Hello, I am Sidharth and I am a Game Developer; how it feels crushing your own dreams to journey of finding your vision again and building a game development studio and a YouTube Channel. Ask Me Anything!

How's the ulcerative colitis recovery going?

Hey, thank you for asking.

With super support from my family and my friends and everyone. I have managed to completely cure it.

We even did Endoscopy again and there was no trace of Ulcerative Colitis now :D

So basically I am healed from it now

Really glad youve recovered man. How did you manage to heal it?

He just said it was cured by super support of friends/family/everyone.

Sorry I didn't mentioned the exact cure.

It's majorly your food and lifestyle. But while you are recovering you really need support from your family and peers otherwise the mental pressure is quite great coz if you look at proper cure you have to completely cut from all food and basically go on a fruit diet. Where you are allowed to eat any fruit except any citrus or any fruit which has tiny seeds like say Gauva.

Bananas are your best friend during this time so I majorly ate bananas for almost 4-5 months

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I might suspect it's uncurable in the sense that the cure cannot be billed. Many things can be changed via life style, food, stress, and environment.

I believe you're right. I don't know much about it, but it sounds like the immune response is a big component of the disease, so like asthma a change in environment, behavior, and diet can go a long way in reversing the course of the disease.

Yes guys, you are right. But sadly that's not what doctors told me. They said there is no cure of it and I have to take medicines for it for whole life. They said no food or lifestyle change can cure it, changing lifestyle and food can help to manage it they said but cure is not possible.

At that time I was no aware of anything about nutrition or anything so I started doing my own research and turns out it is definitely curable with your diet change and improving life style.

Although, the journey of healing comes with a lot of mental challenges.

As someone with U.C., I think you might be confusing the word "curable" with "remission."

No man, I understand the difference between curable and remission.

And mine is actually cured, I went through another endoscopy and it showed no signs of disease in my colon anymore

Way to not give up! I know how hard it is to hear from a professional that things are hopeless. It's unfortunate that this is how they see things, but for those who are willing to explore and experiment on their own, anything can be shifted.

Don't get me wrong, doctors can be pretty amazing. But they're only human, and their perspectives on the world are heavily shaped by their education and their tools.

You're doing a huge thing going on this journey =)

Thank you for the kind words man :D

It's on remission, not cured.

No, it's not remission for me. I am saying I am cured only after going under another endoscopy and there is no sign of disease anymore.

I very well understand difference between remission and cure

Awesome, great to hear.

Yes man :D

Wtf I'm literally doing a uni assignment about ulcerative colitis and I go on reddit to take a break from it, and I see this.

:| Ohhhh damn

Sorry bud, you can also look at game development part and ignore Ulcerative colitis part :D (Well that only if you are interested in game development)

Although I can help you with your assignment if you need some help ;)

Dear Sidarth,

Glad to see that you've recovered from the hole in your life. My personal greatest fear is to strike out as an enterprising fellow in a financially unstable field (i.e startups) and then falling into depression, disease, or some other kind of bad rut that I cannot get out of.

I apologize for potentially bringing up bad memories, but could you describe the last few days of your rut before you started to recover? How did it felt like when you managed to find a light at the end of the tunnel, and why did you take it? What was every day like before? And so on.

My hope is that reading about your experience would help alleviate my fears even if just by a smidgen.

Thank you.

Oh man, yes that definitely brought some memories back. You see I was only 21 years old when I was diagnosed and doctors sentenced me on heavy meds for entire life. Although they started with minimum dose but that was even taking 3 pills a day of 1200-1500 power (or whatever they call it) and if this medicine didn't work then they would have put me on steroids coz that's the only next option.

And for the first 6 months I had no idea what is happening with my body, I was bleeding badly (basically internal bleeding starts in your colon in Ulcerative colitis if something irritates the ulcers)

I was completely drained of energy every day. My weight dropped from 72 to 55 and what not.

On honest note, I always feared from disease, I always feared that my parents will get bad disease which is not curable and they will die early and what not.

