[DEV] 11 Months In the past I Could not Write Something Past "Hiya World". Yesterday I Printed My Closing Sport Replace.

11 months in the past, I knew precisely one factor about programming.

"Hiya World."

That's it.

No pc science diploma. No coding expertise. No concept what a variable was. No clue what I used to be getting myself into.

However for some purpose, I made a decision I used to be going to make a recreation.

The primary recreation was purported to be a darkish fantasy journey about slimes surviving in a demon world. I spent weeks engaged on it, imagining all of the issues it may develop into.

Then actuality arrived.

Each function took endlessly. Each downside created three new issues. I wasn't utilizing AI. I barely understood the code I used to be writing.

After two months, I scrapped your entire challenge.

On the time, it felt like failure.

Now I understand it was simply the tutorial.

A month later, I watched a video about an indie developer who had earned almost $10,000 from a cell recreation.

One thing clicked.

I believed:

"How arduous may a cell recreation be?"

That single thought would come again to hang-out me for the following seven months.

As a result of right here's one thing no one tells freshmen:

Making a PC recreation is one problem.

Making a cell recreation is a wholly completely different monster.

I believed I wanted gameplay.

Seems I wanted adverts.

And in-app purchases.

And cloud saves.

And leaderboards.

And analytics.

And plugin after plugin after plugin.

Each time I solved one downside, two extra appeared.

It felt much less like recreation growth and extra like combating a hydra.

Reduce off one head.

Two develop again.

There have been moments the place quitting would've been the logical alternative.

Moments the place I stared at error messages for hours.

Moments the place completely nothing labored.

Moments the place I questioned if individuals who make video games are secretly wizards.

However ultimately…

Issues began working.

The sport turned actual.

Seven months after beginning growth, I lastly revealed it.

After which got here the critiques.

Some have been constructive.

Many weren't.

The painful half?

The damaging critiques have been proper.

Gamers identified bugs. Steadiness points. Lacking options. High quality-of-life enhancements.

For about 5 minutes, I felt defeated.

Then I noticed one thing necessary.

The individuals leaving these critiques cared sufficient to inform me what was fallacious.

So I listened.

Each bug report turned a guidelines.

Each criticism turned a activity.

Each criticism turned one other enchancment.

For the following two months, I stored updating.

Fixing.

Tweaking.

Optimizing.

Testing.

Repeating.

Many times.

And yesterday…

I revealed what’s going to doubtless be the ultimate main replace.

For the primary time since this journey began, there isn't a large listing of unfinished options sitting in entrance of me.

No game-breaking bugs.

No main programs ready to be added.

No unfinished mechanics.

Only a recreation.

An entire recreation.

The identical one who as soon as struggled to know "Hiya World" someway constructed it.

And actually?

That feels just a little surreal.

The sport is named Galaxy Battle: House Shooter.

It's a retro pixel-art sci-fi survival shooter the place you pilot highly effective spacecraft towards limitless alien fleets, unlock 6 completely different ships, acquire distinctive skins that every have their very own particular talents, improve your weapons, use particular powers like Nuclear Rockets, Mild Velocity wave skips, Revive Hearts, and Armor upgrades, survive more and more troublesome waves, and ultimately face the king of all aliens himself:

HELLSTAR LEVIATHAN.

Beat him, and also you've saved the galaxy.

Or hold getting into Countless Mode and attempt to declare the #1 spot on the worldwide leaderboards.

And if I'm allowed one second of bias as the one who spent almost a yr constructing it…

I genuinely assume the soundtrack is one thing particular.

There are literally thousands of area shooters on the market, however I needed this one to really feel like an old-school arcade journey with music that makes each battle really feel larger than it truly is.

In case you've learn this far, thanks.

Whether or not you're a developer, an artist, a scholar, or somebody working towards one thing that feels inconceivable proper now, I hope this submit proves one factor:

Being unqualified firstly doesn't matter almost as a lot as refusing to stop.

Proper now, the sport sits at round 200 downloads.

Perhaps it'll keep there.

Perhaps it gained't.

However one factor I do know for positive is that no one can ever take away the truth that I completed it.

And after 11 months of labor, numerous errors, and extra frustration than I'd wish to admit, I can confidently say this:

You may not love the sport.

It may not develop into successful.

Nevertheless it's not trash.

It's an actual recreation, constructed from nothing by somebody who didn't know easy methods to code lower than a yr in the past.

And that alone appears like a victory.

In case you're curious what 11 months of studying, failing, fixing, and refusing to stop appears like, you’ll be able to test it out right here:

Now I'm lastly taking a brief break.

Then it's again to work.

As a result of the following problem is popping this right into a PC recreation and getting it onto itch.io.

The journey isn't over but.