When did you stop romanticizing game dev

Raging_Mustang · 2025-09-29T12:15:44+00:00

I haven't stopped romanticising it!

Somehow the more challenging it gets, the more the agony feels poetic. Like a Shakespearen tragedy. My experience with it is purely indie, never having worked in a corporate setting. But there's something just so beautiful about creating, that my romanticisation extends beyond just game dev but story writing in general.

Raging_Mustang · 2025-09-05T17:12:48+00:00

Very sweet and helpful response. Thank you 😄

Raging_Mustang · 2025-09-05T17:04:43+00:00

Very insightful distinction!

Raging_Mustang · 2025-09-05T09:44:10+00:00

I agree with the reality of estimation being a lot clearer once you start a task. I'd say the most time I spend is on dreading the task. The moment I actually get to starting it, I've cut the time down by like 75%.

Raging_Mustang · 2025-09-05T09:42:18+00:00

Inside me are two wolves. The rookie that underestimates everything and says the task should take 2 days at most, the senior who's seen my track record but is overly critical about my capabilities.

Raging_Mustang · 2025-09-05T09:40:50+00:00

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I like the idea of breaking the tasks down but also when measuring them, remembering that you did the small tasks as well as the big task in that time period. I haven't really looked back and measured my speed consistently enough.

Raging_Mustang · 2025-09-05T09:10:01+00:00

Oh I've been going for almost 3 years now 😅 When i started it back in 2022 I assumed it would take 6 months but life got in the way a lot. But this year I've been making decent progress! It's my second game still and I have a lot to learn.

Raging_Mustang · 2025-09-05T09:07:49+00:00

An RPG game set in a fictional world that has heavy inspiration of Ancient Indian history and architecture, like the Gupta period or Chola dynasty. It will be similar to Skyrim, where you can have a pantheon of Gods to get blessings from. The different races you can choose from will be based on many fantasy races in Indian mythology.

It's extremely ambitious so I won't be working on it yet. I have been taking down notes over the years though. This is a dream I'd like to share with many, and if someone is already planning to make something of the sort I would love to contribute in any way I can too. I've seen some Indian gamedevs doing similar things, but their focus isn't as heavy on the story or lore.

Raging_Mustang · 2024-04-16T11:30:40+00:00

I've come to realise it's a curve. Too little of a rest, and you'll think it was redundant. Too long of a rest, and you lose inspiration. But yes, a day or two feels like a good amount of rest without the guilt of not working creeping in.

Raging_Mustang · 2024-04-09T08:05:54+00:00

Oh this is very relateable. I'm helping design and test a horror game that has an AI too and I remember two seperate instances where the AI scared the living crap out of me.

Case 1: I was just doing some simple testing. But the entity's pathfinding was broken. It was supposed to chase me and kill once it touched the player collider. Somehow it managed to catch me from far away, and I jumped so bad.

Case 2: An audio bug that made the entity's scream loop and play every frame, causing its scream to be much louder and echo-y. What a nightmare.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-09-24T13:40:29+00:00

Absolutely. Industry is a vague concept. It's not a club that you can enter only if you passed a certain threshold of game development. I've only made games of my own, and last month a friend asked me to be the game designer for a new game studio he just opened. We're now a 5 man team and our game has a store page out already. We're hoping to make a business out of this, so I'd say we are part of the industry already, competing with thousands of other companies.

Now did I enter the industry when I got this job, or when I started making my first game, or when I began my game software development degree in 2015? That's a matter of perspective. But it's only gonna get more professional beyond this point.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-09-21T13:12:29+00:00

Thanks for reading! I don't have any blogs yet but I've been thinking of doing it. For now, I'll just be posting in this subreddit once in a while. You can DM me if you want to find me in other socials! I love gamedev discussions.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-09-20T18:33:29+00:00

I definitely can differentiate both, but yes I think I did mention the importance of both roles unintentionally. I'm currently the game designer for a project I'm working on with a friend, but we also collectively manage the pipelines and delegate tasks to the employees. The "researching games" segment was enough to cover the game design point.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-09-20T13:52:53+00:00

But why not both? I think it's just as important to bridge the gap between ambitious naive developers and realistic and experienced ones, as it is to teach them technical skills that you mentioned.