I don't know how your diet looks like but whole food plant based diet saved my life and as I dug deeper into it, my fear of disease slowly started to diminish and I no longer fear that my parents will get any chronic disease coz they also follow a whole food plant based diet. And this diet has been proven to give you longest living life (although ofcourse there are many other factors matter) but diet has show a great role too.

If you are interested to know more about it you can simply watch this documentary called "What the Health" on Netflix.

Now if you ask how I felt when I managed to find light at end of the tunnel, I felt like I was reborn to some extent and it gave a new purpose to my life coz I saw so many sick people in hospital everyday, in such bad condition. So now I always try to help anyone with their health condition with my nutrition knowledge and try to guide them in right way so that they can actually cure from their disease.

If you are going to follow a more plant based whole food diet then I can very surely say to you that you won't get any chronic disease and for the fear of failing, I will definitely recommend you to follow some of the great names I mentioned in my original post above.

Peace man

What's the starting point to get into game development? Tutorials, good sites, anything would be appreciated.

would love to hear the response on this.. i am fascinated by video games and would love to give it a go

Not OP, but I have spent the last two years getting into Gamedev using unity (the engine he mentions starting out on)

It’s such a cliche, but just start! Find a tutorial for any type of game you want to make and follow it. At the start it’s going to be frustrating and you won’t really understand anything that’s going on.

But eventually programming just clicks, genuinely you go from not having a clue to feeling like you can make anything out of nowhere!

There are loads of good tutorials online both series and individual lessons. I particularly like a guy called Brackeys

Take it from someone who has never been talented at anything and now has confidence to build anything. You can do it!

My biggest concern about if was to get into development is not particularly making the game, but making sure its functional, how to troubleshoot issues, and keep supporting one.

Very nicely put up by /u/TheBoyWhoCriedDibs

Now I will like to add my 2 cents to it. The first and foremost thing when starting game development (or majorly anything), don't aim too high. This is actually the biggest issue most of the game developers face is that they overshoot for the scope of project.

It's almost best idea to start from a small game idea, finish it, get reviews on it and then build on it.

Now for starting point to get into game development, if you are considering the whole indie route then first of all try to identity your strengths, can you do art? Get into 2D or 3D, are you good with computers and understand logic of things easily? Get into coding stuff, do you like to design worlds and mechanics and interactive things? Start studying game design.

And if you go indie route then you need to make sure that you have atleast one of your strongest strength, it makes it easier to find a reliable team to work with coz a lot of people talk about how they want develop best games but in many cases they are just idea guy and have no idea how things work in game development.

In general if you ask me, game engine really doesn't matter but if you ask which one I will recommend if I have to pick one, then I will recommend you to go with Unity. It's easy to use but the best part of Unity is their community support. You can find solution to any of your trouble with Unity easily and if not then there are so many communities where you can ask for help.

Like he said, Brackeys is a good place to start, he is a great guy and very friendly. Like I mentioned in my OP, I have started my channel also to help anyone to kick-start their game development journey but it will take some time to fill it up with great content for beginners although I am trying my best to get some of the best uncovered topics on the channel.

If you have any other doubt, then surely ping me :D

I can totally understand this fear, it had grip me in past too

But my best advise will be that you don't let this thought stop you from actually building something.

You are worrying about something you haven't built yet and I used to feel the same. But trust me once you have actually built something that feeling is priceless and the appreciation you get feels so good, even if it's just from 10 people.

And slowly you start to learn new things during development. Remember it's a marathon not a sprint.

Once you complete development, you can find help from the whole huge community to further improve your game so don't let this fear engulf you and stop that creativity from flowing.

Thanks a lot..! Was waiting for a similar response... I would give Unity a try once I have my exams finished...

Oh sure thing bro... do give Unity a try

And you can head over to my channel to find some beginner friendly tutorials, although there aren't many there yet but hopefully by the time your exams get finished I will have even more content up on the channel :D

And if you need any sort of guidance regarding Unity or game development in general then you can join me on Discord server where we talk about everything game development. Will love to see you there.
The link is in the post above

If you wish to give it a go as a career then I will say you start with area which interests you the most.

