To embark on making a game is a digital odyssey. 

Think of a basic component of making games—such as adding an enemy to a level. This simple task will require skills that require some practice and experience. On a basic level, there will need to be art for the enemy to look correct in its game world and coding for movement, actions, and interactions. But what adds to the workload are edge cases and hidden complexities.

Let’s say the enemy will follow the player on sight. What happens if there’s a wall in the way? How would the enemy respond to losing sight of its target? What happens when the enemy finally encounters the player?

There is also the task of drawing every animation needed to complete these interactions. This workload increases massively if the enemy has attack combos, specific physics, and more.

And could a game dev get away with just drawing and coding skills? For basic games, sure, but there’s also the need for UI design, sound design, art direction, level design, ect. 

The point is, that making a game will take a lot of dedication.

And honestly, that is a reason to do so. 

In life, satisfaction comes from completing difficult and challenging tasks.

Think about when we first come into this world. Everything is a marvel, exciting, and difficult. It’s part of the reason why the days during those early times seem to stretch on forever, while the older we get, the quicker the days pass by. 

If we’re not doing something that takes a lot of focus, our minds begin to slowly go into stasis.

Whenever we 100% a game by completing all quests, defeating all bosses, gathering all equipment, and ect, we feel accomplished. At best, there is a triumphant feeling that offers a boost of confidence. At worst, we’re just glad it's over. 

However, we then have to deal with a question: “Now what”? That accomplishment quickly becomes an empty emotion once we realize there’s nothing else to do. 

One way to fix that is to do something more fun, or if the thing that’s been completed is already fun (like a video game), do something else fun or play more video games. But how long can we kick this hedonistic pebble down the road? What if there comes a point where nothing interests us anymore and life begins to speed by with nothing but boredom and stagnation as company? 

In that case, it’s time to pick up a skill to dedicate yourself to - and this can be any skill of your choosing, but game design is a path that has demanded from me the most time and effort investment, with an exponential amount of pleasure returned. 

The day we decide to become a creator is the day another part of us is born, for we enter a completely new world to crawl and eventually walk in. Many things will be frustrating at first, especially if we’re learning multiple completely new skills at once. 

“But why would we want more stuff to do? At least video games are fun.”

When we do nothing but consume, our minds grow fat with stimulation, and we eventually grow bored. Playing video games is an immediate reward, yes, but building video games will expose us to multiple fields of study, and ultimately give us fulfillment in the long term, outside of one fictional setting. 

Such satisfaction begins to manifest when our efforts begin to click in place and our skills begin to complement each other. This case is especially apparent in game development. What other field of study gives us the chance to learn to draw an asset, and then program it so it animates and interacts with other assets in our project? 

Plus, seeing all our talents work together, rather than be bought or learned, is a true mark of pride and the positive feeling of that is almost next to none. 

In this odyssey called video game development, there will be many hurdles, setbacks, and monsters to face, and looking back, those journeys will be worthwhile. 

And what is the goal of this journey? The honest answer is the journey itself, because what else are we doing with our time if we’re not working toward solving world problems that can’t be fixed by one person? When you play a game such as Elden Ring, the goal is ultimately to become the Eden Lord - that’s correct, but would the game be anywhere near as fun without the mobs, quests, and many bosses that stand in our way?

Yes, game dev is really hard, but that shouldn’t be a reason to avoid starting. Game devs have a unique opportunity to always have something to be working on and will always have a new lesson to learn so they can improve their craft.