What is the hardest thing in game development process? [closed]

Question

I am new to the game-dev area, although I have professional experience in programming and some other qualities like making graphics in Photoshop or 3D modelling. Currently I am learning one widely used game engine connected with another free 3D modeling tool and my problem is that from my beginner's perspective, it all seems relatively easy and I know that this is not true. Right now It seems I can find all knowledge I need in some online tutorials, courses and if something is missing I can still ask a question on websites such as this one.

I plan to do an FPS multiplayer game as my first game and I wonder what is the hardest (most time, energy or money consuming) stage of game development in 2020?

I am asking because right now I think I can make 30-50% (prototype and some assets like 3d models) of the game myself in around year period of time and maybe later get more money to finish the project, but I know it is not true and this is only my beginner's unexperienced imagination, because similar games are usually being done by a team of experienced developers and their games still have bugs, glitches and other issues and I know some other similar but amateur projects that were started by one or two people and eventually were abandoned due to unknown reason (mostly lack of time I assume). So I am wondering what are the stages that cause most amateurs to fail and abandon their ideas, is it modeling, programing, networking, debugging?

Answer 1

Polishing because it's the biggest unknown. And don't forget Game Design ;)

It's generally said that the first 90% of a game take half your development time, the other half is spent on the remaining 10% (at least i was taught that at university). The hardest stage is polishing, because - as you said - creating the core game mechanics and assets is all doable and relatively plannable.

But when it comes to how exactly those mechanics interact with each other, there is just some unpredictability and it can be very hard to "get it right" and make the game "feel" right.

Performance / optimization / debugging can also be an issue here. There are a lot of well known (and arguably good) games which were released because the developer ran out of money but could have been so much better with a few more months of polishing (e.g. Stalker).

I think most abandoned amateur projects were abandoned during polishing aswell.

However, if you know exactly what kind of game you want to make and how your concept will work out (which you usually don't and probably shouldn't), or you are making a game where performance won't be much of an issue (like some 2d pixel art), polishing phase can also be very short.

Also, if this is your first game ever, try something very small in scope and focus on finishing it. Probably do a few very simple games as practice before you devote a year of your time, or do a prototype of your game containing some core game mechanics.