Game development has three main requirement, an artist, a code guy and a designer.

If you like to do art then make your own characters and environment, look for some good tutorials which are specially for beginners and start coding. (Coding is generally not that difficult as it is said to be, you just need to know how to make logics)

If you are a code guy already then look for free art assets available online, build a game out of it and once you have a playable demo, you can launch a kickstarter or find investor or publishers and then you can get artist(s) to bring that game to life

If you are a designer, then you have to do half work of artist and half work of programmer. You will need to learn how to code and then find free assets, assemble them into a good enjoyable game and the further process is similar to that of a code guy.

​

Now if you don't want to get into anything complex things like those, you can also just jump into visual drag and drop software to start developing, take BuildBoxx for example, there is this game called SKY and it's developed inside BuildBoxx and that game is quite fun to play. You should definitely check it out :D

If you have any other doubt, then surely ping me :D

Hello! I'm kinda at same crossroads myself, undecided between video game design or being a historian. I was wondering when developing a game, where do you really start?

Thank you for your time, and I'll be sure to definitely check out your channel!

Agree with /u/TheBoyWhoCriedDibs

Just start developing, it all starts with an idea.

Refer to my answer above:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dkjexc/hello_i_am_sidharth_and_i_am_a_game_developer_how/f4h3fuf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dkjexc/hello_i_am_sidharth_and_i_am_a_game_developer_how/f4h61j8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

These both answers will give you general idea where you should start and what you should look forward to.

If you have any other doubt then surely ping me :D

Why do an ama if you are in the same boat as literally every other budding indie game dev? I just don’t see how you could answer any real questions in depth just yet. I mean you didn’t even give your specs when asked. Just said it was a rather inexpensive build from 2015. Good luck random dude, but I doubt there is much to learn from you just yet.

I understand what you are trying to say. But I believe it is always good to share your story. It is not necessary that it is for everyone to hear but there are chances that there are people who are going through what I went through for 3 years. They are feeling lost and don't know what to look forward to or how to rail back their life.

It takes a lot of bravery to step up again specially when the past version of yourself was full of self doubt and fear has engulfed you badly.

Of course I agree I haven't developed anything huge yet either but I definitely am trying after being shook off badly and that also by not anyone else but myself. It takes a certain mindset to accept your fears and overcome them.

The guy asked me how expensive is my system, he didn't ask for specs. I might have get it wrong though, maybe he meant to ask specs but used different words, maybe he just wanted to know the price.

How expensive is your computer?

Hey, right now the system I am using costed me 80,000 INR so that's roughly 1125 USD. I bought it back in 2015 :)

What is your favorite game?

Hey man, if you ask me in terms of indie games then Ori and the Blind Forest is my most favorite game.

It is so well balanced in every aspect of game design. From story to art to music to gameplay. Everything works so good with each other.

If you haven't played it then you need to play it for sure.

PS: Sequel of it is also coming next year in February

I have played it and am eagerly awaiting the sequel

Oh that's great man. I am so hyped for that game

How do game devs sustain themselves while making a game? With and without investors. And what would happen if the imvestors dont get their cash back?

That's the biggest challenge if you aim to run an independent game development studio.

Like /u/Lethandralis mentioned

Either you keep your job and develop your game in other time coz having financial security is important.

Or you are a freelancer, so you can get revenue from their. If you are a studio then you can have contract with other studio to provide assets for them in any form, either code, art or design.

If you manage to find a good niche audience for your game, you can launch a kickstarter and get funding from there.

What would happen if investors don't get their cash back, it is generally mentioned in the contract but in most of the case they just lose their money. So you go on to find a new investor for your next game

Aye thanks I always thought investors. Thanks for the knowledge

Your most welcome bud :D

According to your experience, at what age should a person get into this field and also with or without which qualifications?

There is no age limitation to get into game development

Neither you need any qualification for it.

That's the beauty of it. If you are 13, you can start. You are 40, you can start. You are 60, you can start.

Doesn't matter what qualification you have.

