Should you pursue a full-time career in game development?
So many people have asked me this question over and over again.
I’ve replied with a lot of email advice over the past few years, and almost a decade of game design experience (and about 4 years professionally) has led me to this latest answer.
And so, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my perspective in a post.
Creating games is a fantastic career, and there’s a good chance of making a ton of money doing it. I personally have had a bit of success, although nothing compared to some of the people that I’ve talked to…
Of course, like most creative pursuits, in order to be successful at turning it from a hobby into a sustainable living you have to be EXTREMELY GOOD, which is the most difficult part by far.
The same holds true for similar creative fields such as music, film, writing, and others.
The most difficult part about making games though is that the market is currently saturated as hell, and it requires a lot of hard engineering combined with creativity.
You see, it’s a lot different from other similar pursuits.
For example…
If you keep writing enough songs, you will eventually have a finished album.
If you keep writing enough words, you will eventually have a finished book.
If you keep recording enough video footage, you will eventually have enough content to upload a ton of videos on YouTube.
This isn’t true with programming.
If you code long enough, you may never create a truly functional working game.
I know this first-hand.
When I was starting out, I had been forced to give up on so many projects because of code bloat, or some kind of unfixable bug.
Don’t even get me started with compile times… one of my games takes a full 15 minutes to compile in between any changes, however small.
That was enough for me to give it up for good.
All creative pursuits need a ton of hard work to succeed at, but I’d argue that game development takes a lot more hard work than other things.
Alongside the people I know who have had a ton of awesome successes (Notch got bought out by Microsoft for $2.5 billion shortly after we talked for the first time), there are many others who have tried for years to make games but just flat out gave up along the way.
As great as this career might potentially be, it’s not for everyone.
Here are a few questions that you need to ask yourself…
1. Do you have the willpower to not give up even when faced with severe adversity?
2. Can you spend a ton of time forcing yourself to code, even if you don’t feel like it?
3. Can you accept failing over and over again?
If you answered yes to the questions above… game development as a career might be for you.
Get started, and practice finishing.
You can have the greatest game idea in the world, but in the end…
What really matters is your ability to stick with something day after day until it’s done.
Only then do you actually have a chance at game development success.
The first $5 donation from someone on Itch.io for my first game kept me going, and here I am four years later with 1.5+ million copies shipped on Steam.
Find what motivates you, and keep at it.
I almost gave up dozens of times, but I’m glad that I stuck with it.
There’s ZERO guarantee of success, but if trying to reach your goals brings you enough fulfillment…
Chase the game development dream.
If you enjoyed reading this short essay please like and share it to help others find it.
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About The Author
Daniel Doan is the Co-Founder & CGO of Black Shell Media and the developer of SanctuaryRPG and Overture, among dozens of game prototypes. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
If you’d like to steal his marketing and game development knowledge, you can book a consultation with him for only two bucks.
