I took the opposite approach and just went knee deep into trying to build things, learning piece by piece. I am confident my stuff is not best practice, or well optimized, but is it functional? Also no.
100% the "indie game dev" side of TH-cam has always bothered me so much, cause so many of these videos just feel like self-serving ego boosts more than anything. Like they'll just brush over TONS of stuff to make it look super easy/make themselves look super smart, or they'll use assets that they didn't make themselves but without specifying that's the case, and it all just comes off as so slimy and underhanded. It's been a huge pet-peeve of mine for a while now lol. I completely agree that these people are TH-camrs first and game developers second. If you look around you'll notice most people who do this will never ACTUALLY release anything either, because if they release the game then suddenly their TH-cam cash cow will dry up, and they don't want that. That's not to say all devlogs are bad or anything, but you gotta stay vigilant to which ones are legit, and which ones are made by total hacks lol.
When I get recommended a devlog I usually scrub through it and there's like 10 seconds of actual work or game in a 6 minute video. The rest is just the guy yapping while looking at himself in the camera, the topic is inconsequential.
Tried developing games 5-6 times. Failed or got bored each time. Learned a ton. Learned that game development wasn't for me. At least not on a solo project scale. IMO this seems to be the position of these parasitic group trying to feed on the idea that they can help you make game development easy. They manage to pump out a single game, and they realize they never want to do it again in their lives, and so they sell tutorial to others about their very limited experience. They thought it was going to be this awesome fun experience just like playing a game. Just because you like watching movies doesn't mean you'd like to film one. For some reason people struggle to understand that developing a game isn't as fun as playing it. At least not in the same way. Not gunna lie, I've paid $100 bucks for two of those tutorials. Most of the info was out of date. 50% is more motivational speech than actually practical application. I don't want to drag down anyone that wants to be a game dev, but no one is going to make game development easy for you. It is a lot of work, but there are a lot of good places to start. Dive in with an engine. Getting your hands dirty is the best way.
That is very inspiring advice. People's advice and thoughts tend to make me feel like Im doing things wrong usually or like I'll never be capable and that its not worth trying because of that. Thank you, Chet :)
That's what people don't get about game development. They think "idea = end product." Nothing could be further from the truth in game development, writing, and every other discipline under the sun. Yet people conflate "having an idea for a game" with "having a great game if you'd just make the idea" all the time.
Great take on it Chet! As a junior, (I'm about a year and a half into my professional career as a Tech/FX Artist) - I wanted to give you a poke and let you know how much I appreciate your vids and talks. Just coming out and saying it like it is, it's really invaluable to me. I wanted to ask, you mention how sooooo many tiktokers/youtubers will show a tutorial, and they'll show some REALLY bad practices. Do you have any thoughts on where to learn some good practices? Documentation, official channels etc? Let me know your thoughts! Keep up the great stuff! You are an inspiration, whether you feel like it or not!
This does make me curious Chet, can you expand on how you learned and became comfortable with the technical bits of game dev? I find myself at a stage of being a junior/novice programmer, but a confident designer and artist, I've done the jams, I've learned the just tumble forward mentality, and I've become comfortable and even look forward too the first, second, third, etc stages of iteration and building prototypes knowing I'm going to throw them away. In fact, I think I first heard the "fail fast" idea from you, and it resonated. I can prototype with the best of them. And now, after a ton of prototypes, proof of concepts, and nearly driving my friends away with copious amounts of requests for play testing, I've got something I'm confident in pursuing and fleshing out. But I'm getting to a stage where I feel like I'm beginning to bump up against my lower ceiling of technical knowledge to get something implemented with architecture that won't hamstring the project early on. I can see it the goal, but I'm not familiar enough with C# (Unity) at scale to architect things appropriately for my projects needs as I'm trying to push towards a 'for release' project. So, now I'm searching for a learning path that seems most impactful for my needs. Any thoughts? Did you ever find yourself stuck in this stage early on? I'm considering throwing time into a more traditional learning paths, but there's so many options (and snake oil salesmen) it's overwhelming.
You know what inspired me to make games more than most gamedev youtubers? Watching a streamer play someone's weird little game, you could feel the passion in that game, like the dev went "oh, i like this idea, lemme just add it lol". And this made me further realize that you just need to... do stuff... and it will eventually work out, like with everything Like trying to fly a rocket to the moon, you need a rough initial velocity vector, and then you'll course correct along the way you'll be fine... don't try to predict how you're gonna course correct, its literally chaos theory!
this is the best game development youtube video I've seen Chet. I started to make youtube videos because i wanted to hop on the trend of making "devlog" videos, but Ive been making games since i was a kid. i want a slice of the youtube pie, i tried to make a devlog but i scrapped the footage because i realized how much editing it would take, and how much progress i would make if i just worked on my project. I'll still try to put out simple little videos, but i can't expect to just be good at everything. I'd love to be good at the narrow list of things i apply myself to and get lucky on the others.
