What I Learned From Making My First Game
When I started developing my first game, I quickly realized how incredibly challenging it is to handle everything on your own. I specifically chose to make a clicker game for Android because I thought it would be simple — but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The first major decision was choosing a game engine or framework. I ended up going with Godot because it’s free, lightweight, and has great Android integration. For graphics, I used Aseprite, and I found most of my sound effects from Itch.io.
It was a really fun experience overall. However, when it came time to monetize and publish the game, the real difficulty began. I integrated Google Ads for monetization — just out of curiosity, to be honest, since I expected fewer than 10 users.
I quickly found out that about 30% of my time was spent making the game, while 70% was spent figuring out how to properly publish and set up ads on the Google Play Store.
In total, the whole process took me about three months.
One thing that truly fascinated me was that the game ended up reaching over 500 downloads — far more than I had initially expected.
Was It Worth It?
Absolutely.
The knowledge and experience I gained were invaluable. I now feel much more confident using Godot and can use the engine to my advantage for future projects.
Why Did the Game Fail Commercially?
In short: it was boring.
It wasn’t engaging or fun enough to retain players — it didn’t have “the juice,” as they say. Honestly, even I struggle to enjoy it. To make it truly fun, it would require a complete redesign — and that wasn’t the goal for this project.
The goal was simple: to release the first game idea I ever had, an idea I had written in my phone’s notes years ago. It wasn’t about making a hit game; it was about finishing and publishing something, and I’m proud I stuck to that.
How Much Money Did the Game Make?
It made less than €20 — but at least it wasn’t zero.
For a first project, just making any amount felt like a small success.
What Would I Do Differently?
Next time, I would focus on making a more engaging and fun game.
The experience taught me that even a simple clicker game needs to offer real value or entertainment to keep players interested.
What Marketing Did I Do?
I kept marketing efforts small but tried a few things:
- Posting on Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok.
- Most of the traction came from game-related subreddits.
(Though many users weren’t shy about criticizing the game’s boring design — still, I appreciated the honest feedback and even got a few clicks!)
How I Plan to Move Forward
The next big goal is to develop a Steam game that I’m truly proud of — a game I can maintain and update for years, similar to what Valve did with games like CS:GO and TF2.
At the same time, I still plan to keep releasing smaller games for Android or the web, because I love the idea of having a collection of little games I can showcase to people, right in the palm of my hand.
Thanks for reading about my journey! If you’re thinking about starting your own first project, my advice is simple: start now, finish it, and don’t stress about perfection. The experience you gain is worth every bit of the struggle.