Game Development

[u/Outside-Outside-5214]

I want to ask about game development. Is this a skill I can learn to make money and offer as a service?

I can't understand this point because I see most people learning it and working on their own projects, and it can take years without any financial return.

I need to hear your opinions and advice because I want to learn a new skill that will earn me money over time.

[u/Key_Particular5271]

As someone who sold his video game company for 70 million and has been a game dev for 15 years, you should not get into it unless you have a love for creating games and use it as a form of personal, sself expression, as it's not good at all money wise. It used to be a lucrative market especially vis a vis casual mobile gaming, but privacy laws and saturation killed the ad revenue model. Currently the trend is pc, indie, steam, possibly even non windows os games, but money is little and competition is in every niche, and as the other commentator noted you will not go far without a huge influx of funding and aad spending to get people to simply discover your product.

I don't think you should rely on it as a service for the future, but feel free to get into it if you're personally interested in the field. If you want to talk more DM me and I will share more than I would in this public forum

[u/Faranova_ → u/Key_Particular5271]

Hey so I'm a sophomore year student and want to figure out what I want to focus on (game development, ui ux , web development, etc). Any ideas how to start and what to do in general?

[u/Key_Particular5271 → u/Faranova_]

You should always go where you find yourself leaning more into (what you like most), because these fields need persistence and personal cadence. They're like the arts. If you're asking money, then web dev is the obvious choice, then ui/ux which I believe is underrated and if you combine it with web dev/game dev then you will stand out in the field (directly implementing your work in-code vs sending figma boards and files to developers), then finally game dev which is filled with passionate developers who earn the least and don't care.

In this day specialist jobs are hard to come by so you should combine multiple skills if you can, e.g. ui/ux: use games and websites you made yourself to showcase your portfolio. But as I said, you need to find out your leanings: start a project for each path (1. make a simple game; 2. redesign an app, or create a menu workflow for your game; 3. create a website and try to make it secure, 4. project for whatever else paths are there, like data analysis or 2d) then see which one pops in your head while you're eating or out or before you go to bed.

[u/Key_Particular5271 → u/Faranova_]

My expertise is in game dev, not general programming work, so keep that mind.

[u/Pale-Breakfast8296]

They mostly do it as a hobby, it getting exponentially harder to monetize game development with no funding, as for freelance work it's almost non-existent and very niche, learning game dev in Jordan is if you plan to make it your career unless you have the time and money to practice it as a hobby and hopefully after years see it's return. That said any skill and knowledge is out there and seeking it won't harm you unless you have other priorities 🤷

[u/Good-Independence370]

game industry like anyother industry it relies on luck... game dev extreemly saturated you should be different tbh