Stop Trying to Make an Open World RPG

What do you mean?

You know what I’m talking about. The devlog videos you always see on Youtube and TikTok. Videos made by beginner game devs trying to make an Open World RPG, with no prior experience. Perhaps they have some coding experience. Maybe some artistic skills. Some roughly-made games in their catalog. But that’s it. And, unfortunately, they’re all the same. It’s always Unity. It’s always the same assets they pulled from the Unity asset store. It’s always their “dream” game. It’s always the same game. They always have in mind that they want to make Breath of The Wild, Elden Ring, or Resident Evil. They want to make games that were made by industry professionals. Games that took years to perfect and complete. How would someone like them try to make it? Why would someone like them ever try to make it? They’re ambitious folks, don’t get me wrong. However, they’re also fools. Trying your hands at making such a big endeavor will make you fail. And when you fail, you will be less motivated to keep working on that game. Perhaps, god forbid, you quit game development altogether.

These people (including you and I) were misinformed by the idea of game dev. Game development is not easy (shocking revelation). Perhaps it’s not the hardest discipline out there, but it’s definitely not the easiest. You hear thousands of stories about crunching, depression, and burnout every day in this industry. Yet, when you go look online, you see thousands of beginners trying to make their “dream” game with no help from anyone except themselves. And what’s their justification? They like VIDEO GAMES!

Let me tell you something that perhaps you did not know before: everyone loves video games. The majority of people around the world grew up playing video games. And the majority still wanted to make games when they were younger. However, few actually took the plunge and tried their hands in game development. Fewer still were able to finish a game. And fewer still were able to make game development their main source of income. You and I are not special in liking games and wanting to make them. Everyone does. You’re not the first one who thought about making a Metal Gear Solid, a Zelda, or a Dark Souls. You’re not the first one who tried to make those games. You started sure, but you’ll never finish. Unless… you have a big team of developers behind your back and a huge amount of money.

However, having said all that, it’s still easy to fall into the same trap all beginners fall into. No one wants to make a Breakout clone, but everyone wants to make a Breath of The Wild clone. You started game development because you loved a specific game and wished you can make it someday. Why spend that time making a game you’ll never play? A game you never played as a kid and you’ll never play as an adult. And, when you search online, you’ll see that everyone’s doing it. Everyone is using Unity, Unreal, or even Godot to make their dream games into reality. Why not me?

Games are easy to make but actually not!

Nowadays games have the perception of being easy. There are thousands of tutorials out there teaching you how to make a game in the smallest time frame possible. There are game engines that are made specifically in order for people to make whatever game they’d want. Huge engines that provide anything you want to do in your game. There are thousands of assets–both free and paid–that save you the pain of making them on your own. There are even game engines that are code-free. Engines you can use without even the need of learning how to code. So why, then, can’t I make an Open World RPG? Because you can’t.

The resources available at your disposal this second are also the same resources available at game studios. These studios have huge game engines, perhaps they even use the same engine you’re using. They have artists who can churn out designs of characters, landscapes, and weapons in days or even hours, much like you have the asset stores which exist online. So what’s the difference? Why can they make an Open World RPG while I can’t? Because they have a team. Studios have teams of artists who can make assets on a whim. Artists who design and implement everything either in coordination with other teams in the studio or on their own. Studios have teams of programmers who can design, implement, and finish features on the same day. There are also teams of designers, project managers, marketers, lawyers, and many more who work together to make their games a reality and publish them so that everyone can enjoy their creations (or make massive amounts of money). If you don’t believe me, just sit through the credits of any game and see how many names and roles were involved in order to make the game which you finished in just a couple of hours.

