How to start Game Development in 2023 ! 

That last web dev part hit hard man, it's so true. I burned out really bad from coding things that I hate everyday, now I'm trying to get into game dev in my free time to finally do something I'm passionate about. Great video!

I love your honest statement on „creating the games you really want“. I can feel your passion for it and it is so nice that it actually worked out for you that way. I am 30 right now and I just accidentally figured out that I seem to really like making video games. I just started making my first game with Scratch (visual scripting) like two weeks ago and I am almost done with the mobile version of it. It’s been the first thing in years that really hooked me and made me put all my time into it with ease, because I love it so much. Now I tried my first steps getting into actual coding with a learning tool where you program a little robot to do certain things, so it has lot in common with actual game programming. I’m definitely going to continue this and see where it leads me. I have many ideas what games I want to make and I wish one day I will be able to make the games I really want to for a living. I’ll keep your words in mind!

I've been using RU-vid for over a decade and never commented once. You sir have inspired a new developer to enter the market.

This is a great video Pascal. I find it motivating in a weird way, especially the last 5 or so minutes and the humble way you look at it. You do something you love while living a great life, not really trying to be the #1 game developer in the world. That's exactly what I strive for 😄 I really love watching all of your videos! Such a great work and great community.

Brilliant video as always! I'm on my journey trying to take game dev a bit more seriously... it's hard 😆 you're doing amazing big inspiration for me personally! Think the message at the end is basically the scenario I would like to get in.

I appreciate the knowledge you share with us in these devlogs. You are very clear with what you do and how you do it and regardless of what the industry is doing, you are having fun and enjoying every minute of it. You are putting in enough work and even some side work just because you sparked a new idea. I just want to finally create one of my ideas to see it be completed to play it. I get hung up on what game engine I will use and learn instead of just using what I know and going with the flow. You have an amazing devlog Pascal. I can't wait to see what comes up next for orangepixel.

This entire video felt like me listening to an uncle who I've never had, talking about his honest experience in his career and just wants me to succeed in every way possible. Thank you sir! This level of calm and casual talk about a big industry is probably what I've wanted to get myself through. Thank you a million times!

I'm a simple (wo)man, I see cat and game dev = I sub.

I'm watching this in 2024, and I'm hoping the advice still applies! I've been trying to learn c±± and python over the last two years as a side thing and it's been frustrating, but I need to push through!

I didn't pay much attention when I clicked the video but the moment you said orangepixel I realized I've played your games! I have many on my androidtv that's slow as it can be but still most of your games run 60fps and are full of features, I'd always wondered how they do that but you are actually a person right here, I'm glad to learn from you, keep it up, please :DD

5:00 this is a massive point and someone who is now much older, remembers how this felt. I put all my time in to being a game artist, and have been successful in the industry.. but i did sooo much work in my 20's

I’m just starting out in unity after my work shift, set a goal of 1year to make something I find fun. I get a genuine vibe from the advice here much appreciated.

Ah! It looks like you have won the game of life. Happy for you mate.

When I finished my major I really wanted to be a game developer (to give a little of context I live in Colombia, a place where get a job in gamedev is hard and i wont be able to eat or survive) and my dreams of becoming one were crushed by a teacher who told me there were people who would do it better than me. Some years after I started on web dev because I found it interesting and I became a front end developer, now after 3 years of experience I see how hard it is to get a better job, to feel more appreciated (economically and emotionally talking) and to feel joy over something that made me happy back then but now makes me feel stucked or stressed (due the previous mentioned reasons). Now, I kinda want to retake that dream that I didn't give an opportunity, it's hard because I believe its hard to get a job as a game dev and I want to have a life where I can buy myself stuff but It would be good to give it a shot if I try it on my free time.

Lol I love my web dev job a lot, but I did had some horrible ones before this one that questioned my passion there lol (micromanagement bosses, bad/weird work culture, thankless job and 40+ hours every week + on call). Right now i am hobby playing prototyping stuff using godot and actually having a lot of fun, just learning thing slowly.

