I’m 28 and I’m feeling old lately for some reason. I’ve studied 3d art for probably 7 years using maya/zbrush/3dcoat/unity/ue/etc. These days I’ve been heavy into foliage and a worldmachine/mudbox workflow. I can take a character from concept to animation, I have great concepting skills, sculpting skills, texturing, I know all about perfect topology, skinning, rigging, animating, I’ve learned so much and, basically the reason I’m describing these skills is because I feel so powerful now… I just dont know if I’m much older than other successful game developers. And I want to use the key word successful because I know theres alot of younger people in it, but I mean, what do you guys think the average age of a game developer that can make a living and eventually do very well is?
I’ve also been learning enough blueprints and growing my project both visually and playabality wise that I feel like I can finish a pretty great project by myself. As much character design, environment design & animation that I do in the time I have off, it’s definitely enough material. I just dont know if I’m kind of old to enjoy my success if it takes me a few more years to reach it.
My normal job is selling insurance, which I do not enjoy because obviously its not a creative field, but it pays the bills. Do you guys think 28 is pretty old? I guess as we approach 30 its sort of a quarter life crisis thing, my eyes are strained alot lately and I feel it, but how does anyone else feel about it? Is 30-40 usually a more productive period in ones life to achieve bigger success as in, not necessarily wealthy (maybe) but being able to make a really nice living doing what you love? I just wished I didnt play so many games, waste so much of my time and started alot sooner…anyone else feel this way?
28 is not old. If you want to move into game development fulltime, you are still a really young guy and it should be easy for you. I also think it’s younger than the average dev.
If your eyes are straining, you should go to an optometrist. It’s probably because you need a prescription for glasses or an adjustment if you have them already.
As for the perfect age? I don’t know. Usually 30-40 you take on other responsibilities that make it more difficult to find time to improve. On the other hand, common wisdom tells us 10 years is the sweet spot for mastering something. Usually what happens is you may not be more productive as you age, but your abilities at that point enable you to work smarter, make less mistakes and less effort learning.
Well, I am 16, and every now & I am making $50 a day solely on ad revenue from a few small projects that took a few hours to make, so that is $15k/year that I don’t have to worry about earning. I am currently working on an open-world game that is predicted to sell very well. While I can’t say I’ve been successful, I believe that day is drawing near due to my past experience in game development & computer programming.
I’m 28. I have a successful if boring career in marketing. I’m using UE4 for a career transition since it has enabled even technically challenged folks like myself to make semi-competent things. There is no reason why you cannot learn an entirely new trade skill in fact you should be old enough by now to understand the valuation of multiple skills.
You can not predict the success of a product as the market is insanely unpredictable. It is really great your so well settled at your age but you’ve a lot to learn about how the game works bro. I hope you sell a trillion copies but as I said I have seen insanely talented people with amazing products fail.
as for the original poster, 28 is young man, In my computer science class the average age was 38 years old. if you was 50 id say start worrying a bit lol
Yes, I will agree that it is unpredictable, I guess what I mean is that I have quite a bit of game development experience, so I guess I am quite confident.
Do you mean successful independent developers, or just successful game developer period?
I was 24 when I got my first internship at a medium/large studio, I’m 35 now and in a senior position at a very large and well-known studio. Most ‘leads’ I know are in their 40s - but even at a junior position I was making a great living compared to most other professions, no problem paying the bills (even with massive student loans).
Success isn’t really determined by age, and there isn’t really a ‘cap’ on how old you can be to develop games so long as you continue to learn and grow.
It is more a matter of having all necessary skills aquired. You need to understand coding, lots of vector math, 3D asset creation etc…
Those are skills that people usually posses to the required extents around 30, ie after getting a degree or teaching themselved. You will not see many devs working in <25 years. Most are 30…40years old. I mean you sure can texture an object in Blender at younger ages, but most likely you will not be able to convert Euler angles into quaternions, or know in depth vector math and so on. Getting the complete skill set from texturing to vector math to coding basics hardly happens before 25.
In some sense, if you go for a full game, you need practically all skills that you need for most other software/App development as well.
You’re never too old to start learning, and age is not a factor in making a game or working for a developer at any position, so don’t worry about that. As with most companies, it will be guys in their mid/late 30’s and up in more senior positions, with younger people taking the junior positions.
That said, if you already have a career on the go that isn’t directly relevant to game development and you want to join a studio, you will need to consider the impact of restarting your career from scratch. Video game developers often have relatively low pay at the more junior levels, particularly in the art department. If you’re planning to join a developer you may need to take into consideration a pay cut.
This is a problem I and some friends of mine have, as the salary I earn in my current job is going to be significantly higher than anything I’ll get as a junior programmer at a studio (which is what I will be without any significant professional programming experience). With a family and a mortgage it’s just not possible to take that kind of hit. You may not have that same problem, so if not good luck!
Of course, it depends on what kind of developer you join and your own skills and experience. Indie developers in particular will vary drastically in terms of structure and personnel.
Generally though, in positions of responsibility and especially critical roles like project management and design lead, you want guys with a proven track record and experience who have been in pressured and challenging situations before. Of course, if someone has been in the industry from a very young age, or has shown exceptional ability they can take on responsibility at an earlier age. On the whole though, you’re not going to join Rock star at 21 as a junior programmer and be the technical lead on GTA VI by the age of 25 unless you’re a prodigy.
Exactly, I’m at that stage of life, where a job at the game dev coalface will not pay enough to pay for the wife and kids. I’m trapped as a hobbyist with only a little bit of free-time. Still, hope springs eternal.
The age doesnt matter, it’s more about the skills
So here in Austria it would be from 18-… -> with 18 you are fully legally competent and you can sign any contracts you like (e.g from a publisher, taxes,…)
Average age of a successful game developer is getting older every day I bet Why? Because the successful game developers are getting older! I think the question you wanted was at what age, on average, does a developer achieve his first success.
Pedantic for the win!
Of course the answer to that is really rather complicated I imagine. What is success? How do you measure projects with huge staffs? Is it simply date of hire for a good paying position? I think I finally made it big at about age 24.
It is funny. I am 27 and I constantly go through the same thoughts as the original poster.
I am a developer for the government here in the UK so my pay is exceptional and I am quite high up too. I know for a fact, that now, I couldn’t move to a game company on a junior salary, as I have a wife and child on the way.
– I don’t particularly like the fact that game companies ask for “shipped 1-3 games”. What difference does it make if you have written C++ for 10 years with IBM, Google, Microsoft, EA or Ubisoft?
I would say I see people find their feet at around 30 - 35. Some people still go out partying and don’t worry about these things at our age, some get down to business like us. The best thing you can do is keep believing you will get there and keeping your project small is the key, especially if your on your own. The second best thing is having people around you who are willing to provide the moral support when your down.
As to the original question - I do not know the answer. I think there are a lot of genuine good games turning up on steam’s gleenlight that have significant influences from our era of gaming. So I would like to think the age is somewhere between 25-35, maybe 40.
I guess in reality age is irrelevant, skills and wisdom are key.
