Game development is the art of creating games. Game development is very exciting and interesting. It is a great career to pursue as there are many gamers around the world who play games in their daily life. But there are not a lot of game developers so there is a high demand for game developers.
Average salary of a game developer is between $65k to $80k per month. You can also become a indie game developer who creates games individually and publish it to the playstore or appstore.
So you have decided that you want to become a game developer but don’t know where to begin your journey don’t worry because today this is article is about game development roadmap and at end of this article you will be able to :
- Have clear way of your journey
- And Start making games
- Will have a complete game development roadmap or journey
Complete Game Development Roadmap Guide
Contents
Game development is a long way so it will take time to learn game development there are many steps you need to take so These are the steps which includes in the complete game development roadmap.
If you want to know about the best game engine than read these article – best game engine for game developers.
1. Choose a Game Engine
So before moving forward you must have a pc or laptop with atleast 4 gb ram. 8 gb ram is recommended.
A game engine is a software which is necessary for a game to run. You can develop your own game engine but you will require high programming skills and alot of time but thankfully there are lot of free great game engines in the market from which you can create any type of game you want and mostly game developers uses this game engines.
So there are lot of game engines available in the market to choose. The popular game engines are Unreal, Unity, Gamemaker and many more. As a beginner you should use the unity game engine to develop games because first you can create any type of game and it has big community it also has great assets and easy to learn.
Unreal is also popular game engine but it is little hard for a indie game developer you require a team to use it. So we will use unity game engine to develop games don’t waste time for choosing game engine you can develop any type of game you want in unity for free.
2. Learn Unity
Unity is a cross platform game development engine created by Unity Tech. You can create both 3D and 2D games you can also create virtual reality and argumented reality games.
It has many pre built features for game development which makes it easier for you to develop your games. Free learning resource for unity – unity learning resource
So your first step is to learn Unity and get used to it what you have to learn is how everything works how to move, place, render and rotate components in the editor which is very simple but you also need actions and character movements which you need to do with a programming language.
So to learn and create games you need to install unity software on your computer which is completely free. It runs smoothly if you have a 8GB ram pc or laptop and lags if you 4GB ram pc or laptop. You can download Unity from here – Download Unity.
3. Learn C# programming language
So after learning the basics of unity you will need to learn c# programming languages which is used to create scripts in unity.
C# is a programming language developed by microsoft which is used to develop web apps, mobile apps, games and many more.
It is easy to learn compared to C++ and C. It is used in unity for game development. first you need to learn and understand the basic syntax of the language which is little difficult but you will learn it within 15 to 20 days. Free learning resource for C# – Learn C# Here
So to learn and write c# code you need a IDE and there is official microsoft IDE which is visual studio communtiy version which is free and you can write C# code on it. you can download it from Here – Download Visual Studio Community.
4. Learn Game Design
After learning unity and c# you will be able to build logic in your games but your game will not look good so you need to design characters, environments for your games so you need to learn some game design softwares.
Blender – It is a free and open source for building 3D designs models. You can use it create models for your games and it is also used for animation So learn blender for game design.
5. Learn Animation
You also need animation in your game. unity has a animation feature built in that you can learn or use blender for animation. animation is hard and can be difficult.
You can use third party assets in your game which are mostly paid so you need to learn animation if you don’t have enough money to hire someone or buy any assets. It is not that difficult you will master it if you give it some time.
Best FREE Game Development Courses
We have talked about the complete game development roadmap now your question must be how to learn game development so I am going to tell you some of the best FREE game development courses for you.
These courses are completely free that doesn’t mean that they are bad they are as good as paid courses so there is no execuse for learning game development.
1. Complete Unity beginner tutorials by Brackeys
Our first game development course is from youtube by brackeys his channel is one of the best game development channels on youtube he has many unity game development videos you can watch.
As we know that youtube is completely free so you can watch the brackeys unity game development tutorials here – Complete Unity beginner tutorials by Brackeys
2. Learn full unity game development by Freecodecamp.org
You may know this youtube channel because it is one of the best youtube channels to learn web development, app development, AI, machine learning, and game development. They have many coding tutorials.
This is also a youtube tutorial so you can watch the unity game development tutorial by freecodecamp.org here – Learn full unity game development by Freecodecamp.org
3. Full unity course by TutorialsEU
This is another full unity course you can take to learn game development in this course you will learn unity basics and C# programming language which is required because it is used to write scripts in unity.
