“This is a wonderful course. It covers just about everything one should know concerning the process of indie game development, from fleshing out the idea to marketing and launch. David is a great instructor, engaging and very passionate about the art of making games, which helps to motivate you as a student. A valuable resource and learning experience.”

5 out of 5 stars

“I wanted to thank you for creating this course. What has made you stand out from other content creators on YouTube and ultimately what convinced me to join this course is your vulnerable and sincere approach and motivation that it is possible for a solo developer to make and finish games. I was stuck in education mode because I felt I needed to know everything about game development before I start making a “real” game. Also the daunting task of having to create every asset from scratch or needing a large team just made my goals unattainable. You have showed and convinced me that it is possible to create and finish games that I care about. You sharing your experience and process has made my goals attainable.

I have not yet finished the full content of your course so I cannot give you a conclusive review. I see your video content as 3 categories; informative, inspirational, and instructive. I am really engaged in the informative and inspirational aspects of your content and would like to see more of that. I also am really impressed in your engagement in the community forum and it really shows your passion in helping people. Allowing the community to share their progress and milestones in their game dev journey is inspiring and motivating. Seeing others finish their games is incredible and really excites me to finish mine. It would be cool if you could interview students (or allow them to provide testimonials) when they finish and publish their game. What really helps me more than anything is believing that it is possible and seeing and hearing from others who have finished their game.

Thank you again for starting this, asking for feedback, and being your awesome self.”

4 out of 5 stars

“I really like how it is oriented to going from getting an idea to posting it in Steam (instead of courses about coding, game polishing, etc...)”

5 out of 5 stars

“First thing that stood out to me that drove me to buy the course was the obvious passion and excitement that David has making games! Being a part of the community has really driven me to work hard and to accomplish big things! It provides the confidence in me that I can do it! I've learned Unity and now trying to learn UE4. Learned that I enjoy making atmospheric levels and that’s where I find most of my excitement for games in. Thank you!”

4 out of 5 stars

“I think tips from a successful indie developer has much more value than an industry veteran working with AAA games. Being an indie game developer myself, I prefer learning how to make and market a game with minimal expenditure and getting results, as we don't have budgets like big companies. The course is well structured, even for non-programmers. I learned the hard way the importance of using assets, and this course highlights that early on. It's a realistic course, no fairy tales.”

5 out of 5 stars

“The GDU course has been fantastic so far. It is very resourceful, especially for a beginner like myself. Being new to game dev is a bit scary and overwhelming, but having David's lead in the course along with a discord full of other insightful devs, and a bunch of free games / software discounts is really what makes the course worth it for me. Even with so much info and tools I don't find myself getting lost or overwhelmed because of the way the course progresses. I can’t wait until the full course is finished!”

5 out of 5 stars

“This course is perfect for anyone looking in becoming a game dev. David covers everything you need to create your first game and then goes above and beyond giving you knowledge that even 4 year degree seems to miss. Courses like this are few and far between. I have spent too much money on tutorials and workshops that don't even get close to the content and knowledge that David is sharing within this course. You will not regret signing up for this course!!!!!!”

5 out of 5 stars

“Absolutely fantastic content. I'm learning something new every day and the community is amazing as well. Highly recommend.”

5 out of 5 stars

“David is putting together an amazing interactive and inclusive program to truly help new game devs get their footing and set themselves up for success. His approach and words of wisdom are invaluable. Learn from his experience and get the basics and more along the way.”

5 out of 5 stars

“Game Dev Unlocked has been a fantastic learning experience! As a software developer at my day job, I was looking for more than just the technical tutorials on how to build games with Unity. The sections on marketing, idea generation and inspiration, and what to expect at launch and how to prepare for it have been worth the cost alone! Thank you!”

5 out of 5 stars

“I like the Action driven style of the course. To actually get things done. Production quality is superb. Overall is a great course and I really like the community that we are creating on the Discord Server, everyone is willing to help. I hope David keeps encouraging and guiding the "Culture" of the community. Thanks!”

5 out of 5 stars

“David's course is a great primer for any aspiring game creator looking to develop their first game. You'll learn learn tip and tricks that will help you speed up your workflow and ignore bad habits. He also equips you with the right amount of predetermined luck due to good planning and marketing for a successful launch.”

5 out of 5 stars

“David is an enthusiastic educator and game dev who is very approachable and knowledgeable about his areas of expertise. The course is light on coding and heavy on developing, finishing, and selling your games. He effectively reduces the learning curve and opens up game development for more people to realize their creative visions.”

4 out of 5 stars

“I think this is a course worth taking by both beginners and experts. It's also really under-priced, specially if compared to the ones offered by universities or academies, and provides a ton more accurate and up-to-date information than those. Personally, the course and the community have helped me to follow a schedule and keep making my game with the steam launch as a goal that I can get. You may be worried about some of the videos being really short, but those are the ones that have more impact on me, as they provide condensed pills of knowledge that you can take again every once in a while.”

4 out of 5 stars

“The course is well thought out and executed as it connects with me on so many levels. There are so many gems in each video that helps set a focus path during that stage of the development cycle. The community is very supportive, engaging and resourceful. It does feel like a family. David is always available and provides a wealth of knowledge and encouragement. He genuinely wants to see you succeed.”

5 out of 5 stars

“The approach that David takes Game Dev Unlocked is spot on as he applies the perfect balance between getting new devs excited while offering essential advice that every dev needs. David does an excellent job conveying development and marketing information in a format that is concise, easy to follow while keeping students motivated. As a indie game marketer, I would highly recommend this course to anyone wanting a complete package from start to finish on how to be resourceful on all fronts and in complete control of their indie game project.”

