The "I have one piece of advice to give" Post!

Or me either. I am a salty old codger and a frikkin' idealist to my own detriment..

I need a big phat joint And to reload my salt shotgun for when them revenooers show their tails about these here parts. I think that will be my next game.. A salty old codger defending his depression era hovel from revenuers with a salt shotgun. No blood..just lotsa IRS banker thugs holding their salt filled butt hollerin' as they run over the hills away.

 

Been there done that.Whew! Don't wanna do that again. Happy with life in general and I learned that to be miserable and worry does nothing. It all gets taken care off in it's own good time. I would do what I do now if I had a big wad of savings. Except maybe do some more oils. If the grid ever goes down from EMP or whatever I don't have anything to show or the tens of thousands of hours I put into art in the digital realm.

 

Honestly, I think 20 years to become jaded is pretty good. How many other professions are there out there which you could devote your life and soul to, 6 days a week, 8 or 10 hours a day and not become jaded doing so after 20 years? I'd say very few, if any and most I'd argue would cause one to become jaded much quicker.

Maybe the trick would be to plan on only developing for 15 years and then switch professions and teach or do something else more stable and less stressful than game development for the next 15 years or so?

 

"Life is what happens while you are making other plans." -John Lennon (paraphrased)

 

Yup I've been slowly transitioning out of games for a little while now, having seen the light at the end of that tunnel for myself. Concentrating on writing mainly at this point, and soon that income should surpass what game dev currently brings in for me. Once I reach that passing point i can rest easy and finally start closing up shop in my game dev career. Counting the days!

 

Ah. You mean Zen Programming?

They say if you can spend a year making the perfect game and then delete it with a single click. You have reached enlightenment.

 

Advice eh?

Work with good people. Don't work for free. Coffee.

 

Thinking constructively is not Zen programming.

It means to try to speculate most feasible routes of success, if they exist at all. It is possible that making games for a living is just not worth it for you.

Don't make games only with the prospect of becoming a millionaire like Notch. Don't even think you're going to start cashing checks with your first game. Because making games take a long time, and you're bound to be depressed sometime along the way, once you start checking out those odds.

If you aim for realistic goals, maybe have game development help you pay the bills, or eventually make a basic living just from games profit, the odds are not that depressing. Still a lot of work, but not catastrophic. And you know you can get better and improve skills along the way, improving those odds. That's thinking constructively.

 

@Ony - I <3 you! That article, and the articles linked from it capture how I feel 100%. OMG - This came at the absolutely PERFECT time! Thank you for sharing.

Gigi

 

I thought that came from Granny Fern! So, I said in the Gratitude Habit.
Gigi

 

I'm glad you found it useful. My lovely wife sent it to me a week or so ago after hearing me rant about game development, haha. It certainly helped me to look at things in a different light.

 

I do get a sick joy of having started a large thread that has depressed oh so many of you ... by giving you advice!

 

It was a good article and I agree it applies to a lot of professions(surely some are immune just don't know which). I would second the advice it had which is that a career change is not always the answer - I was feeling super burnt out on network security and took a programming gig last year and after about 4 months I was still just as burnt out and returned to security where at least I can rake in the $$$

 

I agree, career change seems a little extreme. It's a very personal choice. For me, staying deep in the comfort zone for too long, I can see how it might start to lose the sense of challenge, or achievement. Hope it never happens, we'll see.
But if it happens... how about diversify within the same line of work? at least gradually. Could expand to virtual reality gaming, or tinker with augmented reality. Maybe move to educational games, do something more than casual games... teach kids/teenagers something difficult in interesting ways. Or start an architectural visualization project (mix with VR maybe) I'm sure there're people interested in that, who knows! It's hard to know what'll happen in the future.

 

I think the main takeaway from the article is you are going to get depressed regardless. And it's going to get better regardless. So chill out and don't panic.

 

That's what I'm doing at the moment. I'm cutting back significantly in one area and starting to do stuff in another area that leverages my existing skills doing different activities in a different context. It's liberating, to say the least.

 

If you're not having fun stop: there's a HUGE difference between liking making games and liking the IDEA of making games.

 

I should add that if you DO love it, do it until you bleed from the finger tips.

 

Are we still talking about games? Because my doctor....

 

My advice would be to start small, make a reasonable plan, and then follow through. I can't count the number of projects I've started with ambiguous (and unrealistic) goals, that I ended up abandoning mid-way through after I realized they wouldn't be possible for whatever reason. Yes, I've even fallen for the "I'm gonna make an MMO" thing. Don't do it!

 

I normally say, start with original 3D artwork.. It's generally enough to put people off idea's like that .

 

I am bored of playing many games I made from writing scripts and unity's cubes

 

@Sarthak123

I wouldn't say that's true, unless you can figure out a mechanics system worthy to stand on it's own as a feature point. Generally it's about the mix, everything including logic / Ai / core features / sound and graphics have to be well balanced.

Just like a song really, it could be a great song without atmosphere and poor production values that can essentially ruin your music.

 

Thank you guys and gals, you helped me a lot.

As for ALWAYS go for the stars, i prefer (as a bginner) to start small an recreate games/concepts i love (a shump, runner, rouge etc.) with my unique tiwst and learn. Sure i have this big, unicorn game idea(s) but i dont want to sacrifice those to some stupid noob mistake im suley going to make, never having a game published before.

p.s.
While i was struggling for a while now with this point my self, here a nice article that explains, why it is so hard to finish your game and what to do about it.

