My Game Dev Journey from Zero to Steam in 3 Months!

Truly inspirational, lately I am getting an urge to work on game development.

Real programmers are surrounded by 20 crushed cans of coke, an ashtray full to the brim and dirty dishes

I've given myself a deadline of 3 1/2 months to finish my current project :D Your Video is perfectly timed! The indepth look into releasing on Steam is very useful for anyone thinking about releasing that way, gets you ready for the Bumps in the road .. it ain't all Rainbows and Daisies!

Such a cool idea. On my wish list!

I think a candy land and maybe santas workshop backdrop would be really cool in this game! The game is looking good like always!

Awesome video. The scene switcher would be a total vibe if it was an arrow system nested on the side of the screen to scroll through the different stages until you found the one that suited you. The buttons do allow for gamification more easily as you can let the user know the level is locked, but you might be able to accomplish that by putting a black and white shader over locked levels and a simple message. I am a minimalist and hate buttons, haha. As always, I have to tell you something I would want in this game. I would love if you hooked into the spotify api to display the song I'm currently listening to. Music sprites coming out of the window would be awesome if the user is using that functionality. Lastly, give me an RV and things to tow, haha. Cheers!

Did I see that correct, your chair is on a glass pane?

Really great video and I love the idea! I really appreciate the hard work you're putting into your passion, it's really great content for an aspiring game developer.

Something I'm interested however is: How do you actually manage to do this? I mean, maybe it's a mindset thing, but there are just so many things to do in life... You have a spouse, you've got your chores - cooking, cleaning, lundry, etc., your work, hobbies, workouts, your dog... How do you manage to do ALL of that, and still have time to build a game? That's the part that really is hindering me from starting game dev as I just didn't find the time to invest in it.

Don't let my negativity get to ya though! This is some great stuff!

What engine is this?

I've been waiting for my motivational video, thank you ! :D

i love c#, my issue is graphic desinging characters, how did you overcome that or you probably have a graphic design background ? thanks

Wishlisted! From everything I've seen in this video I'd argue it should be more like $5 (or more). I've been needing something like this both for game dev but also just for myself getting totally hyperfixated on things and forgetting to eat, drink, or sleep. Excited for the release!

Wishlisted! Hope you develop a lot of stages as DLCs. Maybe dynamic weather?

Wow, very timely -- I was just thinking of diving into Godot and you're on a Mac as well! If you don't mind me asking... are you using C# or Swift with Godot? Great video and thanks for the inspiration!

EDIT: I found your "The Tools I Use" video from last year so I will watch this STAT... thanks again!

I’d love LOVE to see a “Rusty’s Retirement” mode where the game can occupy just a small strip at the bottom of the screen so I can multitask on the same screen!

Looks great! Awesome to see the progress. I like the concept of a task is a road trip.

This is super cool! Just wishlisted. Not sure if this is part of your plan, but I would suggest that if someone ends a work session early then they shouldn't get exp towards increasing their level. This would incentivize doing work sessions to completion.

Thank you thank you thank you for walking us through a lot of the steam release process. I'm going to refer to this video if a time comes when I want to publish a game on steam. Knowing the process is a lot more painful than releasing on the Google Play Store is scary and gives me the heeby jeebies at face value, but then I also get a lot of peace seeing you kindly share your journey and resources. Thank you muchly mate.

Hi Ben!
Thanks for your video, it was truly inspiring.

I'm not a developer myself, I'm a freelance writer, but let me tell you, our jobs aren't that different.

I also have to organize my projects with a forward-looking perspective and organize the tasks within them. Then, in each session, I plan what I'm going to be working on. I design, write, revise... and so on until the project is complete for publication, which can take me a year in some cases and up to three in others, depending on how ambitious the novel is.

Lately, I've been having trouble concentrating on the tasks, since it's still a hobby I do outside of work and it requires effort and mental capacity that I don't have every day after an 8-hour long day at the office. I think a time management tool like the one you're developing could help me stay focused and avoid distractions, allowing me to organize my breaks and focus on the tasks to be completed in each session.

