How To Become a Game Developer! - Actionable Roadmap.

you want to make a first game that's absolutely awesome this video right here is for everybody who wants to get into game development into the games industry but doesn't know where to start after this video you should know the step by step process to get where ever you want to get in game development as well as how to avoid some common pitfalls obviously what you should do depends pretty much on what you want case number one you're just looking for a new hobby more or less you wanna see if game development is something you would enjoy doing in that case sure just get started all of the upcoming tips will still apply to you but also one really important tip just go to game gems don't be afraid to take part in one even if you've no game development skills at all you can literally learn how to make a game and finish your first game in just one day because game engines like unity game maker gold or construct make things really easy for you nowadays pick one of these game engines downloaded watch a tutorial make your first game today no excuses trying it out doesn't cost anything just get started and you might find a passion that sticks with you for

a lifetime case number two similar scenario you want to make ms because you want to have fun and you think you would enjoy it and to that I can only say hell yeah making games is super fun but be warned there's a lot of boring and tedious work in there as well maybe you get stuck maybe your game keeps crashing and you can't figure out why we're often faced with technical difficulties and you have to google for solutions online there's all kinds of that could happen but also just try to figure out what you like about game development and try to focus on that if you like doing art then make a game with a lot of art if you like making music then make a game with a lot of music if you like designing the levels the best then just make a game that allows you to design a lot of cool levels without having to do a lot of tedious work before that what I think is fun about game development is getting your game out there seeing how other people play it how other people fail in your game how they manage to beat your game how they get excited about your game if you want to see that happen as well the most important things are that you finish your game and that you get it

out there and in order for that to happen you need to start with very small projects with a very small scope so you can actually pull it off and you need to be willing to show your game off even if it's far from perfect even if you know there are a lot of things wrong with it seeing that somebody something out of playing your game is such a fulfilling feeling in my opinion because you just brought some joy into the world you brought that into existence so that's one of the main things I like about making games you just go focus on the things you like about making games now case number three and I feel this is a very common one you have a game idea in your head and you want to bring it into existence maybe you played a game recently that you really liked and you want to make something like that I think that's a very cool reason to get started with game development it gives you something to look forward to but once again I also have to warn you yes I've just said that game development is really easy and that you can literally make your first game in one day unfortunately the workload and game development scares very weirdly making again that is two times bigger takes you three times as long and finishing off

the last 10% of your game or in fact the last 50% of your game so what I'm trying to say and I'm probably saying this for the third time now you need to make something small you can't make the next rich or the next Skyrim I mean I'm not stopping you about the probability that you're going to finish it is very small and the probability that your games gonna be better than the original is even smaller if you have a game that truly inspires you that's absolutely awesome the question you should ask yourself though is how could you make again that is very smaller but equally as interesting also I highly suggest not to commit to a super long and excessive project when you're just getting started it's better to make a couple of small games and experiments you'll learn much faster this way and you see what works what doesn't work it probably makes sense to go through the entire process of making a game a couple of times before you commit to anything big this way you just know what to expect case number four you're absolutely passionate about gaming maybe you already have a couple of useful talents like drawing or coding and that's why it's your dream to work in the games

industry and I don't mean as an indie developer we'll talk about that one in a second if you want to work in a games company one of the best things you can do is an internship not only does that look right on your resume but it also gives you a lot of useful experience and most importantly you can figure out if working in the games industry is actually something you want to do another thing you could consider is going to a game school that certainly helps if it's a good school be warned there are a lot of scam schools out there that just your money without actually teaching you anything before you go to one of those just educate yourself it's really easy in the edge of the Internet just ask Google anything you want to learn about game development you can probably learn online make sure you get in touch with some game developers I feel like that's one of the very big benefits game school had for me I met a lot of super talented people I could make games with and learn from if you decide to educate yourself that's something you can easily miss out on which skills do you need and against company though what do you need to learn I'd say you have the highest chances when you're both a specialist and a generalist so you should have a general

idea how the game development process looks like but you should also be highly specialized on one subject for example coding 3d modeling sound design level design whatever it is you want to do in fact that's one of the reasons why working in a bigger games company is not for me I don't like doing only one thing I want to do a lot of different things your most important asset when applying to against company is your portfolio and in the most cases that means games you made or games where you participated in the development but obviously you can use all kinds of for examples just concept art or game concepts are fine as well what works best depends on what you want to apply for so the most important thing is that you start making games and that you keep documenting your process and your projects very well because sooner or later you might want to turn that into a portfolio case number five you want to become an indie developer and that's perfect for everybody who's a very creative person who wants to wear a lot of different hats and who doesn't like being told what to do and what not to do one thing you absolutely need to be aware of those the market is super

saturated at the moment it's very hard to make it as an indie developer so don't do it for the money you can absolutely try to make money with your games not saying anything against that in fact I would encourage you to try that just saying you can't rely on making any income at all if you can't afford not to make any money then don't put all of your eggs into that basket you can still get a real job and do indie game development as a side hustle more or less that's definitely the safer option another thing you need to know when you want to become an indie game developer is that it's not just about making games a huge portion of what you do will also be marketing your game if you don't do anything about that nobody will find your game and nobody will play your game I've got to admit that's probably also one of the main reasons why I've started this YouTube channel just to get myself and my games out there so yeah just expect that to be quite a bit of work as well another reason why it's super important that you get yourself out there is because you need to get feedback you need to be super good at taking criticism if you want to improve your games hiding in your basement and working on a game for two years before

showing it off to anyone is a bad idea you want to show it off often and you want to show it off early and when somebody is giving you feedback you don't want to defend yourself all the time just listen hear what they've got to say start small try to make something unique team up if you have the opportunity to do so keep learning and don't expect your first game to be a big success okay now let's make all of this a bit more actionable here's the step by step process you can use to get into game development no matter what you go that's exactly our step number one make your first game and as I've already mentioned the great thing about step number one is you can literally do that today choose a game engine unity game maker unreal whatever if you can't decide take unity then just search for a tutorial and replicate that step by step voila you have your first game depending on which tutorial you follow you will obviously have not an entirely finished game but you will have something playable something interactive and hopefully that should motivate you to continue onwards to step number two make even more games at first you might want

to stick to tutorials but as soon as you've got the basics down I highly suggest you keep learning yourself because tutorials are just not an effective way to keep learning just look stuff up in the manual of the game engine or search for specific problems you have on the internet even professional game developers do those two things all the time so better get used to that as soon as possible do not get hung up on any details there will be certain problems you can't solve yet just accept the fact that your tool box is kind of limited when you start out making games which means you can't execute any idea that comes into your mind but that also comes with a big advantage it forces you to work creatively with the tools you have maybe you can't make that 2d combat game you've been dreaming about yet but even if you just know very simple and basic code they are still a ton of things you can already do so just play around with that be creative have fun that's what keeps you motivated and getting hung up on technical difficulties is not as motivating let's put it that way step number three would be creating your first full game so menus as I upload

system sound everything this is a lot more work than you might think so definitely start out very small make a very small game this way you will understand the entire process and that will make you ready for bigger projects after step number three you can go all sorts of ways maybe you start specializing on a certain skill set or you just keep making games to bring some joy to the world depends on what you want to do I definitely want you to make it I want you to succeed that's why I have some more guidance for you tada a full playlist guiding you through the next steps of the process choosing a game engine and making the first game today if you have already done that if you already started making games then here's some other useful stuff you can watch also feel free to join the discord link in the description you'll find some friendly game developers there good luck