Ive always wanted to make a video game but i feel too dumb to make one. Is gamedev worth looking into still even if im not the sharpest tool in the shed?
Or are there better hobbies out there for newcomers to the hobby space? I know most of you will say do what you enjoy, the thing is im not sure what i enjoy.
Idk if this goes here but i like the linux community as they are usually kind on lemmy.
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I know most of you will say do what you enjoy, the thing is im not sure what i enjoy.
Well, I suppose there’s one way to find out: give it a try!
It’s a hobby that allows for a LOT of different types of creative expression, does not require any monetary investment to get started in, or to pursue long term, and even has a small chance to MAKE you money, if it turns out you enjoy it enough to purse that end. It has the potential to make a GREAT hobby.
You’d be amazed at what you can make! :) I am not formally trained, and picked up a tonne from doing (and youtube) - smarts be darned, I have fun! :) If there’s a game you’d like to make or look into how it’s put together, I find it to be a fun hobby definitely.
it’s a very cheap hobby, as the big three (Godot, Unity, and Unreal) all are free to use (the latter two have commercial costs, but godot is open-source), so I love it for that too! :) There’s no equipment needed either, I even have godot installed on my phone because I can! :)
I’m a unity dev, so that’s my wheelhouse. Unity offer handy lessons to help you pick up how things work, but both godot and unity are okay once you overcome “whoah lots of things! send help!”. I’ve not used unreal, but I gather the building-block scripting “blueprints” is easy enough. :)
Whatever you choose to get up to, hope you have fun!
Even if you dont like it, no harm in trying it. Worst case you find you dont wanna do it and move on to something else.
You can start with something like pico-8 or a free engine of which there are a ton: https://lexaloffle.itch.io/pico-8
Me personally, ive been trying Godot and its kinda hard to get into, but I may try something else like RPG maker or what not just to get my ideas on paper so to speak.
Do it! The barrier to entry for gamedev is ridiculously low with something like Unity or Godot, and nowadays you can make a complete game with 100% open-source tools.
It’s a hobby: it’s driven by your interests alone.
Hobby? Absolutely!
Just don’t expect any money out of it. At all. If you DO get money out of it, consider yourself very lucky. Do it for fun first and foremost.
But that is the best part of user software development.
Developing [a game] is pretty much free, so if you make any money out of it at all is just a bonus.
Most physical hobbies cost money where if you make some money from it it likely won’t even start breaking even, you are often 1-10k€ in the hole before you even start selling anything.
Yep. Like many arts, gamedev is something people will do for free, so it’s very difficult (or torturous) to do it for profit.
The beauty of game dev, is that you can make the most cursed codebase, and as long as it works, the only person itll impact is yourself.
Also, startup costs are basically zero, there is no need for a top end PC, whatever you have now is probably good enough to start.
startup costs are basically zero, there is no need for a top end PC, whatever you have now is probably good enough to start.
Unless your true heart’s desire is a faithful Crysis II sequel…
Faithful Crysis sequel, really. Crysis II was already better optimized than the original game IIRC (which made the assumption that clock frequencies would keep rising and they were trying to make the game only realize its’ full potential later after launch)
The cost of entry is zero. (Assuming you have a computer.)
And if it doesn’t work out but you enjoy the building/coding you can look into building desktop or mobile apps for problems you might want to solve or have on hand for yourself.
Join us, and in 10 years you can look back on all the features your game engine implements, without having started work on the game play!
I kid. Ask yourself: what do you want out of
this hobbygame dev, and do you enjoy it. That’s really all that’s important.If you do want to see if you like game dev, implement Tetris. All of Tetris though. You need a menu, pause, animations, etc. When you’re done you’ll have a better idea. Tetris is great because it’s not a huge project. You don’t need to wrestle with complex graphics pipelines, game design is mostly done, but you can take it in your own direction and add your own flourishes.
Learning to program I liked making top-down zombie shooters and platformers. It was a cool moment when I figured out a nice way to have smooth character positioning on a tile based map.
I mean yeah, its a good creative outlet.
Its relatively simple to get started, just download godot or unreal engine and try a template, and just start messing with it. You’ll know quickly if its your jam or not.
Gamedev is like the ultimate digital hobby if you do it yourself. You get to program, do art, sound, game design, etc.
Doing AAA games takes huge resources but you can do smaller games on a lot less. If you’re into programming you can develop games, and some hobbyist games like 2048 have been very popular.
Grab godot, grab some tutorials, make something. It really is that simple. Just set your expectations. Your games will be closer to Pong for a while but there’s nothing wrong with that.
If you don’t know what you enjoy the only way to find out is to try things, and it’s never been easier to try making a game. If you have zero programming experience whatsoever I’d say start here: https://gdquest.github.io/learn-gdscript/
Try it, if you are having fun that’s pretty much all that matters.
Also, don’t expect to have the production value of a AAAAA $800,000,000 development team, even if you do use AI. There’s only so much one developer can do, no matter how sharp they are. There were tons of awesome single developer and very small team games that came out of the 1980s - so, if you can get happy with 8 bit style you might just surprise yourself.
