Get Into Game Development - Should You Quit School? - (For Students!)

you're still at school but you want to become a game developer how do you make the transition from student to game development this is actually a few questions or one of you who submitted this question and I think I'm kind of qualified to talk about this because I'm currently going through the same transition I too was a student before I was at school and now I'm getting into game development I am trying to become a game developer I actually thought about this quite a bit so if you plan to do the same or if you think about doing the same then here might be some useful advice for you so the first piece of advice that came to my mind was think about it if game development is really the correct thing for you it's not as easy as you think it's also not as fun as you think is actually real work think think if you really want that but honestly screw that that won't get you anywhere even I don't really know if game development is the correct thing for me the only way to find out is simply to try it you can think through it all day long but in the end that won't get you anywhere what you need to do is you need to try it out your twenties are

literally the best time to try stuff to take risks sure being successful with game developments pretty hard and finding a good job in game development is pretty hard but your twenties are the time to take risks later on when you have a family and who knows what then it won't be as comfortable they will just say okay I'm gonna do game development for three years what better time is there to try stuff to just randomly try stuff see if you like it and if you don't not all that much is lost then you can still do something else if you do like it however stick with it the next thing you actually need to figure out is if you want to work in a games company or if you want to make games alone or if you want to start your own company obviously working in a company that already works is a lot safer let's be real it's still risky and then starting your own company or trying to make games by yourself is of course way way way WAY riskier so huh once again you can obviously try pause maybe do an internship and against company maybe try to create some games on your own see what you like better for me personally I like writing games

myself a lot better firstly I have very big ambitions I do want to work for somebody else for the rest of my entire life I need some creative freedom I need to feel a sense of ownership over my work when I create something creative I want the result to belong to me and not to somebody else I tried that I wasn't a nice company and a really cool company actually but I still didn't like it so now I'm trying this I like it a lot better it's a lot more fun I have bigger ambitions I'm gonna make games myself and then maybe eventually I couldn't can turn it into my own game studio my own games company but maybe maybe who knows the only thing I figured out is that working in a games company is not really what I want to do I want to wear a lot of different hats I want to be involved in a lot of different things I do not want to do just scouting or just art no no no no no name so that's just something you have to figure out do you want a do you want B once again just try it out and see what you like better think about it a little bit and then eventually you'll know what the correct path for you is and obviously it

also depends on how much risk you're willing to take are you choosing hmm kind of risky or really really really risky up to you let's start with option A let's say you want to work in a games company actually there are a lot of different ways you can get into game development and into a games company there is so many different paths I can't even name all of them but what you need to know is that most games companies are looking for very specialized people they're not looking for somebody but you can do everything who can create graphics and music and programming they want somebody who can do this for example back-end programming in Java or something something as specific as as that someone you can do level design whatever just try to get a specialized education you probably need to get some further education you can study game design you can study Computer Engineering you can go somewhere into

the IT direction whatever you're interested in if there's a very specialized topic 3d modeling sound design whatever just specialize on that and then you'll probably find a relatively decent job obviously smaller in this Jews work a little differently but as soon as they have ten employees or more they're probably looking for very specialized people so if you want to get into a games company learn a skill that is useful for game development don't focus on everything just specialize in one thing doing internships and a little bit of networking and knowing people all of that stuff is helpful but the number one thing you need to do is get good at something that is useful for game development so now let's get to route B which is a bit more interesting for me to talk about because that's I've chosen so I want to do my own thing I want to make my own games I want to start my own business I can't tell you how to do that successfully the only thing I can tell you are my thoughts or my theories on how to do that one thing that's just immensely helpful for that is having the

support of your parents being able to live in the house of your parents so you don't have to pay rent especially in the beginning phase having the support of your parents it's just a massive massive advantage I'm so lucky my dad supports my goals and I can just go full Yolo on this whole YouTube game development thing for a while that are pretty much the best circumstances you can have so my advice would be simply try to be friends with your parents try to convince them of your goals don't tell them I'm gonna be a successful game developer tell them I want to try this and if it doesn't work I can still do something else because I think that's what most parents like hearing over ok I'm fully committed to making video games now hand off the money so I can do it they want to know that you're an intelligent show them you're an intelligent just show them you know that it's risk you know that the probability of failure is pretty high show them that you have a back-up plan actually have a back-up plan and that will hopefully

