How can a game developer validate their ideas to create a successful first indie game?

There many people that from a very young age have been thinking in this amazing idea to make a very fun game. So they watch youtube tutorials, buy courses read articles or books just to realize until is way too late that their idea was not very popular.

Any aspirant indie developer that want to succeed should follow this tips:

Define a Hook

Its really hard to make the greatest game in human history as a beginner because of your lack of knowledge and experience. You see this massive games like Call Of Duty (Carlos duty how me and the boys called), Halo, GTA that cost millions to make and are super popular kinda makes you forget that this projects are develop by multiple teams with different specializations.

How ever you don’t need to sale your house (I’m looking at you Cuphead) to make an amazing game-you just need a hook. A hook its an element that make you game unique, in other words, you don’t need to suffer trying to make the very best game ever you just need to be new and different with unique visuals, innovating mechanics and a interesting story.

Create Visuals System

Another mistake that many indie developers make is that they want all the colors, big explosions and effects, most perfect textures, etc. As you can see this creates a never ending nightmare of never ending changes, 0 visual hierarchy. That’s why is very important to create a system where you define the art style, colors, font styles, code principles, music that you’re gonna use in your game and even if you change somethings in the future this dictionary will help you to keep chaos at bay.

Make a Demo

You don’t need to wait months or even years to shar your game to the world, only to realize almost nobody cares. Instead you can make a very polish prototype to test the idea (that you can finish in 1 week o 1 month), make a small landing page and send it to many publishers, share it in social media to get insta feedback without wasting too many resources and time.

Study similar games

Studying similar games is crucial for indie game developers for several reasons. First, it helps identify what works well and what doesn’t in a particular genre, providing valuable insights into player expectations and preferences. By analyzing successful games, developers can learn about effective mechanics, pacing, and storytelling techniques.

Write Online

Writing online is crucial for testing ideas because it provides immediate feedback and engagement from a diverse audience. By sharing your thoughts, you can gauge interest, gather opinions, and refine concepts based on real-world reactions. This process helps identify strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to adjust and improve your ideas before fully committing to them.

If you are at all interested in becoming a Professional Indie Game Developer, I can’t recommend this tips enough.

(And if you’ve read it, do you agree? What other online resource would you recommend for beginners?)