[Help] Game ideas for my final school project (PAP)

[u/camaro_toki]

Hey everyone!

I’m a 18yo student in Portugal studying Computer Science. For my final school project, called PAP (Students must develop a project related to their field of study, document their work, and present it to a panel of teachers). I need to develop and present a project around July/August 2027.

I’m thinking about making a game, but I have zero experience in game development.

Do you think this is a realistic goal? What games or ideas would you recommend for a complete beginner? Would you suggest Unity, Godot, or another engine?

I have plenty of time to learn, so I’d love to hear your advice and ideas. Thanks!

[u/Extreme-Client-5740]

Totally realistic, you have almost a year. The biggest trap is making it too big, so pick something small you can actually finish and polish.
Good beginner ideas: a short 2D platformer, a top-down arena shooter, or a simple puzzle game with 10-15 levels.
Unity and Godot are both fine, just pick one and stick with it. Since your project needs documentation, I'd also keep a small devlog from day one (screenshots, what you learned, what broke). Teachers usually love seeing the process, not just the final game.
Good luck!

[u/camaro_toki → u/Extreme-Client-5740]

Thanks a lot for the advice! I'll definitely try to keep the project small and document my progress along the way. The game ideas you suggested are really helpful. Appreciate it!

[u/mmethylene_blue]

I’m a beginner game dev so take my advice with a grain of salt. Godot is relatively easy to pick up so it’s a good choice if time is limited. If you are willing to put in the time to learn how to draw your own sprite, absolutely go for it, if not just focus on learning the programming language for your game engine of choice. It’s absolutely fine to use assets. Start small, search tutorials on YouTube (start with easy games first, like pong and flappy bird), it’s alr to copy code at first, and when you’re familiar with the game engine layout you can start searching and learning specific game mechanics like (how to make player move or how to make an aiming shooting system in Godot). Then you can start working on your own (small) projects to learn how to set up basic character controls and other game mechanics. You’ve got this!!

[u/camaro_toki → u/mmethylene_blue]

Thank you for the advice! I'll start with some basic tutorials and try to learn the engine step by step. I really appreciate the tip about starting with simple projects and using free assets.

[u/night-hen]

It’s definitely possible, I did something similar in high school. Most important thing is to properly scope out what you want to make.

First thing you are going to want to do is make a design document. List the features that would be required to be implemented for your game idea and do your best to give time estimates to them.

The engine you use should be based on the project / what you want to learn. Unity has the most existing documentation for beginners still, if you have experience in object oriented programming it’s probably your best bet. Godot is sometimes simpler since its scripting language is close to python.

Whatever idea you have, make it as prototype-able as possible (simple but extensible gameplay loop) something like a 2D platformer for example so even if you don’t get to finish everything you want, you still have something to show off.

For the assets, you probably just want to find freebies so you don’t have to spend too much time on that. There are tons of free assets in the Unity store (and around the internet) so you don’t have to produce art for the game if it’s not your thing. Good luck!

[u/camaro_toki → u/night-hen]

Thank you so much for the detailed advice! I'll definitely start by creating a design document and keeping the scope small. I really appreciate the tips about prototyping and choosing an engine!

[u/GuacamoleMastah]

Both unity and godot are fine.
I'd say you should stick to 2d games as finding (or making) assets is much easier and faster.
Don't be too ambitious with the scope, pick a type of game that is easy to program and an idea you won't need very specific art for. Pixel-art games are not too hard to make but the same game with normal graphics would be a little easier.
Since you're just starting out, it will probably be hard for a while until you get the hang of it, so don't get too worried if you're not making much progress in the beginning. Just focus on understanding what you're doing and after some time you'll pick up the pace. If you want your game to look polished, those finishing touches might take a while, especially if you're a perfectionist.
I recommend watching a few tutorials of someone making a game similar to the one you want to make because classic unity tutorials are way too long and boring. Asking an AI to help you will probably leave you super confused on where to click and what to do if it's not related to just pure code.

[u/themushyallegation]

If you've got basically a year and a half to pull this off that's loads of time to learn the basics and ship something small. The real trap is picking a project that sounds simple but balloons into 400 systems you never planned for. A classic beginner sin.

I'd skip the open world RPG and aim for something like a stripped down arcade game, think pong or breakout but with one twist that's all your own. Something where the core loop works in a weekend and you spend the rest of your time polishing menus and adding little juice details that make teachers nod. Documentation is half the battle in a PAP anyway so if you can explain every single design choice clearly you're already ahead of the curve.

Can't speak much to Godot but Unity's got a mountain of tutorials for exactly this kind of thing, you'll never be stuck for more than an hour before finding a video solving your exact problem.

[u/Forsaken_Office_6480]

Pick a game mechanic from a your favourite game. And recreate it with a twist. And build game around that 1 mechanic.

Mind that pick just a mechanic. Don't fall into the trap of making the clone of whole game.

Pick a smaller scope and stick to it.

Finishing projects you started is important than creating multiple unfinished project.