my personal future in game programing

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7 comments, last by Codeloader_Dev 6 years, 8 months ago

first of all game programming and games are a passion of mine.

but i would love to make a living out of it, as an indie or contractor(freelancer).

the problem is no one knows me or my skills as  programmer...well thats not true. i remembered  that there are two people who know what im worth....

the problem is i hate both of them also with a passion for what they did to me, they know me as a web developer they hired, both of them tried to use me one of them threatened to sue me but called me the best web developer he had (he wanted me to work for free out of fear the other one wanted me to work for almost free both got nothing).

i thoght to myself how pathetic, that after all those 5 years of learning programming the only people who know im a good programmer are such evil basterds. i dont have a degree and exept for my 30+ git repos i dont have any other proof i know how to program.

life is short and i dont want to wake up one day at the age of 40 thinking i havent accomplished anything and a free plus i will still be broke. it keeps me awake at night for weeks now and its unbreakable.

all my work my js game framework/librery, my java framework/librery and the one im working on for corona sdk, all the games i spent time programming. all of this for nothing a waste of time no one will ever remember or even see. and i will not make a dime out of it.

i tried teaching programming, i had a small success . but i didnt even have one game programming student even when i offerd first two lessons at the price of one and quantity discount.  

i thoght of an idea of giving the first 10 tutoring hours for free limeted to 10 people, even if i gain one student its worth more then 0$ even if not that at least i will spread my game frameworks, "free advertising". the problem is finding serious people who are willing to build stuff and learn from the ground up, and not the time wasters and people who think i will work for free (lol 10 hours in game dev is a joke).

what do you think? shod i waste my time? where shod i post that ad and how to filter the time wasters?

do you have better ideas? developing even a simple  game to spread my name can take alot of time and ill need graphics and music etc.

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First of all, why do you want to contract/freelance?  If you plan to do game dev for a living, then I strongly do not recommend this route.  I have been a contractor for years, and I've grown sick and tired of it (I can't get a full time position anywhere here to save my life).  You would be better off just getting a full time position at a game dev company (maybe a well managed startup) and establish yourself that way.  If this is going to be something part time and not your main source of income, then that's fine.

Second, where do you live?  Location is often key to your success not in gamedev only, but in software engineering as a whole.  If you are in sillicon valley or areas with good tech jobs, then you should try going to development events and meeting people.  In this industry, it's not all about what you know, but WHO you know.  Knowing someone behind the scenes can be the difference between landing your dream position in the long term or the contractor who is unemployed for months on end between contracts.  Even if necessary, you may have to take some game testing position(s) to get your foot in the door.  Testing sucks but that's how I got started.  If you aren't in a tech oritented area, then you might want to move.  This is what I did also. 

Lastly, if you want to get started right away, try freelancing on upwork.com.  A co-worker of mine recommends it and he gets work from time to time there.  So if you do, work on building your profile, take some time to make a good one, and you may get some really neat projects to work on.  So by all means, give it a go.  There's an occasional game project there too, but make sure that you are working with competent people.

Shogun

EDIT: If you do come to a tech oritented city for a job, I highly recommend avoiding Seattle.  There are people fleeing California and other places for the jobs and you will likely have an extremely hard time getting anything up here.  I have 7 years of experience and I've been out of a proper dev job for over 8 months and there's no end to this BS in sight.  At this point I want to leave and maybe go to Portland instead.

very good information. yes knowing people helps.

i havent tried freelancer websites for games, i will try this soon.

i guss full time job can do it but i love working from home.

and yes location affects alot in this business . i dont live in the us and dont intend to, currently i live in a very shity country. i will probably be moving to sweden in the next few yers there i had a much easier time finding programming work of any type. 

what about teaching game programing? anyone did that at all?

1 hour ago, yoel1234 said:

the problem is no one knows me or my skills as  programmer

You need to be prepared to present your skills with example projects or past work experience.

 

1 hour ago, yoel1234 said:

there are two people who know what im worth....

the problem is i hate both of them also with a passion for what they did to me

You need to let this go and not waste your time and potentially damage your reputation by complaining about it on a public forum.

 

1 hour ago, yoel1234 said:

exept for my 30+ git repos i dont have any other proof i know how to program

That's a good start. Make sure only good work is up there.

 

1 hour ago, yoel1234 said:

i thoght of an idea of giving the first 10 tutoring hours for free

I wouldn't bother trying to tutor people as a way to improve your future in game programming. Few want tutoring anyway, and even fewer want it from someone who has little evidence of their skills.

 

1 hour ago, yoel1234 said:

developing even a simple  game to spread my name can take alot of time and ill need graphics and music etc.

If you want to be a game maker, you need to make games. There's no short-cut.

4 hours ago, yoel1234 said:

very good information. yes knowing people helps.

i havent tried freelancer websites for games, i will try this soon.

i guss full time job can do it but i love working from home.

and yes location affects alot in this business . i dont live in the us and dont intend to, currently i live in a very shity country. i will probably be moving to sweden in the next few yers there i had a much easier time finding programming work of any type. 

what about teaching game programing? anyone did that at all?

Curious what country you are in?  Spain?  Eastern Europe?  I guess I shouldn't have assumed you live in the same country I do, Murica :(  Sorry, it's a bad habit.  Can't say I recommend you come here if you are living elsewhere (I sometimes wish I could be elsewhere).

So I was told that Sweden has more jobs and that it would be easier to find work there.  If you have friends in Sweden, try reaching out to them and see if you can at least use them as a reference.  Every leg up helps.

Shogun

25 minutes ago, blueshogun96 said:

Curious what country you are in?  Spain?  Eastern Europe?  I guess I shouldn't have assumed you live in the same country I do, Murica :(  Sorry, it's a bad habit.  Can't say I recommend you come here if you are living elsewhere (I sometimes wish I could be elsewhere).

So I was told that Sweden has more jobs and that it would be easier to find work there.  If you have friends in Sweden, try reaching out to them and see if you can at least use them as a reference.  Every leg up helps.

Shogun

i wish ('MURICA f*** ye!), even worse, i was born and lived most of my life in israel. never knowing better believing i have no choice but to suffer beneath the boots of the upper class and the strangling superficial overpricing of everything they created using thier political pawns. 

in sweden i worked full time as a java tutor (freelancer) from an empty class in the local university (everyone spoke english even better then me) from the first week i got there. i still have a few hundred crowns(sek) left from that trip,the first time in my life i return with money from a very long trip. i never had that kind of life here. it was like a miracle or a dream. 

i will return to sweden next winter for a few months again and will eventually live there.

 

I see no point in blaming location alone ( hello from Turkey :D )

I think it would be wiser for you to work on a project of your own that you can monetize somehow, either a web or gaming venture. You theoretically need no more than a computer at the beginning and there are always chances of investment if idea and execution are solid.

If assets will be problem both cost and skill wise for a game, you can still consider one with stock and simple graphics. ( A game with style of Crossy Road for example can be done virtually skill free :) ) .

Or once again, you can consider of a web based business not necessarily about gaming.

Check market for any niche opportunity that can be monetized with a rather solid business plan and channel your Thu'um / skill into it.

When you do something that is a hobby or that you like to pay bills it's not cool anymore. The whole purpose of work is to pay bills and fund projects that you have. Don't make something you like a chore. Making games is cool but if one just a few people like the games that's good enough. The game industry does not seem to have the shine it had in the 90s. Games today are too much graphics and not much content. Create games because you like them and share them with a few others. Forget about the masses, they like stupid stuff like Angry Birds.

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