Making Your First Game: Minimum Viable Product - Scope Small, Start Right - Extra Credits 

"It needs to be fun before it looks cool" -Bungie 2002

So when i call someone an MVP i am actually calling them a Minimum Viable Product?

As a developer, this is really good advice. You need to figure out if your core mechanics are interesting on their own without all the fluff. If they aren't you need a new idea.

Minimum viable product? it's like the motto of EA

Remove the 'Viable' And it's EA's business model.

Strange how a game designer's ambition can be their greatest asset or their greatest downfall. I've had this happen to me a lot in college; where my scope was just way too big.

Cool Stuff... so for a platformer I'll just need a dot moving and jumping across a surface... then I'm good to start...

so you have to stop cutting sometime , so how do we determin- *video starts loading* my internet is bad at being stable but it knows when to cut

this actually is great advice for ANYTHING, im an artist and i could actually use most these advise when drawing or writing (looking at it from a broad perspective), and thats worth a thumbs up for the video

I will say - menu-based combat CAN be engaging. Pokemon has proved that. So - a menu based combat with an engaging rock-paper-scissors system (Pokemon elements are really just a far more complex version of that at their core) can be engaging due to the inherent tactical choices.

MVP for my game: Tic-Tac-Toe but you can take an opponent's spot by winning a coin flip. Very simple.

Basicaly, pretend you are creating a game for Atari?

All I see in the comments: "waah you bashed Totalbiscuit or something" "waah you don't like GamerGate" I'm here for intelligent conversation about game development, not your internet hate-machine gossip. Keep that shit on Twitter.

5:54

Thank, really needed this. I have a tendency to over-complicate things in my head, and not only do I make game designs WAY too complicated for my skill level, but after the last couple episodes I even made making a minimum viable product more complicated than it needed to be XD Thanks EC!

Fighting Game being listed as on the upper end of difficulty to make a fun and engaging Minimum Viable Product. Divekick's all like "screw that lol!"

Those HM01 jokes are greatly appreciated. Thank you for this good advice. I'm trying to get a prototype of this game DONE asap so I don't waste time from the start! *Edit 8 months on:* I finished my prototype! Got hung up on what I didn't know that I didn't know. 😎 After I figured out collision areas better, and started looking into signals for smarter/less buggy coding, things clicked and I finished my project in less than a month. Now I get the fundamentals, since I didn't *know* what to ask the internet for help on!

Hooray! Concrete examples FTW!

So basically, the designer(s) need to figure out what the absolute core of the game is, and figure out if those elements work well and are enjoyable? So, a game like Steel Battalion (one of the few mech combat games I really enjoy) would have an MVP that consists of: - The movement mechanics - A flat, empty square of terrain - A basic weapon - An enemy to shoot (Who could be an enormous cube for all it matters) Testing the movement and basic combat. It needs to feel good to drive the VT and fight in it. 99% of the game can be boiled down to these elements. If these elements sucked, Steel Battalion would be awful, no matter what else it had. Do I have the concept?

I just wanted to thank you guys for putting out this series of videos. Over the last few years, I've been attending college with the hope of eventually making video games, but starting a project all on my own just seemed too much without any prior knowledge. Because you released this series though, I finally have a starting place, somewhere I can actually see and begin work. So thank you guys, for all you do

It's 1:43 am and I randomly decided "I'm going to make a game" and here i am.

The art in this episode was really good. I like how you takes things literally in art, like a "strong one" ... a one with muscles. :)

you guys deserve way more credit than you get, what you guys do is amazing, you make learning about creating a game interesting and your videos always drag me in P.S plz make more Extra History videos im really into those

I just wanted to thank you for this serie as it really allowed me to relax and see things in a simpler way to create my first game. You gained a new suscriber :)

has James apologised to totalbiscuit yet?

I just love how this series started just as my friends and I started making a game :D Thank you for your insight!

The art for "This one is a bit tough." made me chuckle a lot. Good on ya'!

Thank you for creating this video series. I have always been a fan of videogames and I'd love to start creating them. This series have inspired me to move forward!

The art team's concepts are getting smarter and smarter, well done!

This makes a lot of sense even if it's not your first game. Before you start building your game and wasting a lot of time and resource into content on something you think might work, build a minimum viable product first to get an idea how the game will work and whether it's even good in the first place, heck you'll likely even get more ideas better than what you had before to put into your game. As mentioned in the video even if it is a big AAA budget game, having a minimum viable product first will help you realize the potential of the core gameplay mechanics and if say it doesn't work then it most likely would not have worked and you just saved yourself a lot of time and resource from trying to make content for it. However just because it doesn't work doesn't mean it's over, it just means there's something wrong or something not good enough that you need to change/improve and it can even make you realize potential problems with the game that you can avoid or change when developing it (remember the fail faster video and how learning the problems (or the potential of it) and mistakes of your game can help you make a better game).

It's been a long since I learned that much stuff in such a short duration. Thank you for the video!

This might just be one of my, if not the, favorite episode(s) so far.