Although if this is something you want to build your career on, then it's always good idea to start as early as you can coz while you are young you don't have any burden or responsibilities of family and things. You are not burdened for earning (in most of the cases) so during this time you can learn things in more fun and enjoyment.

What metrics are you planning to measure to determine if you're running the "best" game development studio in India?

I guess this is going to be my favorite question of this AMA :D

Why I say best game development studio and not biggest is coz it doesn't really matter to me to have a huge game development studio like Ubisoft or Naughty Dog or any other big giant although that will be insane if I ever could reach that level.

When I say best, the first and foremost metric is of course having successful games which are received positively by the video game community.Now if you ask what type of games, then the vision for it is to develop original IPs and make them successful. Coz if you look at current Indian game dev market, most of the studios are either developing for mobiles to make bucks and cloning games or there are big number of service providers.

So I don't want to end up in that space, rather you can say my vision is more on having a studio like Studio MDHR or Heart Machine Games or like developer of Celeste or ChuckleFish games. I believe you get the idea :D

How come game developers aren't always aware of all the easter eggs in their own games?

Ooh, I can actually answer this! This just happened to me with my own game coming out on Thursday!

So with decently sized teams (in my case, we have 25 credited people on this title), you often divide work amongst people. This means you create a pipeline for individual assets: for example, we had 4 different level designers on the game, 3 different lighting designers, 10 different 3D artists, 2 different 2D artists, etc.

My job as the creative director for the game (also audio designer, narrative, and producer) was to basically just validate people's work. This means I dont always have time to thoroughly comb over absolutely everything: if something is hidden in a dark corner and I dont have a gameplay reason to go look at it, I'm not going to.

So for example, I discovered only a couple weeks ago that in one of our levels, a monster is sitting on a ledge eating a cheeseburger. It's a pretty tough Easter egg to find, but it's fantastic so its staying.

Another example is an artist snuck a picture of the studio's old lead producer into the game, but you honestly cant see it unless you max brightness.

So even though our team wasnt really that huge, and I was honestly hyper involved with the game so I've caught most of the Easter eggs at this point, it's not hard for me to imagine a world where they go missed, especially since some of them were in engine for weeks before I found them.

Man that sounds definitely super fun :D

I never had chance to work in such big team on a project yet

It has a lot of it's own challenges but can be super gratifying.

I bet it's quite a challenge to make a big team and direct them all

Production and timelines become really important, as does things like resource optimization (in terms of the best person working on a task) and scene check outs.

Basically you become the guiding light for the whole project And management is not everyone's thing

I mean, yes and no. You do become a guiding light but the reality is with indie development there's no not getting your hands dirty. So while I delegated a whole lot of work across the team, often times I'd come in to polish up the final 10% of something. For example, my latest game releases in 36 hours... the last 2 weeks have just be and my lead designer going around and adjusting levels, lighting, etc. just the two of us.

Ugghh... I know that feeling when you have to hop in everything and do the final 10% of polishing and everything to get it perfect. Do you have Steam wishlist or something fro your game?

Well that doesn't really happen if a game is developed by a small team

Do you have any experience in other dev platforms? (Im a python junkie myself)

No, not really. I always use Unity although I have played with Buildbox and Construct2 little but won't really count them.

Do you ever just take a long walk out in nature?

Yes, I actually do that. But less frequent lately but I always love some long walk out in nature or just sitting in peace with nature also.

Thanks for your story. I wish you the best! I do music production and love making video game music. Only have a couple of jobs under my belt. I live in the Midwest and want more work and new challenges. Any advice on finding more work like that?

Oh wow, that's great man. Game developers are always looking for some good composers who can make perfect music for their game. Can you also link me your portfolio or something.

And to find some work, you can join this Facebook group which is very useful called Indie Game Developers , you can share your work here. And you can post you are looking for work in this group Gaming Industry Talent

What is the most common mistake you've seen budding developers make?

Very good question man, the most common mistake I have seen budding developers make is they want to make their first game the very best game of their life and coz of this reason they overshoot the scope of project which is totally out of their current skill set and knowledge.

They start working on it and very quickly loose interest in it and jump onto next project whose scope again is overshoot. Nobody likes the advise to start small but that's the best advise you can agree on.

