Im trying linux, now im thinking of trying gamedev next. ive watched a ton of devlogs over the years, ive always wanted to make a game but im not sure i have what it takes?
Also is there a free engine i should study if someday i want to make a steam game or join some jam?
I’d try the Godot Engine if I were you, given you know how to program. If not, I recommend learning the basics of programing first.
I don’t want to sound discouraging, but for many it’s a lengthy process to make any decent game. That’s specially true if you want to learn about creating assets. As long as you do it for fun that doesn’t matter though. Point being: don’t expect to spend a month and create a hit. Just have fun doing it.
Start with game jam. I recommend to start with Godot. It’s quite easy with a bunch of tutorials. I have done couple of game jams.
For a steam game you need to have at least 2 hours of playtime, as everyone will just refund it.
Game jams are awesome! Even if the game is awful (most of mine are, at least), you still learn a lot about managing a project and getting something from start to finish. Godot is your best bet, it has been used in lots of great indie games (off the top of my head, Brotato used Godot I think), and GDScript (Python with optional explicit types basically) is far easier to approach compared to C# (Unity) or C++ (Unreal)
If you already know how to make nice art/sounds, great! If you don’t, like when I first started, that’s also fine! There are lots of good free assets (see OpenGameArt, Kenney, bfxr, Jummbox, etc.), and pixel art is also fun to learn. I use Aseprite, but any software will do.
I hope Linux is going well for you! Remember that you can easily hop between distros by copying the home directory to a new install.



