So I am looking for advice. Video games are my passion and have been since I was a toddler, and creating them has always been a dream. I’ve purchased a few tutorials from Udemy. I have completed the number wizard console game(mostly) and I’m just very down and out about how long it’s going to take me to learn programming to have any success in making a game. A few years ago I got unity and started messing around on YouTube and created a decent terrain and players and all for a fps game, but I never could use script and overall lost all motivation… Now, I’ve proceeded to try this again and am starting to give up once more, how does everyone seem to stay positive and have the patience to go through with everything? I feel like being a solo developer would just take forever to create what I want… Any ideas guys?
Also have a wife and a full time job, which is another reason I feel like I won’t be able to do this
It takes time to make games of a large or complex scale.
Much more time to do so all on your own.
You just have to accept it will take time to gain experience. And the more experience you gain the less time it will take you to do things (up to a point of course).
If “it takes too long” is the biggest issue then I suggest one or more of the following:
- Scope small. This can be something such as your take on Space Invaders or it can be to focus only on the essence of a bigger game.
For example, with an FPS game the essence would be some kind of levels / environment to play the game in, some enemies, ability to shoot those enemies, inflict damage and ultimately kill them. And likewise for the enemies to be able to shoot the player, player receives damage and ultimately player dies. Finally, some kind of “Level Completion” criteria. It can be to simply kill all the bad people or to deactivate bombs, or find the secret papers or collect x number of something, etc. That’s your core game experience. The essence of an FPS game. Focus only on that stuff. If something crosses your mind and is not necessary based on the above then ditch it.
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Team up with another person. If you are an artist you may be able to find a programmer to team up with.
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Contract work out to other people.
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Schedule time every day to learn. If coding is where you struggle then spend more time writing code and learning about programming. Code every single day as much as you can. Focus only on gaining experience.
Good luck!
Try normal programming outside of game dev and see if you can learn to like it. Programming is the core part of game dev so its really important you enjoy it if you want to make games yourself
That said you dont need to like it, but youre more likely to lose motivation
I’d suggest you to take a look to this video:
this guy had a similar situation, and I think you might find some of his suggestions useful. From my point of view, the most important thing is always rewarding yourself for accomplishing something. Keep your moral high during the development is crucial to avoid long pauses that usually end up with you forgetting about what your initial intention was. Make a plan, try to establish some major checkpoints, realize how wrong you were while you’re facing a very unexpected bug, and reward yourself when you manage to fix them. Remember that you’re doing it because you want to, and because you like to, forcing yourself won’t give you any help.
I did that Udemy tutorial and the wizard one ( which is boring ) was only the first 20 videos out of 200 and they are always really short 5-7min videos. Even doing the entire Udemy course won’t teach you much programming it was mostly on Unity Editor.
Not to sound too mean here, if you are already breaking down on the first 20 videos and making the family excuses you probably shouldn’t be doing game dev at all. Programming takes years to learn, and many other aspects will take years to learn. Some of it is fun, but most of the stuff is boring and tedious and requires years of learning and you are breaking down on 1st hour of tutorial videos. You already blamed the family right at the start, just drop game dev and go be with your family as I am sure they will greatly appreciate the time!
PS. Everyone here has a family, or wife, or school, or full time job, or fulltime and partime, etc.
It seems as though alot of game maker games do very well! Hotline to hyper light drifter to this. I wonder how much sales he got where he considered it was enough to quit his day job.
Most people learn the quickest the more they know the things to learn are relevant.
That’s why I would recommend starting with a distinct project rather than learning programming in general.
Then, you are actually utilizing your knowledge directly.
If your wife doesn’t work maybe she should make games if she likes playing them.
Programming isn’t for everyone, most programmers that graduate with degrees wind up eventually migrating into doing other work. It’s a bit like pizza, that one everyone once in a while is so good but eat them everyday and they’re bland tasting.
Your success in creating a game will depend more on being actually interesting in playing the game you are creating if you have no real interest in creating art for art sake or programming for programming sake. Not enjoying those two things is a big hurdle to clear if you are trying to make a game.
There are two real options I see.
The safe route is to work on your full time career. This will pay for your wife and kids. It will keep food on the table. Keep making games as a hobby.
The second option is to go full into games. Drop your full time role and spend all your time making games. Treat it as your full time business. This is inherently high risk, but it can also be high reward.
I’ve chosen the safe route. It means I make games slowly. It means I’m not going to make a smash hit anytime soon. But it also means there is always good on the table.
The choice is yours.
I’ve learned that liking games and liking gamedev don’t need to be linked. Some just like playing games, some even just like making games but don’t really play themselves. If you aren’t having fun it’s not the right job for you and you shouldn’t feel bad about it. I have similar problems with motivation like you describe and I’m trying to just see it as a hobby that I put time into when I feel like it.