Hi Sidharth! I don’t really know much about day-to-day life in India, so what is gaming like there? Is mobile gaming as popular as it is in Asian markets, or are people playing on consoles and/or PC’s? Are micro-transactions as frowned upon as they are by European and North American gaming communities? How do you plan on getting your cut of the huge gaming market? :)

Hey /u/punchki

Well you got that absolutely on spot as the mobile gaming has boomed a lot in 2-3 years only in India and that is only coz of the cheaper smartphones available at affordable prices and then much faster Internet made available to public by Reliance, they basically took the Indian mobile data market by storm and changed the whole scenario. If you looked 3 years back, you would have seen barely people with 3G mobile data but Reliance brought 4G at very very affordable price, they basically provided free 4G for 1 year to India. Such a marketing tactic I gotta say and now everyone has 4G internet here and this move also forced other companies like Airtel, Vodafone and all other mobile operators to provide competitive plans to market.

And this is the reason why mobile gaming is just booming in India also just like it is in Asian market.

People are playing on consoles and PCs but those are more of people who have been playing video games even before there was good internet facility available. Indie games haven't boomed at much in India either as not much of good indie games have been developed by Indian developers but I can definitely see the scenario changing.

Oh yes, micro-transactions are just as frowned upon here also. Very less number of people actually ready to invest their money in micro-transactions here rather they look for free stuff. Right now PUBG is booming here just as it has boomed in all over the world but why I specifically said PUBG that is coz it is available for free on mobile devices and people in India love free stuff. So now the casual audience who never played any 3D game on their devices are hooked on PUBG and it is like a new fascination for them coz they never played anything like that before. PUBG being free on mobile devices is the single most biggest factor of it booming in India and on top of that cheap devices at affordable price and fast internet at affordable price. Just perfect combination what PUBG need to boom.

Now if you ask the same people about Fortnite, they won't have a clue what Fortnite is.

By huge market if you mean the huge mobile market of India then they are not really my focus. I am rather aiming to develop games for more audience which are inclined to the actual video games (what I mean by actual video games? By actual video games I meant the audience which actually appreciate the value of art and story and gameplay. Audience which can relate to the video game. Audience who have been playing video games since their childhood since the 8 bit era. Audience which don't care for multiplayer but rather love to immerse into the story which a particular game is trying to tell)
And I understand the market is huge if I am aiming for actual gaming market also but I believe in this time we all can find a niche audience for our game which will love and support the game we will be working on. It doesn't have to be audience of millions although that will be amazing but it's really not necessary that our first game will be loved by millions.

So right now the plan is just to actually develop a game with true love and market it well enough so that it could reach as many people as possible.

What technologies do you recommend for 3D modeling and for game development?

The technologies which are demanded today for 3D modeling and game development are

Software wise: Basic knowledge of 3D modeling, Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter (These softwares are majorly demanded while selecting candidate)
Then for plus, it is best to have knowledge of Marvelous Designer and Topogun (or any other retopo software coz having knowledge of retopo is crucial if you want to get into game development as a character artist) and Unfold3D is really good software for unwrapping, it has some nice tools which making unwrapping easy, although it is not necessary and you can do basic unwrap easily in Maya or 3ds Max. ZBrush also has option of unwrap but I generally like to do it in Maya only.

Aesthetic wise knowledge: If you are looking for character artist space then knowledge of human anatomy is must then having knowledge of drapery is a big plus even though we have simulation softwares for cloths now but it is best to showcase that you have actual knowledge how to sculpt cloths and doesn't rely solely on simulation.

Will you ever do anything to your unibrow or leave it as a caterpillar?

XD I always try to keep it clean from middle

My man ✊🏽

Is it weird that I read it in voice of Aquaman? XD

Hey, I've been interested in game development for a very long time but can't seem to get a job since a lot of experience is required. How do I go about getting the experience and getting into the field? I currently work as a game tester (quality control) for games but I want to go towards the 3d development side of gaming.

There hasnt been any scope in the company I work with and would love to know how to start.

