Hello there.  After finishing Abra The Last Witch, I learned a lot about making games, and I would like share some of those things, and hopefully give advice to any beginning game devs out there.

What I learned from game development.

1. Use Social media, and don’t be scared of showing your game to others.

One thing you need to know is that I’m a very socially awkward person, so I was afraid at first, but if you don’t talk about your game on things like Facebook and Twitter, not many people will know about your game, and no one will play it.  That’s why we make games after all. I used Twitter a lot to market my game, and I even responded to tweets from people I follow even when Abra was not in the discussion, but people will click my profile out of curiosity and come across my game as a result.  I’ve met so many cool people and made friends even through talking about my game, so don’t be shy. Get your social media of choice open, and spread the gospel of your game.

    2. Manage your time effectively.

Time is limited in this world, and depending how how much time you have to make your game, you got to manage it big time.  I had very limited time to make Abra because I was unable to make it at home because my computer is a piece of trash, which made this video harder to make, so I had to make it on the computer in my Game Design class.  I went to work on it everyday after school hours from 2:30 - 4:30, and I had 7 months to finish it, and each time, I set up a milestone that I had to do by the time I had to go home. And unlike my other games that I just made at a consistent pace, the development time for Abra went much smoother because I got parts of the game done every single day.

   3. Scale small.

You are not Square enix, you are not Rockstar, you are not Monolith soft, you are indie.  Making games of the scale of Xenoblade or GTA, or even smalls games like, um.... New Yoshi’s Island, or ...something, takes years, and multiple people.  GTA had a huge budget, and was made by hundreds, if not thousands of people, and Xenoblade took 6 years to make. If you don’t take your time to make something huge and overly ambitious, you will get something like Sonic 06, or Action 52, where the games were too ambitious for the small, and inexperienced team to handle.  Abra is a short game that takes less than half an hour to beat, but I used that small scale to make something perfect for that amount of game time. Don’t let your ambitions get in the way of your vision.

   4. Focus on mechanics, worry about content later.

Your game can be filled with tons of content, but if the game is not fun, it just makes it feel bloated.  Indie games need to rely on their mechanics so people can get the most out of it. Sure Abra is 25% extra content, and is mostly a story driven game, but before I came up with all of that, I spent 1 ½ month souley working on making sure the gameplay was the best it could be.  It was a time I like to call fun with numbers. Just focus on making a game that’s fun before building things around it. There’s a great video of one of the guys from Vlambeer talking about game feel, and I recommend everyone to watch that.

   5. Distribute to as many places as you can.

Abra was uploaded to both Itchio and GameJolt, because I had access to both of those, and wanted more options for people when downloading it.  Yeah, that’s it.

   6. Don’t expect immediate results.

Unless your making a paid game, don’t expect to have 10k downloads in the first day, these things take time.  Just be happy that some people noticed your game in the first place. Only like 10 people played Abra, and that’s ok with my, because I was just happy that the game was out there.  If you expect your game to be a mega hit right away, you will become depressed. Trust me, I fell into this trap before, so don’t feel this way ethier.

   7. Don’t feel jealous of other people's work, be proud of yours.

Don’t compare yourself to other people, because one, envy is one of the 7 deadly sins, and two, even if you feel your work is inferior to others, your game offers something those other games don’t have.  Even if games that came out on the same day as Abra got more attention, I just tell myself that I may not be the best game dev, I’m not the best artist, but I’m the best at the things I do because no one else can make things the way I can.  And the same can apply to you too.

    8. Have fun, seriously.

Have fun making your game, and go nuts.  That’s what makes art some great. Abra’s story can get a little down, but I make cute enemies, and goof off when making it.  If you have fun making your game, then chances are, everyone will have fun playing it too.

Sorry if this seemed too preachy to some, but I felt like I had somethings to share with all of you.

Thank you for your support, and it’s been an incredible journey

-Luke Buckley (RandomWareStudios)