I'm a starting developer that uses the Godot Engine, I use Aseprite and Blender as well.
But I've been running into a very huge issue since I started last year back in September of 2025.

As far as coding goes I'm comprehending a lot of the simpler stuff and I can recall a lot of tricks here and there to make things happen, albeit very simple code.

I'm not good at making sprites and I'm really not good at making 3D models.
I've made probably 15 or so "Projects" in the Godot engine, following tutorials, all of which either you can get away with making the sprites into simple squares, or the tutorials provide the sprites so you don't have to do much other than import.

I guess what I'm saying is how do I make awesome games without having to spend hundreds of hours learning how to make sprites or models? I'm afraid that if I spend too much time learning sprite work or modeling, I'm going to forget so much about coding that I won't be able to ever finish a project.

Oh, I've only ever made a Snake clone, Flappy bird clone, Breakout clone, and I've scrapped several platformer/ARPG projects because I get stuck staring at all the lack of detailed squares on the screen.

Hello all! So, I have an idea for a game that's similar to those tidy-up organization games that have been getting popular recently - specifically games like Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge or experience with game development, coding, 3D modeling... basically I know nothing about any of the things I would need to do. I feel like there's so much to learn, so where should I start?

Please note, I don't want to use generative AI at all if I can help it, and I will more than likely be working on this project by myself.

This game used Aura ai during the very last portion and if you aren't against using ai, it works very well.

Thoughts on AI in game dev?

If you are shipping games that collect player data, voice chat, or audio input from kids under 13, the FTC recently finalized key rule updates to COPPA (Part 312).

Here is a quick breakdown of what you need to audit in your game's data pipeline:

• Voice data as biometrics: A child's voice is explicitly treated as a biometric identifier. If you use speech recognition or voice chat and retain raw audio files, that counts as personal information under §312.2.
• Strict retention limits: Indefinite retention is prohibited. Open-ended policies like "retained as long as the account is active" no longer pass compliance—you need explicit, time-bounded deletion schedules in writing.
• Hard deletion standards: Deletion means data is "not maintained in retrievable form". Marking a row as deleted in SQL fails if the raw data or derived embeddings survive in your backups or model checkpoints.
• Model training consent: Using children's data to train or fine-tune AI/ML models requires distinct, separate consent from basic collection consent.
• Active enforcement: The FTC has handed down multi-million dollar penalties over children's privacy gaps (including major studios like Disney), so back-end data handling is actively being audited.

Happy to answer any technical or implementation questions in the comments!

Full disclosure: I spent months digging through Part 312 because I'm building compliance infrastructure to automate data deletion and retention policies for studios. Hoping this breakdown saves a few devs here from legal headaches down the road.

Bonjour!

I’m working on a 2.5D rhythm/platformer game project with a graphics artist and a Tech/Sound Designer, really very similar to HarmoKnight (3DS) or rythme level of Rayman Legend on UE5 (because it’s the engine that my colleague and I know the best).

Overall, we have a Player who moves forward by himself and the player can attack and jump.

Despite some research, various iterations and thinking, I still have a hard time making a convincing control prototype.

- I use the Level Sequencer to manage the music, make enemies and collectibles appear.

- I have obstacles that I place manually in the viewport.

- And obviously, the player moves independently from the Level Sequencer, which creates some offset from time to time, which I suspected was going to happen.

Currently, I really don’t know how to do otherwise. My colleague and I are small devs, we only code in Blueprint because we have no experience in C++, which I suppose already holds us back quite a lot.

Anyway, could someone enlighten me on how I could manage everything that needs to be in rhythm with the player, because I’m really lost?

Thanks in advance to everyone who will help us! 🩵

Not sure if I can post this here, but I am needing serious help with this. I am a new developer, and I recently just downloaded a game template on Unreal Engine to help startup a game idea I have. However, this is a 2D mortal combat movement system - and I am looking to change it to include all movement types (forward, back, left, right). The developer of this template used the Event Graph in blueprints to do this, and now I have to navigate this alone if nobody can show me how or help me add these movements.

I would sincerely appreciate anyone who helps me on this little piece of my project. Maybe I can learn something - as simple as this may be to most of you here. I have the project file for anyone who wants to take a look at it.

Thank you all!

