I wanted to learn game development instead of playing because I got bored. I used to do programming as a hobby at hs, but I havent coded for 18+ months. Now I am back, slowly learning and trying not to use ai (hard)
I am 19 and I have a blue collar job, decent pay but all my money goes to savings for an unrelated reason, I left with little money to spend. I have 4-5 hours everyday for this hobby.
Should I start see it as a side part time job? Maybe save enough to buy an used old civic after couple of years? I watched some youtube videos about it and it may be doable, I am not trying to become the 1% or the next schedule 1/stardew valley/minecraft. I am unaware of the current market what are my expectations should be.
I dont have anyone to feed ahah, what harm to try right?
I’ve just spent the entire weekend coding a simple command-line tool to remote-control a camera. My repo proudly says “This code was not made with AI”.
I hate programming now, in the age of AI. I’ve given up all my open-source projects. It’s all abandonware. AI killed all the fun out of this job for me. But I needed this tool to take photos, and there was no way in hell I’d let a machine make it.
AI could have made it in 5 minutes and, while not as good as my code (I reckon), it would have been plenty good enough and fit enough for the purpose. But I have my pride, and my pride cost me an entire weekend.
Stay true to yourself. Code because you like it!
I’m a consultant, and our management has been telling us we need to get with AI. Everybody’s is now using it, and I feel like I’m the only one in the company who isn’t biting. I’ve not even tried it, basically. I’m scared that it will set me back and it will get me to not get new work.
But I just. Don’t. Want to. I want to code my own shit and do my own work and be proud that it’s mine, and my brain work that goes into the end result. I hate this new shit.
You seem to be really good at this. Hang in there.
But I have my pride, and my pride cost me an entire weekend.
Any project others use is a project that they depend on. I’m sure lots of vibe-coders have intentionally or unintentionally forked your projects, both those projects are only as good as they are stable. I’ll always trust someone who learned their own code and therefore have some idea of how to maintain it over someone who pushed bad code and will ask for fixes from the same AI that suggested the buggy code.
Thank you for what you’ve done and I’m sorry you feel so down about it. Your work is inspirational and your wealth of knowledge is motivational.
I’m not an expert by any means but I feel you should get into gamedev only and mostly for the enjoyment (not to earn money). I think it is probably possible to earn money with games but the indie market is very saturated already and with all the big studios kicking out people constantly this is not going to change, so it’ll not be easy. But if you’re having fun and maybe earn something along the way go for it!
Anything you do for fun stops being fun the minute you do it for money.
That’s mainly because when you do anything for money you usually have to do all kinds of other crap that isn’t fun at all.
I think that is only partly true. I’m in the creative field and field and while there are parts of the job, part of projects, clients etc that are certainly not fun I’m still overall very happy that I chose this path.
AI aside, coding is a lot of fun but actually making a game is very hard work. There’s a lot that goes into it, not just code, and every one of those things is immensely complicated.
I wouldn’t even think of the money aspect.
I learned through making games before AI became a thing. It’s a great way to learn and have fun doing it, but you will quickly burn out if you expect to be making something sellable in a short time frame. Every game engine has a lot of intricacies so there’s learning the software on top of it as well. There is more involved than a simple flask app for example, even if it’s just beginner stuff.
Eh, its not really that hard, it’s just time consuming and tedious. The work itself isn’t difficult.
In the same way a marathon isn’t hard because it’s just one foot in front of the other until you’re done.
Pong source code is available in many languages. You could have also made it in a second if you copied someone else’s work.
Now seriously: I make games for myself for 8 years now. It’s really really easy if you don’t have to please someone else. They are fun too (for my use case: 1 or 2 thumb controlled bullet hell games for long train rides)
However actual video games are hard to make. Can you make music/sound effects? Otherwise you have to pay for it. Can you make sprites/3D models? Otherwise you have to pay for it. There is balance (data science or you gotta pay for it), there is accessibility (you don’t wanna trigger someone’s epilepsy / can they play your game if they are missing a thumb?) Do you want a story (pls don’t), can you write it(pls pay for it if I have to suffer through a cutscene)?
if you believe sum of all the costs would be smaller than the earnings, go for it. Otherwise it’s a very fun hobby like painting or playing the guitar.
I like this video if you have 52/(youtube speed factor you can handle) minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmwbYl6f11cAI has lowered the bar so much that I now get endless joy just from reading real human writing and seeing the hand-made projects of real people no matter how amateur I would have judged them to be 5 years ago. There is tremendous value in just doing something your own way and telling people about it. I’m excited to see what you create, and you have your whole life ahead of you to work on your craft. Have fun!
If you want to get started in game dev I suggest you to start doing game jams!
I second the commment saying that you should see it as a hobby first, because getting money out of it is going to be very, very hard. Only let it grow into a business if a game idea really captured you and an audience, and be prepared to spend a ton of time in marketing instead of coding.
I think that if you are not having fun and you are not passionate about the game you are making, the games will also be less fun to players. Give it a try but don’t burn out and don’t take it too much as a job you have to complete!
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