go forward. You can arrange your timeline to work on several things at the same time if you need certain parts of the game to be completely done before others. 

The project proper: resources & assets

• Not having certain capabilities/assets should not be an obstacle to developing the rest of the game; you can work with placeholder art/music until finding an artist that’d be willing to help. 

I have less info for you in the points that follow, as I draw my own art/use completely different software than you do -- I dunno how Godot works, and some of the resources I suggest might not be supported by it. Still, I hope this at least inspires you some. 

GODOT

• Community: https://godotengine.org/community
• Tutorials: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/community/tutorials.html

ART

• You can find asset packs (free or paid) on itch.io for you to use, should you want this solution. There are also packs dedicated to user interface. The proper way to use those and credit the authors is often indicated in the description of the pack - you can also message the creators if you have any doubt.
• You can hire artists if you want art that’s specific to your project. As I’ve told you, this isn’t a process I’m familiar with, so I wouldn’t know where to look for, but this question https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/7lr68g/places_to_find_artists_for_your_game/ has some elements, as well as this one: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/15256/where-to-hire-2d-sprite-artists

(You may want to hire an artist when the rest of your game is done with, so that you know precisely how many/what kind of assets you’ll need, so I suggest working with placeholders if that is your plan. You may also do research on artist rates beforehand so that 1) you’ll be aware of the budget you’ll need and 2) you’ll make an offer that is worth their time. Way too many professional artists get ridiculously low offers.) 

• If you want to do the art yourself and don’t have sufficient chops for one reason or another, you might wanna simplify your designs. Looking into vector art or simple pixel art tutorials might also help (l use inkscape and piskel, which are free, to do both respectively). 

MUSIC

-  Here are some sites that offer music that is free to use (caution, make sure to read the policies on each site “under Licensing”) before including it to your project. Some come with caveats when it comes to commercial projects and specific instructions when it comes to crediting authors): https://freemusicarchive.org/ ; https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/, and of course, https://incompetech.com/ 

- Should you need to hire composers, this can help: http://www.gameacademy.com/hire-game-musicians/ (same remarks as when it comes to hiring artists)

ADVERTISING THE FINAL PRODUCT

Once your game is polished and perfect (https://ninichimusic.com/blog/2018/1/4/10-places-to-find-beta-testers-for-your-indie-game, if you need a larger pool of beta testers, but you may want to directly use students as testers, given what you want to accomplish?), and assuming you want it to be spread, you might consider sending a link or review copy to YouTubers specialised in your type of games, ask Steam curator groups to evaluate it, or even send an email to your old school, depending on the levels of maths involved?? I don’t personally care about advertising, as I told you, as I’m just a hobbyist: my games would be freeware, and all I want is for the people coming across them by chance to end up having a nice experience. But if you want to make projects to help people, how to reach them would definitely be something to consider. You can advertise both to indie fans and to teachers, in your case. :D (for instance, by looking up forums for both categories, reaching out to teachers you know irl, etc).

Godspeed!