At this point, you know everything you need to know to build a complete game using Unity—everything from a programming standpoint, that is; a top-notch game needs fantastic art and sound, too. But success as a game developer involves a lot more than technical skills. Let’s face it—learning Unity isn’t your end goal. Your goal is to create successful games, and Unity is just a tool (granted, a very good tool) to get you to that goal.

Beyond the technical skills to implement everything in the game, you need an additional intangible attribute: grit. I’m talking about the doggedness and confidence to keep working on a challenging project and see it through to the end; what I sometimes refer to as “finishing ability.” There’s only one way to build up your finishing ability, and that’s to complete lots of projects. That seems like a catch-22 (to gain the ability to complete projects, you first need to complete a lot of projects), but the key point to recognize is that small projects are way easier to complete than large projects.

Therefore, the path forward is to first build a lot of small projects—because those are easy to complete—and work up to larger projects. Many new game developers make the mistake of tackling a project that’s too large for two main reasons: they want to copy their favorite (big) game, and everyone underestimates how much work it takes to make a game. The project seemingly starts off fine but quickly gets bogged down in too many challenges, and eventually the developer gets dejected and quits.

Instead, someone new to game development should start small. Start with projects so small that they seem trivial. The projects in this book are the sort of “small, almost to the point of trivial” projects that you should start with. If you’ve done all the projects in this book, then you’ve already gotten a lot of these starter projects out of the way. Try something bigger for your next project, but be wary of making too big a jump. You’ll build up your skills and confidence, so you can get a little more ambitious each time.

You’ll hear this same advice almost any time you ask how to start developing games. For example, Unity asked the web series Extra Credits (a great series about game development) make some videos about starting in game dev, and you’ll find them at http://mng.bz/X9ec.

Game design

The entire Extra Credits series goes way beyond this handful of videos sponsored by Unity. It covers a lot of ground but mostly focuses on the discipline of game design.

Thinking about game design can be tricky for newcomers to game development. The most successful (and satisfying to create!) games are built with interesting and innovative game mechanics. Conversely, worrying too much about the design of your first game can distract you from other aspects of game development, like learning how to program it. You’re better off starting out by aping the design of existing games. (Remember, I’m only talking about starting out; cloning existing games is great for initial practice, but eventually you’ll have enough skills and experience to branch out further.)

That said, any successful game developer should be curious about game design. There are lots of ways to learn more about game design—you already know about the Extra Credits videos, but here are some other websites:

• www.gamasutra.com — Offers jobs, games updates, good news/bad news about games; everything you want/need to know about the art and business of making games.
• www.lostgarden.com — Readable thoughtful essays on game design theory, art, and the business of design (quoted from its home page).
• http://sloperama.com — Click School-a-rama for the game biz advice page

There are also a number of great books on the subject, such as the following:

• Game Design Workshop, Third Edition, by Tracy Fullerton (A K Peters/CRC Press, 2014)
• A Theory of Fun for Game Design, Second Edition, by Raph Koster (O’Reilly Media, 2013)
• The Art of Game Design, Second Edition, by Jesse Schell (A K Peters/CRC Press, 2014)

Marketing your game

In the Extra Credits videos, the fourth video is about marketing your game. Sometimes game developers put off thinking about marketing. They only want to think about building the game and not marketing it, but that attitude will probably result in a failed game. The best game in the world still won’t be successful if nobody knows about it!

The word marketing often evokes thoughts of ads, and if you have the budget, then running ads for your game is certainly one way to market it. But there are lots of low-cost or even free ways to get the word out about your game. Specifics tend to change over time, but overall strategies mentioned in that video include tweeting about your game (or posting on social media in general, not just Twitter) and creating a trailer video to share on YouTube with reviewers, bloggers, and so on. Be persistent and get creative!

Now go and create some great games. Unity is an excellent tool for doing just that, and you’ve learned how to use it. Good luck on your journey!