Next steps?

So I’m coming up on my one month mark in learning Unity and C# and definitely think a career change to programming is in order. I can really see my potential for increased passion and job satisfaction if I make the switch.

Now I’m not expecting to land an entry level position right off the bat, but wanted to know what some good next steps would be for me while I continue in my current non programming career in order to best prepare for a switch.

I feel like I have the syntax down for most of the basics of C# with Unity, and have a good understanding of how to transform, instantiate, and manipulate game objects and alter variables through code depending on user input and triggers and what not. I know I still have a lot to learn/experience with polymorphism and abstract classes, and to start writing more clean code.

My next goal would be to have a fully functional mini game. I’ve come close with a Skunk like dice game, a top down 2d basic kill your enemy game, and a Fish Tank stays recording UI based tool app.

is this what I should be doing? I’ve been reading about gam jams, and they seem interesting, but am afraid I might be too much of a newb still. In addition to tinkering with those games, I’ve been concurrently doing Udemy And YouTube tutorials, Have also messed around a bit with GIMP and Blendr. (art is not my strong suit).

Hoping to maybe join a project at some point and do some basic tasks like sync up hit boxes to animations, slice sprite-sheets and create animations, etc... to get some experience under my belt.

I’ve also thought about doing the Unity Associate Cert since I don’t have a CS degree.

So any help on next steps would be greatly appreciated!

thanks!

 

You definitely sound ready for game jams. Game jams get entrants with a wide variety of skill levels, and everyone is welcome. Having a deadline will help focus you, and also keep the project from going to long.

Realistically though, it's really hard to actually make a living in the game industry. Obviously it's possible, but it's kind of like being a musician — many more starve than actually make it big. Or, if not starving, it's because they have some day job that funds their hobby/passion in the evenings.

I would recommend getting that certification, and if possible consider going back for a CS degree. Then you can look for an entry-level job in a game shop somewhere, if that is what you want to do. Or — perhaps more easily — find some other programming job, which will help you exercise and build the skills you need to write your own games on your own time, and eventually leverage that into a career in game dev if that's your goal.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! Awesome, game jams see like a lot of fun.

I’ll definitely look into the CS degree route.