Same Idea, Different Presentation
Let’s have a brief moment of silence for our childhood… Nothing ever matches the nostalgia of games we grew up playing. And that isn’t all bad news!
The world of gaming has blown up and ways we never could’ve imagined when we were younger. Technology is WAY better, and what’s possible is a constantly moving target. A new Indie game pops up every five minutes. AAA titles are insanely good, even when they do have pitfalls. And now the rise of the “make your own game” genre, which has been steadily growing. Frankly, it has always existed. The truth is that it’s just becoming more… is ‘mainstream’ the right word here?
I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge a few spots. I plan to have a directory listing good resources and content creators who operate in this or a similar sphere, but as of this writing, everything is still a work in progress. PlayableWorkshop.com has a directory, and honestly… it’s pretty good. Nick and Jack have some very useful and informative content of their own, of course.
As of this date, their YouTube channel hasn’t had a new video in about 7 months, but their Discord is still active on the daily, and Jack just made a recent video on his own channel detailing their journey (they’ve been working on their first commercial game). Their Discord has members actively discussing the art of game dev and helping one another through issues. They focus a little heavily on actually doing things the old-fashioned way, which is good information and training to have. Truth be told, you shouldn’t treat AI or ANY tool as your only avenue, but as an asset among many. Their walkthroughs are less bite-sized than those you’ll find here on Stackality, and that’s intentional, given the focus of their content.
Another nifty little spot, you say? Well, duh. Sorceress.Games – which I still admittedly don’t know the entire backstory on, but brought to you by 1DevDude on YouTube. He found a pretty cool way the monetize the entire concept of people making their own games, which isn’t exactly a new idea, but hats off to the Sorceress approach. Both the YT and the website have tutorials and educational content, but everything points pretty heavily to the tools and assets provided to you by Sorceress which leans very heavily on AI productivity. No shade being cast here, that’s my jam; but just as a disclaimer, it will cost you money to use. The content on YouTube? 100% free. The website? All money.
That disclaimer aside, it’s an awesome bang for your buck as far as resources in that category go. I tried Sorceress made assets against Shapecast (Desktop program – buy once, own forever) and the verdict was clear: Sorceress wins, pretty much every single time. That’s thanks to Sorceress using a huge variety of tools and AI resources, not just one that relies on your PC/GPU. All that aside, it’s an educational adventure even if you don’t appreciate the rest. They also have a very active Discord community with users talking and helping one another.
Do you have a favorite website, content creator or channel you follow? Send me the info. The more we build together, the stronger the community gets, the closer we all come to making that special game that somebody else will look back on fondly when they’re all grown up and their knee pops like mine.