I was just thinking (out loud now) about a certain game. I won’t name it, but I applaud it and its dev because it looks really cool.
It isn’t new news to me but that dev is being featured for his game at a conference. I admit that I felt a bit of jealousy when I heard about it the second time. I try to stay away from emotions like that, but I got to thinking on that note. I always look on the bright side of (these) things thinking something like “They did the work and got featured. Lots of people are jealous only of success but don’t want to put the work in”.
I then had the thought “But because of Unity, UE4, and a few newer engines not many of us would be making games. At the same time there are so many of us its hard to get noticed or even make money. We’re all in this to make games too, this is hard work and I don’t think many of us do this purely out of the goodness of our hearts”
What I’m saying is yeah some lucky people get their games featured, yet the other 99% of us don’t and we all put hard work in to this. I think “the system” to use a cliche term is (kinda) unfair.
Unity makes this engine and millions of people make games with it. Its in their interest (and their business model) to bring barriers to entry down. I think there’s a subtle (but legitimate) argument that if you want to do something enough you won’t let anything stop you, and if you don’t, then you shouldn’t be able to. I’m saying that though the majority of those people making games are actually doing so, in an alternate reality they wouldn’t and probably shouldn’t. Leave it to the people who actually put the work in to learn this thing. If you don’t have the skills (or the will to learn them) to do this, then why should anyone morally enable you?
Every day we see people unwilling to learn. “Make script for me pl0x”
I think making this game dev business easier to get in to (is in a way) contributing to the toxicity of the industry.
You’ve got to get it out of your head that hard work and success are linked.
Success comes from doing the right things. Sometimes that involves hard work. But just as often it involves doing the right thing in the right place at the right time.
There is the old adage about working smarter instead of harder.
Opinion: hard work is overrated. If you put enough effort into something, it doesn’t mean that you will succeed or get recognized or earn anything. It is about working smart, being lucky and doing the right thing at the right time.
Assume that you will fail, concentrate on your own project and don’t get distracted by other people and theier achievements. Then maybe you will be able to make something yourself.
It’s not unfair. Sorry to be blunt, but no one asked you to do any work at all. If i spend a year carefully stacking thousands of pennies in neat little stacks, should I pissed because no will pay me for my time? I put a lot of work in to it, surely my time is worth something right?
No, it doesn’t work like that. You are making a product in a creative industry. Your time and effort has no value to anyone except you. What you produce is what has (or has not) value to others. If your goal is to get a return on your investment, make something others are willing to pay for and that you get it in front of them.
As to envying others (I assume we know who you are talking about), look at their work as an example of the bar you need to achieve.
Vote for Drumpf! He is going to build a wall around Unity and make game dev great again!
PS: Seriously, don’t vote for Drumpf. Unity is leveling the playing field so more people have a shot at making games. Deal with it.
PPS: I just remembered Manny Calavera is Mexican. Damn you Drumpf!
They are not on the radar of the people who make the call.
they don’t meet a criteria, almost always companies have a criteria for getting featured, if a new phone comes out with a new feature that’s being heavily advertised support that stuff! Recently we had that and people just didn’t do it.
There’s absolutely no random chance with features, think about when you release and make sure to think about why you should be featured… what can your game do for Apple or Google or Valve or who ever.
This so ridiculous… everyone who is making good games would be doing it anyway. No one who is getting featured on the App Store are people who would not be making games. They are the people who go the extra mile, and sure sometimes something happens and someone gets a feature by luck but that’s so insignificant that it’s irrelevant.
No.
This GDC talk is IMO one of the best(The best, I think but I’m not willing to commit to that statement ;)):
Before I saw that video I went to an event in about May-June 2014. While I was at that event I met Alexander Bruce and showed him a game I was working on at the time. The quality of feedback he gave is totally unparalleled and he was totally awesome, it was during that time that I learnt just how much effort goes into making a game and the amount of stress and harm that it can do.
