Welcome to
My Game Development Journey

Hey there, and welcome to the first post of my blog! I’m excited to finally share this part of my journey with you all. My name is Berat Çevik, and I’ve been deep into the world of game development for a while now. This blog is where I’ll be sharing the highs, lows, and everything in between as I work on The Shadows Within: Nightmare’s Game—the game that has consumed my time, energy, and creativity for the last years.

Game development is an incredibly exciting journey, and at first, it was all about bringing the worlds in my head to life. I started by creating simple games as a hobby, but over time, this passion grew into something more serious. Once upon a time, I worked in the healthcare sector, but I found myself increasingly uninspired. I longed for the freedom to create and share my own worlds, to invite others into the stories and environments I had been imagining for years. That’s when I decided to dive headfirst into the gaming industry and make this passion my career.

At first, it was all fun and games. It felt like a dream come true: bringing characters to life, crafting entire environments, and watching everything slowly come together. But, as with any journey, reality soon hit. The truth is, game development is far from easy—especially when you’re trying to tackle a project as big as The Shadows Within: Nightmare’s Game, all on your own.

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced throughout this project is realizing that, no matter how big or small, a game is always a team effort. It’s not just about writing the story or crafting the mechanics—though those things are essential—it’s about visual design, soundscapes, coding, testing, marketing, and much more. A game, even a simple one, is an intricate web of moving parts, and each part requires its own attention to detail. And yet, here I am, trying to do everything myself, playing the role of an entire team. It’s exhausting, overwhelming, and often leads to moments of deep frustration.

When I first started, I underestimated how much time and energy it would take to juggle all these responsibilities. I thought I could handle everything, but that illusion shattered the moment I realized how much work goes into even the most basic elements of game development. And while I love storytelling and game design, keeping track of deadlines, balancing my workload, and managing the entire development process alone? That’s a whole different story.

To be honest, time management has been my biggest struggle. I’m absolutely terrible at it. I often find myself caught in a cycle of thinking, “Oh, I can do this in an hour,” and then, hours later, I’m still nowhere near done. I’ve missed deadlines, overestimated my productivity, and let my motivation slip when I felt overwhelmed. Some days, the tasks seem endless, and no matter how much I work, the finish line feels just out of reach. It’s hard not to get discouraged when you realize that no matter how much you pour into a project, there’s always more to be done.

And then there’s the budget. Oh boy, the budget. As much as I love creating, I’m not a financial expert. Budgeting has been a constant challenge, and with no external funding or support, it often feels like I’m running on fumes. Every dollar I spend on tools, software, or marketing is one that comes straight out of my pocket, and when things get tight (which is often), it’s easy to feel like I’m sinking. There are moments when I wonder if I’m really cut out for this, but then I remember why I started in the first place: to bring my vision to life, no matter how difficult it may seem.

The technical side of game development has also presented its fair share of challenges. When choosing a game engine, the options are vast. Typically, you’d want a robust, professional engine, and Unreal Engine is one of the best in the business. The features and capabilities it offers are second to none. However, it’s not always the best fit for an indie developer working alone. Unreal Engine, while amazing, requires significant resources to truly harness its full potential, and it’s not easy to access those resources on your own. For example, one of the most recent updates to Unreal Engine introduced features like Megalight, which improved my game’s FPS by about +10. While that was a huge win, it came with its own set of problems. New technologies like DLSS, FSR, and XESS were released to enhance performance, but the official support for them didn’t arrive until weeks after their initial release. It left me in a tough spot because, as an indie developer, I don’t have a dedicated engineering team to handle these challenges. I was forced to rely on unofficial community patches and workarounds, but still couldn’t get the results I wanted. It’s been frustrating, to say the least.

I also had to come to terms with the fact that as a solo developer, there’s no one to pass the torch to when things get tough. Marketing, design, testing—everything falls on me. Every ounce of my time and energy goes into this project, and while that’s incredibly rewarding, it’s also exhausting. As the days drag on, I sometimes feel like I’m losing a part of myself to this project, but I keep going because there’s no turning back.

One thing I’ve learned through all this is that game development is a true test of patience and resilience. When things go wrong—and they will go wrong—you can either give up, or you can push through. No matter how many late nights I’ve had, or how many times I’ve had to scrap and rework sections of my game, the final product always makes it worth it. There’s a satisfaction in creating something from nothing, in watching all those tiny details fall into place, in seeing your vision come to life.

But the journey isn’t over. The Shadows Within: Nightmare’s Game is far from finished, and there are many more lessons to be learned, more hurdles to overcome. I’m constantly learning and adapting, and while I’ve had my fair share of struggles with time management and budget, I know one thing for sure: I’ll keep pushing forward. Because at the end of the day, this is my passion, and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.