Simply an introduction

[kr8nt]

Hi!
My name is Chris and right now I have finally made the decision to write an introduction post on this forum, to start communicating with people that I have similar interests and views with, meeting new people, gaining knowledge and helping out others whenever it will be possible.
I'm 18 and still in school, but there's only 1 year left, which means that there is still some time for me to figure out what should I do to setup an easier future for my future self. At the moment I am working as full-stack web developer in my dad's company and because I'm one of the main developers I have to work 10-12 hours daily, so I don't have much time left for anything else. In the 2-3 hours I have free every day after job, I am developing a game.
The problem is that I don't know whether I should work on releasing a game (which is something I want to do, because I have been in game development for a couple years now and somehow haven't managed to release a single game on PC, so giving up game development without achieving this milestone would feel like throwing out those years) or I should try to find needs and problems people have and try to solve them. I understand that simply doing what I want to do is pointless, and I should better go the second route, but technically, I will still have time to start finding and solving problems after I have achieved my goal of releasing a game, but in the same time I would make so much progress in learning how to find and solve problems in this time, so I don't really know what should I go with.
I would really appreciate an advice on whether I should stick with releasing a game or give it up and start finding problems and solving them, or maybe if you have a different advice, that would be amazing too.

Thanks for reading!
Chris

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Welcome aboard Chris, sounds like you're already well on your way to building a monetizable skills set. Congrats.

 

[NathanN]

Welcome to the forum man

 

[Timmy C]

Hi!
My name is Chris and right now I have finally made the decision to write an introduction post on this forum, to start communicating with people that I have similar interests and views with, meeting new people, gaining knowledge and helping out others whenever it will be possible.
I'm 18 and still in school, but there's only 1 year left, which means that there is still some time for me to figure out what should I do to setup an easier future for my future self. At the moment I am working as full-stack web developer in my dad's company and because I'm one of the main developers I have to work 10-12 hours daily, so I don't have much time left for anything else. In the 2-3 hours I have free every day after job, I am developing a game.
The problem is that I don't know whether I should work on releasing a game (which is something I want to do, because I have been in game development for a couple years now and somehow haven't managed to release a single game on PC, so giving up game development without achieving this milestone would feel like throwing out those years) or I should try to find needs and problems people have and try to solve them. I understand that simply doing what I want to do is pointless, and I should better go the second route, but technically, I will still have time to start finding and solving problems after I have achieved my goal of releasing a game, but in the same time I would make so much progress in learning how to find and solve problems in this time, so I don't really know what should I go with.
I would really appreciate an advice on whether I should stick with releasing a game or give it up and start finding problems and solving them, or maybe if you have a different advice, that would be amazing too.

Thanks for reading!
Chris

Welcome aboard Chris.

Why not develop the game and see how you go? It would be a great learning experience regardless of the outcome!
You are young, full of energy and with big aspirations.
You also have some skills that are of value.

Thanks for the intro!

 

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[kr8nt]

Welcome aboard Chris, sounds like you're already well on your way to building a monetizable skills set. Congrats.

Thank you, MJ!
If I understand you right, then no matter whether I choose to continue developing and release the game or start finding problems people have and try to solve them, will eventually be better than doing nothing and will setup an easier future?

 

[kr8nt]

Welcome to the forum man

Hi, thanks!

 

[kr8nt]

Welcome aboard Chris.

Why not develop the game and see how you go? It would be a great learning experience regardless of the outcome!
You are young, full of energy and with big aspirations.
You also have some skills that are of value.

Thanks for the intro!

Thank you for such nice words, Timmy C!
Honestly, I want to agree with you completely because developing the game is the option I would prefer to choose, but the problem with this option is that this is simply my passion and it doesn't solve much of a problem people have. From what I've understood over the months on this forum, is that doing what you want to do rather than actually solving a problem people have is not a good choice, but most probably I'll go with the game development route for now, as there's still some safe time while I live with my parents and don't have to worry much about anything. Anyways, thanks again!

