Start Small, Start Cheap, and Grow. It’s very easy to get burnt out.
Consider this more manageable approach.
Make sure you have a solid idea of what you want. Nothing burns time and money like indecision and rewrites.
- Write your Story. Make sure you have a solid idea of what you want. Lock it down!
- Game Design Document. Google it! Lock down all your gameplay ideas and designs. Make a plan.
- Make a short Demo. Developing a full AAA photorealistic game is challenging without a budget and resources. A Demo that captures your idea is more attainable. Learn the bare minimum to get this demo out. There are a lot of people, all over the world, looking for projects to be apart of. Make deals! Network with people. Students need experience. A lot of programmers are looking for artist to further their reels, artist are looking for projects to add to their resume. Student modelers are looking for riggers to rigg for them. Riggers look for models to rig. Animators are looking for rigged models to practice on. Everyone gets something. Be a good manager.
- Get the money. Pitch your Demo. Put it on Kickstarter. Have people who want to play your game help with the funding. Demo is your key. Pitch it on YouTube. Have it catch the eye of publishers who may want to fund it.
- Set achivable milestones.
Most of these can be fairly cheap, maybe even free.
Start writing.