The thing that actually affects developer scheduling over and over again is scope creep. The only way I got my modding projects done is by aggressively scope culling at every opportunity.
Always be wary of people trying to sell you a course They're not there to teach, but to take money from people who believe that buying things is progress
It’s like this in the audio/music field, too. Influencers all parroting the same half-informed advice and peddling the same products. They seem to do everything except finish and release music. I feel bad for the people who take what they say as gospel.
Speaking of making video games; How would you recommend balancing personal passion/creativity with limited recourses? Because a person could have all these amazing and creative and cool ideas for what they want to put into a game and make a game about but might not have the ability to do so with everything they wish to make. Is there such a thing as a good balance to that or are limitations (such as time, money and recourses) a good thing as they force you/whoever you’re working with to prioritise the super incredibly important parts in the game that’s being made?
@@kirbles2035 I understand but, don’t get your advice from TH-cam and don’t get your advice from Udemy isn’t very helpful. I think Tarodev is really solid. I think CodeMonkey is solid. And, I love how Rajas Biswas teaches on Udemy - especially for beginners. I understand there are bad teachers out there. There’s also outdated info. But a blanket if don’t use Udemy or TH-cam is just ridiculous
@@kirbles2035 It’s like anywhere. I’ve had bad and good professors. Bad and good paid courses. Bad and good experiences in Udemy and TH-cam. My only problem is that if you’re going to throw this out there and give no better solutions then you’re just part of the problem. I’ve watched great instructors on Udemy. Raja from Charger Games was amazing to get started with. Code Monkey has great tutorials and advice. Tarodev is a stud coder and a nice instructor. I just find these blanket statements to do more harm than good.
I took the opposite approach and just went knee deep into trying to build things, learning piece by piece.
I am confident my stuff is not best practice, or well optimized, but is it functional? Also no.
100% the "indie game dev" side of TH-cam has always bothered me so much, cause so many of these videos just feel like self-serving ego boosts more than anything. Like they'll just brush over TONS of stuff to make it look super easy/make themselves look super smart, or they'll use assets that they didn't make themselves but without specifying that's the case, and it all just comes off as so slimy and underhanded. It's been a huge pet-peeve of mine for a while now lol. I completely agree that these people are TH-camrs first and game developers second. If you look around you'll notice most people who do this will never ACTUALLY release anything either, because if they release the game then suddenly their TH-cam cash cow will dry up, and they don't want that.
That's not to say all devlogs are bad or anything, but you gotta stay vigilant to which ones are legit, and which ones are made by total hacks lol.
When I get recommended a devlog I usually scrub through it and there's like 10 seconds of actual work or game in a 6 minute video. The rest is just the guy yapping while looking at himself in the camera, the topic is inconsequential.
Absolutely! If you’re dabbling in game development, yes, give Godot a try! The docs are a great place to start. We are completely not biased at all ;)
Haha! Thanks for taking my little joke the right way - keep up the good work!
Tried developing games 5-6 times. Failed or got bored each time. Learned a ton. Learned that game development wasn't for me. At least not on a solo project scale.
IMO this seems to be the position of these parasitic group trying to feed on the idea that they can help you make game development easy. They manage to pump out a single game, and they realize they never want to do it again in their lives, and so they sell tutorial to others about their very limited experience.
They thought it was going to be this awesome fun experience just like playing a game. Just because you like watching movies doesn't mean you'd like to film one. For some reason people struggle to understand that developing a game isn't as fun as playing it. At least not in the same way.
Not gunna lie, I've paid $100 bucks for two of those tutorials. Most of the info was out of date. 50% is more motivational speech than actually practical application.
I don't want to drag down anyone that wants to be a game dev, but no one is going to make game development easy for you. It is a lot of work, but there are a lot of good places to start. Dive in with an engine. Getting your hands dirty is the best way.
this mans eyes look cool af
That is very inspiring advice. People's advice and thoughts tend to make me feel like Im doing things wrong usually or like I'll never be capable and that its not worth trying because of that. Thank you, Chet :)
That's what people don't get about game development. They think "idea = end product." Nothing could be further from the truth in game development, writing, and every other discipline under the sun. Yet people conflate "having an idea for a game" with "having a great game if you'd just make the idea" all the time.
Great take on it Chet!
As a junior, (I'm about a year and a half into my professional career as a Tech/FX Artist) - I wanted to give you a poke and let you know how much I appreciate your vids and talks. Just coming out and saying it like it is, it's really invaluable to me.
I wanted to ask, you mention how sooooo many tiktokers/youtubers will show a tutorial, and they'll show some REALLY bad practices. Do you have any thoughts on where to learn some good practices? Documentation, official channels etc? Let me know your thoughts!