 

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[svekk1]

Thank you for such nice words, Timmy C!
Honestly, I want to agree with you completely because developing the game is the option I would prefer to choose, but the problem with this option is that this is simply my passion and it doesn't solve much of a problem people have. From what I've understood over the months on this forum, is that doing what you want to do rather than actually solving a problem people have is not a good choice, but most probably I'll go with the game development route for now, as there's still some safe time while I live with my parents and don't have to worry much about anything. Anyways, thanks again!

People are bored easily, especially in team consumer. Entertainment solves this problem. Video games are a form of entertainment.

The video game industry was valued at $159 billion, with 2.7 billion users worldwide in 2020.

I think you can give it a go, you will learn a ton even if you fail with it.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[kr8nt]

People are bored easily, especially in team consumer. Entertainment solves this problem. Video games are a form of entertainment.

The video game industry was valued at $159 billion, with 2.7 billion users worldwide in 2020.

I think you can give it a go, you will learn a ton even if you fail with it.

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the suggestion, svekk1!
I have made the decision to stick with the development of the game for now.
Also that's actually a good point, that in the end, the lessons learnt from the whole process will be quite valuable and not just for me, but for the people I'll be able to share them with, so eventually I will be able to help out others wanting to pursue game development by sharing the learnt lessons with them.

 

[ScreamingClown]

Hi!
My name is Chris and right now I have finally made the decision to write an introduction post on this forum, to start communicating with people that I have similar interests and views with, meeting new people, gaining knowledge and helping out others whenever it will be possible.
I'm 18 and still in school, but there's only 1 year left, which means that there is still some time for me to figure out what should I do to setup an easier future for my future self. At the moment I am working as full-stack web developer in my dad's company and because I'm one of the main developers I have to work 10-12 hours daily, so I don't have much time left for anything else. In the 2-3 hours I have free every day after job, I am developing a game.
The problem is that I don't know whether I should work on releasing a game (which is something I want to do, because I have been in game development for a couple years now and somehow haven't managed to release a single game on PC, so giving up game development without achieving this milestone would feel like throwing out those years) or I should try to find needs and problems people have and try to solve them. I understand that simply doing what I want to do is pointless, and I should better go the second route, but technically, I will still have time to start finding and solving problems after I have achieved my goal of releasing a game, but in the same time I would make so much progress in learning how to find and solve problems in this time, so I don't really know what should I go with.
I would really appreciate an advice on whether I should stick with releasing a game or give it up and start finding problems and solving them, or maybe if you have a different advice, that would be amazing too.

Thanks for reading!
Chris

Welcome aboard, Chris. As someone who's in the game development niche, I say go for it! You'll build a valuable and in demand skillset either way. From what I've seen some of the most successful indie games published built a following through frequent updates and community engagement before the game was published, and by leveraging early access demos. Also, getting your game into the hands of influencers is huge for the feedback loop.

 

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[kr8nt]

Welcome aboard, Chris. As someone who's in the game development niche, I say go for it! You'll build a valuable and in demand skillset either way. From what I've seen some of the most successful indie games published built a following through frequent updates and community engagement before the game was published, and by leveraging early access demos. Also, getting your game into the hands of influencers is huge for the feedback loop.

Thanks for your advice, ScreamingClown!
I've already started developing the prototype, and once it's somewhat playable, I'll start looking for playtesters to see whether there's a need for a type of game I'm developing and improve the prototype from their feedback. But I've got a feeling that barely anyone will be willing to playtest it.

Do you have any suggestions on where could be a good place to find playtesters? I was thinking about trying game dev discord servers and gamedev subreddits.

 

[ScreamingClown]

Thanks for your advice, ScreamingClown!
I've already started developing the prototype, and once it's somewhat playable, I'll start looking for playtesters to see whether there's a need for a type of game I'm developing and improve the prototype from their feedback. But I've got a feeling that barely anyone will be willing to playtest it.

Do you have any suggestions on where could be a good place to find playtesters? I was thinking about trying game dev discord servers and gamedev subreddits.

I'd say start posting on social media in general to get a snowball effect going, and gradually release demos and open a discord server to foster community engagement, find playtests and get feedback. Great way to kill 2 birds with one stone. A game I followed called Pizza Tower did this, and released to substantial success earlier this year.