Thanks in advance.

Hey

Oh it's great to hear that you are interested in game development. And it is also actually a good thing that you are currently working as a game tester. You are already in the field. I know so many people who started as game tester and are now into actual development field.

My best advise will be this only if you are interested into 3D development side of games then while you are working as a game tester, start learning 3D modeling, sculpting and texturing (only if you meant art wise in 3D development). Once you have a good portfolio then you can easily apply to some other studio where you can bring use of your skills since you mentioned that there hasn't been any scope in the company you are working right now.

If art is something not your thing then you have code and design. Getting as coder for in company might be little more challenging but maybe you can apply for an internship if there is opening in a studio and once you are in the studio then you can start making connections and you will come to know people there.

Have the experience certificate as a game tester will be a big plus for your portfolio and during this time you should also reach out to other people who are into actual development studios and introduce yourself to them and tell them you are a game tester. People always tend to take a person more serious if that person is already working on something or somewhere rather than a guy who just talks the talk and doesn't walk the talk.

Thanks for the informative reply.

Yes I am interested in the art side of 3D modelling. I have a little knowledge and practice in 3D modelling but don't have my own pc for this. How much would I need to spend on a pc that is good enough to use softwares like 3ds max / blender / zbrush etc?

Oh okay that is good to know

Now that is a good question, it is really important to know what actually these software demand to run smoothly on system. I am not sure on budget part as you might be based in country with different currency but I can tell you important components required to run these software.

Processor, RAM and HDD. These 3 are the important components to run the software smoothly. If you can't buy dedicated graphic card that won't create any issue in overall functioning of these software but you will need a dedicated graphic card if you want to do beautiful renders of your work although it can be done with integrated graphics also but the process will be very slow with it.

So in general if you ask me, a good processor with at least 4 cores (I generally like Intel over AMD processor) and minimum of 8GB RAM, any less than that will create trouble when you open multiple software at one time. 16GB RAM is sweet spot even if you are just beginning modeling.

And a normal HDD works fine but if you have budget then SSD over HDD any time of the day.

I hope that gives you general idea what to look for when building a system.

What's your favorite fruit?

Bananas :yummmmm: Bananas are just so good, I ate only bananas for almost 4-5 months

How long does it take to create a texture? What method/s do you use to animate, if any? What engine do you use?

There is no one answer to your first question, as it completely varies from the type of texture you are using and what method you are using. If it's hand painted texture then it will take much longer.

We work on 2D games only and all the animations are hand drawn always and we majorly use Animate or Krita for animation.

And for the engine, sticking with Unity only for now. I might try my hands on other new engines in future, GoDot is definitely on radar.

Hello Sidharth! I found your story very interesting, and I hope to see the results of your hardwork someday.

Would you mind telling me a bit about where you draw your inspirations from as a game designer, are there any game studios or artists you really look up to in particular?

I am glad man :)

I am not sure but I think you confused between a game designer and game art. So I am going to answer our inspiration for both art and design.

Art is always handled by my brother and if you ask for his inspiration while creating assets for games, it majorly comes from the old classic hit games and we try to blend that with modern look. We try to aim for more detailed/defined art style rather then creating assets in pixel art. If I give you an example of what type of art inspires our work, Hollow Knight will be a good example from the recent games. Shank and Mark of the Ninja are also good examples.

But we like to make games more on hand drawn animation rather than using bone animation.

And for the design, I always tend to take inspiration from major hit titles (could be from NES games time, could be from recent) in the same category we are developing a game. For instance if I give you an example, we are working on a beat'em up game so for design of it I will be taking inspiration from games like Double Dragon, TMNT 3, Mighty Final Fight, River City Ransome, just to name a few.

Look and study what makes those game so loved and see if I can fit that part of game design into our game. But it is always little challenge of not going over board while adding new mechanics or systems in game. It is easy to overshoot the scope of your project always.