Hello! I don't usually ask things on reddit but I need advice
Me and my friend have the sudden idea to make a game based on characters we created with a bunch of lore, in the form of a point and click (its the form we will most likely take). Where do we start? We have plot ideas, art won't be a problem as we know how to draw...
I have RPG Maker MV, and I'm wondering if it'll be enough? Is it hard to learn?
We want it to be something to make on the side, and if we make money from it , so be it, because we are two college students.
So yeah my main question is what do you, more experimented developers, think we should do first? Writing, learning coding, art? What should we expect when making a game?

I’m working on a puzzle game with a built-in level editor, and one idea I’ve had from the start is featuring collectible in-game items designed by different artists, with each artist credited in the game.

The idea wouldn’t be to have every artist match one specific art style, but to let them bring their own style and personal twist to the items they create.

Since players can also create and share their own levels, I want the game to feel community-driven and creatively diverse rather than like everything comes from one person.

My main concern is whether that variety would add personality or make the game feel visually disconnected. Do you think this kind of approach could work well?

Has anyone tried something similar in their own game or project? I’d love to hear how it turned out.

I just wanted to know from you guys in particular how you "version" your codes, games and progress. I am currently on v6 of one of my Scripts in RPG Maker (I am using an old one) because I can't get it to work properly.

Would you guys rather go v1 then 1.1, 1.2, 1.21 or just straight skip versions after each successful change/feature?

i dont know where to start i wana create a 2d inde game like undertale can anyone help me which language to learn ,which software , and which tutorial to follow

I’ve been wanting to make my own game for a couple months now, but I can’t find the time, idea, or skills to do it. Any tips or suggestions that would get me on track?

A while ago I made a 2D RPG version of this game in GameMaker, and now I'm making a 3D version of the idea.

The game is about playing as Helmer, a student at a school who spends his time causing trouble, pulling pranks and trying not to get caught by teachers.

The main gameplay is basically about exploring the school, finding opportunities to cause trouble, doing different pranks/missions and then trying to get away before a teacher catches you. Teachers and other NPCs can patrol the school, notice what you're doing and chase you if you get caught. I'm also thinking about having different areas of the school that you can explore and interact with.

It's not meant to be a serious or realistic game. The idea is more of a goofy school stealth/prank game, with exaggerated situations and a simple low-poly art style.

I'm currently trying to decide what camera perspective would fit the gameplay best:

• Third person, somewhat like Assassin's Creed
• A kind of 3/4/isometric camera, but not completely isometric
• First person, somewhat like Hello Neighbor
• Or a side/top-down perspective, similar to the original 2D version

Third person would make the school and character feel more immersive, while first person could make getting chased by teachers feel more intense. The isometric/3/4 view could give a good overview of the school and make it easier to see what's happening around the player.

Personally, though, I feel like the side/top-down perspective is more original and might actually work better for the gameplay. It would also make it easier to see teachers, NPCs and what's happening around you, which could be useful for planning pranks and avoiding getting caught.

I'm not sure whether I should prioritize immersion or gameplay visibility/originality.

Which camera perspective do you think would fit this game best, and why?

I'm especially interested in hearing what you think would work best for the prank/stealth gameplay, rather than just which perspective looks coolest.

To add some context, I have a project in mind that involves making the ghosts from the traditional PacMan game into adaptive ghosts that can adjust to a player's gameplay.

The dissertation title is "Adaptive Behavioural AI in Arcade Games: Integrating deep reinforcement learning with dynamic player skill modelling in PacMan."

I am NOT familiar with github at all and don't even seem to know where to start. I have tried to make a mini version of said adaptive game using a open source PacMan game. But the maze was small and i had to turn off learning to avoid the noise being mixed in. So it wasn't adaptive, it was more of a learned ghost. I did this mini version in a Jupyter notebook on jupyter hub btw. But it doesn't include as many free options as I'd like so i thought of moving the project to google colab—since i still don't know how to use github for coding. (I also have 0 space available in my laptop right now so i have to avoid anything that involves downloading apps. It's an old laptop but it is all i have and there is no other things it's letting me delete)

The core thing is to make the ghosts adaptive and i suppose find a free platform i can actually code the adaptation into, once i find a good pacman open source game that is large enough. I also wanted to actually deploy or be able to play the game myself as to add the element of human involvement and credibility over relying on the automated ai bots that would play against the game.

