Any Game Devs here?

[Lea.Tigris]

I'm curious to know how many people in our community are in the games industry! Be it in big studios or indipendently.
Don't need to give details. We all know NDA is a thing and we don't want to be bugged about projects we're on.

But I'd love to know how many of us there are!
Maybe we could make a group and do weekend game jams or something!

 

[Faexie]

Just starting to learn Game Maker so I don't have any project started yet but I plan to join some game jams at some point

 

[Lea.Tigris]

Just starting to learn Game Maker so I don't have any project started yet but I plan to join some game jams at some point

That's awesome! I hope your study goes well!!

 

[BayoDino]

I'm a html5 game Engineer! Currently I'm working on a game inspired by p.f.magic petz

 

[Lea.Tigris]

I'm a html5 game Engineer! Currently I'm working on a game inspired by p.f.magic petz

Dude that's awesome!! Hope it's going well!!

 

[JDeer]

I originally wanted to be a game-developer, although I dumped that dream.

Although, that isn't to say that I never learned from it. If I never got into game-development(Which was through ROBLOX), then I probably wouldn't have gotten into programming. I did actually learn a good few things too, I mean. I learned how to work with the Unity Editor, some basic Blender 3D modelling, creating audio-effects and music, all of that.

Sometimes I do still dream of making games, although it's a past I've left behind. Although, I do still like to initiate work on C and Java text-adventure games that are played in the terminal. It's a fun little thing to do, as it especially helps brush-up my programming-skills.

 

[Valryth]

This is a really interesting topic! I've personally always had the dream to work on developing games, but after exploring various of the fields required I've noticed that maybe it wasn't for me. Setting this aside, I'm now following another route but I still have this dream inside of me and I would like to properly explore it some day! I would mainly like to write scripts for games with lots of dialogue/text (obviously) but it isn't a skill that is heavily sought after in the industry, I've noticed.

I'd personally love to create something like a simple yet interesting visual novel someday, but there's still a long way for me to go until I reach that point.

 

[Dinocanid]

I'm an independent game developer! I don't have any finished projects yet, but I have a few in my pipeline. (Virtual pet sites, visual novel, platformer)

 

[Lea.Tigris]

This is a really interesting topic! I've personally always had the dream to work on developing games, but after exploring various of the fields required I've noticed that maybe it wasn't for me. Setting this aside, I'm now following another route but I still have this dream inside of me and I would like to properly explore it some day! I would mainly like to write scripts for games with lots of dialogue/text (obviously) but it isn't a skill that is heavily sought after in the industry, I've noticed.

I'd personally love to create something like a simple yet interesting visual novel someday, but there's still a long way for me to go until I reach that point.

ooo so you're hoping to get in as a story person? Or like an editor?

 

[Lea.Tigris]

I'm an independent game developer! I don't have any finished projects yet, but I have a few in my pipeline. (Virtual pet sites, visual novel, platformer)

Hey that's awesome!! I'm all the arty side of it atm. All front end but with the lockdown I've been learning C# and have been loving it!

 

[Dinocanid]

Hey that's awesome!! I'm all the arty side of it atm. All front end but with the lockdown I've been learning C# and have been loving it!

I do all of the art myself too atm, since it's good practice. I don't know C# but I have some grasp of PHP and python-esque programming

 

[Jackpot Raccuki]

I've spent a lot of my younger years with Game Maker and to be fair, I'm prob finishing up on an very old project I started years ago that I've been mostly finishing for past me's sake.
However now I wanna learn more Unity, I knew C# but I never truly made an actual 'full' game unlike my prototypes purely there to test the system's limits.

 

[Deleted member 115426]

I'm actually developing a doom like game where you play as a dragon. The demo will be up on itch.io when I get the sound effects back from my sound designer and the music back from my composer.

 

[VeeStars]

I am a very nooby noob fledgling game developer. I don’t know how to code and I’ve only done a few tiny games with Clickteam Fusion (Don’t laugh please). I plan to learn to use game maker to make games. So far I enjoy making my little games and having my sister or my parents play them even though they are crappy. I’m going to take game design and computer sciences classes in high school.

 

[Olivitree]

I have a degree in game design, so I mean, technically qualified but university was not a good 3 years for me so despite passing I never really did anything with it.

I really want to do something with my degree but I guess I just don’t know where to go from here and I’m sort of doing self employed art stuff at the moment which is putting stuff on pause.
Trained in Unity, 3Ds max, mud box and a whole bunch of programs and coding that semi related like web design, adobe software, video editing, so on so forth.

I think I would have benefitted from a more focused course but I was derping around all over the place in my education, I wish I had just waited until my brain wasn’t full of crazy hormones before trying to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life. cause now I can’t go to uni with a loan anymore! I think we’re pushed to make that university decision too early, before we really know what we want to be.

but I have a lot of ideas for games I want to make so when I find some time I might start scraping the rust off my skills and get to making something :3 I will make use of this huge amount of debt I’ve acquired!