Minimum viable product for Portal and Portal 2 are probably the portals, surfaces to shoot portals onto (like a room to just go all freeform), basic physics system, and some way for the player to control the portals (I'm not saying the portal gun because that would be a content piece). That is probably how the core concept got started all the way back when it was just Narbacular Drop and Valve had no idea that development team existed.

You guys are really awsome this video helped me out a TON.

Thanks guys, I'm in the process of making my first game right now. You're guide on prototyping is awesome, I had all the questions you brought up in the video and now I know how to move forward to make a prototype, thanks you!

This is really an awesome series. As one who is creating a game in his free time(how little I have of it in any case) this is actually really encouraging. I'm building a text/menu-based RPG for the moment, getting the underlying code right, and afterwards building a GUI(first 2D, then 3D) for it. Your episodes do help me not to get ahead of myself(magic RPG with 1 spell at the moment :-) )

my first somewhat finished game was a card game a friend made up took about a week to get a working prototype in visual basic. I never put in the actual card data he made up in. I just made it random values when you loaded it up to test it. still it was pretty minimal yet playable. also before that when learning C++ i started making a Turn Based Strategy game. it was made of entirely of text characters and ran in command prompt. all i got done was a working map and movement system. i had a battle system but it was still a separate piece of code. but learning to do just that was awesome and rewarding in its own way. i still go back to from time to time to see if i can improve the code or add something. it started at over 4000 lines and i shrunk it down to around 1000 and it does the exact same thing visually... shows a lot of improvement. These days i keep getting stuck on "the big idea" and its a pain to even look at the IDE, or engine... starting small again on a side project should help. if i can get past the IDE anxiety....

My game is at this stage right now, I'm happy to see I'm on the right track! :) I present the prototype to my school's game dev club this Friday and with any luck, they'll back me and we'll work on it for a debut at PAX Prime. If you guys are there this year, please check out the Lake Washington Tech booth!

Thanks for these videos, and keep up the good work! I am currently working on my first game, a simple, text-based RPG in Notepad. It will hopefully end up with a total playtime of 3 hours (the goal) after a month or two, and I think it will be good practice for later. Please keep making these videos for those that want to listen, and I'll still be here.

Thank you so much. this has been the most important episode i could ever get from you guys. you've definitely helped me solidify my thoughts on what steps to take for my group to get started learning how to make a game.

most viable product is da real MVP ;)

Hi, I've just translated this episode to Spanish. How can I send you the subtitles?

Probably one of the best episodes so far.

Thanks EC! This miniseries has actually been really helpful. I have been trying to make games for a while, but all of my projects have fallen short. Hopefully I can actually finish something for once.

7:10 - Boy, that escalated quickly!

Here is a great example of the power of prototypes: Undertale. Before Flowey, before Sans, before ANYTHING was developed (well, except for one song the developer had made and reused for... a certain boss fight), the developer Toby Fox made a simple prototype of the combat system. A box, the heart, and a few white "friendlieness pellets" to dodge. So, instead of Undertale being stuck with the static JRPG turn based combat system of it's inspiration (Earthbound and the Mother series), it's bullet hell gameplay was both engaging, and could make every single encounter truly feel unique.

How haven't I found this channel before!!! Amazing work over there guys

as a budding game designer this series is PERFECT. Seriously, all the things that these guys have said so far is PRECISELY all the things that I ran into when trying to make games. Should have watched this years ago T-T

I like how totalbiscuit spelled extracreditz wrong, and attributed the whole team to the actions of James

First of all, sry for posting an oftopic comment but i felt this had to be said here... Ok, ive been through the comment section a lot and i have noticed that there is a lot of talk about what James said about TB and Gamergate and seriously - cut it out. This channel is more about the technicality of gaming(expecialy this 3 or 4 parter, wherever it goes) and rarely about politics. Even if it is about politics the team tries to be objective about as many topics as possible and very rarely do they go on to complain or rant about a given event. If james feels he has to do a statement he will. If his statement was based on misinformation then so be it the Interwebs can do that as well, if its from malcontent for TB then so be it james has the right to his opinion. Gamergate imo is stupid and outdated and as EC themselves often say- our medium is evolving. And quite frankly so should we. I've been watching both EC and TB long enough to know that both channels are beeing run by good people who care for this medium. I say just let it go and go on with your lives. Theres no need to stick to every word that spawns controversy of any sort. Because the most common case is that the community turns little sparks like this into big fires that take months to kill. Just enjoy your games, enjoy both channels and whatever both sides have to offer you and ejoy life.

Hey, guys! I just wanted to tell the Extra Credits team that I love your show! I share a lot of your opinions, but I was never able to adequately elocute my subjective impulses. You guys give me the vocabulary I need to deconstruct the games that I play. I also am an amateur programmer and writer, and your current "Making Your First Game" series as well as Design Club have helped me greatly. Keep up the good work!

I keep coming back to your videos and finding new useful information each time! I'm so grateful for your videos. Do you have a video on choosing appropriate engines and some suggestions on what engines to go for based on the game?

A top down shooter can be easy to make if you don't add lots of extra code or if you just add a player and enemy mechanic with simple pixel art

Could you make an episode on point and click adventure games?

Well... this episode brought so precious lessons to me... Thanks Extra Credits!!