First of all, great video, thanks for sharing your experience as a Game developer. Second of all, I disagree with you about other programming jobs being boring. I, for example enjoy developing low code business apps for the most "boring" areas like human resources, sales, Healthcare, etc. I have more fun when I see that I get paid very good money with less effort than the one needed for game development. Also, once I get paid I can have all the fun I want and enjoy life with that money. So I do not think that you need to "have fun" all the time when doing your job or "love" your job. You just need to enjoy it at a certain level and make sure you get enough money and stability from it to then have fun in your prívate life

I feel like games can actually be fairly simplistic, they just have to convey an experience which an audience can just sit with and be present with. Like, just have a audience be able to sit at the main menu screen and experience something pleasurable to them, they're already geared to enjoy your actual game. I still love Halo 3's OG main menu interface, with the following particle ring. There are many more examples.

Quality episode! Many thanks for what you do!

Thank you for sharing this video, I like the words "Experience comes with Time" and the word "Joy" is applied to other working fields as well, not limited to programming working environment. For example, a T-Shirt design company owner, as age growing, may want to head towards stress free methods, merely accept change of company logo on that T-Shirt and no customization is allowed to change the surface pattern of the T-Shirt designed. This will make retirement life easier and more joyful.

Love your outlook on life

The part about web development is true. I really liked it in the first couple years, but now after almost 7 years I can't take it anymore 🤣 But someone needs to pay the bills.

Really great video, lots of useful information. I'm about a year into my journey so it was interesting to hear about yours.

I like your content. It started popping up on my feed and it’s enjoyable. Always very well edited and thought. Nice 👍

Thanks so much for this video. Especially the last part of it. I'm transitioning to game development after 10 years working on several stuff on IT that i initially liked but not loved, and that video ressonated with me deeply. Thanks

This video touched my heart, it seems to be written for me and this is what I needed to be told. Thank you!

Ive watched so many creators talk on this subject and your the first one that sounds like you actually care about helping people and not giving vague unhelpful tips for views

I think there's a balance between doing "what people want" and "what you really want". I have ideas of games I want to make, then I look into similar games, and communities that like similar game, and gauge how much competition there is, and how how much games of various quality make. If there's no such thing for a game I want to make, I'll just think of another game idea. Makes games you really want, but make sure the competition isn't too fierce and that there's significant enough market for it. Though, I'm still not making games, as I'm still stuck in the hell of education (pure math, I don't like math, very soul-draining), but soon(tm) I'll start... My goal is to actually make a living out of making games, either alone or with a few others, so I think actually gauging the potential in a market is quite important.

17:49 yeah thats a good point. There are out "shovelware" companies out there who just try to grab fast money from Asset flip and putting crap games out. And if you think "well this a mobile market issue" ..no..its a trophie hunter PSN issue ....in my research i saw games like "I am Majo" ..and yeah there is a glass of mayo which you click. Another example is the "Stroke the XXXX" Series where XXXX stands for a animal like dog, cat, turtle, spider...there are over 15 games out there and its a PS4 and PS5 game where you open the game, have a image of a dog and click a button and a counter raise up and gives you trophies :D Easy platinum in 2 minutes for 3,99 €. Thats a game ...and i thought it is hard to release crap on PSN :D Luckily most indies dont do that.

52 playing card deck selling 100 million decks each year. D&D has been an ongoing brand along with several spin-offs, and clones for 50 years. Chess after several centuries is still being played competitively world wide. You said the game industry changes every 2 years.

Hey, I’ve been watching you for a while now. I think you should consider doing a GDC talk. Your experience as an indie with such big portfolio and staying in the game for so long would be really appreciated there I think.

Great advice. Thank you!

Loved the wisdom you dropped at the end of your video about enjoying every day and doing what you love. I agree wholeheartedly. I'm really glad you've found that. From what I have seen, it's rare. I wish that we could all forget about profits for a while so we could have time and space to remember what makes us human.

