You Don't Need a CS Degree
Let's get this out of the way: you do not need to know how to code to start making games. You don't need a computer science degree. You don't need to understand algorithms or data structures or whatever else sounds intimidating. The first people who ever made video games were hobbyists messing around with hardware in their spare time. They figured it out as they went, and you can too.
Modern game engines have made this easier than it's ever been. Some have visual scripting systems where you connect nodes instead of typing code. Others use beginner-friendly languages that read almost like plain English. And even if you do end up writing code (which you probably will eventually, and that's fine), it won't look anything like the dense, abstract stuff you see in university textbooks. Game code is practical. You write a line that says "move the player right" and the player moves right. It clicks faster than you'd expect.
If you can use a computer, you can make a game. Not a hypothetical, hand-wavy "anyone can do anything" kind of statement. A literal one. People with zero programming background ship games every single day. The only real requirement is that you're willing to sit down, pick a tool, and start building something. That's it. Everything else you learn along the way.
Pick an Engine and Stick With It
A game engine is the software you use to actually build your game. It handles rendering, physics, input, audio -- all the heavy lifting so you can focus on making the thing fun. There are three main options worth looking at as a beginner:
Godot -- Free and open-source. Its scripting language, GDScript, was designed specifically for game development and is one of the easiest languages to pick up. It's excellent for 2D games and increasingly capable for 3D. The community is growing fast, and because it's open-source, there are no licensing fees or revenue splits. This is what we use at jazudu.
Unity -- The most widely used engine in the indie space. It has the largest community, which means the most tutorials, forum answers, and asset store content. You'll write C#, which is a bit more verbose than GDScript but is a widely-used professional language. Unity has a free tier that covers most indie needs.
GameMaker -- Built specifically for 2D games. It offers drag-and-drop visual scripting alongside its own language (GML) for when you want more control. If your first game idea is a 2D platformer, top-down shooter, or anything pixel-art-based, GameMaker is a solid pick.
Here's the advice that will save you weeks of wasted time: stop comparing and just pick one. Seriously. The differences between engines matter far less than the time you spend actually using one. Every engine can make every kind of game. The "best" engine is whichever one you sit down and learn. If you pick wrong (you probably won't), switching later is not that hard because the concepts transfer. We have a curated list of engines and learning resources if you want to compare, but don't let research become procrastination. Pick one today, install it today, open it today.
Start With Something Tiny
Your first game should not be the open-world RPG you've been dreaming about since you were twelve. I know that's the game you want to make. I know you've got a 40-page design document in your head with branching storylines and a crafting system. Put that aside. You'll get there, but not yet.
Your first game should be something you can finish in a weekend. Pong. A coin collector where a character walks around and picks up items. A ball that bounces off walls. Something with maybe three mechanics total. The goal isn't to make something impressive. The goal is to finish something. That distinction matters more than anything else in this entire article.
Finishing a tiny game teaches you the full pipeline: how to set up a project, how to handle input, how to detect collisions, how to display a score, how to make a menu, how to export a build someone else can play. Every one of those steps has lessons in it. And every one of those lessons applies directly to the big game you actually want to make. Scope creep -- the tendency to keep adding features to a project that's already too ambitious -- is the number one killer of beginner projects. You beat it by starting so small that there's nothing to creep into.
Think of your first game as a training exercise, not a portfolio piece. Nobody's going to judge you for making Pong. But you'll judge yourself pretty harshly if you spend six months on a dream project and never ship it.
The 5 Things Every Game Needs
Regardless of genre, engine, or scope, every game boils down to the same five components. If you have these, you have a game. If you're missing one, you have a tech demo.
- A player that moves (input handling) -- The player presses a button, something happens on screen. This is the most fundamental piece. Arrow keys move a character. Mouse click fires a projectile. Spacebar jumps. Without player input, you have an animation, not a game.
- Something to interact with (objects, enemies, collectibles) -- The world needs stuff in it. Coins to collect, enemies to avoid, platforms to land on, doors to open. These are the things that give the player a reason to move around.
- A goal (score, finish line, survive) -- The player needs to know what they're trying to do. Collect 10 coins. Reach the flag. Survive for 60 seconds. Get the highest score. Without a goal, there's no motivation to keep playing.
- Feedback (sounds, visual effects, score display) -- When the player does something, the game needs to respond. A sound when you pick up a coin. A screen shake when you take damage. A number going up on the score counter. Feedback is what makes a game feel alive instead of hollow.
- A start and end (menu, game over screen) -- The game needs a way to begin and a way to end. Even if it's just a "Press Start" screen and a "Game Over" message, these bookends turn your prototype into something that feels complete and playable.
That's the whole checklist for a first game. Get those five things working and you've built something real. Everything after that -- polish, levels, difficulty curves, saving progress -- is just layering on top of this foundation.
Free Tools to Get You Started
One of the best things about game dev in 2026 is that you can do almost everything for free. Beyond the engines themselves, here are some tools that can help fill in the gaps:
- Need sound effects? Sound Lab lets you generate game SFX right in your browser -- jump sounds, coin pickups, lasers, explosions.
- Need a beat for your menu screen? Beat Lab is a free drum machine you can use to build looping patterns.
- Need to name your characters? Name Generator covers 8 categories from fantasy to sci-fi.
- Need to track what you've done and what's left? Game Dev Tracker has a pre-loaded checklist covering every aspect of game development.
You don't need to buy anything to make your first game. The engine is free, the tools are free, and the knowledge is all over the internet. The only cost is your time.
Common Beginner Mistakes
Almost every beginner makes the same mistakes. Knowing about them won't fully prevent them (you'll probably still make a few), but at least you'll recognize what's happening when you do.
- Trying to make a huge game first. This is the big one. Your dream game is a five-year project for a team of twenty people. Start with something you can finish in a week.
- Switching engines constantly. You'll see someone online say that Engine X is better than Engine Y, and you'll be tempted to start over. Don't. The grass is not greener. Every engine has trade-offs, and the only way to discover them is to go deep on one.
- Spending too long on art before gameplay works. It's tempting to draw beautiful sprites and design levels before the core mechanics are functional. But if the gameplay doesn't work, the art doesn't matter. Get a colored rectangle moving around and interacting with things. Make it fun with placeholder art first. Polish comes last.
- Not playtesting. You know how your game works because you built it. Other people don't. Watch someone else play your game without helping them, and you'll learn more in five minutes than you will in a week of solo development. Things that seem obvious to you will confuse everyone else.
- Never finishing. The hardest part of game dev is the last 10%. It's not glamorous work -- fixing bugs, adding menus, balancing difficulty, handling edge cases. Most people quit here and start a new project. Don't. Push through the boring parts and ship it. A finished game, no matter how simple, is worth more than ten abandoned prototypes.
None of these mistakes are fatal. Every game developer has made most of them at some point. The difference between people who eventually ship games and people who don't isn't talent -- it's the willingness to recognize when you're stuck in one of these patterns and course-correct.
So here's your action plan: pick an engine, install it, and make the simplest game you can think of. Don't plan it for a week. Don't watch fifteen tutorials first. Open the engine, follow the getting-started guide, and start placing objects in a scene. You'll learn more in your first hour of actually building something than you will in a month of reading about it. The only wrong move is not starting.