If you could go back in time in your game dev journey, what would you tell your noob self?

For me is, try to learn only from reputable sources ONLY.

 

Don't do it in the nineties.

 

Don't skip math in school, its a mf to learn alone.

 

Here's how you're going to create this game that you'll call Minecraft. You'll thank me later.

 

don't buy a bunch of assets that are not supported / dropped by their creators.

 

"Don't make a habit of this. Trust me."

 

"The commie government will fail before you're reaching adulthood. You won't have to smuggle your computers into the country anymore. So you can choose this as a profession." - or something like that.

 

"Give up". "Go outside".

 

"Woah, you do know that in ten to twenty years that full head of hair will be gone?" "Happy deving."

 

Hahaha.

 

Focus on artwork as much as you focus on programming.

 

I'd say something along the lines of "listen to the S*** these people are about to tell you, because your going to do it wrong over and over and over, and they are gonna laugh at you then tell you what your doing wrong and your going to only halfway listen, so open your mind and stop trying to be a one man band, or at the very least do it for 10 hours a day and fail faster".

 

In a few years, you're going to get super better, at art and 3d art.
Keep drawing and continue practicing 3d modelling.
The more you continue practicing drawing and 3d, the better you'll get at art sooner. But you already know that.

Me: Wait.....For real?.......Dude.
Oh wait, yeah.

 

Dont start a new project if you have project which is not finished yet =)

 

You've been learning programming since you were a kid, if you want to make a game, why not study art instead at university?

Disclaimer: I studied programming and learnt f-all at university as by the time I arrived I had been programming for 10 years...

 

If I went back in time butterfly effect could mean I wouldn't meet my beautiful wife or my kids would never be, no way!

 

What would I tell myself?

Just make the f***ing game!

 

Actually I take my answer back, if I could travel in time:

- Go back and grab a bunch of dinosaurs
- Jump forward with said dinosaurs and use them to kill hitler before the war starts
- Spend the rest of the now peaceful 1930s and 1940s using said dinosaur to set up a jurassic park rip off (before jurassic park exists making it a totally 100% original idea)
- Enjoy the profits you rake in from jurassic park centered at the heart of a now peaceful post nazi era germany

 

...You know the whole Jurassic Park series is about how playing god is... wrong... right?

 

If you get a great opportunity, take it. Otherwise there will be times you regret that you did not.

 

So many paradoxes generated here I can't even..

 

Focus on gameplay, add art later!

 

Make a game like Lego and sell it for billlllions!

 

The good news is there's even less reason to go to university for art than there is for programming

 

Bring my current project, and say "just continue from here"

But perhaps I would rather say, myself noob, "use git from start".

 

git from start

that's not a valid git command

 

Sorry, I don't get it, what your message try to convey. But appears irrelevant? Which isn't something unusual.

 

1: buy better laptop
2: learn the basics, one can do plenty of stuff with just the basics.
3: create cheat sheets on various topics related to game Dev ie music theory cheat sheets, color theory cheat sheet, 3d modeling cheat sheet.
4: don't buy that m audio fast track from that guy by the name of worms. Its going to be outdated couple months later.

 

Might you have said cheat sheets now qnd willimg to share with the rest of us?
I've been looking for a good color cheat sheet, a 3D modelling cheat sheet should also come in handy.

 

It's too hard, takes too long and nobody cares... But go for it anyway.

Also buy a better chair you idiot.

 

Don't do any 3d games until you've gained a lot of experience making 2d games first.

 

I would go back and explain to myself how GetComponent works. That was rough to figure out the first time around.

Nah. It’s about how playing god leads to people being eaten. The series doesn’t really make moral judgements.

 

What's hard to grasp with it?

 

Same as grasping that world isn't flat and is much bigger place ...

 

FINISH SOMETHING YOU IDIOT.

 

Forget game dev for now and sink all your cash into $5 bitcoins. Sell at $19,000.

 

Depends of how far in the past, I've wanted to be a gamedev since I was a child.

If it were during my 20's I would tell myself to learn Unity and stop wasting time trying to make things from scratch. Also don't abandon Blender, it will click some time in the future.
If it were during my teen years I would tell myself how to make a Minecraft-like game.
I would also tell myself other things but those are personal.

 

"Maybe reconsider that gamedev career choice... F2P is coming, and it's going to ruin everything"

or maybe...

"Focus on art, not code. Game programming will become a less creative role as teams grow and as better tools increasingly empower artists and designers, and maybe a less technically-interesting role as less low-level work is required"

 

Don't use Unity.

 

With all the continues regression they keep on doing I almost agree with you.

 

Tough one... The first thing I ever wrote was for the ZX 81 It's been a long, long road for me so finding one thing that I would change would be almost impossible. If I had to choose one though it would be to buy a PC long before I did (circa 1995) instead of spending all my time learning Devpac for the ST and Amiga

 

If I’d just gone ahead and bought property when I vaguely considered it, everything else (including game dev) would have been so much easier. I think houses in my city were something like one third of their current value when I graduated 10 years ago..

otherwise, something about finishing small projects and really truly understanding scope?

 

Do it for the fun of it.
Don't compare yourself to others.
F*** money.
Don't buy assets until project is mostly done.
Don't read Unity forums.

 

Go do something else

 

You know mate I do have a Pinterest account with some image cheat sheets I'll drop the link later.