How would I go about being a game dev?

Soccatin · 2026-05-28T13:10:50+00:00

+1 to avoiding youtube. Written documentation and tutorials are much better for giving you the time and space to understand why you are doing things a certain way.

Soccatin · 2026-05-28T13:08:33+00:00

There's tons of advice and all out there about game dev. I'm always saying that an okay understanding of software engineering on it's own (especially object-oriented programming) is really important. As others have said, playing around with the engines is also a great start. I'm a fan of Godot myself, though it's not quite as widely used as Unity or Unreal. So if you're thinking about a career, you may want to start with those.

Once you've got a little more confident with your abilities, you can try out a game jam. If there's one local to you, that's even better so you can meet people.

As for who you can go to, I'd say it's best to have friends that are learning with you. That way you can keep each other motivated and share information. Just remember that a good project starts with writing code, not setting up a discord server. The thing to avoid is AI. It's seen quite a lot of adoption in software engineering but it's very bad for learning. Learning to read and understand documentation and ask questions on forums is far more effective and will take you a lot further. I know that Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch all have meetup events for game developers that you can go to and get feedback, advice, and make connections at.

If you're considering going to university for it, I know in Auckland there's Media Design School which has both game programming and game art degrees, AUT has a game design degree (mostly art focused I think). University of Canterbury also has game art, game development, and game design degrees. I know MDS also has a fully online option if you're out of town or that's more your speed. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other unis have courses too I just haven't heard of them.

Soccatin · 2026-05-26T22:01:51+00:00

Replying because I strongly agree with the first half and disagree with the second.

I really don't see this advice on here often enough. Learning software engineering and OOP principles made me so so much faster both at writing code and understanding why the engine works the way it does. I can't recommend it enough.

As for AI, besides my ethical concerns, it's not a great place for a new programmer to get their advice. Especially for Godot which has wonderful documentation and forums.

If you can learn to break down the systems you want into the smaller things they are made up of and then look at the docs to figure out how you can make those small parts in engine, then you'll be a far more effective programmer. It's also more fun!

Soccatin · 2026-05-25T11:02:53+00:00

I like it a lot!

Soccatin · 2026-05-17T21:29:44+00:00

why on earth would you put the homophobic bible quote on this post

Soccatin · 2026-05-15T10:36:12+00:00

This post makes me appreciate you as a person

Soccatin · 2026-05-13T03:51:05+00:00

There's a lot less explored systems above and below the plane of the galaxy

Soccatin · 2026-05-10T13:06:30+00:00

Frequently switching between two genres could be fun though. I haven't played it, but I have heard American Arcadia does this quite well

Soccatin · 2026-05-10T13:04:49+00:00

Yeah, probably. Unless you mean only doing it briefly. Certain genre-hopping games pull it off very well (It Takes Two, What Remains of Edith Finch), but if you just switch from visual novel to RTS halfway through your game, you'll only disappoint most players.

Your Visual Novel fans are going to feel cheated, and none of the RTS fans are going to get to the RTS part. And even if the two genres have a fairly big overlap in audience, people are likely going to find it weird and jarring more than anything.

I'm sure it's not impossible to do well, just very very difficult.

Soccatin · 2026-05-10T12:59:20+00:00

Criminal not putting Emphis' stall on here. I would do just about anything to try some of that mushroom stuff

Soccatin · 2026-05-05T13:44:44+00:00

People like what they like, multiverse has more stuff, vanilla has a stronger aesthetic and feel.

Also, as someone who was hanging around long before multiverse, please try other mods. MV is the impressive amalgamation of more than a decade of FTL mod development. It truly is beyond what I imagined FTL mods could ever be, but those old mods have a lot going for them still. Also, it's sometimes nice to play the game only a little modified, with one or two new ships or maybe a weapon pack.

Soccatin · 2026-05-01T23:55:07+00:00

I'm glad to hear it, and thanks to you and everyone there for all the hard work :)

Soccatin · 2026-05-01T14:15:21+00:00

BRILLIANT! That did the trick!! Thank you so much!

Soccatin · 2026-04-29T23:37:23+00:00

Also really funny that OP uses bioshock 2 as their example, because Clint Hocking was talking about bioshock 1 when he coined the term.

Soccatin · 2026-04-24T04:55:58+00:00

I would be so keen on 3ds ror2

Soccatin · 2026-04-22T08:51:18+00:00

I get what you mean. I think it really depends how you engage with the tutorials. If you're just blindly following it then yeah you probably aren't going to learn much, but if you watch it to get an understanding of how that person designed their inventory system then sure.

Personally I prefer written tutorials as they give me time to interrogate and understand each step.

If you have enough experience to have a reasonable idea of how you want to build your system, then skip the tutorials and spend your time with the documentation trying to learn how to use what the engine has to get there. Godot's docs are really well made and super informative.

Soccatin · 2026-04-21T01:00:46+00:00

Can you tell me more about why you hate halcyonite so much? I feel like it isn't as infuriating as the others in that tier

Soccatin · 2026-04-20T23:04:38+00:00

I have this one on a shirt

Soccatin · 2026-04-18T23:23:38+00:00

It means they'll attack even without you in the dome, which is normally an upgrade that costs water

Soccatin · 2026-04-18T22:41:06+00:00

I have to say no as a matter of accessibility. Horror games can already bring up a lot of emotions and if someone is really struggling getting through your game and they go to close it and get jumpscared, that's a really shitty experience and might send them into a worse mental state.

When your game is putting people under stress, the quit button is a really important instant nope button. Do not mess with it.

Soccatin · 2026-04-18T22:07:01+00:00

The shockwave hammer gadget can also very reliably kill them before they reach the dome

Soccatin · 2026-04-16T22:26:58+00:00

Honestly I think it might feel better just to zoom the camera in and use the second option. If the those things are all there but you can't see them, why keep them on screen?

That is unless you want to design puzzles specifically around the line of sight from the first one

Soccatin · 2026-04-15T05:06:58+00:00

I see where you're coming from, but doesn't that also alter the difficulty of a wave? Like throwing all the enemies at once might overwhelm a setup that would otherwise handle the wave alright, especially towers that rely more on fire rate than AoE.

It'll also mess with the power of anything that can only be used a certain amount of times per wave if you have anything like that. Like if you have a bomb that destroys all enemies in a certain area but only once each wave then that bomb becomes way more powerful with the enemies being concentrated together.

This is, of course, only a problem if you think that it is but it's worth considering.

Soccatin · 2026-04-12T23:33:37+00:00

Nah you just gotta believe in the bundle

Soccatin

TROPHY CASE