166
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] mutant_zz@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

I don't know if this is realistic. Considering making a game is a full time job.

[-] Mikina@programming.dev 6 points 6 days ago

This isn't true. If you can get by while working part-time, you still have at least 40 hours every two weeks to work on your game.

It's one of my biggest regrets, that after school I immediately jumped into full-time job, even though I realistically could live comfortably with 1/3 of the pay I was getting, since young+no familly+no car+shared living reduces your living costs by a very large margin. My best friend did that and has been working only 2 days per week since. I was trying to keep up with him, working on our game in my free time, but it's simply not feasible to build on top of 40 hours per week of regular job, and then do anything meaningful on your side projects. I barely struggled to get myself to do at least 20h of work per month on the project, missing deadlines, and it sucked.

He, on the other hand, kept our game project afloat and moving forward, with 60+ hours per month, while also writing and running a large LARP for 100 of players, directing his own theater group, and in general successfully working on a lot of projects, including several smaller games.

The best advice I can give, if you want to be a game developer, is to 1) not work in gamedev and 2) work part-time. The IT salary should net you a comfortable life even on part-time pay, assuming it's not gamedev. Smaller studios will have difficulties keeping afloat if they need to pay you, and in larger AAA studio you will be the same code-monkey crunching JIRA tickets as you would be in any IT job, but for a lot less money. And the design freedom you get when your livelyhood doesn't depend on your art's success, be it games or anything else, is totally worth it.

For example, this game has been developed solely in free time, without anyone getting paid for working on it. It's not AAA and the development takes a long time, but it definitely doesn't need to be a fulltime job.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

You probably dodged a bullet there, thinking you can "just make a game" with a polish that makes it playable. It is a skill you have to learn, several actually. You can learn that if you work in the gamedev industry so I don't understand why you recommend against it.

Taking x time off to make a game with low knowledge could be a fun endeavour but not more than hiking IMO.

Source: ancient gamedev

[-] Mikina@programming.dev 4 points 6 days ago

I forgot to add that I had a Masters in Game Development and Computer Graphics, which definitely helped, but I still learned most of my gamedev skills by regularly attending gamejams and working on my own projects. I've also started working in gamedev for the past year, and I wouldn't say that it teaches you much, since you are missing out on 80% of actuall development and only crunch JIRA tickets and bugfixes, as a junior that is, without being exposed to the more important parts or other skills. Assuming you join a larger studio with game in progress, in an indie studio with team of 10 people, you'll probably have a lot more responsibilities and impact on other stages of the game's development.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Yes, a small dev team is the ticket, and even then you might be excluded from marketing and all that jazz like funding, getting edited etc.

You seems to be on track to be a game dev of sorts, and who knows, maybe you'll make your own games one day, good luck!

Forgive a question from an oldtimer, what exactly is a master in game dev and computer graphics?

Do you learn how to code and like draw, model, rig & animate? Code 3D engine stuff? Game mechanics I guess? For 5 years?

I'm curious :-)

[-] Mikina@programming.dev 2 points 5 days ago

It was only two years, and it was basically half nornal computer science classes, and half working with engines, making a game with classmates and mentors from the industry throughout the year, and learning about rendering, AI behaviors (the videogame kind, not LLMs). The graphics part was about shaders, lighting, post-processing, global illumination, renderers and math, not modeling. It was mostly technical, but we had some game desing classes.

[-] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 1 points 6 days ago

I wishlisted that game. Is it yours? Looks right up my alley...

[-] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 6 points 6 days ago

It won't be my first and I'm not going super ambitious or AAA. If it takes me 5 years to do it, that's fine.

I wrote my first game in straight C with no laptop so literally writing code on paper when not at a PC which I would later type in later

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

The creator of Minecraft made the game in his spare time.

this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
166 points (92.3% liked)

Programming

17669 readers
147 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Rules

  • Follow the programming.dev instance rules
  • Keep content related to programming in some way
  • If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev



founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS