Gunnar Game Dev Tips #1

Yes I know I am using pastebin to do this, but to me it makes since.

My name is Gunnar Jessee, I am a game programmer and indie game developer. I have been making games for
3 years and have been programming for 6 years. Anyhow, I wanted to start this text series thing to see
if anyone would like to learn for my personal experiences of being a game dev.

Before I start I'd like to say that, I write all my games in Java so these may not be useful to some, but a lot of this has to deal
with game design concepts.

-First step to design a game
First off, if you want to make a game just to make a game, I got to tell you it is a lot easier if you know what kind of game you
are making. I do this thing a lot where I do not decide what kind of game I am making and it makes it really hard to figure out
how I should setup the back end of my game. Once you have an idea, really refine the idea and think of what kind of back end systems
you will need. For example, you want to write a platformer. Well what kind of playformer? Do you need lighting? Procedural terrain generation? Do you need to know the ID of each object that spawns? These are good example questions to ask yourself before you open up a workspace. Many times have a ignored this step and got coders burn out trying to figure out what all system I need in place. In addition, it is a good idea to write things down on paper or whiteboard and plan out visual what you want to do.

-Conclusion
This series of tips will continue on, but this is more of a PSA on how you pop ideas in your head before you start the programming or art work. Thank you for taking your time on reading this, I hope this helps you a little bit!

Thank you,
Gunnar