Here's how you can avoid the most common mistakes made by game developers.

I speak from experience when I say many young developers, make the mistake of diving into creation immediately after an idea pops up. What starts as an exciting endeavour can quickly turn into a nightmare. Been there... For those starting in game development, reflect on your goals first. You aren’t making a game for yourself but for others to enjoy. Think about your target player, what they want, how your game will capture their attention, and how you will keep them engaged to make a living from it. STOP AND THINK! This is the first step in creating your documentation, even if it's rough. Have a clear goal to aim to before starting. Use Agile methodologies to pivot as needed. Solidify your idea before you start working on it.

Game development is a complex process that requires a lot of skill, creativity, and hard work. Even the most experienced developers can make mistakes. Here are some of the most common mistakes game developers make: Not having a clear vision- Before you start developing a game, it's important to have a clear vision of what you want to create. What kind of game do you want to make? Who is your target audience? What makes your game unique? Once you have a clear vision, you can start to make decisions about the game's design, gameplay, and art style. Not release your game- One of the biggest mistakes that game developers can make is not releasing their game! For feedback this is necessary!

One thing I’ve found to help whilst working on a new games development project is to develop several steps. For example step 1 could be research, followed by step 2 aimed at setting up all the basic functions. Each further steps would focus on different areas such as implement multiplayer, setup camera controls, player movement and so on.

Attempting to make a game without knowing what your plan is will almost always fail. If your game is at the scale of say, pong, you might succeed in making it. However anything bigger will have you running into issues. For example, you need to plan how all of your systems will work, such as how stats work for combat or how resources are generated and spent. If you don't have a plan for a certain system that part of the game may be underwhelming or down right irritating to interact with. Make sure you have a plan for every major feature you want to add in. If you dont have a plan for a sidequest-like part of the game and it falls apart, feel free to scrap it as quality is more important than quantity when it comes to features in a game.

The most common mistake is to start creating YOUR dream game right away and neglecting market research. You might assume that if you enjoy this game, everyone else will too. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. First you have to do market research to understand your target audience, competitors, and current trends. Start with a manageable project scope, especially if you’re a small team or solo developer. Don't hesitate to release your small games. Publish them and see what the community has to say. Adapt the game based on the feedback you receive, and then expand it accordingly.

Knowing how a program works before you code with it is very important. Not only does it help you make interesting gameplay, it also helps you write clean code. If you have experience in say C++ and try coding a game in C#, or vice versa, you may not know efficient ways to do things, such as searching for an actor or editing a stat. Knowing these systems also allows you to troubleshoot issues. If you don't understand how a specific joint or type of object works, you may be confused when it starts acting in an unintended fashion. Ensure that you experiment and test with new complex components before adding them to important objects such as the player or the objective.

Experimentar os componentes do motor antes de usá-los em objetos importantes, como o jogador, pode economizar muito tempo durante o desenvolvimento. Por exemplo, entender completamente como funciona um novo sistema de física antes de implementá-lo pode evitar falhas ou comportamentos inesperados no futuro.

Being confident in the use of the software you choose to use will allow quicker prototyping and fewer issues along the development cycle. Whichever software you are using, spend time learning as much as you can about it before starting on a big project.

When I stared game development I think this point was the one I should have adopted much earlier. Just programming while implementing test would have improved my code and design patterns much earlier. Especially when it comes to Unity, it is hard to test without just playing the game. However, by implementing tests for the code the dependency on playtime aspects of Unity will be forced tobe reduced or at least better controlled.

QA is an insanely important part of creating a game. Not only internally, but externally with family or friends. Everyone has a different way of testing things, some people test the main content whereas others look for edge case issues. When adding large content to a game, ensure you both internally and externally test with a lot of people. Manually setting up edge cases in a game is also important. Do you have a box that can be pushed? How does it interact with other components? Can people use it to get where they are not meant to be? You need to think about that kind of thing when adding both the feature itself and new features too. Fixing edge cases are a huge part of making a game, as unnoticed ones may harm player experience.

Testar novas funcionalidades com um olhar crítico, buscando por usos inesperados ou explora??es, pode poupar muito tempo e frustra??o no futuro. Imagine um baú que pode ser movido: ele bloqueia portas? Permite alcan?ar áreas n?o planejadas? Essa análise preventiva garante uma experiência mais polida e evita surpresas desagradáveis após o lan?amento do jogo.

Absolutely, asset management is pivotal! ?? As a Unity Dev, I've seen projects thrive (or nosedive) based on asset organization. ???? Using Git, not only do I track changes, but I also branch out for experimental features without disrupting the main build. ???? The placeholder trap? Been there! It's tempting to use them as a quick fix, but it's vital to schedule their update. ???? Otherwise, you're left with a patchwork that lacks unity (pun intended!). Good asset management equals a seamless dev journey and a polished game. ???? #UnityTips #GameDev

Knowing what type of assets are needed for a game is super important. Most games need either 2d or 3d assets of some sort and keeping a consistent style with them is vital to ensure things are not out of place. For example: If you're going for a low-poly style, make sure everyone creating assets knows this. If people are making assets of vastly different styles the majority of assets will feel off or out of place. Ensure there is at least one or two things tying most assets together, or grouping assets into categories (Such as buildings, characters, objects, etc.) and keeping said categories consistent, so things feel smooth.

At least have a naming convention for assests. You stand a better chance of being able to organise them once you start to scale your asset production.

Organise your project using software such as Trello and Jira. Manage your assets with good naming conventions and file management. Manage your project with collaboration and version control software.

Gameplay balance helps keep the game fun and enjoyable. Deciding the difficulty of a game beforehand allows you to balance according to that difficulty. For example, a rage game may be hard and a calming game will be trivial. Many games have multiple difficulties, in which case you want to ensure all feel fair for their apparent difficulty level. Adding multiple difficulties does help your situation as if someone gets frustrated or bored, they can change the difficulty so it suits them better. Additionally, ensure that testing takes place to make sure there are no features that over time drastically influence difficulty. If a game has an issue with scaling it may become frustrating for players as the difficulty gradually shifts over time.

Uma ótima maneira de equilibrar a dificuldade do jogo é introduzir elementos estratégicos, como gerenciamento de recursos ou constru??o de decks. Isso permite que os jogadores compensem a dificuldade ajustando suas táticas em vez de depender apenas de reflexos ou habilidades.

When it comes to reviews I think it is important to remember that the users probably don't know what is needed or how much effort something takes before leaving their feedback. So whenever a common theme comes across reviews, assess how much time that would take to implement and value it appropriately. Another point is the depth of the reviews, one in depth review is going to give much more than a few short ones with one topic of feedback. A common example I think is that many users often want multiplayer. However, as game developers we know how much effort would be necessary to implement it. Additionally many users just want multiplayer in their games without regards for how it would actually work. So value these when reading reviews.

Avaliar o esfor?o de implementa??o versus o valor do feedback é crucial. Uma forma prática de coletar feedback mais aprofundado sobre multiplayer, por exemplo, seria lan?ar uma vers?o beta fechada para um grupo seleto de jogadores. Isso fornece insights mais detalhados do que pedidos genéricos por multiplayer.

Be flexible and accept that your game vision or planned features may need to change. Be ready to pivot, remove, or adapt, but do so in a data-informed way where feedback, data, and your gut feeling align. Collect data from your first play sessions, ensuring you implement the necessary events. Avoid writing overly detailed game design documents or plans in advance, especially if you're new to development, as there will be many unknowns. Prepare a list of priorities to keep focused on the big picture and provide enough documentation to address major questions. Fill in the details once you're satisfied with the fun. Good luck and trust your gut!