Hard truths and soft skills: 10 pieces of advice for novice game devs
summary
Ten concrete pieces: make a checklist of why you work in games, pick tasks that match your real strengths, and raise the floor before you raise the bar by becoming competent at the basics (engine fixes, simple dialogues) so small teams don't fail. Use rapid prototypes and tabletop tests, write short 100‑word exercises to train judgement, follow intuition is king but test fast, study Dunning‑Kruger and Ira Glass, avoid heroic overtime — no glory in crunch. Examples: indie credits include Serial Cleaner and Vampire: The Masquerade collaborations; company size ~50, decade of practice.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:33About Krzysztof
- 3:48Who am I
- 6:42Why are you here
- 11:03Play to your streams
- 14:54Know your flaws
- 24:08Dont be an author
- 28:41Raise the bar
- 33:43Flexibility
- 37:22Life outside of games
- 42:35Intuition
- 48:57Summary
- 50:59Questions
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