Is 29 years old too late to get into game development

I have always, and still, love video games since I was a kid, and making a complete game has always been a dream of mine, but it is something that I have procrastinated a lot. I did some very light game dev about 7-8 years ago, but my biggest mistake(and an even greater regret), was that I stopped when I was starting to get more immersed in it. I developed some very basic games like pong, and even some a bit more advanced like an invaders kinda game. Again, my biggest regret was that I stopped, mostly due to the fact that I got lazy with studying it. No real excuses. Now, me being 29 years old, I still aspire to create a video game. I would like to hear some opinions on whether it is too late and I should give up on the idea, or if I should still go for it.

 

I started playing around with Unity 4 in 2014 I was then 34 years old. I didn't even code in it then just used it to visualize my CADs in VR. In 2016 i started to work on my first game, had never worked with the API before or game Dev for that matter other than click and play when I was a teenager.

I had some experience in 3D ghaphics math though from my master of science degree.

So I would say it's not too late, you just need the right attitude.

 

Go for it as long as you're having fun or finding it a worthwhile experience. Just don't expect any money to come out of it.
Gamedev can be a cool hobby, you shouldn't ask yourself whether you are too old, you should ask yourself whether you actually (still) enjoy it or not.

 

@AndersMalmgren - Thanks for your input, and that is so true, attitude has a lot to do in it. I will make sure I have the right attitude in order to make it a success!

@Martin_H - Thanks for your input as well. I wanna do it more as way to have a creation of mine. As I mentioned, is been a huge dream of mine, and not really for money or for recognition etc.(don't get me wrong, would be cool to maybe gain some money, but not main purpose), but because is something I love! And you are right, I need to think of it as a cool and enjoyable experience.

 

I guess it depends on your ambition and goal. If you want to become a good engineer by the age of 30, it's probably too late.

On the other hand, if you just want to create a (mediocre) game in your spare time, it's never too late for that! If you don't try now, you're going to regret in 10 years again, that you didn't try.

 

I would also like to learn game development and get a job in some studio. Do you mean I can't get paid for making games anymore *

 

"If you get good enough at ANYTHING, someone will pay you to do it"


By the way, this reminds me of something I've heard about "follow your passion" being terrible advice. There's a book about that topic or something like that.

 

My initial answer was based on that you already know programming like web programming. If you also need to learn to code its a bit harder.

 

What ybout indie? Can I sustain myself with making smaller games ?

 

That's a hotly debated issue in these parts. Some will say yes, others will say you ought to be realistic (aka no). Some will criticize you for seeming no reason and then launch into a political tirade. Good times.

The truest answer to your question is to say it flatly that yes, it is possible.

In the experience of most people, despite best efforts, it simply doesn't materialize for everybody. Something usually refuses to gel and successes are disappointing. A lot of theories exist to explain why this happens, but that's all they are. If someone knows "the secret" to success they're keeping it a secret (duh).

If it appeals to you, give it a whirl. God knows there's nothing wrong with trying. And the app stores can't possibly be more flooded, so you can pretty much have at it. You aren't hurting anything.

 

29 too old? Ha!

I'm in my mid 40's and am just getting started on game development. In fact, I didn't even pick up Unity or programming until I was 40!

You're never too old to start something new.

 

I turned 50 last December, and released my first game in May. I'm deep into developing a second game now.

It becomes more of life balancing at this point.

 

You can do anything if you believe in yourself.

 

I was down when I saw Mike Rose's talk
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024976/Let-s-Be-Realistic-A

 

49 here and making my first game - a multiplayer RPG.

 

I just turned 30. I started learning about unity and game development not quite a year ago, then got sucked into 3d art. Been working on a project with a developer here and am excited that some of my art will be featured in a published game in a few months.

I read an article somewhere not long ago about a 29 year old guy who picked up 3d and in just a few years he had a job at Disney.

Whatever your age, I think if you make the time to sit down and have focused practice daily you could be working as a professional in a few years time.

Getting started young is always preferable, but honestly I don't think a younger version of me would have had the maturity and long-term thinking capabilities to really get good at this kind of thing.

 

lol ^^

 

More important than your age is your scope... and this is true whether you're starting at 70 or 10 years old!

 

Why would your age matter?

 

It's too late. At 29 years old you have only 1 year left before your brain starts to deteriorate. GameDev requires brain power.

