Ask HN: How long is the road from web dev to game dev | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How long is the road from web dev to game dev

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I've been creating web stuff for almost 10 years now but these days I fell really drained of doing the same stuff all over again on almost every projects. So I started looking around for alternatives and since I've always dreamed of creating video games (but somehow always assumed that it was out of reach to make a living out of it), I am considering diving into this.

I am a fairly experienced programmer and I have some experience in 3D modeling / rendering as hobby but I am a complete ignorant in game design / programming. Is it realistic to think about a career change at this point ? If it is, any tips ? Can I be hireable in gaming industry in a decent amount of time?

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They'll hire you, exploit you, and then fire you when the funding dries up. Your "customers" will whine endlessly about every change you make, and every change you don't, and then cry out at having to pay more than nothing for your game. The industry mostly only has big publishing houses and captive studios left, and has bar none the very worst sort of customers you'll ever get--just go read through the user feedback on the Steam store.

Importantly this:

http://www.puppygames.net/blog/?p=1574

And this:

http://www.fdg2013.org/program/papers/paper06_zagal_etal.pdf

And this:

http://www.developereconomics.com/mobile-gaming-dirty-secret...

I would never in a million years recommend anybody entering the industry at this point unless they are making an independent game by themselves--and even then, only as a hobby.

If you want to learn something, keep it as a hobby. It'll be a lot of fun, you'll learn a lot, and maybe you'll even get to sell your project. But don't don't don't try to make a living from it.

Thanks for the cold hard truth. Seems to make lot of sense. Will take it as a hobby for now and see where it leads me.

I would recommend participating in some game jams to get you started and see if it's something that you want to pursue. There are several notable ones every year. The next big one is Global Game Jam[0] at the end of January and then there is Ludum Dare[1] three times a year (April, August, December). These will help you grow as a game developer and learn a little bit about everything that is involved with creating a game.

After participating in some game jams I would suggest doing some research into what the work/life balance is for game developers (spoiler, there's not much of one) and decide if that's something that you can live with.

Finally if you're looking for things to learn to more easily get a job in the industry I would suggest mastering Unity 3D[2]. It's quickly becoming a ubiquitous tool that game companies use to at least prototype games in and showing mastery should at least get you in the door for an interview.

[0]http://www.globalgamejam.org/ [1]http://ludumdare.com/compo/ [2]http://unity3d.com

It is not a very long road. You need to understand how an event loop works (versus web transitions, which are usually async) and learn the math. If you get into a lower level position, you'll need to learn how to interface with the GPU and a bit of memory management, etc.

In my experience, 90%+ of the learning was the mathematical transforms and learning how to translate something that happens over seconds or minutes into a function that spits out transformations over ticks.

Since you are familiar with web languages already, you should go check out impactjs. Very cool little javascript game engine with a lot of flexibility. Has been used for small and big projects, one person even recently produced an infinite-sandbox mmo with it! Unfortunately, it does cost $99.

http://www.impactjs.com/

There are many no-cost, open source JavaScript game engines today. Other than the level editor (which does look pretty cool) what advantages does ImpactJS have to justify the price and, more importantly, committing to a proprietary technology?

You have thousands of people doing game development for free as part time projects. Unless you are finding yourself doing this type of work you really don't stand a chance. No one is going to put you into a position to gain the right experience unless you have demonstrated you are worth the investment.

I'd be OK to do some free work to get started. Any ideas about where I could find these types of gigs ?

0 A.D.[0] is a cool open source RTS. They are looking for developers to help out.

[0] http://play0ad.com/

I think road might not be long instead its a U-turn u need to take

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