CrayCray
OMG Member
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2017
- Messages
- 116
Have you ever been in a situation when there's just no work coming your way? It might be the alignment of the stars, the world economy, the country you live in, or it just might be Lady Luck laughing at you. You have worked on numerous projects of various sizes, and you are aware of your skills and work ethics, hell, that one time the project manager asked you to do it, you stood up next to a mountain and chopped it down with the edge of your keyboard (sorry Jimi).
But, when there's no work to do, what do you do?
OK, playing games for a while works, up until it becomes depressing. And then, since you are able to write software, you start thinking - "Hmm, why don't I make one, just for laughs, I might even learn something new." From that moment, there are multiple paths - if you're experienced and savvy (and I'm talking about C/C++ gods over here), you're probably going to write your own engine. But no, you're a simpler guy. You just want to make something in a reasonable amount of time since there might be work coming, and you don't want to waste too much time working on a hobby project. And that's where the cookie starts to crumble. There's character modeling, animation, textures, lighting, there's too much... So you try all of them. All of those skills become an art for themselves. They are so complex that you start to understand why graphic designers, who us, developers love and cherish so much, are paid the amounts they are paid.
And then you start to fall down.
You're not that savvy with Photoshop, or with Maya, or with Blender, and you don't really want to take someone else's assets because it's not nice. Even though they're free, even though they are made for the community, they are made for everyone to have them. No, you want to make YOUR OWN.
But, the part that reality didn't tell you yet is that we can't do everything on our own. For sure, there are people, even in our own environment, that can, and actually, do, but hey, that was the way the cards were dealt that day.
Turn over to other devs, designers, communities. Open-source or proprietary, doesn't matter. Join projects just for the fun of it. Because that's what it actually is - a game. If you feel like making a game, don't make it because of the game itself, make it because of the joy of the ride. And trust me, it's going to be fun.
Even I have turned my frown upside-down by writing this, and after I make the biggest cup of coffee in the world, I'm off to Github to hunt for something interesting, and maybe to meet some other confused developers like me.
But, when there's no work to do, what do you do?
OK, playing games for a while works, up until it becomes depressing. And then, since you are able to write software, you start thinking - "Hmm, why don't I make one, just for laughs, I might even learn something new." From that moment, there are multiple paths - if you're experienced and savvy (and I'm talking about C/C++ gods over here), you're probably going to write your own engine. But no, you're a simpler guy. You just want to make something in a reasonable amount of time since there might be work coming, and you don't want to waste too much time working on a hobby project. And that's where the cookie starts to crumble. There's character modeling, animation, textures, lighting, there's too much... So you try all of them. All of those skills become an art for themselves. They are so complex that you start to understand why graphic designers, who us, developers love and cherish so much, are paid the amounts they are paid.
And then you start to fall down.
You're not that savvy with Photoshop, or with Maya, or with Blender, and you don't really want to take someone else's assets because it's not nice. Even though they're free, even though they are made for the community, they are made for everyone to have them. No, you want to make YOUR OWN.
But, the part that reality didn't tell you yet is that we can't do everything on our own. For sure, there are people, even in our own environment, that can, and actually, do, but hey, that was the way the cards were dealt that day.
Turn over to other devs, designers, communities. Open-source or proprietary, doesn't matter. Join projects just for the fun of it. Because that's what it actually is - a game. If you feel like making a game, don't make it because of the game itself, make it because of the joy of the ride. And trust me, it's going to be fun.
Even I have turned my frown upside-down by writing this, and after I make the biggest cup of coffee in the world, I'm off to Github to hunt for something interesting, and maybe to meet some other confused developers like me.
