Seriously the amount of time and energy it requires just to learn how to model stuff and use it in UE4 to create a game yourself, one has to ask am I wasting my time?
I have 2 years of money to live on home but one has to wonder, I realized 2D art is impossible for me but 3D is much easier for me. But still I do have to wonder about what I am doing with my life here and if its going to eventually be a waste of time.
You never know till you try.
Good point.
I think every game dev wants to eventually make profit or have some kind of recognition for their work, my biggest fear probably is ending up on Jim Sterling lol. Me I don’t have the money for the right computer but I’m doing it anyway, I know some people who don’t really get game dev who may think it’s a waste of time. I don’t think there could ever be too many games, I love games I love playing them and trying to make my own and I’m with you on the 2d art thing I can’t even draw a circle I stick to 3d.
Are you good at blender? What kind of 3d software do you use? You said you have 2 years? did you quit your job to become a game dev? Me personally i wouldn’t do that I would contuine working my job until I actually got good at making games then if I make a bit of profit from my game then quit depending on the amount. And I believe it is possible to work and game dev at the same time. Like someone told me once a few years back you need money to make money…I think it’s worth the time and energy like once you get working you’ll wonder where all the time went is it hard? Heck yeah it’s hard I’m still learning now but if you want it go for it you could die at any moment don’t you want to leave something behind?
If you’re starting from scratch, you have a lot to learn! Just like making movies, or writing novels, or making wooden chairs – this all requires significant investment in time and effort, as well as at least some amount of talent and interest.
If it were easy, everyone would be doing it 
If you want a guarantee of payment, though, you should probably go into banking.
Have a job, make games for fun. If you start getting some sort of recognition for your games, consider maybe starting to sell your games, but keep your job.
Treat it like trying to become a musician - Sure you can buy that guitar and practice 12 hours a day for the next 2 years living off your savings, but chances are that you will get absolutely nowhere.
Maybe it’s not quite that bad yet, but keep your job, it’s definitely no get rich quick scheme… Or even a get paid at all kind of scheme for a very long time after just starting out.
In my opinion, try not to think of the end result or making it big too much. Most often, it will only give you doubts, demoralize you, and make you procrastinate.
I think it’s better to emulate the Japanese. They practice something repetitively and hone their skills on it for years. For instance, when you start as a chef in Japan I heard you have to cut vegetables for 3 years, then when you graduate from that, only then can you actually move on to cooking. It takes time, but in the end, all Japanese chefs have amazing knife skills.
People are usually overeager and jump ahead of themselves too quickly. It’s very difficult to fight such urges but you’ll actually make less progress by doing so. Like Bruce Lee said:
Just practice everyday and try to improve. If you enjoy making games then whether you become successful or not doesn’t matter. You may even learn important skills in the process and build your portfolio in programming or 3d modeling which could help you join a team or apply for certain jobs later on, so even if you don’t end up making games it won’t be a complete waste of time.
I’m in the same situation, my computer can’t handle UE4 either but I work around the situation by using my friend’s computer through remote support software when she’s not using hers. haha 
Nope it’s not a waste of time. It’s all about direction changes in the market place and the refusal of some to change their ways as to the demands made by changes in technology.
The music industry got to where they are because they refuse to change their once successful market plans and it took a computer company to show them how it’s done. So sure making a game for profit is worth the effort but understanding market trends is where you make the profit and not in the actual construction of the game.
Trust me you be better off hiring a used car salesman rather than trying to figure that out if one is “just” about the game. 
P.S. just like any market video games is down and like in the past it will go back up. Just the nature of “the bubble”
Hi guys thanks I suspect it was a bad idea to quit my job and work on a game fulltime especially since I have zero experience in either programming or 3d modeling or anything related to making a game.
I think realistically speaking I am wasting my time, games are a lot of work for 1 person and there is no guarantee I am going to turn a profit I think I am better off planting crops in the land that I have and sell it to people than I would be at making money making games.
I was thinking maybe I should invest this time into learning programming so I could get into a company that has a database job or something. Its just that in my country jobs are very hard to come by doesn’t matter how much education you have either.
Out of my 2 options one is planting crops like cucumbers etc and the other is making a game. The first option seems more realistic even if there is a chance people could steal my crops. I think I should invest into farming and it will also help my health as well as I am 31 years old and I have diabetes and hypertension and I am also fat, sitting at a PC all day for the next 2 years could potentially kill me.
Maybe I could do that and once I have an income coming in I could always work on the game as a hobby.
If you got the interest and basic aptitude, enterprise programming is your best bet. Learn C# as it is one of the top enterprise languages, easy to learn and is also used in Unity and some other engines.
Mix it up with plenty of physical exercise to improve your health.
If you are dedicated, after two years you should be able to get a couple of Microsoft certificates and land a comparably well paying job as a junior developer.
If you still want to, you can then go ahead learning the art skills needed to make a game in your spare time. Or join a game project as a programmer.
It is my sincere opinion that creating a game to earn money is too high risk and low reward economically to make it a wise decision in your situation.
