How long will it take to become a decent game (Unity) developer?

Hello friends.

I want to become a game developer. I started programming in 11th years old (Now I am 19). Previously I've been programming with Python+Django as a back-end developer. I have a lot of knowledge about programming languages and all this kind's stuff. I learned C# in 4 days by watching youtube videos (before I've been learning lots of languages: Python, C, Java, JavaScript etc). It doesn't mean that other languages I learned so fast, I have been learning Python for about 2 years, it was my first programming language).

I was working in freelance as a back-end developer, but now I understand I want to be a Game Developer. When I was 12-13 I was using Game Maker Studio for game development, but it was too long ago. My game development knowledges is limited to understanding how to make collision and create a window.

I have no knowledges about Algorithms. Do I need to learn them? I have pretty good math skills (I finished
school with a mathematical bias), but I am not good at physics.

I want to create some 2D games and get revenue from it. I already read a lot about how hard to make money in game development. But, what do you think: How long will it take to become a really good Unity games developer that costs 200$ for a month?

P.S I am not a native English speaker, sorry for my English level

 

I understand that it's pretty difficult to say how much time will it take so that me to become that level game developer. I asking about my case, what do you think of this? This is my github https://github.com/joe513 , in case if somebody wants to know my level in programming

 

My advice:

get a job at an established game studio first.

 

It will depend on what you want to make and your own passion and intelligence. There's no measurement. But as I'm one of the most experienced and long term developers (this is not praising myself, merely observation) I think I can make some guesses, and others can make some guesses too!

Year 1:
Understands Unity workflows, can solve own problems without rushing to asset store or forums every time a problem comes up. You could be able to make platform games or puzzle games and work out solutions. Your code would be a mess but things would work. You would be able to put together shaders with the shader graph and make builds.

Year 2:
Can produce third person or first person games, perhaps even with some multiplayer. Could also expand experience in other fields like editor tooling, and decent AI.

Year 3:
Enough competence to consider doing it for a living.

These are just guesses based on an individual who would be doing it daily for 2-3 hours at minimum.

For releasing a game for sale, I would say that is a very different question, one that would depend on the game design and contents plus the experience (I suggest 3 years of experience for a serious go at it for business).

YMMV: More you put in, more you get out.

 

Unfortunately I live in a pretty small city that has extremely low pay. And there is no game development vacancy. There are only 4-7 PHP developer jobs. I can't go to another region in my country (Russia) due to confession and ethnos difference (Dagestan citizens being hated by russians)

 

You should dive in. Make 100% sure you go in feeling open minded. Open to new ideas. Don't let the ego run free. Be humble and very smart. Be greedy. Take from all of Unity's LEARN section... they have wonderful resources, full games there for free, to reskin, to understand, learn and be smart with.

Dive in.

 

3 years of programming is pretty long. I can program for all day long. How much money can I revenue in first game development year? What about second year? Is there any sense to buy a book about Unity? Previously I was using a lot of books in my learning, but now I understand that reading takes a lot of time and it gets bored, although watching videos or reading docs makes learning really comfortable. How much have you revenued from your first projects/first year?

 

From 0 to hero.

From 0 to hero.

There is no golden rule, to guarantee making money.
There is so many factors you need to include in it. And some luck as well.

For some developers, it took decade, before even starting making some decent money. And that not even making them "rich". Most of course never release a game. These who release, % of that makes something between 0 and few $ per year. So small fraction makes living on game making. And most of that has long game dev past experience.

Reading is key. But reading for sake of reading is pointless. It need be read with understanding and practical application. Look on forum, there few post with books recommendations.
But to be honest, anything you can find on the net anyway.

Don't assume that is constant. Life can be funny on that matter. Specially considering running for few years on full steam.

Considering this, it appears you are still beginner. It will take you quite a bit, to get familiar with Unity on its own. Besides actually making the game.

Just be aware, things will take much longer than anticipate.
Ensure you got stead income, before pursuing such route. Or things will get messy, when you start flooding your mind, with things what you going eat tomorrow. Also, make sure, you can buy new hardware, when current will fail, or need upgrade. Working on 1y + can be harsh for aging hardware.

 

As I found, books give only start knowledges, or show how to create something but oftenly this is only 5% of the thing whether it is Django or another tool. By saying that learning by reading books is long I didn't mean languages. I understand that a language is very deep thing to learn about and if you want to be an experience developer you have to buy big books of a programming language.

 

What about you? How many years of leaning Unity it took for you to have your first revenue?

 

I got payed by a company for my Unity related works.
Anything else is a hobby. Will be done when it will be.
But one thing I can tell you, it takes time.

 

1 year learning 5 years in development. At first we planed that this will take us 8 months.
Game made with a second guy who made graphic and level design. (audio was contracted)
Game design was a collaborative effort.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/337820/The_Mims_Beginning/

Now imagine we are somewhere in the eastern europe.
Still I could make 4 times more when working all this time as an average business app developer.

This is your reality.

 

OK I have not answered your question. "how long to became decent unity developer".

You can be decent in unity3d in 3 years.
You need at least 5 years in game development to be decent game developer.
If you are already good at programming.

 

Six years. I started as a hobbyist living off of disability. I was invited to a group of crazies after they realized I had the right kind of insanity (I'm very good at finding solutions through Google when no one else could in addition to my knowledge of Unity).

 

But how do you get a job if you're no skilled? I didn't get. I have to improve first.

 

Within my first year in unity and I had revenue from my first game... but I started after 5 years in an established games company so I was only converting my game building knowledge from their in-house C++ engine to unity using c#, not starting from scratch.