Developing alone

[Celosia]

Hello. Who else out there is developing a game alone? I am and I feel like I could benefit from having developer friends.

I have been doing all the planning, research, programming and design work for my web app, learning as I go. I am working on the bare bones of my game, and at this time, primarily the front-end. I have restarted this process a few times already and I'm beginning to see improvements with each iteration. I must say I'm excited.

But I don't know any other person who has experience web or game development, let alone such a niche as browser-based pet/sims games. I've posted a question here once, but 99% of questions I have I end up Googling because it tends to be more convenient.

Fellow Developers, artists, programmers, I'd love to know about you.

 

[StarSea]

I have a game I have slowly been developing alone! I'm really excited to get it to a playable state, but I've just been working on it every now and then on the side. It has been a project I've been looking forward to finally being able to make for years, so I just don't want to crunch it and end up burning myself out.

[Celosia]

@StarSea Nice to meet you.  Slow development is better than none! How are you liking your development and what was it like when you first started? Did you have any prior knowledge in programming? 

I started learning JavaScript just over a year ago, not knowing anything about it other than that it made websites more interactive. I took months worth of online courses with many breaks in between to get to the point where I felt confident enough to begin working on my game. I've gone through a few frameworks for both the front-end and back-end and decided they weren't for me. Only very recently have I settled on a framework for the front-end with the features I'm interested in.

[StarSea]

@Celosia I did have some prior knowledge of programming! I started studying coding around 10 years ago, but being in middle & high school, and having family that didn't really understand my passion, meant really limited time for learning and practicing. I used to make just pretty basic JavaScript games like Sudoku or small farming tycoon games for a while.

Later on, I found out about PHP and started getting into that and was able to practice in it for a while with my personal site and see what I could do. Then I got into using a framework and finished school a few years ago, and was ready to finally give my game a shot!

JavaScript is honestly my favorite. I love seeing things on a page come alive and just stretching the functionality of things. It's really exciting! I've been considering going back to old JS things I had made and rebuilding them just for the fun of it.

[Bedouin]

Hello, fellow developers! I, too, develop alone although I've recently roped in one of my RL coworkers to co-own a game with me that we purchased a couple months ago so that's been a fun breath of fresh air to actually be able to discuss features and not have to make all the decisions alone.

I really got into sims back in my teens and decided to make one myself when I was 19. Back then, I only knew basic HTML. I eventually got to where I could kind of read the code. Developing games started my passion for programming and inspired me to switch from a nursing major to computer science. I ended up shutting down my first game and selling my second one. A couple years ago, the people who I sold my second game to ended up giving it back to me and I was roped back in. Sadly, there was a 2 year break in there and I lost all contact with my developer contacts so I wasn't able to have the cool conversations I did before. But I did get professional web dev experience with a tech firm so I don't need them for "How do I do this?" conversations anymore.

@StarSea I totally get family not understanding your passion. Even other developers don't understand it.

I'd love to get back into talking things out. I miss that about the old days. I had a few developer friends who we would discuss features for each other's games and come up with some pretty cutting edge stuff back then by putting our brains together. Not sure if people are just more closed mouth these days or I just don't know the right people.  

@Celosia Which framework did you decide on? Thinking about incorporating some AngularJS into my current game...

[juliet]

I develop alone, but I guess alone is a relative term.  Once you get going you will have plenty of users, mods, artists to bounce ideas off of.  I never had other game owners to help me figure things out, aside from reading VP dev forums, so I just used my knowledge from corporate IT work, and A LOT of googling various topics.  Because every question you could ever have is answered on the internet somewhere.

Edited June 20, 2019 by juliet

[ToyOwlet]

I'm developing my game mostly alone! I say "mostly" because so far, at this stage in development, I've had some help from my boyfriend with sound effects for the dinosaurs in my game. Other than that, I do all the coding, art, marketing, etc. 

 

It's slow going, especially with a full time job and family, but when I feel discouraged or burnt out I look back at where my game was and where it is now, and it reminds me it's definitely been worth it and to keep pushing on. 

[hurricaneviolet]

I haven't developed alone, it's been me and a team of rotating freelancers, plus the mods and admins to bounce ideas off of, but I've been running my game for 10 years and have worked on many others, and I'm always open to chatting game development! I just don't check the forums much.