I'm really looking forward to it being available on Steam so I can purchase it and start using it. I'm sure it will improve my concentration.

Thank you so much for working on a tool that will be beneficial to others.
Best regards.

So you even write your own music, wow! How do you go about it? Where did you learn? What apps do you use? Maybe you can recommend some tutorials or courses if you learned it by yourself?

I will request that the hood of the pick up is higher then the loading space of the pick up ! like a vintage pick up

It is 10000% worth $3, very impressive stuff and congratulations!

Reminds me of the game "On Track" ! Great vid

I would love to see a video on how you learned to program. From the beginning until now, how you progressed and what did you do to stay consistent and learn. I'm starting with GDScript and your channel is a gem! Can't wait to see more

this is sick man, excited to use range!

You are so productive and focused. It seems that you work on the game every day. How do you manage it? Don't you get distracted with gaming or movies or life? Do you even play games or watch movies?

I want to be focused and productive, but I'm so passionate about gaming, I have so many games I would love to play, to experience. How do you go about it?

Are you planning to release on Android? I'd buy if it was available there ☺️

thank you for showing the code and giving a high level description, as a beginner this is so insightful!

This story was really inspiring for me. It must be so cool to see your product listed there right alongside "the greats". Here's hoping I get to do the same someday. Awesome work, awesome video.

very good! a hug from Brazil!

Dolphin aint getting finished till at least 2040 at this rate of development

Thanks for sharing the process, it is very valuable. As for the game, I wishlisted it and not sure if you'd come down to making a version of it where it sits at the bottom of the screen (vs. take up the whole screen), I'd definitely buy that too :)

This is great. I'd love to see a couple of scenes with rain or snow. My ideal working place is dark, raining, no music, and just the sound of rain. I realize it would be a lot of work, but adding settings to your scenes would be amazing: day or night (accomplish with shaders?), optional rain or snow, music optional, and sound effects optional.

Make sure to include metric 🙏

Wishlisted! 💪

Great video, amazing how even "simple" games can take so much work. I launched by first Steam game over a year ago and I remember the process of getting it on Steam was epic. This has brough it all flooding back. Trying to get all the achievements to pop off nearly drove me crazy! I'm assuming you used the SteamPipe Build uploader? I compiled mine on PC, so can't speak for the Mac process. The various banners and graphics was by far the most time consuming aspect for me. I think there are even more of them now, since I went live in '23. As I am from the UK it also took about 2 months to get my tax approved, absolute nightmare! My Advice, get started early on the Steam journey asap, there are enough things to worry about when it gets close to launch!

I aspire to be as motivated as you are after work lol

Can you share the link to your discord? Can't find it! Love the idea of this game

Thanks for mentioning Codecks! Congrats on the release! We're rooting for you over here. :)

Range is for sure worth $5. I would definitely pay $5.

great work ! I think the stop button should have a confirmation window to avoid missclicks and/or a resume option after stopping the project to get back to it, because pausing is sometimes not a good option..

Man out of all the videos I watch you are easily the one that inspires me to get my ass into gear. Thank you for the great content.

Great progress and interesting sharing the process of submitting your game to steam. I think the workout videos are unnecessary!

You could use a map for settings tasks and time. Task is a destination and time to get there. This could be tracked while the car is driving

I appreciate the effort gone into producing this devlog!
All the best with your release/s <3

I think it would be awesome if you added some weather, specifically I would love a thunderstorm/rainstorm

What an amazing project! I've already added it to my wish list and can't wait to use it in my workdays.

I'm available if you have a bigger project for it, to translate it. I'm from Brazil and I'd be very happy to help translate the entire system into Portuguese, no matter how simple it is!

This game would be perfect on steam. It would be very nice just to have on the side with the car driving, especially for people who don't have a second monitor to dedicate to the game.

how old are you

Link in the description if you'd like to check out Range's Steam page! Thank's for watching y'all.