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Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

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Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#71

It's a neat game! I dig the art style and the music. I think my kids are going to have a blast with it too!

Thank you. We did all the music ourselves. If you want to check it out as an album: https://open.spotify.com/album/7hddjvc2p2nQZAPjowpNUf?si=tI2...

You'll also find it with other music streamers or on Bandcamp, if Spotify isn't your thing.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#72

Congrats on shipping a game. I'm almost 40 and have started so many engines and infrastructure projects that I'm looking forward to retiring early to make games. Carry on!

When are you retiring so we can see some games? :-)

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#74

I like the spirit :) keep up the good work! By the way, do you have a blog or a github account? I am quite comfortable finding useful information and lately I have collected a good amount of game development libraries and resources that could help me become a better programming adventurist.

We have a github that I plan to populate with the useful bits and pieces that I've written along the way. Will come back here when I stop procrastinating.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#75
post #7

My son wants to learn how to make games but I have no game development experience. What path did you take to start learning game development?

I'm entirely self-taught. My personal experience is this: - Try a bunch of free engines and platforms. Depending on your son's age, this might mean starting with something like Scratch. I've played around with it myself and it's fun. It at least gives you a feel for game logic and how a game loop should feel. - GDevelop has come a long way. My son prefers it when he's just doodling around. - My husband prefers GameMa…

> Make as simple a game as possible when you're starting

Back when I had enough spare time to do game jams, one critical thing I learned was, once you have some idea, make it simpler. Now make it even simpler. And then, make it simpler again. Repeat that about 20 times, possibly more. Now you have something that you can possibly build and actually release, and guess what, counterintuitively, it'll be fun as hell.

Coz what makes a game fun is not the thousands of wonderful ideas you may have bolted on together, it's just a couple of things you distilled for the love of it, chiseling away, down to the core of the game mechanics, into some magical essence.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#78

Congrats on releasing the game! Great work! I'm 49 and I have basically the same story you did... and also share the same secret dream to write games "one day", so I'm starting really small with a simple little 2D game in GameMaker Studio. So far it's slow going but super fun. But you've inspired me to keep going, so thanks! EDIT: Purchased! Looking forward to playing it!

Thank you! How's your experience with GMS2?

I'm really enjoying it so far. It seems to fit with my mental model of making video games, which basically ended when I was 15 and writing games in MBASIC on my Heathkit (and later QuickBasic on MS-DOS, but I sort of stopped making games at that point) Obviously the language is very different and it's object-oriented, which MBASIC definitely was not, but it sort of feels... similar somehow? I can't really explain it.

Some things about the GML language are a bit odd, and sometimes it seems like people on the forums believe wrong things about it (I read more than one person complaining that you couldn't define your own functions, which is not correct, but the docs could be a lot clearer on that) But overall I'm happy enough with it.

I'm recreating a game I wrote in interpreted BASIC back in 1987 [1] and so far I've got the levels, basic player movement, simple enemy AI, and a very basic game loop. It's nothing fancy but I'm learning a lot so far.

[1] https://jeremyreimer.com/rockets-item.lsp?p=282

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#79
post #77

Really awesome to see people following their interests and dreams :) I don't have an iPhone so can't download this, but it looks great, well done!

Thank you! It's on Google Play too...but if you meant that you don't use a mobile device in general, we still appreciate that you read the post.
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