
Ask HN: How long is the road from web dev to game dev - 0mbre
I&#x27;ve been creating web stuff for almost 10 years now but these days I fell really drained of doing the same stuff all over again on almost every projects. So I started looking around for alternatives and since I&#x27;ve always dreamed of creating video games (but somehow always assumed that it was out of reach to make a living out of it), I am considering diving into this.<p>I am a fairly experienced programmer and I have some experience in 3D modeling &#x2F; rendering as hobby but I am a complete ignorant in game design &#x2F; programming. 
Is it realistic to think about a career change at this point ? If it is, any tips ? Can I be hireable in gaming industry in a decent amount of time?
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angersock
They'll hire you, exploit you, and then fire you when the funding dries up.
Your "customers" will whine endlessly about every change you make, and every
change you don't, and then cry out at having to pay more than nothing for your
game. The industry mostly only has big publishing houses and captive studios
left, and has _bar none_ the very worst sort of customers you'll ever get--
just go read through the user feedback on the Steam store.

Importantly this:

[http://www.puppygames.net/blog/?p=1574](http://www.puppygames.net/blog/?p=1574)

And this:

[http://www.fdg2013.org/program/papers/paper06_zagal_etal.pdf](http://www.fdg2013.org/program/papers/paper06_zagal_etal.pdf)

And this:

[http://www.developereconomics.com/mobile-gaming-dirty-
secret...](http://www.developereconomics.com/mobile-gaming-dirty-secret/)

I would never in a million years recommend anybody entering the industry at
this point unless they are making an independent game by themselves--and even
then, only as a hobby.

If you want to learn something, keep it as a hobby. It'll be a lot of fun,
you'll learn a lot, and maybe you'll even get to sell your project. But don't
don't _don 't_ try to make a living from it.

~~~
0mbre
Thanks for the cold hard truth. Seems to make lot of sense. Will take it as a
hobby for now and see where it leads me.

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nicks451
I would recommend participating in some game jams to get you started and see
if it's something that you want to pursue. There are several notable ones
every year. The next big one is Global Game Jam[0] at the end of January and
then there is Ludum Dare[1] three times a year (April, August, December).
These will help you grow as a game developer and learn a little bit about
everything that is involved with creating a game.

After participating in some game jams I would suggest doing some research into
what the work/life balance is for game developers (spoiler, there's not much
of one) and decide if that's something that you can live with.

Finally if you're looking for things to learn to more easily get a job in the
industry I would suggest mastering Unity 3D[2]. It's quickly becoming a
ubiquitous tool that game companies use to at least prototype games in and
showing mastery should at least get you in the door for an interview.

[0][http://www.globalgamejam.org/](http://www.globalgamejam.org/)
[1][http://ludumdare.com/compo/](http://ludumdare.com/compo/)
[2][http://unity3d.com](http://unity3d.com)

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debacle
It is not a very long road. You need to understand how an event loop works
(versus web transitions, which are usually async) and learn the math. If you
get into a lower level position, you'll need to learn how to interface with
the GPU and a bit of memory management, etc.

In my experience, 90%+ of the learning was the mathematical transforms and
learning how to translate something that happens over seconds or minutes into
a function that spits out transformations over ticks.

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matthewjames
Since you are familiar with web languages already, you should go check out
impactjs. Very cool little javascript game engine with a lot of flexibility.
Has been used for small and big projects, one person even recently produced an
infinite-sandbox mmo with it! Unfortunately, it does cost $99.

[http://www.impactjs.com/](http://www.impactjs.com/)

~~~
proveanegative
There are many no-cost, open source JavaScript game engines today. Other than
the level editor (which does look pretty cool) what advantages does ImpactJS
have to justify the price and, more importantly, committing to a proprietary
technology?

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mrits
You have thousands of people doing game development for free as part time
projects. Unless you are finding yourself doing this type of work you really
don't stand a chance. No one is going to put you into a position to gain the
right experience unless you have demonstrated you are worth the investment.

~~~
0mbre
I'd be OK to do some free work to get started. Any ideas about where I could
find these types of gigs ?

~~~
murphm8
0 A.D.[0] is a cool open source RTS. They are looking for developers to help
out.

[0] [http://play0ad.com/](http://play0ad.com/)

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haidrali
I think road might not be long instead its a U-turn u need to take

