Make great games
How to make a great game, whatever engine you use
Start from where you are. A new idea, a three.js prototype, a Unity or Unreal project, or a Godot or GameMaker game each has a different next step. The habits that make a game good are the same for all of them.
Where are you starting from?
- Starting a new game?Build one verb and the loop around it, prove it in a 10-minute vertical slice, and test it with five strangers before you make content.Read the new game guide
- Already built a three.js game?three.js draws the scene and leaves the editor, physics and export pipeline to you. See what moves to a game engine, what gets rewritten, and when to keep the web build.Read the three.js guide
- A Unity game?No converter produces a working game. Map GameObjects, prefabs and MonoBehaviours to nodes, scenes and scripts, then rebuild in the order that keeps the game playable at every step.Read the Unity guide
- An Unreal game?Blueprints and C++ gameplay are rewritten, while meshes and levels can move. Check your asset licences and whether your look depends on Unreal-only features before you start.Read the Unreal guide
- A Godot, GameMaker or other game?Summer opens Godot 4 projects (commit a copy first), so the work is export templates, Steam integration and store builds.Read the Godot guideComing from GameMaker? GameMaker to Godot
A great game is usually a small game done with care. It has one core action that feels good, a first minute that teaches it without a wall of text, clear feedback every time the player presses a button, and a scope the team can actually finish. Pick your starting point below for a step by step guide, then use the four goals to decide what happens once the game works.
What great games have in common
Genre, art style and engine vary. These four traits show up in almost every game players remember, and each one is cheap to check before you spend months on content.
One core verb
Celeste gives the player three actions, jump, dash and climb, and builds every screen around combining them. Write your verb as one word, such as jump, shoot, place, match or steer. If it takes a sentence, you probably have two games, and the new game guide shows how to build the loop around one.
A first minute that teaches it
Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka told Eurogamer in 2015 that World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. was built as a tutorial, so players would gradually and naturally understand what the game is about within that one level. Test your own opening by handing the controller to someone new and staying silent. If they have not used your core verb within 60 seconds, the first minute needs work, and more tutorial text will not fix it.
Feedback on every input
In his talk The Art of Screenshake, Vlambeer's Jan Willem Nijman adds one layer of feedback at a time to a plain shooter, such as screen shake, hit reactions and short pauses on impact, until the same rules feel completely different. Every press should answer with a sound, an animation and a change in the world. The new game guide lists the tuning values that make movement feel right.
A scope you can finish
A finished small game teaches more than an unfinished big one, because menus, saves, builds and store pages only show up at the end. Keep a first game small enough to finish in about a month, with one mechanic, one setting and a handful of levels. The new game guide has the scope rule and how to cut down to it.
Four things to do once the game works
Every guide ends with the same four next steps, written for that starting point. Here is what each one means.
Port it to make money
Choose the store that fits the game and learn what it asks for. Steam charges a 100 USD Steam Direct fee per game, recouped once that game earns 1,000 USD, and keeps 30% of revenue up to 10 million USD. itch.io lets you set its share anywhere from 0 to 100%. Summer exports Windows and macOS builds, which is what both stores take for a desktop download.
How to make money from your indie gameRelease it on Summer Games
Summer Games is a new store for games made with Summer. It is launching soon. The games that will be ready for it are built in Summer, reviewed, and single-player first, so a finished single-player Summer project is the right thing to work toward now.
See Summer Games (launching soon)Grow it
Players find games through wishlists, store pages, trailers and creators. Put up a Steam Coming Soon page as soon as you can show the game, make capsule art at every required size, cut a trailer that shows play in the first seconds, and send keys to creators who cover your genre.
How to market an indie gameRemake it in Summer
Have an old game you still believe in? Start from a template close to it, give the agent your old code and design notes as the spec, and let it rebuild one system at a time while you playtest each one in the engine. Keep your tuning values and the assets you own.
Remake your game in SummerEvery guide
Every guide, grouped by where you start and what you do next.
- People starting a new gameHow to make a good game, starting from one verb
- Indie developers who want their game to earnHow to make money from indie games, store by store
- Indie developers getting a game noticedHow to market an indie game, from the first store page to launch
- three.js developersthree.js vs Godot, and when to move your game to an engine
- three.js developersthree.js games on Steam, and how to ship yours as a desktop app
- three.js and web game developersWhere to publish HTML5 games, portal by portal
- Unity developersUnity to Godot, a concept map and a rebuild order that works
- Unity developers shipping on SteamHow to sell Unity games on Steam, from licence to launch
- Unreal developersUnreal to Godot, what moves, what you rebuild and when to stay
- Unreal developersUnreal Engine HTML5 export, what happened and what works now
- Godot developersPublish a Godot game on Steam, itch.io, the web and Android
- GameMaker developersGameMaker to Godot, a GML to GDScript map for your port
- Developers with a finished or abandoned gameRemake your game in Summer, from old code to a better version
Questions about making a great game
I already have a game in another engine. Where do I start?
Pick your engine in the chooser above. The three.js, Unity, Unreal, Godot and GameMaker guides each map that engine's concepts to Godot 4 nodes and scenes, say what moves and what gets rewritten, and give the order to rebuild in. Nothing converts automatically, so every guide starts with a plan rather than a tool.
What makes a game great rather than just good?
Focus and care. Great games usually do fewer things and do them better, from how the first minute teaches the controls to how every hit sounds. Most of that care is tuning and feedback rather than extra features. The new game guide covers the basics that make a game good in the first place.
Which game engine should I use to make a great game?
The one you will finish a game in. Players never see the engine. Summer is a desktop engine for macOS and Windows with an AI agent built in and is compatible with Godot 4 workflows, and the guides above cover moving to it from three.js, Unity, Unreal, Godot and GameMaker.
What are the four goals at the end of every guide?
Port it to make money, release it on Summer Games once that store launches, grow it with a store page, trailer and creators, and remake it in Summer. Each guide writes them for its own starting point, so a Unity developer and a first-time developer get different advice for the same goal.
Do I need to know how to code?
It helps, but it is less of a gate than it was. In Summer you can describe a feature to the built-in agent, and it edits scenes and GDScript, runs the game and fixes errors. You still decide what the game is, and you still have to playtest it.
Can I publish on Summer Games today?
Not yet. Summer Games is a new store for games made with Summer and it is launching soon. Today you can build desktop games in Summer and release them on Steam or itch.io.