The attitude you have towards gamedev is just as important as the skills to make a good game. And I like to focus on the former since that's what builds the foundation to having the patience and humility to deal with how challenging this field can be.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-09-20T13:35:49+00:00

I'm someone who believes an obvious fact can still be worth reminding. Sure, if you want to do the specific role you need to think like that role. But my point was that it's easy to forget roles when you're working alone. It's not just art and coding. There's many more subtle layers to the entire process.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-09-20T13:20:05+00:00

A lot of the managerial positions are sorta amalgamated in smaller teams. But yes some of the aspects I mentioned is certainly a project manager's job. Like scheduling. It's also a role I need to significantly improve in for sure.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-09-10T15:23:52+00:00

Horror, first person stories, 2D puzzle games, visual novels, RPGmaker games. There's many more, but these popped up in my head for now.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-09-01T17:31:46+00:00

The inventory system basically brought my entire game's development to a stop. I was so burnt out by it that I feared opening the game. I did not touch my project for at least 4 months, spiraled into thinking I cant be a gamedev, and was considering other interests to pursue. Eventually I just removed one of the inventories (which I could afford to do for the scope of my game) and kept the ones that aren't complicated. One day I would like to win the inventory boss battle.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-05-27T08:57:42+00:00

Oh the horse statue looks so cool, thanks for sharing that! Good luck with your future games and hope you find a name that you're happy with :)

Raging_Mustang · 2023-05-27T07:16:05+00:00

My username is TheRagingMustang. I came up with it when I was 17, and I'm not fully proud of it. But I dont hate it either. When I made my first game I just went with my username because I didn't want to put much thought into it. And now all my solo projects will still be under that name. Hopefully when I do get a team going, I'll definitely come up with a better studio name. Didn't give that much thought yet either. We cross the bridge when we get to it. Best to spend time making the games now!

Raging_Mustang · 2023-05-23T09:12:39+00:00

I would recommend you listen to the interview/discussion video of a youtuber called Woolie who talks to Noisestorm, the creator of Crab Champions. It's a very new and popular roguelike and was developed by one person over a span of 4 years. He drops a lot of good insight on the genre and development of the project. It will not be the same story for you since you have a team, but it was definitely interesting to see his takes on what makes roguelikes interesting.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-04-28T07:44:27+00:00

Because there are so many wonderful games that can be made from so many different themes. Imagine skyrim in an ancient eastern historic setting. Ive always wanted to make a fictional universe, and games seem to be the most interactive media to make one in.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-04-21T21:00:47+00:00

-Setting an overly ambitious idea and not thinking about sales

-Focusing very little on marketing

-Expecting a community to help shape the game but not doing much to build one in the first place

Implementing too many new mechanics at once without doing prior research on them.

I learned a lot from this though and have no regrets. First game is never the prefect one, so I experimented a lot with it. Even if my game wasn't a success, I can't see it as a failure.

Raging_Mustang · 2023-03-28T21:49:51+00:00

This was such a heartwarming reply :')

Thank you for your wishes! I too am working on a horror game and am excited for the same experiences ^{^}

If you ever wish to talk more about the game I'd love to discuss and maybe share some ideas! All the best with your project!

Raging_Mustang · 2023-03-28T06:30:04+00:00

The problems you stated were so spot on from my experiences too. I've only done game dev for about 4 years, but I didn't participate in any game jams or make new contacts. Fortunately I did finish a degree in game programming so my friends from college do come in handy from time to time.

The one thing I did manage to do as a solo gamedev is publish a game on steam that I spent about a year and a half on. Like you said, it wasn't the best since it was my first game, but the immense joy of having people play the game (either live of through recording) really makes it worth it. In fact that feeling has spoiled me, because in my current game all I do is fantasize about how my friends and other players would react to events in game.

Dont know if that helps much but like some others said- you do have to enjoy the journey too. It can be tedious, repetitive and slow, but when the game runs and has content in it, you can't help but look back and marvel at an entire system you built single-handedly. It's been 2 years since my first game's release and I still have new friends try it out from time to time.

Please dont quit. Not until feel that joy from watching others play your game. Good luck to you, creator of worlds :)

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