This is really nice, thank you

I'm about 6 minutes in and I can already tell that there's an air of sincerity and genuineness that I don't find in... pretty much any other videos about the subject? Thanks a lot for sharing! Edit: I should've waited before commenting until 22:40 which left me dead inside. I really should find a way to get out this job :)

was very informative, optimistic and helpful thank you so much!!!

I wish I could buy, experience from the asset store 🤣 Can you say devlogs can be good starting points for marketing? Thank you for the vid and the positivity, inspiration and great advice overall. I am personally fine with doing this part time and even make no money as long as 10 people enjoy my game....I will die happy 🤣

Man I love these long videos. Thanks a lot!

Thank you, great video I played a few of your games, I am very admirative of the way you built up your social presence through creative videos over and over... must be such a vast amount of work (for me at least this is what I least like to do..) If you were to start from scratch today which technology would you use?

Web developer here (of course ;) ). I'm so glad I've found this video: I spent all week thinking that something is wrong with me because I'm starting to really hate my job as a web dev even though I need it to pay my bills and rent. I guess it lacks creativity, my opinion doesn't matter and I never get to know the impact the product has on people. That's how it goes in a large company. I'm starting to make little games in Unity because I want to be able to express myself and I feel I have some stories to tell. And if I have to work hard, at least I want it to be for something I can be proud of. Thank you for the tips and for making us feel seen.

Great video. So many interesting thoughts. That's the kind of videos that I like the most. Just wanted to share my feedback, it gave me a lot to think about. Thank You!

Great video as always Pascal! A lot of great points.

Great video. I agree with all this and I started in 2004/05 too.

Is making money to hold on for 2 years and doing total focus on game development (all jobs that surround it) a good idea? Having experience making games isn't enough we still need money.

This was great. I'm around the same age and these are all helpful points.

Your content is always great 😃

This was informative and interesting! Thanks!

Awesome video Orange! Great tips! I would love to be able to make video games for a living (you are an inspiration to me!). I just wish it wasn't such a big gamble time/money wise. It's kinda scary! What age do you think is a good retirement age? I'm trying to figure out how long I might get out of it (if I'm lucky enough!). I started a bit later on in life 😅. I used to make a lot of small little things when I was younger but never thought about going indie until it kind of happened by accident. It's quite overwhelming how much work is involved 😅.

I've already got my own game studio....I'm just the only one in it right now

Awesome. Thanks Pascal!

I feel like it is a bit late for me to get into gamedev, I am now 37 years old but this is something that always have been a passion of mine.. I know next to nothing about coding but i am taking it one step at a time. Going to be putting my all into this. I do have a dayjob but i will be dedicating most of my free time into this.

Well I wish I had known about the first tip before quitting my day job last month XD

Very inspiring talk man!

thanks dude

Hahaha! The web dev “soul drain” is so real. Freelance UX designer here… (almost 2 decades too 👵🏻) My soul is officially drained ✅ and I am expanding my UX into game dev 😅

Very good video!

How can I be a game Programmer who can put his thoughts into code ? I am at intermediate level in coding and made 3 games also but still i get confused when its starting on putting into code without a tutorial.

Haha I like you man, you are honest and funny. Great advice regarding making what you want to play. I'm not much into making games at the moment, but I write programming articles. The ones that had a better outreach where the ones I enioyed writing the most. Not a coincidence. The part about web development... Well, good trolling. I'l forgive you 😂

Appreciate the video.

I like your work in Chicago Fire :P

Do you believe that making 2 games per semester (while learning new concepts/mechanics) is a good goal for relatively new developers?

I want to get started I’m taking a certification for cybersecurity and I’m trying to see what are the first steps, I’m familiar with python but also I heard a lot about learning C+

Great video! I´m trying go in that direction, would love to make part of a team and do great games. I always loved games, played them and try to understand the script so I can trick them and it was a funny thing to do. Being a creative head since childhood it took me to the arts field where I draw and tattooed for a long time, always playing in my spare time....Still got a lot of game concepts in my head but don´t know where to start, any suggestions?