 

Hah! When I was a kid, I remember seeing the TV show "Thirtysomething" and thinking, "Man, thirty-year-olds are soooo ooooold!"

With 0 programming and art experience, I started learning how to code and do 3D art in my late 30's. With raising 3 kids, homeschooling, and trying to finish an indie game, it's been interesting to say the least.

All the "Am I too old to start gamedev in my 20's" posts make me smile! I guess with people starting development at younger and younger ages, I can see where the fear comes from. Especially if you're trying to get a job at a company rather than do your own thing.

 

Thanks a lot everyone for your opinions. I am now convinced that it is not too late and will give it my best shot at it. The main reason on why I was doubting myself at this age is because I was talking to a few of my friends that I wanted to start making a game and most mentioned(like someone in here said) that getting past 30s, it would be too tough for me to learn a new programming language and such, since the brain does not function as optimal. Once again, thank you all for your inputs!

 

Hogwash. I heard the brain isn't even fully developed until your about 20.

Is that true? I don't know, probably not. But I know planning beyond dinner wasn't something I was seriously able to do before I turned 25.

Now, my mind is like a celestial entity-- so deep and broad in perspective, I foresee the consequences of my actions light years beyond. My words are so rooted in eternal wisdom that, to less enlightened beings, they appear to be like the gibberish of an idiot.




joking

 

Never too late to learn new programming languages. With my experience in C++, C# and Java, learning Rust is kicking my ass.

 

Nah, I think if you were 90, that would be a bit too old, you know, bad eyesight and all that

 

You can use win 10 cortana, it will write (and spy) for you. Just say a word

But generally age is not a limit to most things. Is like you got sprinters at age 70. As long you are fit and willing to do things, you are good to go. Only donw side is, you don't get benefit from rapid learning at age 10-20. But brain don't switches off just at barrier of 30. Keep it working.

 

Seriously don't understand where these questions come from. It's not like there's someone on Steam checking the age of the creator of a game to make sure they aren't too old.

I'm 29, and something that makes me seriously depressed is how many people seem feel like by this age, there's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing to be invented or discovered in your life experience. You just cash your cheque, such as it is, and start limping along toward the cemetery for the next 50 or 60 years. Seriously, if you have two thirds of your life ahead of you, you're only just beginning! To decide that it's too late for anything at all is a crime against Nature itself.

 

Go for it mate! It's never too late.
Just be prepared to spend a lot of time researching, even when you feel like you know what you're doing.
Because a lot of things you read online, aren't always the best ways to do something. Unless of course it isn't important (and sometimes it isn't), just make sure you know what it's doing so you at least grasp the knowledge that we can easily find today.

That's how I learnt Unity years ago.
I got on Unity, found a snippet of code that did what I was interested in, and just started tweaking things, and now I have a firm understanding of Unity because of it

 

I believe the number of people who actually can pull that off for a few years is quite small.

Maybe not the most popular opinion around here, but I still think that is one of the easier parts of making games, at least as long as you are not trying to make something that needs super special-purpose tech wizardry. At least I have struggled more with just about everything else.

 

You have not written your own AI from the sound of it

 

I have not written a complex AI and would argue that most games don't need one anyway. Mine was more about moving a swarm of hundreds of units "as a whole". If you just give them all A* paths it looks ridiculous, so I made the ai movement out of a sort of vector field. Even was the first multithreaded thing I ever wrote. Nowhere near the struggle I've felt with gamedesign...

I abandoned the project primarily because of fundamental flaws in the core gamedesign idea that I could not solve. Maybe I'll do a "post mortem of my abandoned project" one day.
I never felt like "programming is too hard, I'll never figure this out". But I was constantly filled with doubt about the design side of things and felt it to be an overwhelming task from which I'd rather flee and do some performance optimization or other great procrastination tasks.


Your AI probably is a lot more complex than all I ever did, but I would feel more up to developing something like what you need, than designing a balanced meta for a game like yours or... maintaining a healthy playerbase for a multiplayer title. The AI thing is a challenge I'd look forward to, the other two are things I'd dread.

 

It was just a response to your claim that programming is the easiest part of making a game. Sure if you make a super trivial game it might be.

 

I never made that specific claim, and I feel I have put enough qualifiers on what my personal experience was.