Please make a separate playlist for this topic so there is an option to save it and re watch it whenever the chance of necessity appears itself. Also thank you SO much for the channel! In my country there isn't a lot we have on this topic and games are usually pursued as a primitive time consumer rather than new form of conceptual engagement with very little limitations to it's use.

My first prototype was one level with a block jumping and I turned that into a challenging platformer with 3 levels

Sadly most of the game concepts I have that I want to make a reality are RTS...generally games similar to Dungeon Keeper in certain mechanics, but I also have a few other ideas on the easier scale and I certainly wasn't thinking of the dream game ideas to be my starting point for the reasons given in an earlier vid.

This will be something I send along to some of my mates! Keep being the best EC!

6:34 Hahaha thank you for alerting once again, i had already forgotten that and was thinking in colors and textures.

Minecraft started from block placing simulator with 1 kind of block, that you can break and place. That's to much for first game.

I'm 1 year late to this video but even Splatoon seems to gone through the same treatment. With blocks of tofu shooting paint on surfaces and showing off paint splattering on surfaces, which the latter is something that continues to baffle me as a beginner in terms of pulling it off. Any idea how they made accumulated splattering work?

And another great video full of tips that I wish I knew 10 years ago! Great job!

I get excited just by watching these videos. For my entire life I've been really passionate about video games, and I've always wanted to make a game. And now I'm finally going to do it!

networking/multiplayer is easy... if you already have a solid understanding of OOP and Socket programming and c++.... er, nvm, networking hard

0:51 I don't feel so good mr designer...

The last couple videos really inspired me set the scope and workflow during the last global game jam. It was only the second game I ever made/help make and it was in a team of 4 so I didn't do most of the programming or asset making, but I somehow fell into the roll of team lead/lead developer and my teammates were impressed on how I balanced feature implementation and overall scope of the game so it never got out of hand during the 48 hours, in which I can't help but thank you guys

Thanks! This really helped me come up with a more reasonable way to make a simple prototype. You guys do wonders!

Am I the only person who actually like JRPG combat systems

Like in home building, first make fundaments.

"Cut & Cut & Cut" and those three HM01-Discs... made my day! :D

You guys always help me to moving forward. Greatly appreciated.

Hahaha I've already taken on a western rpg... granted, it's a roguelike, but still... wish me luck!

EA: "WHAT?!? The content unnecesary?!?!? But that's the best part D:!!! The more content, more fun to be had from our trusty consumers by paying us "best value"!!!! And it doesn't matter how broken or bad designed is that content, you already paid for it anyways.... Don't listen to this guy programmers, if you wanna learn something work for us (free of charge.... or salary) and you'll be doing b̶r̶o̶k̶e̶n̶ ̶s̶h̶i̶e̶t̶ great games in no time :D!!!"

Thank you guys so much for these awesome videos! They help so much with my degree and private project, I can't thank you enough!!

I do love translating these lessons into how to be a better novelist. Cuz that's what I do. This is a really tough question for writers: how to engage a reader fast and keep them hooked. The mechanics are really in the characters, and opening scene. For a high fantasy novelist, the world you create will be a hook, but it's very difficult to open with that. This is actually really good advice even translated. "Don't have too many mechanics because you won't know what's working" becomes "know what feature about your character is the one that makes a reader want to know more." Thanks EC!

so, what i took from this video is something briefly mentioned in another video. Mechanics over content.

Do NOT try to make a science based dragon MMO. I repeat: ABSOLUTELY DO NOT try to!

Great video as always! Great work!

Thanks for this video, this series is amazingly helpful for us aspiring game developers :) In fact, I've just built my first MVP for a simple game, and my family actually had a good time playing it, it felt really good. Thanks for you guys advice and for putting time into making this :)

That thumbnail is the cutest thing.

Tells people to not do RPGs by yourself one of the best RPGs gets made by one guy

Yet again, another fantastic video!

I would just like to thank you guys for these wonderful videos. Gave me bunch of ideas and hopefully I will soon manage to create my first serious game :)

The real... MVP...

What kind of software should I use to create my first game? I have a macbook pro. Is there anything on my device that I can use to start building a game? I'm lost.

I'm starting a course soon which will entail creating a game so really glad I stumbled across these videos thanks :P

I'm so glad you guys exist!

Minecraft was a perfect example of this! Look at some footage of the 0.0.0 version of the game and tell me that this is NOT an example of MVP

So what I got out of this is: Practice by making Atari Games.

Hey, thanks for making these videos. As someone learning to program and make games right now they're very helpful :D

This video was really helpful for me! I'm actually making a first-person 1 vs. team strategy game about an evil AI in SPACE, but focusing on the core mechanics first really helped me find a good starting point!

14. 4D Platformer (i.e. Miegakure)

please make a little platform where we can show our first attemps ;)

Your the best btw! I love what your team can make and it's helping a lot!

I love this channel. So encouraging

How would you rank turn-based strategy games (like FFT or Disgaea?) in terms of difficulty

Final Fantasy tactics was the best JRPG. I remember combat sequences better than I remember the story.

Been waiting for this all day!

Thank the gods the lead me to this playlist! Exactly what I'm looking for.