Solid advice! Thanks! Would love to connect.

I didn't realise I was such a cliché going from web development into indie games :)

I have experience in product management and have launched multiple project from scratch to successful monetization but can't code if my life depended on it, I really want to get into game development and create my own games but I'm unsure if I should jump into it without having programming skills. Please give me some words of wisdom.

marketing is really the hardest part for me (ofc I come from a programming background 😂).

I'm waiting for this topic

im a student in final year, can you also give us some time management tips?

Hi Orangepixel, you seem like an experienced developer. From your personal point of view would you say I am doing too much? Or could you share your honest advice if you have an alternative idea. I would be greatly humbled by your opinion. My question is this: I have always loved video games my entire life, mostly games like World Of WarCraft and EverQuest, really enjoyed these games. At the moment I am focused on learning Android with Kotlin for Android development. But lately I've been dreaming of creating these types of games but in 2D and locally, meaning not online but as a download, maybe on Nintendo Switch or maybe Android since I am learning this already, I am not sure yet. Do you believe it would be a good idea to continue to focus on Android development and on the side create a game using something like Unity. I would love to hear your thoughts, thank you once again Orangepixel.

Which one is easier to learn pixel graphics or 3d modeling?

Is it possible to still make decent income (1k-5k) developing smaller games?

Huh, that's funny. I actually really love my web development job 😂

this is your daily reminder that 1% of one billion is 10 million ppl.

Thank you

I am mobile application developer with 10 years of experience who wants to start game development as career. Am I making the right choice. And secondly does it worth pursuing a degree in game development from a university like Falmouth etc before starting a game development career?

Dreamcast???

Thank you for Genuity

I have a doubt about Libgdx, I worked my entire life as a software developer with Java and I was looking for Libgdx source code, the documentation is not so good for me. Do you have any tips about material where could I search how to do stuff in libgdx? In the moment I know how to use Unity, but I want to learn how to work with libgdx

Im solo game dev should I just make 100++ small games? to gain market and resources and then create 1 high quality game with a small team when I already get the resources...OR....make 1 quality game with solo

it's 2023. You need video segments. Aight?

The new ATARI company struggled with marketing in the beginning, I discovered the existence of the ATARI VCS purely by accident. I found out about the new ATARI VCS on one of the RU-vid videos that I saw in my feed.

Step one: Get an inheritance. LooooooooL

I’ll try very rich parents. 3:38

Web dev is torture

😊😅

"How to start Game Development in 2023 !" The best advice is : "you should not start GD in 2023" 🙂

I'm sure you're a great developer and you seem like a very nice down to eath guy, but personally I disliked your delivery. The background music is a little annoying. I think what you said about statistics is ignorant. Not that people should make games expecting tons of money or make them devoted of passion, but quite literally your description of how a predicting a consumer preference is false. We all try to make a game that people like and we use ourselves as a bad anecdotal sample. You can tell people to make games they would love playing, but it's also important to make something other people like too. Maybe your first tip applies to this anecdote too. Don't invest too much time on a game without showing it to people and get feedback. A very basic principle of engineering and design in the modern age is to make a product for someone not make a product and try to convince others they need it. This applies to games. Certainly making a copy of a game won't guarantee sales but also making something completely unique is not going to guarantee a sale.

i am not game developer...yet. I believe solo developer should make something he believes in. I am currently working on simple spy game(third person, based on splinter cell but with unique story). at current rate of development, i believe it could be done by end of this year(by December 2023)... i will create my own you tube channel and promote it on instagram and facebook as well i like your video, and thanks for very useful tips(will come handy soon, i believe)

Don't make games for money, you will inevitably make crap.

Hoi oranje pixel ik woon in lochen en ben begonnen met het maken van games kunnen wij een keer afspreken en dat je bij mij thuis komt kijken of ik alles heb en het goed doe ❤

Thank you