I'm 64 years young and I started learning and developing games for mobile (mostly) 3 years ago. Started with Java on Android SDK, then after a few months switched over to Unity and C#. My initial focus was (no surprise) the arcade genre. I have since branched out to puzzle/adventure/interactive comic for a project I now have underway.
Along this journey I've learned enough to be nominally functional at animation, physics, game engines, 3D, handheld embedded sensors, object oriented programming (which often has me going OOPs and thinking I could have done/designed this better), Git, and more. No this is not a resume and I am not looking for any job. This post is more about saying what is possible.
At any age the art, mechanics and programming of (even my humble) game making is usually/mostly difficult. But for me the reward and thrill I get out of making something work and seeing my ideas actually "play" on a handheld is, well, awesome, and for me always more than worth my efforts.
FWIW and at the risk of being roasted and criticized to shreds, or just ignored, here is my website I put up a few weeks ago: https://bokoto.github.io/bob-site mainly to share my work with friends without swamping their email with attachments. The site includes screen shots and videos of a few of my projects along with links to Github where my projects - and messy code - can be found. I'm a solo creator/developer so everything you see there is my own fault.
At the end of the day I have no illusions about becoming a great game software architect or a AAA grade game engineer/designer, or making money from my efforts.
I'll consider myself successful when I have shared some games that enable players to perhaps improve/exercise their memory or eye-hand coordination while having fun, or getting a laugh or two or maybe even some joy out of something I created and shared with others.
Fortunately the industry is not so monolithic. There are games made for "other markets", but as they don't partake of the usual mass hype and advertising they're not as easy to see.
How many titles are there on steam? How much of that is the product of what this author would call "the game industry?" 20%? The rest of those games, written by and for "industry outsiders", are the real industry. The advertising and media folks are mostly unaware of it.
Along this journey I've learned enough to be nominally functional at animation, physics, game engines, 3D, handheld embedded sensors, object oriented programming (which often has me going OOPs and thinking I could have done/designed this better), Git, and more. No this is not a resume and I am not looking for any job. This post is more about saying what is possible.
At any age the art, mechanics and programming of (even my humble) game making is usually/mostly difficult. But for me the reward and thrill I get out of making something work and seeing my ideas actually "play" on a handheld is, well, awesome, and for me always more than worth my efforts.
FWIW and at the risk of being roasted and criticized to shreds, or just ignored, here is my website I put up a few weeks ago: https://bokoto.github.io/bob-site mainly to share my work with friends without swamping their email with attachments. The site includes screen shots and videos of a few of my projects along with links to Github where my projects - and messy code - can be found. I'm a solo creator/developer so everything you see there is my own fault.
At the end of the day I have no illusions about becoming a great game software architect or a AAA grade game engineer/designer, or making money from my efforts.
I'll consider myself successful when I have shared some games that enable players to perhaps improve/exercise their memory or eye-hand coordination while having fun, or getting a laugh or two or maybe even some joy out of something I created and shared with others.