These times have been difficult for all of us. Many people have lost their jobs and are struggling to survive. But these unprecedented times have also presented the opportunities for people to learn something new, try something different, and explore your hobbies and your passions.
Karan Bansal started learning game development in the previous year, in 2020, and founded his own gaming company named Dranzer Studios. Working with his friend, Pankaj Deep Sahota, he has launched 3 adventure platformer games on Play Store till now, with more to come. Currently he is working on a 2D puzzle game and is expected to hit the Play Store by the end of June, 2021.
His first game was Adventures of Blaze, which is an amazing adventure platformer game that immerses you in nostalgia and makes you reminisce about the good old days when you used to play Super Mario Bros. The game gets challenging with every level, and has a boss level at the end of each world.
His second game, Gravity King Hercules, is packed with 50 awesome puzzling and challenging levels, which you have to complete by switching gravity. Sounds easy, but trust me, it is not. Every level is unique in its own, and the game is filled with creatively designed traps and obstacles.
For his third game, Adventures of Arthur, Karan decided to combine the strengths of both his previous games. In this game, you get the thrill of beating monsters and overcoming traps by jumping or switching gravity. This game has 5 worlds and is sure to keep you on your toes until the end.
He is not only a game developer now, but he also dabbles in various other fields. Besides working on android games, he writes novels, makes digital and paper drawings. He also does content writing and digital marketing besides the former. But today, he wanted to give some information about game development that he made use of, and wanted to tell you how you can also become a game developer.
Here are some of the things you should know about Game Development, according to Karan Bansal:
- Which Game Engine is the best for game development?
With so many gaming engines available in the market, it is natural to be baffled about which one to choose, especially if you are completely new to this. Also, this is probably the most important step, because every game engine is different. That means you have to get yourself familiar with the game engine: its configuration, its options, the scripting language it uses, the benefits and limitations, and more, before you can even think about working on a game.
Some of the top gaming engines are Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, etc. If you are a beginner, then you should check out Unity Engine. It uses C# for scripting language. Plus, there are tons of tutorials, projects, and assets for Unity that you can find on the internet for free. Also Unity is available for free. There is a pro version that you can buy for Unity, but you can make almost any game in the Unity free version, so you shouldn’t really worry about that.
- What are the skills required for game development?
All the games that we play on mobiles and computers take a lot of time and hard to develop. Even the simplest games require various set of skills.
After going through the whole process of developing a game from scratch, here are some skills that are important and will benefit you not only in game development but in various other fields: coding skills, graphic designing, animation, marketing, and perseverance.
Yes, perseverance is a very important quality or skill that you should possess. Without your determination and your resolve, you cannot hope to achieve the end result.
- How long does it take to make a game?
Did you know? The PS and XBOX games that you love so much take years to develop, even with a team of hundreds and thousands. In a big project like making GTA, there are tons of other things that are required, such as voice artists, music artists, game testers, and much more.
Although if you are starting out in this field, and are starting completely from the scratch, then it should take you about a month to get yourself familiar with the game engine, if you are consistent, and from there on, it is all about how many hours you put in, and how big of a project you are working upon.
For Karan Bansal, his first game, Adventures of Blaze, took more than one month to complete. But the time gradually reduced as he developed his second and then his third game.
- How much money does it cost to make a game?
Again, it all depends on how big of a project you are working on, and how complex is the project. You might need to buy some assets, or you might decide to hire someone to make the game for you.
Karan made his first game without encountering any significant expenses. All he spent was his hours. He did his research, learnt various skills needed for game development, and watched hundreds of tutorials before finally publishing his games on the Play Store.
So if you have money to burn, then you can find many freelancers on Upwork, or Fiverr, or such. But if you want to enjoy the journey, then get up and do some work.
If you thought that game development would be easy, then you are wrong. Nothing in the world comes easy. There is no such thing as instant success, nor is there any such thing as success without hard work. If you want to live a better life, then you have to give up your good life first. You can follow Karan Bansal on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/dranzer_studios/