Keep up the great stuff! You are an inspiration, whether you feel like it or not!
well am not chet but one really good place to look is previous GDC talks, you learn a lot from them.
@@Anthonypython Appreciate the input! Cheers!
This does make me curious Chet, can you expand on how you learned and became comfortable with the technical bits of game dev?
I find myself at a stage of being a junior/novice programmer, but a confident designer and artist, I've done the jams, I've learned the just tumble forward mentality, and I've become comfortable and even look forward too the first, second, third, etc stages of iteration and building prototypes knowing I'm going to throw them away. In fact, I think I first heard the "fail fast" idea from you, and it resonated. I can prototype with the best of them.
And now, after a ton of prototypes, proof of concepts, and nearly driving my friends away with copious amounts of requests for play testing, I've got something I'm confident in pursuing and fleshing out. But I'm getting to a stage where I feel like I'm beginning to bump up against my lower ceiling of technical knowledge to get something implemented with architecture that won't hamstring the project early on. I can see it the goal, but I'm not familiar enough with C# (Unity) at scale to architect things appropriately for my projects needs as I'm trying to push towards a 'for release' project. So, now I'm searching for a learning path that seems most impactful for my needs.
Any thoughts? Did you ever find yourself stuck in this stage early on? I'm considering throwing time into a more traditional learning paths, but there's so many options (and snake oil salesmen) it's overwhelming.
You know what inspired me to make games more than most gamedev youtubers? Watching a streamer play someone's weird little game, you could feel the passion in that game, like the dev went "oh, i like this idea, lemme just add it lol".
And this made me further realize that you just need to... do stuff... and it will eventually work out, like with everything
Like trying to fly a rocket to the moon, you need a rough initial velocity vector, and then you'll course correct along the way you'll be fine... don't try to predict how you're gonna course correct, its literally chaos theory!
very important video. please share
That's youtube man. I wont hold it against people for trying to make tutorials just because they may one day become outdated though
this is the best game development youtube video I've seen Chet. I started to make youtube videos because i wanted to hop on the trend of making "devlog" videos, but Ive been making games since i was a kid. i want a slice of the youtube pie, i tried to make a devlog but i scrapped the footage because i realized how much editing it would take, and how much progress i would make if i just worked on my project.
I'll still try to put out simple little videos, but i can't expect to just be good at everything. I'd love to be good at the narrow list of things i apply myself to and get lucky on the others.
The thing that actually affects developer scheduling over and over again is scope creep. The only way I got my modding projects done is by aggressively scope culling at every opportunity.
Always be wary of people trying to sell you a course
They're not there to teach, but to take money from people who believe that buying things is progress
The influencers that pose as game devs are either trying to eliminate competition or trying to cash in on gaming viewership.
Udemy courses were great for inital introduction to unreal, but once half the course was complete, i felt like the rest was just refinement/edgecase.
It’s like this in the audio/music field, too. Influencers all parroting the same half-informed advice and peddling the same products. They seem to do everything except finish and release music. I feel bad for the people who take what they say as gospel.
Speaking of making video games; How would you recommend balancing personal passion/creativity with limited recourses?
Because a person could have all these amazing and creative and cool ideas for what they want to put into a game and make a game about but might not have the ability to do so with everything they wish to make. Is there such a thing as a good balance to that or are limitations (such as time, money and recourses) a good thing as they force you/whoever you’re working with to prioritise the super incredibly important parts in the game that’s being made?
This is just good advice for any skill. Great video!
Yes.. yes they do.😊
Ever since "Dani" appeared on TH-cam, there has been a severe decline in the quality of gamedev related internet content
First video of his I watched but, it was all bitching and no answers. Plus, he’s a bit too into cats so can he really be trusted? ;)
His answer was basically be careful getting advice from game devs on youtube since most of them are moreso youtubers then they are game devs.
@@kirbles2035 I understand but, don’t get your advice from TH-cam and don’t get your advice from Udemy isn’t very helpful. I think Tarodev is really solid. I think CodeMonkey is solid. And, I love how Rajas Biswas teaches on Udemy - especially for beginners. I understand there are bad teachers out there. There’s also outdated info. But a blanket if don’t use Udemy or TH-cam is just ridiculous
@@kirbles2035 It’s like anywhere. I’ve had bad and good professors. Bad and good paid courses. Bad and good experiences in Udemy and TH-cam. My only problem is that if you’re going to throw this out there and give no better solutions then you’re just part of the problem. I’ve watched great instructors on Udemy. Raja from Charger Games was amazing to get started with. Code Monkey has great tutorials and advice. Tarodev is a stud coder and a nice instructor. I just find these blanket statements to do more harm than good.
That pirate games guy.. always yapping just speaking the obvious.