Hello everyone!

I am a 24yo man, and I live in italy.

I recently got into game developement as a hobby. I haven't really finished or released anything yet, but have worked on a few different projects over some months, and got to play a bit with friends on my creations.

I like games and game developement, but going into a serious project alone, and without many people to share feedback, experience and techniques with, it gets overwhelming pretty fast so I figured I'd try to find some connections with people who share the same hobby.

So I'm basically posting to ask how to start going about it, and figured I'd ask a couple of questions to people who have been doing this for a while now.

• What was your first experience in game dev communities?
• Is it okay to share unfinished, or even just started, showcases and projects?
• How should I go about finding people who might be interested to work with me who have different skills, such as artists?
• Would it make sense to record "making of" my first games, and share on Tubes? Is it wasted effort until I get a better grip on the whole process, or can it help prepare for a possible launch?

Finally, anyone who wishes to get in touch and talk about game dev personally, I'd be very happy.

I'm currently working on a cartoony, RISK inspired virtual strategic tabletop, themed around environmental issues.

Thanks for having me!

What was your first experience in game dev communities?

Game dev communities are usually very open, especially ones focused on indie games. As long as you show that you are interested in being part of the community, and not just sharing your work without interacting with anyone.

Is it okay to share unfinished, or even just started, showcases and projects?

Absolutely, in fact when creating a project page, there is an option to select “Release Status”, with the options “Prototype” and “In Development”. Just make you are clear to potential users that this is work in progress, to manage expectations.

How should I go about finding people who might be interested to work with me who have different skills, such as artists?

There’s the Help Wanted or Offered board, where people can look for other people to team up with.

There’s also the Itch.io Discord which is full of people chatting and sharing video game knowledge. You can read a post here about it.

Would it make sense to record “making of” my first games, and share on Tubes? Is it wasted effort until I get a better grip on the whole process, or can it help prepare for a possible launch?

I don’t have any experience in this, it’s always worth giving it a try. If you are still learning game development it might distract you from the actual learning, but that’s for you to decide. I’m not sure how a behind the scenes helps for an actual launch.

Hope this helps :)

What was your first experience in game dev communities?

My first experience with communities was Game Jolt for a couple of months, then I moved here to itch.io. A game dev community is something that I'm very proud to be a part of and I've gained lots of wisdom and knowledge from frequently making posts to the itch.io forums. If you have a problem, there are people willing to help who may have either had the same problem or straight up want to help you fix it. I've also asked some people to share their feedback with one of my older games which steered me in the right direction and helped me a lot. 

Is it okay to share unfinished, or even just started, showcases and projects?

Whatever the project's state may be, whatever you feel comfortable with, you should do. I'm working on a new game that I haven't even written a line of code for, it's still just an idea. But one thing I do not recommend doing, is releasing an unfinished, rushed game. You should always take your time when making a game. As I always say, quality > quantity. But if you have an idea you're passionate about and want to make into a game, share it! People will provide feedback, or maybe even changes to make it the best idea possible!

How should I go about finding people who might be interested to work with me who have different skills, such as artists?

There are literally thousands of people on itch.io alone that are looking for jobs, especially artists. The best/fastest place to find a worker or someone to help you is on Discord. There are hundreds of game dev servers on Discord. I'm in dozens of game dev servers myself, and if I run into a problem, I've found someone who helped me fix it right away. It's very rare that you don't find someone, and anyone can at any price. Sometime people will work for free!

Would it make sense to record "making of" my first games, and share on Tubes? Is it wasted effort until I get a better grip on the whole process, or can it help prepare for a possible launch?

I can only imagine you're talking about posting dev logs to YouTube, and if you're passionate about it, then you should do it! It takes time, and it's a fun little side project. It can also lead to more people finding your channel and it can build up some hype and get more sales! It's a very efficient marketing method. Tons of devs do it! Big and small.

I wish you luck on your game dev adventures! I'm 16 and I just started making some games of my own. :)