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[jcorb]

36 years old is pretty old to be looking at a career-change, but here I am anyways. I spent long enough working "normal" jobs, I feel like this is a path I *need* to work towards.

Just a bit unsure the most broadly applicable discipline. I'm assuming Programming? C++ or C#? Or for that matter, would I be better just getting familiar with Unreal engine and seeing what I can cobble together for a Game Design portfolio?

 

[Cakeboxer]

Get 10 pronounces and pink hair.

Scnr, hope you get some serious answers.

 

[The Cockatrice]

I guess C# and start learning Unity, find some courses on Udemy or free stuff, make a short game, sell it on steam and see how it goes. Most people start with some pixelated game or a point and click adventure but if you have ideas try to make something original. Also youre never too old to change your career if youre willing. I wish I had the ambition.

 

[clarky]

36 isn't old, you've got 30 years of working life to go. Plenty of time to switch and smash it.

Good luck.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Have to be able to give a good handy

 

[theStartupSound]

Seeing how popular Unreal Engine 5 is, even for big developers, I would recommend making a (pretty small but working) game in that. That way you have touchpoints to every part of game making (blueprints, design, concept, writing, bugfixing, testing, prototyping, releasing and so on). After that, you maybe know, what part of game dev you like and what not.

Be pretty harsh in having a small scope in your project so there is a chance you get it done
Don’t try to make the next GTA, start with something like Pong or Tetris. But don’t just follow a tutorial, try to understand the principles of what you are doing, indiviualize it to your own vision instead of a exact replication (more learning effect).

Plus: Get yourself a mentor/coach to have someone who can help with the problems you will run into.

 

[killatopak]

Try modding stuff.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Being trans.

 

[SlicedBread3]

Make sure to get good at 3d maths if you're not already.

Go with C++. You might find it harder to get to grips with but you'll learn more. (Hell ideally start with C and work your way up. Maybe even dabble a bit with assembly language just to get an idea of how things really work under the hood)

 

[PatientGamer]

Learn an Asian dialect, relevant programming languages and move to the east. Honestly. They're on fire right now, releasing banger after banger. Whilst Western gaming is held back by woke politics that could destroy the industry as we know it.

 

[delfrickintree]

outsource yourself to india

 

[EviLore]

If you don't have a relevant technical degree (and even if you do), build something impressive to demonstrate your skills.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

A willingness to partake in naked Sauna sessions.
Sorry

 

[EviLore]

Learn an Asian dialect, relevant programming languages and move to the east. Honestly. They're on fire right now, releasing banger after banger. Whilst Western gaming is held back by woke politics that could destroy the industry as we know it.

Great advice if you want to hand over 90% of your waking life in exchange for abysmal wages. Otherwise stay in the West.

 

[The Cockatrice]

A willingness to partake in naked Sauna sessions.

 

[Wildebeest]

Toxic positivity and being really edgy and saying that Bloodborne is your favourite game, although it is a really obscure game that nobody outside the industry has ever heard of.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Yeah, programming skills are probably the most generally applicable ones. Getting familiar with Unreal or Unity would be good mostly for working with other people or companies who are also using these engines. I think it'd be good to see if what you worked with before could be an useful skill for gaming companies.

One thing you must consider is what path exactly you're pretending to follow. Do you just want to work in the gaming industry or do you want to make games? Because if its the latter, applying and working for some established company is almost guaranteed to not give you what you want, in which case the options left would be doing freelancer work and/or going indie.

 

[Impotaku]

Sturdy knees & no gag reflex.

 

[IAmRei]

36 years old is pretty old to be looking at a career-change, but here I am anyways. I spent long enough working "normal" jobs, I feel like this is a path I *need* to work towards.

Just a bit unsure the most broadly applicable discipline. I'm assuming Programming? C++ or C#? Or for that matter, would I be better just getting familiar with Unreal engine and seeing what I can cobble together for a Game Design portfolio?

Game designer or tester if you already play lot of games. You only need to adjust some, but all You need is google slide + image/graphic creator maybe canva or figma, and you are ready to go

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

36 years old is pretty old to be looking at a career-change, but here I am anyways. I spent long enough working "normal" jobs, I feel like this is a path I *need* to work towards.

Just a bit unsure the most broadly applicable discipline. I'm assuming Programming? C++ or C#? Or for that matter, would I be better just getting familiar with Unreal engine and seeing what I can cobble together for a Game Design portfolio?

Nothing wrong with games testing, managing, animation, writing, audio etc etc. Doesn't have to be programming.

 

[Puscifer]

If you don't have a relevant technical degree (and even if you do), build something impressive to demonstrate your skills.

