Advice in the Games Industry

A lot of you might recognize that I tend to make informative or almost "instructional" videos to express my opinions and help other people in the games industry accomplish whatever they want to accomplish, or at least give them something to think about.
I like to think that some of my videos (such as my recent video on game developing at home) could help someone else in my position. However, I realize that most people aren't in my position. My circumstances are very specific, and not particularly common. This means that it's difficult for my perspective to have a directly helpful effect on the viewer.

This doesn't just apply to me, this is something that's industry-wide. The nature of video games means that people from all kinds of backgrounds can make at least something. It only takes a mid-range computer to get started with graphics, sound, programming and anything else that you can think of. Though this is a very terrible generalization that I really shouldn't be making, this is different to film and music which both require certain equipment which can produce drastically different results based on what camera or amplifier you're using.

The Godot Engine will run on pretty much any computer built in the last 5 years. If you upgrade to a newer computer, the Godot Engine will produce the exact same results regardless of where you compile it. You could argue that different engines would be a more suitable analogy for physical equipment in film and music, but there are many free engines whereas I wish you luck trying to find a free guitar or effect pedal.

The point that I'm making is that I believe game development is innately more accessible to get started in than other similar creative fields. Because of this, my advice is of limited value. Rami Ismail, half of independent game studio Vlambeer, commonly talks about how the steps he took to become successful in 2011 only worked for him in 2011. Applying the same steps might lead to getting into a fight on a public bus or worse still, failing entirely.

Now a smart viewer of my YouTube channel would 1) subscribe and 2) go and watch pretty much any of Rami Ismail's talks, because they're all a lot better than this. If you're still here, I'll continue with the video.

I haven't gotten successful, and I may not ever be successful. I'm slowly creating a mid to low rate indie game in a moderately niche engine, and when it's released who knows how it'll do. I'm still trying to figure out how to get going in the independent games industry as it is, by all logical means I should have no right to tell you people how to get successful.

If you get successful and have something to say about how you did it, write a blog post or make a video about it. If you failed, still do those things. If you've not even gotten the chance to try yet but you still feel you have something to say, go ahead. Worst case scenario, no one reads it. Post it to reddit and chances are, at least I'll read it because I read or watch a lot of things on /r/devblogs.

Best case scenario, it gets shared, you get cited and your name gets a little bit more on the radar than it was before. Or better yet, you inspire someone else to start making their own games or you help someone crack a puzzle that they have been deliberating over for the past month. The best part about the Internet is that this stuff sticks around- every video you upload and blog post you make lingers for the children of the future to look at.

This might be daunting, but who cares? I've really gone off topic at this point. This is a strange, strange video that mixes the topic of the industry moving fast and something motivational, but hey- it's something and I think I've said something useful so I'm recording this and uploading it as soon as I'm done with the script, which I'm writing right now. Except I'm not writing it right now, I'm recording it right now, but I'm only reading that in the future, and even then by the time you're watching this I will have finished recording it and have uploaded it.

Thanks for watching, and stay tuned for more strange videos that meander around for a while then end in a meta joke. I'm sure you're used to the formula by now if you're a long-term viewer. Goodbye!