Game Dev: Are You TOO OLD To Start?

In this video we answer the question: Are you TOO OLD for game development?

We discuss the common belief that game development is for young people. We also cover common issues that older people may have entering the industry like time, money, embarrassment, other responsibilities, fear of failure and starting a new career.

With a few silly skits of course, some terrible dad jokes, humbleness, authenticity, vulnerability, and a TON of compassion for our fellow devs.

If you're new to our channel, we're Brandon & Nikki from Sasquatch B Studios. We sold our house to start our game studio, and work full time on building our business and making our game, Veil of Maia.

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Games Highlighted: Pinstripe - Atmos Games - 2017

#motivation #indiegame #gamedevelopment

[midniteoilsoftware]

I started game development during the early stages of the pandemic and without stating my age I will admit that I am on the older side. I think it really comes down to talent + passion + resources + time + effort (and maybe a little bit of luck).

[Dailyfiver]

Stan Lee didn’t start drawing his first comic book until he was basically 40. You’re never too old to follow your passion.

[mrt_]

If Jonathan Blow (who is around 51 years old, who made Braid at age 37, and The witness at age 45, and is currntly wokring on Sokoban and a programming language named Jai ),
and John Carmack (who is around 52 years old, and made Wolfenstain 3D at age 22, the original doom at 23, the original quake at 26, and is now doing stuff for Oculus) can do Game Dev, then yes... you can do gamedev.
And no, you can't be too old for gamedev.

[eightsprites]

Good point on 95% fail, but so do 95% of all startups. I never thought of that!

[RealCoachMustafa]

I'm in a similar situation. 36 years old, married, 2 kids, full time job, and don't even have time to play games.

[chazlewis]

Great vid! I launched my first game 2 years ago at the ripe old age of 38. Honestly, I would not have been able to release a successful game in my 20s. If anything being older is a huge advantage. Better business skills, less frivolous distractions, better time management skills, etc.

[yobeenocreative]

I am 49. Worked in game dev studios 11 years and most of the folks I worked with were my age or older. Much experience with the older gen.

[mrt_]

I personally have a full time job as a developer.
And I do Game Dev, and general programming in my spare time.
As well as also doing some cyber security in my spare time :)

[TESkyrimizer]

I have plenty of older senior programmers and team managers at my old job. They were very smart folk. Age is not much of an issue if they are managing teams of people and projects worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[arturodelreal]

I'm 44 years old and I'd like to start to learn and make vg, I'd like to focus in games of Virtual Reality, I think is the future in games. Thanks for the video!

[thehypersonicegg]

Very high video production quality especialy for a channel of this size its hard to belive you arent growing much faster im sure it will speed up eventualy though

[DrIngo]

I (44, m) only got around to watch this video now. And boy oh boy, this was eye opening and very, very encouraging actually. I have no clue about actual game dev, but I have 20+ years of commercial business application development (mobile, web, client+server [anyone remember this actually?]) and I always dreamed of doing some kind of game dev on the side. Maybe I'll give it a try some of these days (you know, before I die of a heart attack age 47 or something lol).

[threeqs]

Just seen this video. Very helpful. When you are 20 you are too young. When you are 30 you are too busy. When you are 40 you have financial commitments. When you are 50 you need to save for retirement. When you are 60 you need to protect your money and prepare to retire. When you are 70 you think you are too old. When you are 80 you are thinking about the next life. When you are 90 you are probably in that next life. Never a good time apart from today, now, this minute…!

[Fefs-yigf]

Thanks for sharing this one, definitely resonates with me, the embarassment factor is there, I usually say I'm a translator or something like that to get rid of the unconforable questions, hope I can overcome that. Cheers ✌

[flashheart]

For me, I like to ask the question, "What would I like to be doing with my life at age 100"! If the answer is "making games", then the question about being TOO OLD doesn't matter, does it? I have friends who have retired and now have NOTHING to do. It's sad for me to see this. I'm 64, I try to stay healthy and MAKE VIDEO GAMES. It's my passion, and I will be doing this 10 years, 20 years, and maybe even 40 years from now. And, like everyone here, a successful game would be nice, but it's not what wakes me up in the morning (oh wait, it is! ). Anyway, I really like your series. And no, you will NEVER be too old for this.

[zzvcujm]

I tought programing is like a lego that once you learn how to use, it will be easy to do complex build but I was wrong programming is like painting a realistic art that no matter what you do you cant finish it in a very short time because every detail you have do it meticulously.

[Tenchinu]

got cut right at the beginning of the pandemic... and had to go back to retail and fast food for a while, but in all that time I was just studying and working in my own 3D stuff. I did eventually get a job related to the industry, and now all my free time is to study 3D and game dev even harder!! It is a little late in life, but... I mean, wft. Its learning and doing something I adore, or going back to a job I never wanna do again for... fuck, not even the same salary.
Rather die poor than miserable

[Seancstudiogames]

Excellent video! I’m 50 and believe I can make games. I have advantages though. -older kids -established good career
-Am goal oriented and have a plan
-developer background
-Aware that time management has be my “point game”

Great video, I subscribed as well.

[inferno]

very good subject decryption but i would like to know your opinion on working for a game company not creating your own game
how hard is it to find a job in gaming industry and is it a viable career option and how much learning time is needed to prentend landing a full time job at gaming company

[owdoogames]

I'm 20 years older than you. I played my first video game in 1980 (Space Invaders), but I only started trying out game dev as a hobby 3 years ago in lockdown. I really wish I'd started 20 years ago, and had access to the tools we have now!

I've messed around with almost all the main game engines and frameworks since March 2020 - GameMaker, Construct, Gdevelop, Defold, Godot, Love2D, Monogame, RayLib, Bevy, Unreal, Unity and Flax. But I still can't decide which one to focus on, though have started work on 5 different projects in Godot, and done a lot of the official Unity Learn pathway stuff.

I've only completed a few little 2D games. I've about half-a-dozen larger game ideas sketched out, mostly 2D but a few 3D, which is why I've been investigating Unity, Unreal and Flax (Godot is still not quite up to scratch yet for 3D, I don't think).

I'm feeling a bit burned out if I'm honest. Just trying to decide which engine to use for a project gets me down, and I feel like I've been wasting a lot of my time and energy learning too much inconsequential stuff. 

This was supposed to be fun.