Hello community thought I’d pop by and ask your views on this.
Do you believe some people are just not cut out to be game developers?
Not because they get no pleasure out of game development but just an inability to grasp concepts and general lack of skill in ability.
I’ve been learning and tinkering for some time now, I’ve watched many YouTube videos and read a few books but I’m finding it very difficult. I feel like I am making no progress and after discussing this topic with my brother we both came to a conclusion some people just can’t do it.
I can’t read code or write it (read 2 C# books) and watched countless guide to C# and unity but I can’t understand the syntax.
Also my artistic ability is non-existant. I’m not a very cleaver guy I must admit, I just nearly got a cube to follow around my player controlled cube after about 8 hours of writing c#.
I appear good at lifting weights in the gym, but not lifting intellectual projects!
Yeah, definitely, just like in any other type of work, there are people who seem to be internally wired to do it, and there are people who just aren’t. Myself, I could never be in a line of work where dealing with people is the primary occupation (like sales, or being a talk-show host… shudders)
That said, if you are asking that question, it means you are interested in game design, so at some level you have it in you. Otherwise you wouldn’t ever have bothered to even try to learn it. The fact you read 2 C# books shows that the interest is there, you’ve just not found your area yet, or it might just be because teaching yourself to code is actually really, really difficult.
I didn’t learn to code by myself either. I tried a few times before college, but it was just too alien for me. I had had some (very amateur) experience doing 3D modeling for game mods back then, but that was about the extent of it. That was over 10 year ago now (damn, now I feel old).
I learned to code in college (game design major), which doesn’t mean I got any good at it right away. It took several years of barely-functional projects, very bad coding and feeling I wasn’t up to par before it started to click for me. And even then it was several more years before I could say I had a solid grasp on what I was doing. With coding, you just have to accept that you will never stop learning.
Also, don’t feel discouraged to look back at your old code and find it’s really bad. That’s actually a good thing… the other option would mean you must have gotten worse. So I’d take shame at my old code over being in awe of it any time.
People definitely have an aptitude for different things. I’m useless in most physical labour settings. Sure you can generally learn anything with enough effort. But genius generally only occurs when aptitude and hard work are aligned.
I used to regularly tell people on here if I felt they didn’t have what it takes to code. But people get offended and whinny. So now I just let them find out for themselves.
If you enjoy logic puzzles, mathematics, or the hard sciences, you probably won’t find coding difficult.
But perhaps the key question to ask is did you enjoy the eight hours it took to get the cube moving? If the answer is no, them game development isn’t for you. The problems get bigger and more complex, and you get faster at solving them, but at its core coding is pretty much the same no matter how good you get.
Depends at what level were talking about? At an upper level for impressive games I’d say very few people are cut out for it. You really need to be a “logical artist” in which you can do just about anything you set your mind to.
Larger companies will always need cogs in the wheel, but as an Indie you don’t really have that option.
When you code shaders you need to know visually how it should fit together, when you do level design you need an eye for it (depth and scope perception) and when you code in general you need to be logical. When doing VFX you need both artistic technical skills and logic, not even counting what happens when the game actually gets pushed out the door.
Engines are great if you have the knowledge of how they should work, if not you’re just masking a lack of skillset. Not to say you can’t make a decent game without knowing all the in’s and out’s, but a decent knowledge of engine fundamentals is a must (from DX / GL API’s, to lighting etc.)
You need to be good with art, period!.. I noticed a lot of great devs on this forum are into music and art, 3D modelling apps (compared with Unity’s API) all suck. So you need aptitude to learn as well as the thousands other things.
Then there’s my problem, let’s say you have the above skills. You need to have the perseverance of a saint, I struggle when things stop becoming a challenge, always have and tend to switch off and do other things.
It’s probably one of the most difficult industries to be in.
Would I say I’m cut of for games? Hmmm, well I have the pre-req’s but if anything kicks me out of the game industry it will definitely be motivation.
I stand by the belief that the fable of the turtle and the rabbit applies. You may learn quicker, or slower… but what matters most is that you stick to it.
My advice is don’t take game development for granted, same as you don’t buy a guitar because you think it’s kinda cool and expect to become a rock star effortlessly, you know what’ll happen. Same thing here.
There are many different types of work involved with making a game, and very few people are skilled at all of those things. For example, I am extremely good at programming and extremely bad at art work. There are some people that are the exact opposite of this, able to design amazing artwork but unable to code. If you are interested in game development, there are plenty of very different things that you could work on. To start, dabble with each aspect of game development to get a better feel for which things you enjoy the most.