I mean I would listen to the literal Harvard Grad we have here but that's just meeeeeeee (yes I scoped out your LinkedIn, impressive as fuuucccckkkkk)

 

[StereoVsn]

Are you a current developer in non-gaming industry? Learn Unity, Unreal, and make a mock up project.

Are you a non-developer? Perhaps 3D animator? Hard to say but junior designer would be a relevant role or if you are a Project Manager, then a PM job. There is also QA. QA sucks to work in but it’s a very important job if very undervalued.

Personally though unless this is your passion, I wouldn’t touch the industry with a 10’ pole. Hours suck, pay is generally lower vs similar positions (if software eng) outside the industry, and toxic working environment.

 

[Drell]

Dye your hair and get a ring in your nose like a cow.

And be ready to get offended.

 

[Digital-Aftertaste]

a non conventional way would be anything regarding project management excel/perforce, start off in Microsoft then move to one of their studios from there. Cousin of mine did that, had programming experience and ended up working at Activision for a year... All this from being in the coast guard of all places

 

[HL3.exe]

Learn an Asian dialect, relevant programming languages and move to the east. Honestly. They're on fire right now, releasing banger after banger. Whilst Western gaming is held back by woke politics that could destroy the industry as we know it.

Maybe you should move to a non-western country if you dont like it here, see how you fair.

 

[jcorb]

Appreciate all the advice (and couple jokes) so far!

My own background has been in digital fundraising, which has involved a lot of writing, account management, team management and training, and some *extremely* basic level coding (HTML and CSS mostly, but dabbled a bit in SQL). I’d love to eventually get involved in actual Game Design (always enjoyed studying it and reading books on it, wish I had pursued it sooner), but I figure if I ever want to get involved in any capacity, I’m going to have to develop skills to do the “grunt work” until I can hopefully work my way up.

At the same time, it seems like an industry that relies a lot of personal connections and networking to find work. I’m currently based just outside DC (actually not far from Bethesda, apparently), but seems like most folks tend to do all their networking in college. Any ideas for linking up with other folks in game development when you’re new to it all?

 

[PatientGamer]

Great advice if you want to hand over 90% of your waking life in exchange for abysmal wages. Otherwise stay in the West.

Oh yeah I forgot about the working hours. They are grim. Haha, Europe seems to be better for work life balance from what I hear.

 

[Digital-Aftertaste]

Appreciate all the advice (and couple jokes) so far!

My own background has been in digital fundraising, which has involved a lot of writing, account management, team management and training, and some *extremely* basic level coding (HTML and CSS mostly, but dabbled a bit in SQL). I’d love to eventually get involved in actual Game Design (always enjoyed studying it and reading books on it, wish I had pursued it sooner), but I figure if I ever want to get involved in any capacity, I’m going to have to develop skills to do the “grunt work” until I can hopefully work my way up.

At the same time, it seems like an industry that relies a lot of personal connections and networking to find work. I’m currently based just outside DC (actually not far from Bethesda, apparently), but seems like most folks tend to do all their networking in college. Any ideas for linking up with other folks in game development when you’re new to it all?

game jam events and cons. You'd be surprised how easily you can play the game 6 degrees of kevin bacon when you chat up devs be it indie or otherwise.

 

[PatientGamer]

Maybe you should move to a non-western country if you dont like it here, see how you fair

I do like it here, just not the state of game development as per the topic being discussed.

 

[PendekarRajawali]

outsource yourself to india

They’ll rape you there.

 

[SirTerry-T]

36 years old is pretty old to be looking at a career-change, but here I am anyways. I spent long enough working "normal" jobs, I feel like this is a path I *need* to work towards.

Just a bit unsure the most broadly applicable discipline. I'm assuming Programming? C++ or C#? Or for that matter, would I be better just getting familiar with Unreal engine and seeing what I can cobble together for a Game Design portfolio?

Q+A or production roles are a good way of getting your foot in the door...depending on your skill set gained from previous employment.

 

[diffusionx]

Nowadays, it's so easy to get started and try to build out your own game and see where it goes. I don't think you can do better than that.

 

[tkscz]

Make your own small games. Learn a programming langue, C+ and C# are good starts. They will feel difficult but once you learn "IF, Then, Or, And," you'll get the rest of the syntax down.

Use apps like RPG maker, Game Maker, and Godot (regardless of whats going one with their social media side) as tools to make something simple. Once you get the hang of it, jump over to something bigger like Unreal and Unity.

It's fine to use already created assets to get started, but you'll eventually need to learn 3D modeling or how to draw.

And most importantly, DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB. Treat this like a hobby, something to relax learning and doing. Don't make a career out of this immediately.

 

[fart town usa]

Tried to tag David Jaffe. Unable to.

 

[mitch1971]

Can you knit?