 

[Miles Marsalis]

I'm actually developing a doom like game where you play as a dragon. The demo will be up on itch.io when I get the sound effects back from my sound designer and the music back from my composer.

I find it neat you're doing this. You're writing an original plot as well too?

 

[Vinfang]

I’m sort of doingself employed art stuff at the moment...

I make art / sprites for indie-games sometimes too. Still looking for my ture calling ... or destiny, I guess.

 

[Deleted member 115426]

I find neat you're doing this. You're writing an original plot as well too?

Sure am!

 

[Pomorek]

I think I would have benefitted from a more focused course but I was derping around all over the place in my education, I wish I had just waited until my brain wasn’t full of crazy hormones before trying to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life. cause now I can’t go to uni with a loan anymore! I think we’re pushed to make that university decision too early, before we really know what we want to be.

I feel you, man! This is so, so much like what happened to me. Not game design in my case, more "sciency stuff". But I was pressured into university long before my brain was emotionally mature enough to make a proper use of the whole situation. And in the end, it all became a clusterfk of knowledge as esoteric as useless. Whereas, if I had been given an option to take some time and make a really mature decision, things would have been different. Taken most likely in a different, much more practical and focused direction. Well, too late, too late...

To come back to the topic: I've never had any big game-making ambitions. But then, I'm toying with my 3D graphics since more than a decade now. And in the last half-year, I made a decision to "wean" myself away from playing games, which was stealing a lot of my time, and use that energy for 3D art instead.

And who knows where it can take me. Already I had a suggestion about a game-related job from a friend who knows my plans, but myself, I recognize I'm miles from being able to apply my skills commercially in any consistent way. I've simply been a 100% amateur so far, with no work ethics whatsoever, and need to iron out that amateurishness first.

About specific ideas, I could easily see myself making furry-themed stuff for VR, once the software gets better at rendering fur efficiently (it isn't), and the hardware stops being too expensive for me (it still is, but coming close).

And sometimes I'm entertaining the thought of making my own very simple clone of Space Invaders (or better yet, Centipede!), just for the experience of cobbling together a functioning game. Any suggestions, what engine could be easiest to use for such a thing?

 

[Deleted member 115426]

I feel you, man! This is so, so much like what happened to me. Not game design in my case, more "sciency stuff". But I was pressured into university long before my brain was emotionally mature enough to make a proper use of the whole situation. And in the end, it all became a clusterfk of knowledge as esoteric as useless. Whereas, if I had been given an option to take some time and make a really mature decision, things would have been different. Taken most likely in a different, much more practical and focused direction. Well, too late, too late...

To come back to the topic: I've never had any big game-making ambitions. But then, I'm toying with my 3D graphics since more than a decade now. And in the last half-year, I made a decision to "wean" myself away from playing games, which was stealing a lot of my time, and use that energy for 3D art instead.

And who knows where it can take me. Already I had a suggestion about a game-related job from a friend who knows my plans, but myself, I recognize I'm miles from being able to apply my skills commercially in any consistent way. I've simply been a 100% amateur so far, with no work ethics whatsoever, and need to iron out that amateurishness first.

About specific ideas, I could easily see myself making furry-themed stuff for VR, once the software gets better at rendering fur efficiently (it isn't), and the hardware stops being too expensive for me (it still is, but coming close).

And sometimes I'm entertaining the thought of making my own very simple clone of Space Invaders (or better yet, Centipede!), just for the experience of cobbling together a functioning game. Any suggestions, what engine could be easiest to use for such a thing?

I'll always recommend Unity unless you care about 3rd or first person shooters or you care about open source.

 

[Olivitree]

@Pomorek Commiserations in being in a similar situation to me, I was pressured to do science in college(for non UK folk, a UK collage is NOT the same as a university, it teaches 1 or 2 levels below, GCSE and A level and some other stand alone things) which is part of the reason I flailed about so much in University (I went in to Illustration first, then bounced over to game design, should have stayed in illustration, ahh well.)

I'd love to see some of your 3D! I think you'd be surprised how not amateur you may be in it if you've been going at it a long time. If you can model, put hair on it and know how to unwrap and texture it that would actually potentially get you somewhere in a games company, but it would probably definitely be enough to make a game by yourself or with a small team or some such.

So some free ones you could try working with, Unity is a popular one, Unreal engine also is very pretty although I didn't get as much teaching on it so didn't use it much, I believe Cryengine if its still going was free to use, if not to publish, but I forget. But you'd want to check the terms and conditions of how and when its no longer free, all three have a condition that means you then have to pay but its usually on release and how much cash you earn from it, I believe. Unity is my personal preference and the one I'm looking to make a game on first.