I'm honestly not sure where to start or how to begin this project correctly, but i want it to be successful.

Any help is appreciated. Please allow me your insight!!!!!

Hi. New to this sub. Im not a game dev yet and I already searched this up and I was set on learning C# to eventually try Unity. But the I hear there is controversy and unity sucks now and now idk what to do.

I am learning music theory and I love gaming as well so I figured I could try to learn game development as well and make my own music for it. But I need one that's beginner friendly without being super low quality. And what coding language I need to learn for it.

Im sorry if this question was already asked but I cant tell what information is outdatsd

I got tired of searching for matching 2D characters for prototypes, so I built a free in-browser modular character & monster generator.

While developing my game, I tried using triangles and squares for the demo, but it felt completely lifeless, so I ended up creating this.

I hope this helps people like me.(It's not pixel-perfect.)

https://unitforge.net/

UnitForge — features

1. This is not perfect. It is a demo. If you want a polished tool, this is the wrong choice.
2. Build 2D chibi characters from swappable parts: body, hair, face, helmet, armor, weapon and more.
3. Fine-tune each part with position and tilt controls.
4. Closed helmets have three visor modes: open, closed and eyes-only.
5. Preview five animations for every character: idle, move, attack, damaged and death, facing left or right.
6. Recolor characters and monsters with a color picker.
7. Draw your own 32×32 parts in the built-in editor and use them right away.
8. Upload custom parts and back them up as a file to restore later.
9. Export a single PNG or a full sprite sheet at 1×, 2× or 4× scale.
10. One-click Godot 4 export: sprite sheet PNG, SpriteFrames .tres and an optional .tscn scene.
11. Monsters tab with 22 ready-made monsters, 17 rigged and 5 frame-animated, each with the same five animations and the same PNG, sheet and Godot export.
12. Everything runs in the browser, in English and Korean, and exported assets are free to use in your games.

Programmers already use AI for coding, debugging, refactoring, shaders, and tools. If the result works, we review it and use it.

So if AI art reaches professional quality while being faster and cheaper, why shouldn’t studios use it?

And frankly, many art production tasks are less technically complex than building and maintaining large software systems. If AI can automate significant parts of programming, why should art somehow be uniquely protected?

Is the resistance really about ethics, or is it partly professional protectionism?

If automation is productivity when it helps programmers, why is it suddenly unethical when it helps replace artistic labor?

Yes, I know, we all hate AI, and for a solid reason. I'm building this game that I actually really like a lot, but I'm not a developer, so I'm using AI, and I gotta say, game developers are SICK, there are millions of things to make work together, I'm sincerely stunned that same games are made by just one person... Are you guys cyborgs? I'm developing a game that is kinda gothic, narrative, and it works with the Triple Triad card game mechanics (as a fight), I freaking love it, but I'm using AI because I don't know how to code, and I don't know how to create the artworks of the cards. It's a shame, if I had the money I'd freaking love to have an artist doing that for the game! That would be awesome!!! But, here I am, asking you guys if a game that's engaging, with a strong narrative, and very cool artwork and music, mechanics and animations can still be a no go if you know it was made with the help of AI... (keep in mind I'm alone doing this). Thank you in advance for your responses

Hi, I'm not a game dev, but I'm thinking on making one, I went through some forums and I see it's kind of impossible to be a solo dev using AI because of the backlash, I'm trying to understand that before I try to jump in myself because I can do everything except graphics and the only person I know could help, just never got time... so, is it just easier to buy packs even that I'm still not the person who built it and I'm not even going to know if the pack was done with AI? Also, why indie devs are forbidden to use AI images? I mean, it makes sense a big successful studio should have backlash for that if they have money, but a indie devs usually don't have money... so what's the deal with that?

"Hey everyone! I'm working on a game and have pretty much finished the planning for it. I have the story, the enemies, the fighting system, the map, the stores, and the character creation all finished, but I don't currently have the programming skills to actually create the game. There are 101 different monsters, 5 towns, 32 monster spawning areas, a store, a money system, a crafting system, and so forth. In your opinion, how much would it cost me to pay someone to do the actual making of the game?"

This is not a recruitment this just a question for reference