Is Game Industry still a viable chose in 2019? I started an online universty for computer science. I have 4 years. I don't know the best way to develop myself in the next 4 years. Nowadays, I am working on a game engine which uses C,SDL and OpenGL 2 for now. I wanna specialize in tool development for games. Do you think it is a viable career choice? I am 25 and when I finish my studies, I am gonna be 29. Do you think it is too late to switch to game industry or is there still hope? I am planning to have a true Game Development pipeline. I already have a physics engine I built for 2D games. That means the infrastructure for 2D games is ready. I can start making games and put on, for example, itch.io. Once I complete my 3D modeller, I am gonna write a 3D physics engine as well. Once I have 3D things to put in scene, I can start working on 3D Physics Engine as well. Even though it is a little amateurish, you can examine the source code : https://github.com/CoderOnBlacklist/DanceOfPixels

I am a little bit beginner but also have some experience even if intermediate. Don't ask my true background because it doesn't exist. I am unemployed. I was diagnosed with ADHD and Autism. I dropped out of school twice. But I am hopeful since I cured most of my mental weaknesses through natural means. This new school format is gonna be very comfortable because I am not good at face to face communication or socializing.  I am gonna write code every single day. I have a lot of time. Do you think I can become something if I study hard in the next 4 years and do you think it will be a problem because I will have lacked job experience at the end of the journey?

The place in which I am living is a little rural so I decided to start first from online forums for socialization at which I am not so good for now. I can ask questions and learn from others who went through a similar path before. I would like to start a youtube channel but my accent isn't eligible for such a thing. I feel more comfortable with text format.  English is my second language so with my most sincere apologies in advance for my potential grammar errors that might have occured . Thanks for reading until here

First thing is, are there any game companies near you. See https://gamedevmap.com/

There is still time for true employment. I am not ready for such thing yet. Thanks for reminding anyway.

Is there anything wrong with this so long as you work hard and learnt how to have great discipline? Even if I fail, this is gonna teach me a lot. It has been 7 years since I gave up making games. It was with Game Maker back then. I am a little bit impatient to create my own virtual word. I miss game development a lot. Even though I have never made games without engine before, I don't think it is very difficult so long as you know how to load models and do nice lighting. It is even easier with 2D. At least, much better than using Game Maker. Once you have a normally functioning entity system and a basic level editor, it shouldn't be very difficult to prepare your own sprite sheets for 2D game characters. Or am I forcing myself a lot by trying to do everything by myself? I am planing to code 4 hours a day. 2 hours for tool development, 2 hours for doing game development by using these tools. I have 4 years. Do you think it is a bad schedule? I am gonna study for the university in the remaining time and read book about various topics to expand my horizon. (which may be a little shallow for now. sorry about that)

7 hours ago, algorithmic_brain said:

There is still time for true employment. I am not ready for such thing yet.

Fair enough. You asked for tips on "breaking into game industry."  Maybe you and I mean different things by that phrase. What does it mean to you? 

25 minutes ago, Tom Sloper said:

Fair enough. You asked for tips on "breaking into game industry."  Maybe you and I mean different things by that phrase. What does it mean to you? 

English is not my native language. My understanding of the world can be limited. If you mean delving into game development, as far as I know, there are two options : Either entering a company for experience or directly trying to create your own game company. I have decided to try the latter. Even if I fail, it is gonna look cool in my portofolio. I am gonna enter a company instead of trying to go indie. I have a special interest in 3D platformers like Super Mario 64. Most probably, I am gonna create such games a lot, in the next 4 years

OK, algorithmic. So your preference is indie rather than employment, for the time being. That's fine. So you're looking for tips on how to start your own company? That would be the Business/Law forum. If you're looking for tips on developing games, I'd recommend the Beginners group (see Forums tab, above). If you're looking for tips on how to navigate your university education, this is the place. 

You may have questions on all those things. Go right ahead and ask. You get the best answers when you ask in the right forum. 

2 minutes ago, Tom Sloper said:

OK, algorithmic. So your preference is indie rather than employment, for the time being. That's fine. So you're looking for tips on how to start your own company? That would be the Business/Law forum. If you're looking for tips on developing games, I'd recommend the Beginners group (see Forums tab, above). If you're looking for tips on how to navigate your university education, this is the place. 

You may have questions on all those things. Go right ahead and ask. You get the best answers when you ask in the right forum. 

My initial questions are always gonna be about game development. And sometimes about its business aspects even if less often at the begining. Thanks.