Just wanted to introduce myself to the Itch community and the folks doing Devtober. I'm basically switching careers and deciding to go all-in on game development with zero knoweldge. Recklessly optimistic, I know.
I've been learning Unreal for the past few weeks and am slowly starting to work on a concrete concept. Devtober seemed like the perfect "jam" to push myself into being consistent with my learning.
How did everyone else get started in games?
Nice to meet you Antonio! I actually watched a video the other day that HeartBeast was in. It was part of a series by Miziziziz called "Four Game Developers, One Art Kit, We Each Make a Game. I wasn't aware of him before that but he does some great work.
I've been learning mostly from Ryan Laley. A lot of the concepts in game dev are so foreign to me that it's taking a long time to even get something very basic working.
One thing I've noticed about the indie dev community is how motivating and encouraging everyone tends to be!
Haha, I've been doing exactly that for the past 3 years. I scavenged YouTube to every nugget of game design theory. It wasn't until earlier this year that I decided to actually start learning an engine.
Even though my progress is somewhat decent, there are so many traps in life that can simply kill progress. Devtober for me is mostly about getting those things in check so that not matter what, I can continually make tiny tiny steps forward.
Best of luck with your journey!
It’s good to see someone passionate about game development! I wouldn’t call it reckless because life is short and we should strive to make every moment a joyful one. Similar to you, I quit my well-paying job to do indie development full-time. I was a software engineer and an academic, but I didn’t really start making games until I saw Miziziziz’s video as you mentioned. The Godot game engine was so elegantly designed yet free and open-source that it lit up every geeky passion I had about programming. Miz Jam 1 was the first game jam that I joined.
After seeing and experiencing how fun and inspiring indie game development is, I could never go back to my previous work. I’d seriously rather die early if going all-in on this doesn’t work out. It’s an experience worth multiple lifetimes. Anyways, welcome! I hope you enjoy every facet of your journey on itch.io!
