The dream is there for most people that enjoy games: build their own. While becoming a game developer is a great decision, there are several steps needed to take into account before diving in the world of making games. We will sum some of the most important steps in order to become a game developer.
Choose your expertise
First of all you have to decide: do you want to do everything yourself or gather a team of people to work with you? Its possible to do everything yourself, there are so many successful indie games developers, but its not an easy task.
For example, you need to know programming, design and marketing in order to launch a successful game, and this is a very short summary of those expertises, because inside each field there are so many branches. A programmer has to choose a game engine, know one or two (sometimes more) language codes, etc.
Baby steps
You can’t and shouldn’t start developing a game without learning how to program first. The same applies for every skills we mentioned above. Imagine that you decide to become a programmer and want to build in Unity, one of the most popular game engines for Android, you must spend some time watch tutorials about not only Unity itself but also about C# and try some basic stuff yourself with all you’ve learn.
Only after you think you have what it takes to program a whole game should you actually start.
Search for resources
This tip is valid for any kind of skill you want to learn in general. You need resources if you want to learn. These resources can also help you a lot during the development of your own games. Game engine forums, Youtube tutorials, books or even free / paid courses are a great way to learn the ropes behind games development.
Learn how to be productive
Common issue on young developers: its very hard for them to be 100% productive. Sometimes is lack of motivation, sometimes its just a matter of planning and organization. Its important to plan ahead of developing, or track your progress, as building a game is something extremely complex. There are lots of excel templates you can find online that will help you organize your work, no matter if its programming, designing, marketing…
Don’t ever give up
This is more of a mentallity tip more than anything else. It’s not easy, not by a long shot. There will be days that you’ll think if you will ever be able to finish your game, if its worth all the hard work and hours spent day after day. Or you may even finish your game but its becoming very hard to find people that want to play it…
There are so many factors that may discourage you from carry on with your dream, but its so important to lose hope. If your game fails to become the next big thing, of if its becoming harder to find the strength to continue your journey on the game developing world, you must remember why you’ve decided to start developing games in the first place. Personal reasons, money, fame, for fun, those are all great reasons to keep it up.
Learn from mistakes
Its bound to happen, not everything will be perfect, and if its your first time, you are indeed most likely to fail. But do not worry, mistakes will allow you to learn, and do better next time.