You can watch this tutorial directly for free from youtube. You can watch the TutorialsEU game development course here – Full unity course by TutorialsEU.
4. How to make a game – unity beginner tutorial by Jason Weimann
As the name says you will learn how to make a game in unity so you will learn to create a real game in this tutorial Jason Weinmann is an awesome game developer he has many videos and courses on game development.
You can find this course on youtube. It is a 3 hour long unity tutorial. He also has many other unity tutorials you can watch. If you want to watch his unity game development tutorial then watch it here – How to make a game
by Jason Weimann.
5. Unity fps survival game tutorial by freecodecamp
This tutorial is amazing because you will learn how to make a full 3D fps game in unity. You should watch this and try to create the game he is creating. It is again a course by freecodecamp which I have said is amazing.
If you want to watch the Unity fps survival game tutorial by freecodecamp.org then you can watch it on youtube here – Unity fps survival game tutorial by freecodecamp.
6. Code Your First Game: Free Game development course on udemy
Code your first game is a free udemy course. In this course, you will learn how to create games in javascript, HTML, and CSS. It is a 2 hour long video where you will learn to create a basic game that runs in the browser.
This course is on udemy but it is a free course if you want to you can get this free udemy course from here – Code Your First Game: Free Game development course on udemy.
7. Introduction to Game Development with Unity
This is another free udemy game development course. In this course, you will learn game development with unity. You will learn all the basics of unity, how objects work and all you can take this course if you are interested.
It is a 2 hour long course with 17 lectures. You can get this game development course on udemy for free here – Introduction to Game Development with Unity.
8. Unity Game Development – Build a First Person Shooter
This is another free udemy game development course where you will learn to create a First person shooter(FPS) game in this course. More than 20 thousand students have enrolled in this course. It is a very popular free game development course.
If you want to watch the free unity game development course then you can on udemy here – Unity Game Development – Build a First Person Shooter.
Best Game Development Books
- Game Programming Patterns by Robot Nystrom – BUY NOW
- The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by JeSchellhell – BUY NOW
- Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory – BUY NOW
- Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games by Tracy Fullerton – BUY NOW
- Game Coding Complete by Mike McShaffry – BUY NOW
- Unity Game Development Cookbook: Essentials for Every Game by Paris Buttfield-Addison – BUY NOW
- Games, Design, and Play: A detailed approach to iterative game design by Colleen Macklin – BUY NOW
- Unity From Zero to Proficiency : A step-by-step guide to creating your first game with Unity by Patrick Felicia – BUY NOW
Frequently asked questions on game development
This are some of the most frequestly asked questions on game development I will answer them it will help you in your game development journey.
Is game development a good career in 2021?
It is very obvious that game development is a good career in 2021 because there are lot of gamers then game developers so there is a huge demand for games so that makes game development a great career in 2021.
What should I learn to be a game developer?
As I have talked in this game developer roadmap that you need to choose a game engine recommended is Unity then learn C# programming language or any other according to your game engine then learn some basic game design and animation.
How much do game developers earn?
Well this depends on what you want to do if you want to get a job in game development then average salary of a game developer is around $30k to $40k annually it depends on the company you are working and your game development skills.
Another way you can earn money is by creating your own games and publishing it to playstore or any other platform in this way you can earn more then a job.
Which game engine is best for beginners?
As I have said unity is the best game engine for indie game developers but still you want more info then you can check this guide – Best game engines 2021.
Can I be a game developer without a degree?
Yes you can become a game developer without any college degree you can learn game development from youtube for free and there are lot of free learning resources to learn game development.
Want to know some best FREE game development courses then consider reading this guide –Best FREE game development courses 2021. I have told more then 10 FREE game development courses in that guide.
Also if you are someone who loves to learn something by reading books then you can learn game development by reading this books – Best game development books for game developers 2021.
Summary
So this is everything you require to become a game developer. The thing is you need to practice every day. after learning the basics. you can learn more advance in c# and unity libraries. So you need to learn unity basics first and c# basics and then learn game design software blender and lastly animation.
If you practice everything daily you will become a expert at game development so this was the game development roadmap. I hope you got what you wanted and if you have any question or comments you can comment down below. Subscribe to our newsletter if you want more game development articles.
Thank you for reading Have a nice day 🙂
