Help me plan out the best way to learn this so I can stop being homeless, please.

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hey guys, long time no see. I made a friend here a long time ago with this guy living in Cambodia. We became great friends and started making a game together. I don’t know how to do anything though really, just kinda okay at making 2D bone animations. I was just the guy with the money and the idea to make a fun and addicting smartphone game, and he knew programming like the back of his hand.

Well **** went bad to worse real bad this whole year, barely having any money at all each week. I’ve finally had it with constantly being dead broke, and have decided to throw almost all my **** away and just live in my car with my laptop and my guitar, using starbucks for my internet and main hangout spot, and the local 24HR fitness as my place of exercise and showers, and unfortunately Denny’s and fast food for eating. I still have a job of course, just living in my car to save money until I can afford a better car that won’t break down soon, hopefully qualify to be Uber/Lyft certified so I can make money faster, and eventually lease a home.

Well, while I’m hanging out at Starbucks, I’ve decided that instead of practicing guitar and not making it in the music world, I’d like to teach myself how to fully use the unreal engine to finally make my own smartphone game. Maybe eventually reconnect with my programmer once I’m able to pay him again and get a more concrete planning for finishing the game we started together.

So yea long story short, here I am living in my car, and I want to not live in my car ASAP. I want to develop something that can make me a tiny bit of money, and just keep developing and improving that thing, or making a variety of other games. My creativity knows no bounds but **** do I have no idea how to program or use the unrealengine.

There are so many resources, so many hours of PDFs and youtube tutorials, I don’t know which ones are the most efficient ones to use to learn this stuff as fast as possible.

Can someone please post a list of stuff that would help me the fastest in start to finish in developing my 2D smartphone games?

Simple 3D ones too. But yea my main focus is 2D ones. 2D action platformers, musical games, math solving games, 2D physics games.

I’d like for a collection of stuff that can thoroughly and efficiently take me through the process of creating a game from start to finish. I will spend all my free time outside of work and light exercise in this Starbucks to work on my app.

I got Adobe illustrator and photoshop for making the graphics. I can kinda get my way around that, but my main focus is learning how to use the Unreal engine’s C++ and blueprinting to put all that **** together.

As far as testing/developing goes, I have an iPhone 5s, and an MSI laptop with an i7 4700mq and a GTX 770, and whatever C++ compiling software I need I already have it.

2

In your current position, just -starting- to get into making games is probably not a good idea. It takes years to learn everything, especially if you’re just picking up the engine for the first time and don’t know how to program or make the art. The vast majority of games that release, especially on mobile, are not a financial success.

If you were in a better position right now, then yes, it would be a good side project or hobby, at least to start out, but it sounds like you have more important things in your life to worry about right now. Risking what little you have left on something as unpredictable as making your own game (not to mention the fees and difficulty of setting up your own sole proprietorship or company to sell the game to begin with) is just not a good plan.

You said it yourself, you were the guy with the money and ideas, and with the money gone you’re now the guy with the ideas. As depressing as it is, a good idea doesn’t guarantee a financially successful game, especially when you have to learn all the requisite skills from scratch to make it happen. There are way too many things that can go wrong for me to be able to recommend you continue down the path you’re on right now.

You have Illustrator and Photoshop? Find a few freelance jobs for graphic design and make some money like that to try and get back to a more stable position. You’ll churn through projects much more quickly and make much more money (and more reliably) that way.

4

In order to learn new stuff you need a regulated life. It doesnt work as long as this is not the case.
Everybody who actually agrees to your request will just put you in a more worse situation.

5

If you are looking at indie game-dev as a source of income, mobile 2d game… well good luck with that. For real.
I would just look for a job anywhere doing anything that would fit paying the bills instead.

6

Don’t make a game if you’re expecting to make a living on it–one part of a game being successful is just luck and you can’t count on that. An alternative is to develop your skills and get a job in the industry but that will take some time.

7

Don’t listen to anyone here, seriously everyone is literally telling you to tell your goals to **** right off. I was in such a similar position when i started the UE4 beta, and still am struggling very much. Before i had no home, no money, nothing. fast forward a few years, i have my own home, no longer homeless, have steady income, and most importantly, i did not give up on myself or my goals.

If you honestly want to make a game, just ****ing do it. If you don’t follow your goals who will? You’re in such a crucial time in your life, not only that but people forget about the mother of invention is necessity…

All these people here are naysayers, naysaying you so that you don’t follow your goals. So that there is one less game they will have to compete with, what i say is **** em and make the best damned game you can.

Don’t just follow your goals, break them down into obtainable goals. Don’t stop developing, don’t stop learning. Just don’t stop.

8

Or, considering things thoughtfully–look at the industry and realize it’s very difficult to be successful trying to make your own game

9

I completely disagree. And if you honestly felt that it’s sooo difficult, then you would give up too. And if you still feel that way, yet you continue on your own things yet tell others its soo difficult, then you just want others to fail.

Success is not difficult. Nor is it measured… You obtain success, through difficult things like hard work, dedication. Also, it’s incredibly easy to obtain success, it’s incredibly difficult to maintain it.

Not to mention success is a relative term. So, what does the person in question think of when they think of success, it could be the game itself, it could be the knowledge gained, it could be monetary, it could be something completely different.

“You make success hard because if you believe it’s easy then your excuses for not achieving it will no longer be valid.”

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”

10

It is hard to make your own game. I am working at a job that pays for my bills and I can work on my projects outside of work. While Hard Work certainly helps to be successful, that’s not a guarantee, there’s many many articles about games that are actually very good that didn’t make any profit. If you are relying on your game making a profit then it’s a bad idea.
You need to actually analyze the gaming market, consider what could do well. And again, realize that you still might not be successful.

12

well IMHO…

i’ve lived a long life and lived in my car and now own my property and built my solar powered underground house by myself… everything was a challenge, but the difficulty level was more of a state of mind… work was fun, even as a janitor… and it seemed that every job i took, whatever could go wrong, did go wrong in the first two weeks… so after that it was a piece of cake… if i wanted it i pushed through till i got it… i’ve succeeded in everything i’ve ever tried, just some not as far as others… it’s all in how you look at it…

games need music (hint hint)…

enjoy the beauty of the creations… everyone is well aware of the world around us… but only we know the world within us…

sweet dreams… NS