5 out of 5 stars

“Lots of courses teach the basics coding or art but GDU teaches how to get things done and marketed, while at the same time teaching beginners how to learn and how to stay motivated to make this a career. The simple “no 0% day” concept is a big example of this when you view other student's progress in Discord.”

5 out of 5 stars

“David’s course is a goldmine of information for game development, with a down-to-earth approach and offering an insane amount of practical advice for anyone planning to develop and release a game that eventually sells.

For me, it is fascinating to learn about the process of marketing indie games, a product of trial and error over many months for David that provides unique insight and helps put focus on what matters in the chaos that is promoting your game.

The lessons on launching the game and getting to the front-page on Steam just blew my mind and I am so glad to have that information when launching my own game rather than stumble blindly into the abyss of Steam.”

5 out of 5 stars

“Four years ago I got out of the Navy and went back to school where I just recently earned a degree in Filmmaking and another in English. And yet I'm currently in training for a job in the Finance Industry, deferring my dream AGAIN (I turn 40 soon) of making a living at visual storytelling.

Down some yellow brick road from my filmmaking aspirations I came across David's YouTube video called "How Making Indie Games Changed My Life." After watching it, I was hooked. I did my due diligence in googling him, the GameDev Unlocked course, checked throughout Reddit, Steam, and he's legit.

His story is similar to mine - a man who's been deferring his dreams for most of his life, but never giving up on them and working at them when he can while still meeting his obligations as a loving husband and father. I invested in the course and I love it.

Another similarity is I have zero coding experience (except some from HTMLGoodies.com in 1998) but love games and am very visually-oriented. The way he did it is with a Unity plug-in that makes coding a visual-based experience with nodes or whatever (I'm still not totally up on the vocab) and as part of the course he hooks up all of his students with assets and plug-ins and the vast majority of them are FREE. And you don't *have* to buy the one or two that cost money, but if you want the course to really be of any value to you, he is able to provide it at a significant discount and I personally recommend just going for it.

David is very clear and candid in all of his videos - on YouTube and in the course. He makes no illusion that success is guaranteed, but just by sharing his experience and how he did it, then walking people through it via the lessons, anyone who goes through it and puts their all into it stands a chance at meeting some measure of success. For me, it scratches my creative itch and enables me to continue pursuit of my visual storytelling dream while also being able to put viable products out into the market to build my audience.

I also love that the course includes sections on MARKETING (people gotta know about your game(s) if you want people to buy 'em!) and personal MOTIVATION. Anything worth anything takes time and effort, and sometimes it can be a slog - especially if you're working another job to pay the bills. Dedication and motivation are key to getting your projects done, and David's generously sharing his path with the world.”

5 out of 5 stars

“David's enthusiasm and sincerity makes it clear he wants to see you succeed - and he provides you the tools to do just that with how thorough and informative this content is. Sections full of digestible videos covering the aspects of planning, launch, motivation, and marketing helps make these tasks much more approachable and gives a helpful framework for applying them to your projects.

David's advice on marketing helped me to create a viral Reddit post for my game Lucen, that earned over 110 thousand upvotes, over 3 million views and hit #1 on /r/all. His advice has also informed my approach to other future and current social media posts, and helped me ensure I am doing all I can to position my posts for maximum engagement.

I wholeheartedly recommend this course. David is providing an incredible service by sharing the knowledge and wisdom he has accrued throughout his experience as a successful indie dev, and it's not one to miss!”

5 out of 5 stars

“This course is nothing short of amazing not just because it balances good pacing, deep and insightful lessons, fun factor, as well as motivation. It also naturally propels you to be a self learner. I started with "Let's Dev Beginner" and even though I am new to Playmaker and fairly new to Unity I was able to take what I learned and spend a few weeks learning on my own before continuing to the following modules. Most tutorials teach you how to follow along. But I have yet to find a course like this one where it lays down some basic foundation for you to take and run with.

To sum this up: this course shines by teaching you how to teach yourself and learn and grow as a game developer rather than monkey see monkey do. Another defining part of what has made this course click with me, and i'm sure this is the same for everyone else, is how real it is. There is a major effort made to discuss the difficult journey of game design and art itself really. There are physical and especially mental tolls from pursuing a passion like this and the sections on how to deal with these tolls, how to keep going when you want to quit, and just looking at the positive side to this passion when it gets challenging. I realize that everyone struggles with these things in art, but hearing it from someone else really makes it easier when you realize that everyone is going through these same challenges and there is not only support but also a multitude of success stories of people who were able to finally finish and release their games.

This also ties in with the community on discord and how it inspires me personally to keep working harder. It's nice taking this journey alongside so many unique kinds of people which is something hard to imagine until you're a part of this course and the Discord group. Game Dev Unlocked also pushes you to not only excel in game design, but also in being able to sell the project you worked so hard to make. It's a good feeling knowing that there is direction on how to succeed financially. I am close to finishing up the available content on "Let's Dev Intermediate" and am making good progress towards finishing my game. And even through the onslaught of challenges I've been facing as a beginner, my passion for game design has just grown deeper ever since taking the leap to join this course.

Game Dev Unlocked is inspiring, challenging, creatively refreshing, and just what I needed when I was in a place where even though I knew I wanted to pursue game design, I was feeling lost on where to go. Thank you David for taking your time to put together this great opportunity!”

5 out of 5 stars