 

[finalflame]

The best qualification is to make a game that finds some measure of success on your own.

Other than that, be a very good software engineer.

The rest is a toss-up.

 

[HL3.exe]

I do like it here, just not the state of game development as per the topic being discussed.

Game dev in the west is fine. Some budget flops does not a worse dev environment make. Back in the 2000, we had plenty of flops, plenty in the east too. Not because of some 'inclusive policies' or whatever. In the case of the east at that time, one of the big problems was caused by the jump to multicore processor that the east struggled with and the massive scale up in asset development.

The current problems now is of similar cause, combined with the late stage of AAA development. That it's financially unsustainable and has lots of brain drain problems with maintaining senior talent because of poor employee protections within the industry. That needs some seriously rethinking, combined with the current financial problems we face after covid.

 

[Lambogenie]

Make your own small games. Learn a programming langue, C+ and C# are good starts. They will feel difficult but once you learn "IF, Then, Or, And," you'll get the rest of the syntax down.

Use apps like RPG maker, Game Maker, and Godot (regardless of whats going one with their social media side) as tools to make something simple. Once you get the hang of it, jump over to something bigger like Unreal and Unity.

It's fine to use already created assets to get started, but you'll eventually need to learn 3D modeling or how to draw.

And most importantly, DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB. Treat this like a hobby, something to relax learning and doing. Don't make a career out of this immediately.

This is good advice.
You're either good at it from a hobby, naturally gifted (if we are allowed to use a term like that anymore?) or work very hard. Good luck.

They joke, but being part of blue haired crew might give you a slight advantage.

You're better off using the same skills in engineering and non gaming where blue haired people are less likely to be taken seriously... and more money for the job.

 

[LordCBH]

Blue hair, the ability to be endlessly offended, and membership in the LGBTQ+IA/+[%¥ cult.

 

[Drake]

From what I've heard it's a terrible industry to get into. Tons of politics and crunch time. Honestly, if you have the skills go work for an established SAAS company. You'll have a way better work life balance and the pay will be similar. That's what I did and I'm super happy.

 

[Griffon]

Just "wanting to be in the industry" is a very low bar. Most game jobs are just cogs in a heartless machine. With your qualification you could probably go into marketing, fundraising and raising awareness is, after all, an important part of the game studio life too.

Otherwise, if your dream is to make your own game, then just do it now in your free time. Get Blender and follow one or two tutorials, then grab Unity and go through again a few tutorials (ChatGPT/Claude are also pretty good at answering questions). If you're the sort of guy who enjoys the process of learning, you'll have a first small game in no time.

 

[RJMacready73]

I would imagine the best bet would be to release an Indie game of some kind, instead of spending 4yrs getting a degree in some computer science spend those 4yrs learning unreal, unity, basic programming and make a game

 

[RodriGames40]

Some budget flops

Concord was easily 150 million and up, same as Suicide Squad. What are you talking about?

 

[HL3.exe]

Blue hair, the ability to be endlessly offended, and membership in the LGBTQ+IA/+[%¥ cult.

True, as apposed to the stoic and emotionally stable anti-woke crybullies that can't help themselves and blame over single issue on the same boring inclusive topic like a Russian bot farm.

I'm also against DEI, cause I wish we could excluded those retarded and boring conservatives from the conversation that drone on and on about the same thing.

 

[LordCBH]

True, as apposed to the stoic and emotionally stable anti-woke crybullies that can't help themselves and blame over single issue on the same boring inclusive topic like a Russian bot farm.

I'm also against DEI, cause I wish we could excluded those retarded and boring conservatives from the conversation that drone on and on about the same thing.

Found the cult member.

 

[HL3.exe]

Concord was easily 150 million and up, same as Suicide Squad. What are you talking about

Not sure if you heard of Advent Rising, or Hellgate London, secret world, APB or a little game called E.T. that actually helped crash the industry back in the day.

 

[Griffon]

True, as apposed to the stoic and emotionally stable anti-woke crybullies that can't help themselves and blame over single issue on the same boring inclusive topic like a Russian bot farm.

I'm also against DEI, cause I wish we could excluded those retarded and boring conservatives from the conversation that drone on and on about the same thing.

Did you forget your resetera account password?

 

[RodriGames40]

Not sure if you heard if Advent Rising, or Hellgate London, secret world, APB or a little game called E.T. that actually helped crash the industry back in the day.

Bigger industry, more flops needed to crash the industry. Simple math, just wait a few years at the current rate.

 

[HL3.exe]

Found the cult member.

Found the maga retard. Not a cult of course

 

[LordCBH]

Found the maga retard. Not a cult of course

Oooooh someone’s a cranky culty today. Your hair the wrong shade of pink?