Why I started (and stopped) making games
austinhenley.com
Why I started (and stopped) making games
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Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#2When I was 13-14 there was a brief period where I was making levels for Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2. I had a “clan” encouraging me to make us our own level and it was simple enough that at 13 I could listen to some Disturbed on my headphone while learning how to use the tooling and follow tutorials to make stuff and get things up and running. It had a basic scripting language (cog files) that you’d use to make elevators move and things like that. You’d attach these cog files to in game objects and it was a very good intro to games and level design. I think that was definitely my foot in the door for thinking like a coder.
Unfortunately Unreal Tournament became extremely popular right after this and thirteen year old me couldn’t wrap his head around C++, and didn’t have anyone to help me, so my learning journey ended for about 12 years or so until I learned to code in my mid 20s. I’ve still never picked up video game design again, despite consuming them a decent amount. Stuff just got too complicated.
Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#3Anyone here that makes games for fun or on the side?
Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#4Anyone here that makes games for fun or on the side?
Yup, for fun. Building a game from scratch almost from from the bottom. Starting with a CPU, sound-chip and graphics-chip (using an FPGA). On top of that a Forth system and on top of that a platform game. Lots of fun and a great learning experience.
Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#5Anyone here that makes games for fun or on the side?
Absolutely, currently remaking and old arcade game (SAMI) with a team that has skills beyond engineering, because engineering and a bit of guitar is about all I have time for :)
It's a great way to learn a lot, and it has definitely helped me with how I approach problem solving and software design in my day job.
Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#6The reason I stopped making games... The tooling! It takes way too long to open Unreal Engine, or to do anything within its UI, and Unity gives me "bad vibes" (technical term) any time I open it. I know these days there are other engines, but I started my programming journey by learning game engines, and perhaps I should have learned programming properly before jumping into game programming.
Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#7Anyone here that makes games for fun or on the side?
I did for a bit, but it's a bit tricky, in the sense that differently from other types of products, games have a very strong separation between the artistic and the engineering aspects. This has very significant consequences.
If one works alone on a game, they may find that they keep solving technical problems, without actually producing a game, but rather, producing an engine. If one works in a team, and nobody takes a creative lead, the same thing happens - technical advancements in the game, but no content.
In the right conditions (either a balanced team, or a single dev who enjoys both aspects), game development is fantastic - from the engineering perspective, game development is a very challenging (in an interesting way) field. But I think it's not easy to find the right context.
Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#8Anyone here that makes games for fun or on the side?
Yes, I made rotaboxes and posted here recently [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33718124]
Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#9The reason I stopped making games... The tooling! It takes way too long to open Unreal Engine, or to do anything within its UI, and Unity gives me "bad vibes" (technical term) any time I open it. I know these days there are other engines, but I started my programming journey by learning game engines, and perhaps I should have learned programming properly before jumping into game programming.
You should try Godot. Open source and extremely lightweight compared to Unity and Unreal. It's pleasure to use, none of the baggage of the other engines. I'm a patron contributor. Fantastic for hobbyist tinkering and also viable for full blown commercial games.
Re: Why I started (and stopped) making games
#10Anyone here that makes games for fun or on the side?
I have started learning and have done a very unpolished pong to learn. I did write a blog entry here: https://blog.rmrubert.eu/posts/2023-06-17-making-my-first-ga...
I do agree with this sentence on the article > as the menu you can see in my game (which is very unpolished) took as much as the game itself.