convince them to support you to support your goals if they don't then well crap doesn't matter you can still do it but it's gonna be even harder you need to have some sort of income maybe a little job or something just to survive and to stay you're living because some parents just tell you no sorry we don't support that all you've gotta say is okay then I guess I have to do it myself I'm gonna prove you that I can do it just prove them wrong yeah but the better option is to be friends with your parents and to get along with them that's definitely the easier route but if you can't if it's just not possible don't don't please don't let that hold you back if you're really good at sales you can also try to convince some external investors but I think if you're just coming out of school and want to become a game developer that's gonna be pretty hard so your parents are pretty much your best bet try to make your parents your investors if you can't sorry it's unfair that not everybody has the

same opportunity and also some parents are just selfish they think oh my parents would have never done that for me so my kids don't get it either I really think that some parents work it's completely bizarre to me if it's not possible it's not possible now that we got to find someone else you to do when you try to make your own games when you try to start your own games company first of all be really self-aware of the fact that the chance of failure is really high especially if you don't do anything you really need to take action you need to work a lot you need to put a lot of energy and thought into this and even then the chance of your succeeding is not all the time you should have some sort of a back-up plan I don't really have a good backup plan now that I think about it but having a back-up plan is definitely helpful just be aware of the fact that a super risky and that you need to put a lot of energy into it step number two use freaking social media I made a video about this and if you don't want to take my word for it check out Gary Vaynerchuk he's an amazing business

dude who talks about social media a lot and really there's no reason not to go crazy about social media because it's free marketing it's free attention and attention is everything you can't sell your games without having attention and one of the biggest things you need to do on your social is actually providing value give away all of your best advice for free I don't want to dive too deep into that I made a complete video about social media check that out if you want but use social media it's an amazing opportunity that we have nowadays you can reach so many people if you just put in enough work and enough patience social media guys use it next piece of advice if you want to start your own games company if you want to make games yourself put yourself out there communicate show other people your game don't just sit in your room the entire day coding on your game and then when you release it wait until something magical happens that's just not how it works put yourself out there and put your game out there as early as possible and as often as possible don't underestimate the marketing part you can't just make a

game and then it magically works yeah sure in some cases it does but it's already risky enough let's try to keep the risk low and keeping the risk low means getting as much feedback as possible and putting yourself out there yeah obviously there's a lot more to creating a business around game development to make your own video games let's not dive too deep into that rabbit hole because pretty much this entire YouTube channel is about that anyway so if you're interested in all that journey continues you can just subscribe let's talk about one more issue and as you want to get started with game development now now and school is holding you back it's eating up all your time school is just that evil monster that stops you from making games all right please that's the impression I got from your comment I kind of get it okay school is super annoying and eighty percent of what you learn in school is probably completely useless you forget all of that stuff I had French lessons for four years five years and all I can say is

but you just be honest that's pretty much it the rest is completely gone it's annoying it costs a lot of time I know all of that okay I've gone through that pain as well through that suffering but guess what it didn't stop me from making games I still made a ton of games during school I still made a ton of games while I was a student I still had enough spare time you can totally do both and actually just stop whining okay because you can't change it and it doesn't it doesn't really help you to be upset about things that you can't change I think I wouldn't quit school just to do game development and in fact I haven't done that even though I hate at school just go through with it be a little patient that opens you up so many more doors later on the stupid piece of paper you get at the end gives you a lot of opportunities and it all comes back to having a plan B if game development doesn't work then having that piece of paper suddenly it's kind of nice you know

don't quit school to go into game development I wouldn't do it you're still young you still have a lot of time to live if you do a little bit of time management you can sell you everything school free time and game development so stop whining okay if you are already in game development if you are already a game developer leave your tips in the comments as well so the others can learn from your experience as well that would be very nice if you have any questions leave them in the comments please I will answer absolutely everything making this transition from school to game development from being a student to a game developer isn't that easy and now but there are a lot of different ways to do don't stress out about it too much you're still young you can still make mistakes don't worry too much I hope you learned something here thank you very much for watching have an amazing day make the world your playground and see you in the next one peace