Vie Eik is no stranger to game development, having previously worked on multiple AAA titles as an animator. However, he’s now at the helm of Ghost Machine – a new indie studio founded by multiple Malaysian game industry veterans, working on their first game – the upcoming Katana Rama.

We had the chance to sit in on his recent university sharing session, “Carry Forward, Not Start Over,” and learn a few lessons from his game development journey.

A Challenge To Myself

Vie Eik opened the session by discussing his previous job as an animator at Passion Republic. He talked about excelling at his job and also having a great interest and almost encyclopaedic knowledge of video games.

On top of that, he discussed feeling especially comfortable in his career around 3 years into it. With all those factors in mind, his feelings about games and potentially making his own compounded into a want to “prove it, prove that you CAN make games”.

The First Game Trap

“Don’t fall into the First Game Trap,” he told the room. But what is the First Game Trap?

• Doing genres that we’re not familiar with.
• Overthinking the game’s unique points.
• Overthinking the story.
• Not playing to your strengths and weaknesses.

Your first game will not be perfect, but far from it. Similar advice has been given by other industry veterans. Your first game will be exactly as said; your first game.

It will be your first attempt at making something new within this genre, this artistic medium. It’s important to not get hyper-focused on creating something that will be the best thing ever, but rather just make it. 

Always Carry Forward, and Learn As You Go

Vie Eik ended his session by reminding the room to think of your strengths and weaknesses, your skills, your past experiences. These are all assets that can help you to make the best things possible – and that we continue to grow by experiencing more, which we can later use to help what we seek to create. 

“Always carry forward and try to learn more as you go.” Don’t feel the urge to start over every time you start on something new – there’s nothing stopping you from taking what you’ve already learned, and figuring out how to apply it to the next new thing, then letting the cycle continue forward each and every time. 

Wise words of advice! We wish Vie Eik and the Ghost Machine team all the best on their game, and look forward to playing Katana Rama’s when it’s released. In the meantime, you can check out the demo on Steam!