I never liked calling someone a "gamedev", "webdev", "embedded developer", etc. I think, while this make sense to show what specialty one has, it's kinda dumb because if someone is a developer/SWE then they should be able to change and move real fast between all those "titles". I know that generally someone that spent all their carreer only doing NodeJS+Express REST APIs will struggle when tackling different scenarios like making a game-engine in C++, the same way that someone who spent all their life working in low level embedded software or maybe writing drivers/firmwares in C/Assembly would lose their mind trying to make a RubyOnRails application. But I only see that as a matter of familiarity. If you know how to code, have basic math knowledge and know your basic DS and Algorithms, you should be able to do whatever you want to. Of course, some people will have an easier time with webdev, some people will strugle with React, and so on and so forth. This is unavoidable, no one is equal and everyone has their own set of skills and strengths. BUT, I still believe that you can still do whatever the hell you want if you have the right basic concepts in your mind (and a bunch of time to spare).
With all that in mind, I'll revisit one of my older friends: game dev. My first contact with game development was in 2017 (8y ago). I really enjoyed that. At the time I joined a "GameDev Team" at my former college, we were doing Unity (obviously) under the supervision of a teacher. I loved poking around and see everything the engine had to offer, messing around with the physics system, making animations... But I hated the team. Ok, to be fair not the team itself. Everyone there was really caring and fun, I quickly became friends with a lot of people there -- even with the teacher that was responsible for coordinating all projects. The problem was we couldn't make our own stuff. My first (and only) experience there was to rewrite a previous (failed) 2D platformer game written in Unity called "DinoPixel".... I still have shivers whenever I hear that name. It was not the worse idea of a game, but it wasn't a good one either. No one in my team had a good time working on that, and quickly the "fun gamedev team" where "we could learn and have cool ideas" became an unpaid job. It felt like we were there trying to revive a dead project just for the sake of doing it. For years after I hated on game-dev because of that -- unfairly, I know, but I also tried multiple times implementing anything but I always had that bitter taste in my mouth and always gave up after some lines of code.
That changes now :D
Last week I tried finding something cool to play but couldn't find anything. One game I always wanted to try is Far Cry 3 -- bought the game but unf Ubisoft shit on Proton compatibility and now the game won't work on linux (fuck you ubisoft). After some (a lot of) days searching for a game that would fullfil one of my needs, I reached that state of mind that every developers knows too well: "I can make that shit". Started sketching, planning, picked Godot (because I liked its API, "everything is text" policy, and Unity reminds of "DinoPixel"), and started building.
As my first step I needed to decide what exactly I was going to build. There's two games I really wanted to play but
couldn't find:
- FPS stealth-based roguelike -- without that enemies that need 400 bullets to actually die, just plain humans;
- Chill farm game with automation logic, no combat and some puzzles -- something like stardew valley/animal crossing
meet Factorio;
I chose the second one because: my wife likes farm games, I'd love seeing her play it. And before any veteran
game-dev says anything about "you should start small" or anything like that: 1. I'm not aiming for commercial game,
I don't know about the future but as of now I just want my cozy side project I can also enjoy playing, and 2. you're
not my dad, fuck you.
Cool, after that I started taking notes of how I want the game to look like, mechanics, etc etc, and finally started a godot project:
Starting next post I'll post some code snippets and dev-blog about how the game is doing. Also, this project will not contain anything AI generated -- code, img, mesh, music, etc. I believe games can be the ultimate form of art, and although I'm no artist I do think that without passion there's no art and no fun in games. +I much rather look at Godot docs and come up with my own solutions -- this way I can learn more (and it's more fun to me). Stay tuned! :D