But I'm curious, what specifically about the programming implementation of your AI do you find harder than coming up on paper with what and when the bots should do in the game to maximize the fun of players? I would have imagined that especially for experienced programmers like yourself, the programming part must seem easy compared to the design part. Maybe we don't draw the line between design and programming at the same place?

 

Offcourse its easier for me with programming than many of the other aspects. Since thats my profession. But still the programming is still what takes the most time.

 

Way too late to get into game development because everyone needs to be a 5 year old prodigy from an nonspecific Asian nation with strict parents and regular stereotypical beatings.

Actually no. You're fine! best thing about modern game development is that it's much more dependant on passion than anything else. All you need is a real drive, because Unity has you covered. I know a guy who's ancient and an artist who's just got into programming Unity and he's doing really fine.

The key here is that you need to love what you do and not be worried about setbacks. The setbacks are simply things you do not know yet. And everything is way easier than the fears in your mind. None of this stuff requires a math degree, just practise and some memory.

Each time you make a mistake, there is always a solution, so it's just a matter of remembering that. Good luck!

 

Yeah, that's the big thing.

Throw yourself into the fray with nothing but the clothes on your back -- maybe you survive, maybe you don't. Probably sheer chance plays more of a role than anything.

That's why I say, get your ducks in a row first. Get yourself as stable as possible, get all your priorities set, know exactly where you are going, have a backup plan and backup backup plan...

All the time you hear students say, "but I don't have any money." They literally can't buy $30 dollar tutorials that will teach them what they need to know. But they are still buying new games, paying expensive cell phone plans, living in a huge expensive city even though they have low-paying jobs, and their only plan is to make it big with a game they made from toothpicks. They want everything to change, but will not change themselves.

You've got to have home base squared away first for as long as you need. Maybe this means working a job you hate for 10 years and relegating learning to nights and weekends. Maybe it means doing minimum service in the military so you can use education benefits to buy yourself a few years of time to study worry free (GI bill is what's given me the time to sit around learning for almost a year now, plus the worlds best wife!) Whatever it takes.

 

Why do you think 28 years old is too old? You are at the peak of your life where you have the productive balance of energy, maturity and intellectual discipline.

 

They're 29 though, which is grandparent age.

 

As a 38 year old I'm deeply offended, in fact I wouldn't like to be much younger, you understand that wine tastes better than beer, I call it the awakening, when you rather sit down for a 7 course tasting menu than spend hours on a smoked filled dance floor

 

People who say one drink tastes objectively better than another have only had the worst of both.

 

That's also something that comes with age, the skill of a sommelier

 

You need to watch the "Adam ruins everything" episode on wine if you can find it online somewhere.

 

The only way up from here is making your own now.

 

Or being a real manly man, abandoning all pretensions, and simply enjoying the taste of water -- the elixir of life -- and not supporting the wanton destruction of the earth for fleeting moments of chemically induced giggliness!

And if you are really a firmly grounded being of this earth, nice opaque mud-water is best. Just ask my dog.

 

Yeah, when I make my first million dollars on the game a french vineyard in the Bordeaux area is one of the first things I'm going to buy!

 

Since we've sacrificed reason in the off topic volcano of despair, I'll just have to correct you. It's not beer. It's not wine. It's tea that is the champion of all beverages.

 

Hot muddy water.

Nothing pretentious about that.

 

We have a developer at work that's drink tea, can't trust tea deinkers, plus she has milk in the tea so it just a gray mud

 

lol this thread has become about drinks now haha

Now, I wanna thank everyone who shared their opinions on the subject. I never meant to say that I wanna make a living out of video game development, I already have a full time job as a Web dev for that. I was more on the hobbyist side of things. Like I said originally, I want to be able to create games that I can call my creation. And not really for money or recognition, but just have the pride and awesome feeling that says "I created something I always wanted to create". I have always been very interested in making a video game. I mean a full one and not just a short one to practice, like Pong for example. I have read stories of really good hobbyist game devs that made their own games by themselves, and actually found some success in it.

TL;DR - I just wanna make a dang game bro XD

Also, Tea FTW, I second whoever says that it is the best beverage ever!

 

A long time ago I used to travel on the train with a fellow who started his career as a lawyer. He had been pushed in this direction by his father (also a lawyer) and spent several years practicing before realising it wasn't for him. He then studied to be a doctor and was a GP for around ten years. When I met him he was approaching 50 and in the final year of his architecture course.

So no I don't think 29 is too late