[Dinocanid]

I'm a solo developer as well! I occasionally hire writers, but as far as development goes I'm the only one on my team (mostly because money is extremely scarce for me).

It's definitely a lot slower, but I kind of like solo development since it's much easier for me to focus on the direction of my games.

[Hare]

Hello all and glad to hear I'm not alone. 
I don't strictly work alone, granted, and have had a great time working with others off and on, but sometimes am alone in my projects and would love to have more people in the same boat to talk to sometimes.

My discord is Lunar Eclipse#6855 if anyone has that and would like to add me there. Shoot me a line if you ever feel like talking about features, dev stuff, code, art, etc. 

 

[LuciBeingLuci]

I mostly develop alone because most programmers and designers need money for their work and I'm just a kiddo so yea. However, in my recent petsite project, and in User-made pets for ChickenSmoothie, my little brother is helping me a lot with artwork! He wants to be a skilled artist, so I think it's a good start for him. I even teach him some techniques I use on my artwork. 

I'm also working in a DDLC fangame with some cool dudes, btw ?

[Celosia]

Hey all.

@StarSea, I see! So now, you're working on your first official pet/sim game, like myself? How exciting.  

PHP is mentioned often here, so I'm guessing it's the server side language of choice for the browser pet/sim game genre? I've been using Node, although Laravel interests me as well.

Hey @Bedouin. You must have a decent amount of experience in developing these games with your history and passion for programming. I'm curious about your games.

I think you just don't know the right people! I'd love to share ideas for features and chat about development, web tech and whatnot. I have discord if you use it, it's been mentioned by others here. There is one thing I'm hesitant to share though - the theme of my site. I want it to be a surprise.

To answer your question, the framework I've gone with is Nuxt.js. It is built upon Vue but has the option to come preconfigured for server side rendering, among other changes and improvements on the Vue framework. It's been a breeze both learning the framework and doing work. I'm really enjoying it. I can't say I know much about Angular, what's your opinion?

@juliet I think it is pretty admirable you managed to succeed alone. You're right, the internet is extremely resourceful if you know where to look. I do a heck of a lot of googling. My only gripe with this method, sometimes, is when I'm searching for a pet/sim game specific answer, then it can be hard to find the right info.

Will respond to the rest when I have time.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Celosia

[Bedouin]

I'm definitely open to any discussion! Discord: Bedouin#2555.

I'll have to check Nuxt.js out. I've just started discovering how awesome Vue is although not with anything game related atm. Angular is awesome! I'm actually starting to build in AngularJS into my current game, Eqcetera, to give it a bit more dynamic flair beyond jQuery.

[Celosia]

@Bedouin I've just sent you a friend request. I'm Sunlit#4577. The artwork for Eqcetera looks beautiful and I noticed you made it mobile responsive, which is awesome. I use my phone quite a lot to access the web games I play. Unfortunately not all of them feature responsive design!

@ToyOwlet That is sweet that your boyfriend is able to work with you in some way. I'd love it if my partner could help me. He has better social skills than me so maybe he can still be of use later on. ?

Development for me has been slow going as well, especially as I am learning. Some days the only thing I get done is 1/3 of the installation of something. (slow due to complexity; not related to download speed)

@Dinocanid Hey there. Perhaps I was wrong in assuming most of us worked in teams, because there are many of us solo'ers here. I will need to hire an artist at some point myself. I'm not keen on doing all the programming AND artwork.

@Hare I've added your discord, Hare. I've seen your name here quite a bit. I believe you're an artist too?

@hurricaneviolet Hello there. I actually just had a peek at horsephenomena's forum and I think you're an inspiration (you are Samantha?). It's heartwarming to see game owners/developers really get involved with their community.

@LuciBeingLuci I don't know how old you are, but I take it kiddo means in your early teens or about that? When I was around that age I was absolutely crazy about virtual pet games. Good luck to you and your bro with your creations!

[LuciBeingLuci]

@Celosia I'm actually on my late teens. However, where I live I'm still young for most stuff and I'm younger than most people here on this site ;u;

[Hare]

@Celosia thanks for the add. Yeah, I do art too.
 

Edited June 27, 2019 by Hare