The Harsh Truth About Game Development

[thomasbrush]

What are some other harsh truths I missed? Also, remember:

[throbbinguncle]

50% being unhappy making your game or 99% being unhappy at an office job. I know which one I'd take.

[blackcitadelstudios]

My 4th harsh truth as a solo indie game developer is "there's always not enough time"... Especially if you're still learning at the same time developing and building a community around your game. Doing everything solo is very hard, mentally and emotionally too.

To all solo devs out there grinding everyday. Cheers to you! We'll get there someday, keep grinding... 😊❤

[HE]

This is why I just make my games as a hobby and I drive a bus for a living. At least in bus driving, the pay is decent and I don't have to worry about competition and oversaturation in the job market. In fact, I could pretty much pick what I want to do. And driving a bus can be as fun as playing a video game.

[TheCuteBandicoot]

Yes, that is true, I have been working on a private project for a year and a half now, it's so time-consuming and sometimes frustrating as hell, but goddam if it isn't my passion then I wonder where that fire in me is coming from that keeps me going on and on! thanks for being a good inspirer Thomas.

[lilrockstar]

I don’t think you realize how much of an MAJOR upgrade that 50% happy is for the vast majority of people.

[colonelb]

The tools thing is a really good callout and also good to know that MOST folks run away from tools dev like the plague so if you happen to be someone who LIKES tool development, it's far less competitive and has a much higher demand than say, a level creator. And that's true not just in game dev but business app dev too. Everywhere I've worked we've had the main products but also reporting tools, customer support tools, configuration tools, all of that stuff - and especially any reporting tools or things to deal with money tracking - that's stuff that management REALLY cares about so if you're good at it, you may have some decent job security. It's not for everyone, but that's part of that "it takes all kinds of instruments to make an orchestra" approach to teams - find what you're good at and befriend those that are good at what you're bad at.

[weeziepuff]

Great video! I've been a professional game designer for over 30 years and everything you say is 100% accurate. It can't be stated enough how difficult and complex game development is. That's part of the reason I love doing it so much. The other parts are the great people I get to work with and hearing from gamers how much they loved a game I worked on.

[TennessseTimmy]

The harsh truth about this video and channel:
This guy is not a game dev, he is a YouTube.
It's apparent from a very often used familiar format, cadence and structure of the video.

I don't have to go past the introduction to know this guy is basically chatgpt equivalent of a YouTube videos and a skinner box.

[MatthewBofenkamp]

I’ve worked in the game industry for years now as an engineer, and so much of what I do is just putting buttons on screen in the exact right places or trying to figure out why that one character vibrates when they walk, or wrestling with version control software, and this is at small-ish studios (I’ve worked at a few companies, the largest with about 60 people). The nitty gritty definitely isn’t always as fun as bringing new gameplay features to life, but it’s a huge part of the job.

Also I’d definitely point out that for the vast majority of game developers out there, the stuff you’re working on generally isn’t your idea, or isn’t COMPLETELY your idea. A piece of advice i always give young/aspiring/student game devs is to work with a team on a game that isn’t your idea and see if you still enjoy working on it. If not, that can be a red flag, but honestly, almost every time they really enjoy working on games that aren’t their idea! And that’s great to know! It makes sense though, like for every person you probably have hundreds to thousands of pieces of media you really like that aren’t your idea, but that doesn’t make you automatically disinterested in it.

And the studio culture good things not being reported is also definitely true. A good friend of mine works at Naughty Dog, which has been famous for endless crunch, but recently they redid some things in the company, and now the crunch is gone. It wasn’t reported on, but company leadership made a genuine effort to improve the lives of their employees and it worked. I’ve heard many similar stories over the years. For every bad apple there are many good ones you don’t hear about.

[orangelimesky]

Sitting in an office - doing work that's not your vision, nor your future vision should just be a means to finance your true future. Regardless of game development or any endeavor. Any career is extreme hard work. And it is not meant to be 'fun' in the sense of fun when you sit and do nothing but play video games. True work is extremely hard and mundane but without it you just will not move forward.
Just believe in one thing - it will happen. It can be anything, a game, a movie, some product that's breaking into a new market... failure should not be in your vocabulary. I don't know how failure can be an option when there's nothing else BUT this to do in your life. Personally I've been obsessed with every single aspect of video games since I played mario and megaman on nintendo. I used to think it was the art, or animation. But I realized I needed to make video games. And it's going to be a hard journey since nobody in my family understands this. But it's going to be worth living this life rather than a life of the regret of never having tried.

[codingasford]

Great video! make more like this, , very comprehensive and well explained, I love how you simplified things and even defined hooks were just to make sure everyone was on the same page

[ReleeSquirrel]

I don't think everyone can be good at marketing, even with education and practice, and a lot of folks just don't like it. But, you CAN make games without that, and even better, you can make friends with someone who is as passionate about marketing and business as you are about making games. I don't think folks should try to do this stuff alone unless they have a reason to.

[ImDVI]

Personally that "miserable" feeling to me is replaced with an overshadowing Badass feeling following the words "get good" this invites sicko mode to consume your soul and ignore any skill gaps. Ez claps.

[craigstewart]

Long time game engineer here. As my experience grew, the more I would work on the problems. Antiquated crap. Making bad ideas work. I miss the early days of small teams making new products. With the advent of AI I think that’s where things are headed again. Definitely a good time to go Indy.

[DWGooding]

That Trinity hook feels like something amazing that's been hidden in plain sight, and honestly glad you mentioned it.

[ZahhibbDev]

Great video Thomas, always nice to hear your input and thoughts!

I feel like you unlocked something in my brain when you started talking about the Trinity Hook, even though I have made tiny non-commercial games before and I currently work at a indie studio I never thought about how each hook should lead into each other. Of course I knew that hooks has to FIT together, but them relying, building, and improving each other is another thing entirely, and you described it so well and succinctly!

[idklol]

i almost guarantee no one thats bought thomas's course has made a million dollars making games or doing youtube

[JohnofFinland]

Making the workplace more enjoyable and fostering kindness towards employees is crucial for productivity and well-being. It's a goal worth striving for, and hopefully, with efforts and awareness, we can create a more supportive and positive work environment for everyone.

[ConorDrew]

Just a note on the AAA studios, and just one example, Rockstar, its a studio as much as a supermarket is a brand, if you work at Walmart or Asda, you work for that company, but the building, the local management is different, to show this, look at Rockstar as i said above you have:
Rockstar Games
Rockstar North
Rockstar San Diego
Rockstar Toronto
Rockstar Lincoln
Rockstar Leeds
Rockstar Leeds
Rockstar International
Rockstar London
Rockstar India
Rockstar Dundee

Each one of these has different culture, people, teams, atmosphere, they tend to work on their own projects, I know that's changing a bit more since RDR2 and GTA 6 just because of the scope, but they will still be specialised.

To summarise all of this, a bad apple doesnt make a bad bunch, but can easily spoil it all if not removed, you can work with 10 people, 100 or 1000, you will get arseholes, you will get terrible managers, but you will also get lovers, family for life, people who just connect, managers who care and look out for people. its just a fact of statistics, and that humans in nature, take negative alot better than positive, if youre happy you may tell 1 person, if youre unhappy, you will tell 10 people.