My experience is this:
I get better results and better revenue if I build a game out of passion rather than for pure profit. My apps are not generation much, but I built them with passion leaving much attention to details and user interface rather than focusing on how to show as many ads as possible etc. My apps has an average of 400 downloads each day 
Let’s say I added more ads. The average downloads would be 100 a day, I am sure.
Hey thanks a lot I think what you have said is indeed my best bet,a friend had recommended to me to learn C#programming along with Algorithm Analysis and Design.
I will take you up on your advice I already have all the resources for learning C# programming aswell. Considering the business world is much bigger than the game industry this really does sound like my best bet.
There is one thing that I need to do, I need to actually build a piece of software that I could show to an employer at some point, you know to prove to him or her that I am capable of whatever degree of skills I have.
What would your suggestion be?
In this case I would learn Qt Framework.
But it is C++ based.
C# is good if you’re thinking of making enterprise software but same with UE4 if you’re a beginner don’t expect to make anything great for a while. You’ll also need to complement your knowledge in C# with other things like Entity Framework (EF) Microsoft’s own Object Relational Mapper to easily use databases in either C# or VB.net; and if you plan on having a user interface at all also need to learn Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) or WinForms. Also need to learn some important UI design patterns, such as Model-View-Presenter (MVP) or Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) else it will be very difficult to implement any kind of automated testing for your software.
If you don’t have any kind of testing in place then your software becomes really difficult to debug and will be a real pain to work with once it gets more complex. Been down that road before actually and it’s not really pretty. Here are some resource links so you can research those topics before completely diving into it.
MSDN - Introduction to Entity Framework
MSDN - Getting Started with Window Forms
MSDN - Getting Started (WPF)
MSDN - The Model-View-Presenter (MVP) Pattern
MSDN - The MVVM Pattern
I am perfectly fine with learning C++ because I am very excited about programming in General I believe the core of it is how to program and solve problems algorithm design etc and then a language, I always had a dream of learning C++ so I am fine with it. I also can tell you for sure 100% that if I learn to develop mobile apps etc I can find work very easy in my country without the help of an employer by just advertising.
I will download the QT framework as you suggested. I once spoke to an HR manager at a major software dev company in my country its a very small country that I live in, and she told me if I could bring past projects to show what my skills are, she will be willing to completely ignore the BSc requirements for a position at her firm.
This is why I started learning UE4 and trying to make a game I figured it was a way to make something to show but now you are showing me something much more realistic. I will definitely check it out right now.
wow thanks for the advice man.
Ok Don’t bother QT Framework costs money and you have to pay for it every month aswell which is even worse. LOL so guess I am going with dacster13
advice here. Bruno if you have anyother suggestions let me know.
I want to drop my two cents too.
1: Games made for “Profit” suck.
2: It does not make Fun to create a Game for “Profit”.
But in reality it is way more complex than that.
I know what i am talking about, because i was at the same point as you, 2 years ago, and now my game is close to appear on Greenlight.
From the 2 years i was working with UE4, i “wasted” 1 year to experiment with stuff, and to learn. (On top of that, UE4 is an Engine in Developement, so Stuff gets changed, stuff breaks, etc.)
My Game only took me around 9 months, but in these 9 months… i worked roughly 12-16 hours a day, to get it done. (Creating something this big, is not a good idea as a “starter”-game, you will run into nasty problems that will cost you a lot of time)
You also should consider the “Type” of Game you want to do. (Better not create something that just drowns on Steam, because there is SO much “Trash”-games on there.)
You either need VERY good Gameplay, or you need to pull of solid Gameplay with good graphics. (this is what i have chosen for my first Project).
It is also very helpful to know “how” Game-Design works, how you have to “treat” the player, and what you should not do.
TL:DR: Try it out, but be prepared… this is going to be a tough ride.
This is a Screenshot of the Game that i managed to pull of in ~9 months as my “first ever” Game. (and i am already working on an improved 2nd part, because i now have the knowledge to make it a better game, everything is so “easy” now… what took me days when i started with the first game)
http://www2.pic-upload.de/thumb/32500749/REUE4.jpg
It is by no means “easy” to pull a real game, if you are alone, and this is your first try, and i do not know how much money it will yield. (actually, i spent less than 50 USD to create that game, and for that… it looks and plays pretty decent)
EDIT: Regarding “3D-Modelling” i did all my models within UE4, by converting BSPs, and merging static meshes. (WAY easier than learning Blender…, but limited in functionality)
EDIT2: C++ … you do not need it for UE4, Blueprint gets 99% of the Jobs done. (i even created a working minecraft-like chunk-system with it, and it had better performance than the one used in Minecraft… BP is very powerful, if you know how to “use and missuse” it.
I can’t really comment on the QT Framework since I haven’t used it enough. Last time I used it was for my thesis in a computer science related curriculum. I used it mainly to simplify designing forms instead of having to code it by hand using Win32 API. However, it’s also easy to design forms in C# on Visual Studio so that is not really going to be a factor when making a choice nowadays in my opinion.
I think a bigger factor will depend on other things like the language. C# might be more future proof than C++ when it comes to Enterprise software or that seems to be the trend anyways.