In contrast, you’re on your own. Perhaps you have a friend who is doing the art. Or you hire a freelancer to make the music. But you’re still on your own. Despite the tools, the engines, and the marketplaces that provide assets, you’re still on your own. You’re the designer, the project manager, the artist, the musician, the programmer, the marketer, and so on. You have to make the decisions. You have to design, implement, and finish everything. You are the one who has to discover bugs in the code and fix them. You have to do everything. Perhaps you even have a job, school, or some other responsibilities which prevent you from fully focusing on your game. In that case, you definitely cannot make an Open World RPG.

Yet, despite all of that, there are still people who try. Look online and you’ll see people putting years of their lives into a game that never seems to end. Development hell can reach even the most experienced game dev if they’re not careful. Look at YandreDev who has been trying to make his game, Yandere Simulator, for 7 perhaps 8 years now, with no end in sight. Look at Duke Nukem Forever which was in development hell for 14 years before coming out of the oven half-baked and shallow. If you’re not careful, you can become the next example of why everyone should avoid overreaching their scope. That might seem harsh, but, unfortunately, it’s reality.

You always dreamed of making your own huge game. A game that you will love to play. A game that people would praise you for and remember you by. You wanted to be the next Kojima, Notch, or Jonathon Blow. You really wanted to make an Open World RPG.

What should I make, then?

The good news is that you can make that dream game. The bad news is that you can’t make it in the foreseeable future. Games like these take time to perfect. They need–as I said before–a developer who has years of experience under their belt. A developer who made many games before. But how can you become that developer? Well, my friend, it’s not hard. Just make games. It might seem redundant. You probably heard it many times before… but it’s true. You need to make games, a lot of games. You need to make small games before you’re even able to tackle medium games. And, perhaps, after all of that, you can make that dream game of yours.

I encourage you to take inspiration not from bigger AAA games but, rather, from smaller indie games. Games like Braid, Celeste, Hollow Knight, Dwarf Fortress, and many more. These games also took years to complete, but the difference here is that these games were manageable by scale. They weren’t huge, the opposite in fact. Yet, they still left a big scar on players’ hearts. They had a big impact on the way we perceive games. Look at them for inspiration, for they can be made by one person as they were–with many of them–made by one person. If you still want to make an Open World game, then you definitely can if you reduce your scope completely. Look at games like A Short Hike, Minecraft (in its beginnings), or Terraria (also in its beginnings) they are all great examples of how someone can reduce their scope and still make an amazing game.

The truth of the matter is, all of these indie game developers made a bunch of games before releasing a successful game. Id software made six Commander Keen games, two not-so-good 3D games, and many others before they landed on Wolfenstein 3D, which they learned a lot from before making DOOM. Jonathon Blow was making games way before he made Braid. And still, they are many more examples of talented developers becoming successful game devs by making hundreds of games and mistakes before “making it” in the industry. You might have heard some indie game devs saying that their successful game was their first game. And that might be true. It was their first commercial game, one they actually released and marketed. But before that, they made plenty of awful games that never saw the light of day. Perhaps it was their first game, but it was not their first attempt at making that game.

Whatever way you put it you should always start small. Never start with your dream game. Make that shitty Breakout clone first, perhaps even make hundreds of them, before you make an Open World RPG. You have to learn from all of your mistakes so that you will never make them in the future. Make games targeted towards learning game dev. Make a game where the sole purpose of it is to learn how a 2D camera works. Maybe make another game where you try to create a simple dialogue system and nothing else. Take smaller steps and always be aware of development hell. It exists and it will catch up to you if you’re not careful.

Is that all?

You might have been discouraged by the things I’ve said above. You might have even related to some of the examples that were mentioned… but it’s fine. Everyone makes mistakes at some point in their life. You and I and everyone else will keep making mistakes. However, as long as we learn from them and move on then that’s great. We humans learn by making mistakes.

Game development is hard, but it’s sure as hell fun. Remember the rush you felt when you first moved a white cube from left to right on your screen? That was GREAT! Remember why you want to make games. It’ll be hard and it’ll be the toughest thing you’ve ever done… but always remember to keep going. As long as you keep making games, then nothing else in the world matters.

Huzzah!