Making sure to make the most of every opportunity and give every opportunity you can is so important.
A friend of mine has a great games job, how he got it was literally we met a developer of a really successful game. I was like “cool now I won’t ever talk to that guy again”, my friend however just sent them a email saying that he’d love a job and if they needed anything and got a reply saying that they were actually looking for a QA guy and offered him the job. My friend always says that he was lucky but that’s just not the case. If he didn’t take the time to make the most of those opportunities then of course nothing will happen.
I just feel like the challenge has moved from a product development problem to a marketing problem. Now that “anyone” can make a game, where it used to take a large amount of money to enter, that money must now be spent on your marketing effort.
Generally I agree, marketing has become more critical because the size of the marketplace. But marketing can only get people to a game. If premium, the game itself has to compelling to make a sale, and good enough to have those sales leave positive reviews to continue momentum. If free to play, the game has to be good enough that players are willing to keep playing and eventually spend.
And there is a lot of marketing that can be done at no cost (just time). And the practical reality is that a positive review, and or positive viral word of mouth will dive sales better than ads.
I would like to say they are linked, just not the only factor as some might say.
I like to think there’s a share of 3 things: luck, hard work, and smart work.
[RAMBLING]
Success (at least for many people) is financial success, right? So when people ask themselves “how to be successful” they really ask either one of two questions
Question 1) “how can I make loads money fast without much hassle”
Question 2) “what can I offer people so they exchange their hard earned money for it?”.
And OF COURSE there’s a big difference, think of when YOU are going to buy, hire or spend any money … you always look for best value for your money, don’t you??? (and often with a tendency to go for what’s cheaper).
So, why should anyone give you a different treatment?
But problem is usually the start point to Question 2 (and 1) is… is “NOTHING” … NOTHING of value to offer right off the bat that’ll give you loads of money.
EVEN if you work very hard, there’s no guarantee you’re coming up with something other people want and care about. If only plan is to work hard, join the line! Same goes for relying on just on luck, OR waiting for a big idea that’ll make you rich without much effort.
The harder and smarter you work, the luckier you’ll be.
There is some connection. But not as much as you think. It often comes more down to market factors like supply and demand.
Its more obvious in my home area of manufacturing. The guy stacking cans onto the pallet at the end of the line is working harder then anyone else. He’ll often move several tonnes of product by hand over the course of the day. Yet he is the lowest paid employee in the company. Working conditions also are poor, its shift work, long hours, and there is little security. Why is this hard working guy the lowest paid? Because there are dozens more like him. His skills are in high supply.
Contrast this to the engineer in the same factory. He can take an afternoon off to go watch the kids recital and no one bats an eyelid. There is no supervisor keeping track of how long he takes on lunch breaks. He works gentleman’s hours most of the time. By all measures he works nowhere near as hard as the laborer. But he gets paid twice as much. The skills an engineer brings are in much shorter supply then the laborer.
There was that famous guy that said if he had one hour to cut down a tree, he would spend 45 minutes sharpening the axe. This is very much true. Working smarter beats working harder every time.
Of course working smart and hard is what produces those rare giants that dominate their fields for decades.
I’m not going to discuss what’s the ratio of importance between smart & hard work. It’s so subjective it’s pointless.
But I disagree that hard work is of no importance, or that’s a minor thing.
It’s like saying wind is a minor thing when sailing, and say all it matters that you set the sails in the right direction. You need both wind and sailing skills. Only one will not do, or at least make it much more unlikely you reach destination.
I think you have that backwards. Wind is luck. No amount of hard work will bring a better wind. But no wind? Pull out a paddle and paddle. Or, the “work smarter way”, pull out a little engine and let it do the work!
Wind is a minor thing, when your ship is a steamboat.
It works like this: through hard work you may become good at something.
Does that mean you’ll get rich/famous/whatever? No. The world may not care about you, your skill, your projects, or the amount of work you did.
