Game Dev is tedious — and I like it.
Source: Dev.to
Background
In 2021 I was a beginner programmer who loved Roblox Studio. YouTube recommended a lot of game‑dev content that wasn’t specific to Roblox, and I was flooded with ideas. My laptop was 13 years old and didn’t meet Unity’s official system requirements, but I installed Unity anyway and dove straight into a project using Brackeys tutorials, other YouTube videos, Stack Overflow, and forum posts—no formal courses.
The game’s name emerged from a quick chat with an online developer friend: HALIENS (a mash‑up of Hacking + Aliens, Harry and the Aliens, etc.). The name stuck, even though it had no real meaning.
Project Timeline
- Initial development (2021‑2022) – I started the project without a design document, learning Unity on the fly.
- Public showcases – The game was featured on three platforms:
- Former website (now at https://homepage-2sg.pages.dev/)
- YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Proman4713GameDev
- First video on my current channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYe8YqWcqv8 (the development actually took about one year, not four).
- Late 2023 – I shifted focus to another project and abandoned HALIENS, deeming it too demanding in time and money. The unfinished state was pushed to GitHub.
- Recent revisit – While editing a video, I finally switched the project from Unity’s built‑in renderer to the Universal Rendering Pipeline (URP), fixing lighting issues that had plagued me for months.
Lessons Learned
- Preparation matters – I began without a game‑design document or a clear plan, which caused me to miss the opportunity to start the Unity project with URP from the beginning.
- Skill growth – At the time I lacked the necessary 2D art, video‑editing, voice‑over, and system‑design skills. I’ve since improved in those areas.
- Hardware constraints – My old laptop made Unity operations painfully slow (30 + minutes for simple tasks). I learned work‑arounds like alt‑tabbing between Unity and Visual Studio 2019 to speed up script compilation.
- Resource management – Limited time and money made it hard to sustain a volunteer team and keep the project moving forward.
These points illustrate why the project stalled and why proper planning, realistic scope, and adequate resources are essential for indie developers.
Future Plans
I’m not giving up on HALIENS. The next idea is a prequel, HALIENS Season 0: It All Begins (title subject to change). The envisioned series:
- Season 1 – The main game (already partially documented).
- Season 0 – A 2‑/2.5‑D prequel about humanity’s ruin of Earth, reusing assets, UI, and scripts from Season 1 (except the unique main logo).
- Season 2 – A sequel following the player’s search for surviving humans after the events of Season 1.
Season 0’s success will determine whether Seasons 1 and 2 ever materialize. I’m committing to share the development process openly: blog posts on DEV.to, occasional YouTube updates, and demos or trailers on my Discord server. Each update will highlight what I’m doing differently compared to the original HALIENS development.
Call to Action
If you want to follow the journey, see demos, or discuss game development, you can:
- Join my Discord server
- Follow me on DEV.to
- Support me with a “Buy Me a Coffee” (you can leave a custom message for a personal reply)
I’ll document every stage of HALIENS S0, detailing the solutions to the problems I faced with S1, hoping to help other aspiring developers avoid similar pitfalls.
Happy hacking!