So you want to be a game developer PART ONE

The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
I want to be a game developer!

Success in any personal endeavor, almost never comes easy. Having read and studied some of the most successful and groundbreaking creative types, has revealed to me the realities of choosing to dare to dream this kind of dream. Based on the experiences of people like; Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, John Lassiter and the list can go on and on. These individuals were the lewis and Clarks of their perspective generation and disciplines and just like those two brave explorers the path, the aforementioned men traveled, was filled with just as many unknown and daunting obstacles. What all these individuals had in common was a relentless drive, an unmatched work ethic, spines made of steel, talent and the ability to see differently and dare to express it.

So what kind of game developer do you want to be? There are several different types and I will explore each type and define the limits and expectations that should accompany each specific type.


THE HOBBYIST:

This is the category the vast majority of people fall into, these are the people who want to make a game for fun and enjoyment. They do it in their extra time and their aspiration should be limited to personal satisfaction. If you fall in this category, you should have no expectations that this kind of approach will lead you down a road of anything other than you're own satisfaction and the enjoyment of you're family and friends.

As a hobbyist, you may be toying with the idea of wanting to do something more and that kind of ambition is admirable, but you should understand that taking your ambitions to the next level requires a great deal more talent and preparation that merely being a hobbyist. It's in this transition that most hobbyist fail in making the leap to the next level. They try and apply the same mentality that worked well for them as a hobbyist but soon they find their attempts to attain to that next level is fraught with failure. This is because the hobbyist fails to take into account that moving to the next level means you're now competing against others as when you were a hobbyist, you were only competing against yourself. These are two different mindsets and require totally different approaches.

Making the leap to making games for profit requires totally different skills. When one decides to make this leap one must understand that you're moving from a very loose model to a business model which requires much more detailed planning, structure and most important of all, much more work! While I applaud such ambition, I have watched many people in various types of business who made this leap and were soon overwhelmed and totally unprepared for the demands that come with this type of endeavor. These people end up disheartened and perplexed at why they failed and end of quitting on their dream and declare it impossible. This is usually where the excuses start to flow, "the deck is stacked against me, the big companies are being unfair, and a long laundry list of worn out excuses."
What they failed to realize is that this is now a competition, you're competing with others for the attention of the same audience. You're asking people to part with money, this is never an easy task. I'm reminded of a shoe commercial featuring basketball great Kevin Garnett. The commercial shows scenes of him in the gym pumping iron, shooting hoops alone in a semi dark gym, and in the end, he's running on the beach at dawn. As he's running, you hear his voice over; "they say somewhere there is somebody out there working harder than you. I want my completion to know, that somebody is me!" That's it in a nutshell, it wasn't that the deck is stacked against you, it was that you weren't working harder than everyone else. End part 1.

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