Becoming awesome at something is mostly just a matter of throwing 10,000 hours at that. That is how long it takes to master most tasks. If you are interested in some aspect of game development, but feel overwhelmed, just remember that it will get easier once you put in another 10,000 hours.
Think of it like weight lifting. You start with a few very easy weight lifting sets. Those initially feel almost impossible. However, if you come back and try the same lifting set in a couple days, you will find that you are able to do one additional repetition. This seems insignificant at the time, but it is the key to doing most things in life. With weight lifting, you chart your progress, such as a list of exercises and the number of repetitions and weight/resistance setting for each. Once you can do enough reps at a weight/resistance setting, you plan to slightly increase the weight/resistance next time to work out. Short term, it is all really meaningless. But long term, it adds up. I’ve doubled my strength in some weight lifting sets and tripled it in others by taking this approach, and I charted years of slow but very consistent progress as I went. If you are good at weight lifting, then you know exactly what I am talking about. You can tackle most problems that way.
Practically every resource I’ve tried - books, guides, actual classes - have had some alternative way of explaining the basic concepts. You may simply need to find one that is more tailored for your learning style.
Most of my time learning was spent with books and typing up and modifying example code, but I did take a couple classes in a community college to accelerate my learning for subjects that I was struggling to grasp. It definitely helped too.
As someone with a pile of learning issues, I’m also struggling.
But those sparks WILL come, you just have to keep at it and try new things.
You say you’ve read two books? Will maybe try something else.
And when you get there you may be surprised that your struggles will translate to strengths on the other end. Thinking differently can be a very good thing.
Here’s some great links to learning resources, maybe one of them will speak to you:
I personally have no problems learning something, if I have the motivation. Usually lack of motivation or just overall feeling of lazyness is what seems to be my general downfall.
I pretty much taught myself everything (with the help of a few YouTube videos of course :p) I know about the 3D/2D art industry over the course of about 3 and a half years and I’ve been learning C# for about a year, and I’ve managed to make a few fairly advanced AI’s so far.
Obviously it’s possible for someone to be a better learner than someone else, but it can also be a matter of a wrong learning method. If you’re having problems learning something, try to learn it with a different approach. Instead of reading, watch videos or listen to an audio book, for example. Every person can be a different type of learner.
I personally learn best by actually trying to put the things I’m trying to learn to use. Another good way is to watch good video tutorials (and I do mean good, not ones where the “instructor” doesn’t know any better than you).
Basically, try different approaches to learning, as whatever approach you’re using right now, may not be the best one for you.
I think that anyone can learn anything, if they really want to. It’s true that some people seem to have natural talent, and if you are not one of those people, in a specific discipline, then you’ll have to work harder. But it’s totally possible.
One thing to keep in mind, not every game developer is a programmer. Look at the credits on any of these big budget games. There are programmers, sure, but also artists, musicians, designers, writers, producers, managers, quality assurance, lawyers, translators, you name it. So even if programming is not your thing, there are still lots of other positions to help make a game.
Also, programming is not the easiest thing sometimes. I’ve been doing it for like 20 years now, and read dozens of game dev books, and there is still a ton to figure out. So it takes time, and effort, but definitely worth it when you can see your creations come to life. Hope that helps.
I would say the title applies a very large portion of forum users.
No-one gets good at anything by not doing it. Its called experience for a reason, and there’s a reason why experience is worth more than knowledge.
How long have you been looking at code and hoping you will understand it? Its not an overnight thing, its a years thing (to get to a point where you can be considered competent)
I went to school for Computer Engineering in College and I was forced to learn C and after C++, I barely understood C and in a few months the class was over and was forced to learn C++. In a matter of weeks I was failing the class miserably and I had this project where I had to interact with the professor and he told me straight to my face “You will never be a programmer and you don’t understand this at all”.
I took this statements seriously, I dropped the class (C++) the next day. After a week of collecting myself, I decided I enjoy programming and I want to accomplish this goal and I took the class again during summer. This time I had a better professor and he started all the way back at C and I finally grasped it properly. I progressed into my final year of college and I had another course (C#) with my A-Hole professor that told me that horrible statement and I came out with that class the top 3 grade and I saw it in his face he was in shock.
You may just have trouble grasping object oriented languages but you understand procedural…I had that problem.
I am now 3rd year of Software Engineering in University, done some full time game development jobs in different game engines, and get great grades in University.
One day a switch will just flip in your head and you will understand programming, good luck bud.
thought I’d pop by and ask your views on this.
