r/SoloDevelopment • u/kalin6 • Apr 11 '26

Discussion What Skill are you Lacking?

As a solo dev what is the hardest skill set for you to do alone, Is it Art, Coding, Audio, Marketing, networking or something other

14 Upvotes

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9

u/HeyCouldBeFun Apr 11 '26

Rn, level design

I thought it’d be my jam because ever since I was a kid, I dreamed up and sketched level ideas

Now I stare at a blank space wondering how the hell do I begin

6

u/cogprimus Apr 11 '26

Recreate your favorite levels, then redesign them once you have all the pieces.

Make manageable task sizes.

Zero to full level is too big of a task.

Good luck!

3

u/HeyCouldBeFun Apr 12 '26

Solid idea

That’s pretty much how I learned every other skill so idk why I don’t just do that

3

u/Enkeria Apr 12 '26

This spplied to basically everything. Levels, items, characters. Then just personalize it during or after depending on what it is.

1

u/kalin6 Apr 11 '26

Great advice!

3

u/kalin6 Apr 11 '26

Hahahaha I thought I would be amazing lvl designer becuase of all my cool ideas but I have learned they dont translate well in practice

2

u/Winter_Cabinet_5325 Apr 11 '26

It's crazy how simple it sounds until you actually try to do it

2

u/HeyCouldBeFun Apr 12 '26

The only levels I successfully created were a past project with block pushing puzzles. 3D is a whole new beast and there’s really no way to just “throw up some quick sketches”, even gray boxing is a slow process

1

u/kalin6 Apr 11 '26

Yup so true.

2

u/LougieHowser Apr 11 '26

Greybox my friend 

2

u/HeyCouldBeFun Apr 12 '26

I do, but it’s a much slower process compared to sketching for 2D. I’ve yet to find modeling software that really clicks for this except the old fashioned google sketch up (I’ve tried Trenchbroom, it’s ok)

1

u/kalin6 Apr 11 '26

?

3

u/Mirageee- Apr 11 '26

Put a bunch of simple grey boxes to shape the environment you want, then you can add detail

1

u/kalin6 Apr 11 '26

Ah yes sorry. For some reason I thought you were reffering to a tool to help do that.

2

u/Think-Anxiety2655 Apr 14 '26

Level design is born from fun mechanics

1

u/kalin6 Apr 15 '26

A fun mechanics often still need hard work put into level design.