Gamedev

10 Steps to Making Your First Game Successful

By: Wlad Marhulets

Narrated by: Yong Yea

Length: 6 hrs

Publisher's summary

If you know nothing about game development, you're basically me before I started working on my first game, DARQ. This book is for beginners and assumes no knowledge of game development on the listener's part.

As a first-time developer with no prior experience in coding, modeling, texturing, animation, game design, etc., I managed to launch DARQ to both commercial success and critical acclaim. With zero dollars spent on marketing, it was featured in major media outlets, such as IGN, Kotaku, PC Gamer, GameSpot, Forbes, and hundreds of others. DARQ won numerous awards, such as The Best Game of the MIX/PAX, and received a user rating of nine out of 10. DARQ was in the top 50 of the most wish-listed games on Steam before launch. It made it to the "Top Selling", "New and Popular", and "Featured and Recommended" tabs on Steam. Ultimately, DARQ became the number 42 Most Shared PC Video Game of 2019 (Metacritic).

In this book, I describe how I did it. If you're an aspiring developer wanting to make a living from making games, this book is for you.

The book guides you through a step-by-step process of making a commercial game. It teaches you how to learn all the necessary skills and covers various aspects of game development: mindset, preproduction, funding, business, law, development, marketing, PR, publishing, distribution, as well as pre-launch, launch, and post-launch strategies.

©2020 Wlad Marhulets (P)2020 Wlad Marhulets

Enjoyed from beginning to end

The author does 3 things that to me really stood out:
1. Stressed the hard-work required and doesn’t try to sugar-coat anything or provide any quick hacks to make a game.
2. Gives several examples of what he could have done differently in his process and the lessons learned.
3. Acknowledged in some cases how he was lucky, but was also very humble in discussing the hardships he faced growing up. It was very refreshing and personable.

This book was very informative and inspiring.

great book

loved it. Very interesting and practical. I would highly recommend it. There's a lot more than 10 steps to creating a game, and this book hit every possible subject you can image

The step by step tour of the game development

I think this book would be very helpful not only for game developers but for project managers, product managers, delivery managers, etc.

Fantastic

I was looking for a book to get a good overview of what it's like and how to create a video game, and I have to say I couldn't possibly be more satisfied with my purchase. The book covers all aspects, from technical to creative, from marketing and business, without ever feeling too long or too short. I feel like the title doesn't give it justice, so don't let it fool you, this book is the indie developer's Bible. Props to the narrator as well, very pleasant to listen to and spotless performance.

Awesome resource for a first time indie dev

This book includes an overview (or maybe more a framework) of how an indie dev might go about producing and marketing their first game. It's incredibly clear and feels comprehensive.

It also includes Wlad's own personal story, and how he eventually came to create Darq. It was surprising, but inspiring. Kind of makes you feel like you can accomplish anything.

I'm grateful for this book, and I'll be hanging onto it for reference as I put together my first game.

Recommended if you're building a game, definitely.

Great book!

This book was very informative and inspiring. I will be listening again as I go through my game dev journey!

Very helpful overview of game development!

Practical, clever tips about almost every aspect of game development for indie developers. I wasn't expecting this but it even has a few down to earth coding tips. Highly recommended.

everything I needed

great tips. really a roadmap for completing a game. I went and purchased a physical copy to reference whenever I need.

Fantastic audiobook and valuable resource

I was apprehensive about picking up this book but reviews were good so I decided to try it. it started out a bit slow with some of the more generic advice you get for any large project undertaking, but it becomes more and more specific and detailed as it goes on and by the end I was elated at what a valuable resource it is, not to mention a great testament from a dev who's been through it. As an indie dev approaching the home stretch on an indie project I found chapters about marketing, finance, legal and even technical optimisation to be informative and truly valuable. Very good narration as well. Absolutely fantastic book - I can't recommend it highly enough. 5 stars all around.

Exactly What I Needed

I only chose this book based on the reviews that indicated it was helpful to entry-level developers with little to no experience. Because… that’s me. I have an idea for a game I’m passionate about, and wanted to get an idea of what it was like to actually develop a game and see it through launch day. It’s probably a pipe dream for me, but this book was EXACTLY what I was looking for.

- It let me know what I’m up against
- It encouraged me that it’s possible
- It gave me awesome recommendations
- He earned my trust (even though his personal story is exceptional… despite him being new to game development, he likely had good contacts in some disciplines)
- Despite discouraging me from choosing an MMO with a large scope for my first “Indie” project… I’m doing it anyway, because I feel equipped enough to at least get started

I have a ton more research to do, but I feel like I struck gold with choosing the ‘right’ first book. (Technically 2nd,… I listened to Skolnick’s book on storytelling first)

Anyway… 5/5. Narration was fine. Content was awesome. I hope to connect with Wlad in the future… he seems approachable and genuine.

Thanks, Wlad, for a terrific primer on game development.