 

In a lot of cases it does help, one of the reasons I submitted a GameDev challenge for PC is because we recently downsized the team. I didn't fire anyone or anything like that, we had contractors working for us and I said if you find something better that pays more, go for it..

Now over the last 2 years we went from a team of 13 down to a team of 3 full time and one part time member. I hate to say it but I'm enjoying myself a lot more, I spent too much time co-ordinating and it was just another spanner in the works. I was spending time training and doing this, that and the other instead of focusing on what I SHOULD be doing..

So a smaller scope, smaller game, less pressure, more focused..

Don't get me wrong, I'll still be pushing engines to their limits and I'll still be doing an RPG hopefully worth some merit. But everything has changed for the better and I can focus on making the game, things should run much smoother.

"Bigger isn't always better, especially when you have a boil in the crack of your ****"..

 

I've often run into the same issue Shadow, where I have to decide between "growing and becoming an administrator of others" or "Staying small and doing what I love" - I have chosen the latter every time. A good problem to have but it isn't always as clear as that whole "follow your dreams" Disney crap

 

Advice:
Build a brand, not a file with code, art, sound, in app purchases and ads. A brand has an intrinsic value that endures. When the economy crashes (as it does from time to time) your intrinsic value will stay around. Think toy company more than game/software company.

Know who you are, what you want, and why you want it. This is more challenging than you might think, but will not come unless you can pause long enough to feel it/see it. I think a lot of folks end up staring at a glowing screen instead of working with things that have souls (people/animals) because they have suffered some extraordinary pain in their life. Working with computers (making games) serves as a sort of...mental sanctuary that shifts awareness from the pain. There are probably healthier sanctuaries/jobs.

Having written that piece of sobering advice, if you do want to make games, plan on making at least 5 games before you give up. I read an article that said that five games seems to be the litmus between making it and not making it as a game company. Five is the somehow the magic number. I'll spare you the speculation of "why five" in the interest of brevity.

Make your marketing plan before you make your game.

Be really skilled at good luck. If all else fails, you can bank on this.

So that's my "one" piece of advice.

My career experience and feeling is similar to Ony's. I sympathize with you, Ony. I told someone recently that I wish I'd become, and the next thing that popped into my head was, "dolphin farmer," instead of a game developer. I'm a little crazy I suppose-- impractical even when I'm trying to be practical. It was my destiny to develop games. I've both loved and hated it. It beats lifting heavy things for a living...or the fast food industry, but I do wish that I'd manage to be a yoga teacher or something more useful to people/work in a less saturated arena. Working on it.

 

Another good one, in my book...

YAGNI

 

That is an odd generalization.

Like everything in life, if you don't enjoy something, don't do it. Find your happy. My experience in the industry has mostly awesome, sure some challenges, but anything in the creative field has that. Everyone I know and have worked with over the years is pretty much of the same mindset. And if you are doing it well, you do provide something "useful", at least much more useful that yoga.

---

I think people who what to be "game developers" are often approaching it from the wrong angle, and are going always going to fall short of their expectations. Being a game developer is fluid. People who are often more fulfilled, are the ones who do it because they want to make games. A subtle but important difference. Like the difference between wanting to be a rock star and wanting to be an excellent musician.

People worry too much about the state of industry, saturation, market, tools and "what should be" and what other developers are doing. Screw that. Focus on doing what you love and kicking ass at doing it the best you can. The other stuff works itself out. "Saturation" and volume of developers are a good thing really. It means that new ideas and games arise, and that the bar has to be constantly raised.

Back in the day, the market was so small that you had to be good to succeed, today, the market is so full, you have have to be good to succeed. Different pressure, same result. Its a competitive, creative field, not ditch digging.

 

as 45yr old who is just starting to learn how to make games my advice (if for an interview or something) would be "Dream big, start small".

If it was just to a bunch of other developers it would be:
Find a spouse/partner who earns enough to support you while you struggle with learning, making & hopefully publishing something that you like but don't need to be a cracking financial success.

 

Serendipity

 

Always wash your hands after eating spicy food before using the bathroom.

 

Never assume someone is pregnant unless you actually see the baby's head, but even then err on caution and act surprised.

 

Whenever you go to a new job, the person who comes up to you to "warn" you about someone is the person to watch out for.

 

Never leave a plate of food next to an unattended child.

 

When going on a date: movie, then dinner. Not the other way around.

 

People can keep a secret. It's the people you tell that can't.

 

.



The lessons I have learned as Indie Game Dev

.​

 

Heh, I completely misread this. I read "successful people only date you if you are harmless to them."

Which seems valid as well.

 

Eat food at the table, without technology.

 

Amen.

 

Master C#. Abuse component pattern. Do not fear Linq.

 

Broadly speaking, forks knives and spoons are some of our earliest technology. Just sayin'

 

I've had issues with Linq and Unity's version of Monos Garbage Collector a long time ago, or perhaps it was just me using it all wrong. But I don't fear it as much as I once did, haven't had as much adverse effects when using Linq recently.

My advice (which is very influenced by me starting using compute shaders for many things just recently): Do not fear compute shaders; be it AI, physics, particles, meshing etc compute shaders can really come to rescue. And they are not that complicated, even non-optimized compute shaders can run circles around a lot of CPU implementations.

 

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.

 

Don't bother finishing the series.

 

Never have. Probably never will.

 

Dune? Hadn't even realized it was a series That quote is brilliant, however.