Before we proceed, we would like to acknowledge all video game developers. These brains behind video games are very wonderful people. 

We all have thought about it. There’s no denying it that one or all of us have wondered how to make our own video games. There are many tools and resources available today, including game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine, that can aid you in your game creation endeavors. You can save a lot of money, time, and effort with these resources. The creation of video games is a multi-step process that calls for planning, creativity, research, and attention to detail. It is important to understand that making a video game is no small feat. However, we believe that the guidelines we are about to share would help set a starting point: 

1. Develop your concept and Idea: 

You’ll need to have a concept of the type of game you want to create before beginning the real game production process. Think about the main idea behind your game and the genre that it belongs to. Puzzles, endless runners, racing, arcade games, comedies, horror, role-playing games, graphic novels, and RPGs are a few popular subgenres. To prevent having too much complexity that can impede development, you should keep the scope of your game to a single genre. It is important to start small. 

Consider the characters that users will interact with in your game now that you’ve decided on its genre and game idea. To make characters that are appropriate for your game and genre, use your imagination. Animals, aliens, and cartoons in human form are a few of the frequently encountered characters.

After that, consider the setting of your game. Think about the settings, hues, and backgrounds you’ll need to support your gaming. Additionally, these elements ought to fit the genre you’ve chosen. For instance, Temple Run, an endless runner game, has a road with a lot of obstacles that players must dodge to reach various goals. Also, in the process of conceptualizing the video game, it is also important to do significant research on the game you want to develop. 

2. Research:

In addition to the first step, it is really important to do significant research on the game and what it entails to build it. Information on what you intend to do will go a long way. Even if the game is straightforward, a GDD should be created. The GDD is an abbreviation for Game Design Document. The GDD is a project brief that lists all the key components of the entire project, including gaming mechanics, genre, worldbuilding, story, and marketing strategy. Your GDD ought ideally respond to any inquiries a potential player would have about the game, from broad concepts all the way down to specific aesthetic decisions in visual and aural design. The game designer must choose the game programming language, the size of the development team, and the numerous resources that the game will require..

3. Learn a programming language

This is very important. There are games that do not require deep knowledge of any programming language. However, if you intend to design the game yourself, knowledge of a programming language is important. This will help you narrow down the way things are going to be built.

4. Start the game design:

Writing down your key ideas, features, and mechanics can help you build your game concept further in this step. Your design paper should explain the gameplay, characters, plot, themes, visuals, and interactions. Additionally, now is the ideal moment to determine whether the game’s concept is viable.

5. Choose the right design tool/ software

This simply involves choosing the games engine. The game engines are responsible for creating an enabling environment for gamers to do whatever they want to do.

There are many game engines that are accessible to developers. The top ones include:

• GameMaker Studio: GameMaker Studio enables you to create entertaining and action-packed 2D games. It is commonly used to create cross-platform games by academics, indie game developers, and professional game production teams. It is essentially a game engine for beginners, although it has a limited capability for 3D designs. 

• Unity: Unity is often used in cross-platform game development. The engine is a powerhouse of visual rendering. Video artists outside the video game industry use Unity, too

• Unreal Engine: Unreal Engine is considered by many the best game engine for rendering complex graphics. You can use Unreal Engine to create games for mobile, console.

• CryEngine: With CryENGINE, you can use the whole engine source code and all of the engine’s capabilities without having to pay any license costs. Additionally, CryEngine offers a ton of free educational materials, however it is disputed how helpful they are.

• GODOT: Godot is open-source and available for free under the MIT license. No hidden costs, subscription fees, or royalties. Both 2D and 3D video games can be created with the Godot engine. You don’t have to keep recreating the wheel because the engine offers a vast array of standard tools, allowing you to concentrate on creating your game.

• Phaser: Phaser is a 2D game framework for creating HTML5 games for desktop and mobile platforms. Photon Storm created it as free freeware. Internally, Phaser employs both a Canvas and a WebGL renderer and can seamlessly switch between them based on browser support. This enables rapid rendering on both desktop and mobile devices.

6. Test, release and market the game:

This could be regarded as the last step of building a video game. When it has all came together, the next step would be to run tests on the game. Running the test is essential because developing games incurred a lot of bugs and glitches. Sometimes, these games are released to the public on Early Access and receive feedback on the possible areas of improvement on the game, or it could be tested in-house by a group of game testers.

After the game has been tested, it can now be released and marketed. The best marketing strategy should be chosen.

Marketing strategies include:

• Releasing the game to YouTubers and streamers

• Creating a dedicated website to market the game

• Creating and distributing hard copies of your game to your friends and family and many more.

Finally, making your own game from scratch can be exciting, lucrative, and exceedingly challenging. It is, however, worthwhile if you are interested in computing, gaming, or entrepreneurship in general. Working with independent professionals might provide specialist knowledge and creativity to your team that your project may require. Creating your own video game is similar to creating any other form of art. What matters is not the success of your product, but what you learn from the creative process. 

It is not necessary for your first video game to be a masterpiece, as long as you learn and improve from it. And who knows, maybe your first attempt will be the next sleeper hit! The actual key to learning how to develop a video game is to get started.