As a general thing, I think if I ever had life advice for someone thinking about university, is WAIT if you can, not the same in every country so see what your options are, but make sure you know where you're going and research the path that is right for you if you only have one shot at a student loan (like here in the UK)
For example if you want to go into game design at university, reach out to game design companies and ask what they're looking for, they may even have advice on their FAQ section for you. Same with any job, ask people who hire for that job first.

 

[Pomorek]

@Olivitree Thanks for your kind words! Also, welcome to my gallery, I sent you a shout on the main site.

I did not mean to say that what I make is amateurish. Hopefully this is the thing of the past now. But I meant my mindset of a die-hard hobbyist, not even considering professional activities (because of lack of confidence mostly). Also, lack of discipline, working on a project exclusively when I feel like it, and procrastinating for weeks on small roadblocks. I feel there's strong need to overcome such behaviors before I even dare to do as much as putting my skills out on the furry commissions market. Not to mention more serious real-world jobs.

While my productivity in terms of finished works per year has traditionally been low, I kept working on my art on a very long-term basis. By now I know my software inside out, and then some more. I have done all those things you mention, and others, many times. Characters, hardsurface, environments, animations, I can do all of these (although rather with realism than game engine requirements in mind). But funny enough, I only started connecting the dots, and seeing 3D CGI as a potential career, not only my own entertainment, in the last half year or so. And then, within that half year I only had six weeks (seventh ongoing now, just counted) loose enough to pursue increased art discipline as intensely as I wanted. I keep hoping that maybe now a more calm period can happen, but such hopes didn't work out on several occasions already... We shall see, I can be inhumanely patient if I need to.

Maybe we should move further discussions to PMs, not to hijack the thread too much?

But still on the topic: one needs to pay to the owner of a game engine when releasing a commercial product, if I understand correctly. But would there be any such need with a non-commercial hobby-level release made in, say, Unity?

 

[Deleted member 115426]

@Olivitree Thanks for your kind words! Also, welcome to my gallery, I sent you a shout on the main site.

I did not mean to say that what I make is amateurish. Hopefully this is the thing of the past now. But I meant my mindset of a die-hard hobbyist, not even considering professional activities (because of lack of confidence mostly). Also, lack of discipline, working on a project exclusively when I feel like it, and procrastinating for weeks on small roadblocks. I feel there's strong need to overcome such behaviors before I even dare to do as much as putting my skills out on the furry commissions market. Not to mention more serious real-world jobs.

While my productivity in terms of finished works per year has traditionally been low, I kept working on my art on a very long-term basis. By now I know my software inside out, and then some more. I have done all those things you mention, and others, many times. Characters, hardsurface, environments, animations, I can do all of these (although rather with realism than game engine requirements in mind). But funny enough, I only started connecting the dots, and seeing 3D CGI as a potential career, not only my own entertainment, in the last half year or so. And then, within that half year I only had six weeks (seventh ongoing now, just counted) loose enough to pursue increased art discipline as intensely as I wanted. I keep hoping that maybe now a more calm period can happen, but such hopes didn't work out on several occasions already... We shall see, I can be inhumanely patient if I need to.

Maybe we should move further discussions to PMs, not to hijack the thread too much?

But still on the topic: one needs to pay to the owner of a game engine when releasing a commercial product, if I understand correctly. But would there be any such need with a non-commercial hobby-level release made in, say, Unity?

You only need to pay for Unity Pro if you make more than $100,000 a year from your game.

 

[Olivitree]

@Pomorek Unity is free forever providing it never makes over 100k a year, as Ovi said! Which is why it's my favourite, really lets out some room for people to grow as game designers before they start requesting some cash back, at which point, totally fair, I Think they have a really good sales ethic. It's also, i feel, pretty easy to use once you've been shown round it a bit by a few tutorials.

Really need to dig it back out again and start making something I've had a long running idea for something along the lines of creatures (if anyone remembers that, creatures 1, 2 and 3 particularly) but coding usually scares me off.

 

[contemplationistwolf]

Hey! I did a bit of amateur game development as a teen, that's how I got into programming! I was obsessed with doing stuff at as low-level as I could though, that kinda held me back from producing anything too interesting, but I think it helped me understand better how things work at a technical level.
I remember writing a 3D pong game in pure DirectX. I also created a few simple games with SDL. Due to various reasons, I haven't really tried much game development since, though I've had occasional flashes of interest.

Maybe we could make a group and do weekend game jams or something!

That sounds like a really cool idea! I think I'd love to try this!
As for my skillset: I have extensive experience in Computer Science and also a bit of real world experience as a Software Engineer, basically I'm a pretty decent programmer. I'm quite proficient in C++ (or at least, in applying it practically, not necessarily in every obscure intricacy of that language), though at this point I know the fundamentals well enough that I can quickly pick up pretty much any language or framework.
I think I could contribute a lot to any kind of back-end development! I also have a decent mathematical education, and I love analyzing the mechanics of games, so I could perhaps help in designing and assessing the mechanics in any such project.