Thanks, that was a great answer! I hope you and your brother do amazing things, then I can come work for you in India someday ;)

Thank you very much bro Maybe you actually end up joining us, we never know ;) By the way, I hope you find my YouTube helpful, there isn't much content on it yet but I am working on it :D

And if you feel like connecting with me then you can join me on Discord. I have put the link in the original post :)

I want to make 2d games, but I don't necessarily know how/where to start. Any advice?

Sure thing bro

It really comes down to if you are an artist or a coder first. If you are an artist then you have to learn to code that is only if you want to go solo dev.

If you are an code guy then you are in little advantage as you can build a prototype of your idea using free assets available and present it to people. And using that prototype you can easily find an artist to hop on and help you finish the game.

​

Now if you want to start doing 2D art then GIMP will be your way to go free software. You can also get student discount on Adobe software so if you can get it then Photoshop is the way to go, you can draw and animate both in it. And then from there you get your hands on some game engine. GameMaker Studio, Unity, GoDot are some good examples which you can use.

Thanks for doing an AMA!

How exactly have you started structuring your time to get back into game development after your recovery? Did you have any problems of motivation, did you solve that through the motivational speakers?

I had a rough summer for my health and had to have my gallbladder removed. I’m having a hard time returning to life-as-usual after recovery. I suppose that’s part of recovery though!

Hey!

Yes, so I actually spent quite some time figuring out what will be right path for me and how to structure everything. In beginning I thought to start a podcast on video games and game development but then I noticed that there are many aspiring game developers who have a lot of doubts and not really people are shedding proper light on their questions or guiding them. Another thing I noticed is how little people in India are aware of what actually game development looks like even if they are aspiring game dev, they have doubts and just focusing on developing games for sake of developing them and not really studying what exactly makes those games great.

So that's where I shifted my focus from podcast to starting with a YouTube channel where I can share much more information and more content and help out more aspiring developers and anyone who is looking to kick-start their game dev journey.

I spent identifying where my whole day goes and where I am really wasting time and how to tackle it. This was my first step in structuring my time. After that I realized how overwhelmed I was feeling whole time so I ended up doing nothing. So this is somewhere I started to follow people who are killing their time management game, that's Elon Musk. And I started to keep a To-Do list and a whole you can say online journal to track everything.

"You know what they say, you cannot improve what you cannot measure."

I used Microsoft To-Do list to keep in check my regular day task and I use Notion to keep track of my.. you can say long term plans. Notion works like my second brain. I put everything I have to do in long term and plan for it there.

It's not like I am perfect at it, I still slack off here and there sometimes... many times but still I am doing better than previous 2-3 years of my productivity graph.

Did you have any problems of motivation, did you solve that through the motivational speakers?

Yes, of course I faced real challenge with motivation and doing anything and that is really just core of human to stay in safe zone specially when there is no deadline. You should definitely watch Inside the Mind of Master Procrastinator . Definitely I solved it through motivational speakers, they all are not motivational speakers. These are just people who inspire me in a way or another.

And just to give you an idea, I struggled for quite a long before really making up my mind and getting back on track of life.

That's sad to hear that you had to get your galbladder removed. I hope you are doing much much better now. Yes, it is actually part of recovery. If you ever need any help or guidance or just need to talk about anything just ping me :D

I will be more than happy to help you in any form

What's your Idea of the perfect game?

Well there is not really an idea of the perfect game, it's just you get an idea, you prototype it and get review on it and build on it.

No idea is perfect since beginning, it's just a road of iterations.

There are many times when you spend long time working on a mechanic and it doesn't make to final game. That is why it is best to prototype it before jumping right into making assets for that mechanic.

When will HL3 be done?

I am sorry to disappoint you bud but people at Valve are just not convinced that 3 number even exists :'(

Hi sidmakesgames, your post has been removed because:

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Hey! Sorry for not attaching proper proof previously I have attached the link to the proof in the post. Can you please check and let me know if it works as a proof for AMA

Thank You :D

So you decided to get back into game development, are you still using the Unity game engine?

Yes definitely, it took a while to get back where I belong but yes finally back here :D

Yes, I have no plan of switching game engine at this point. Going to stick with Unity for more while

That's good :) I am trying to learn the game engine at the moment, because i myself want to become a game developer myself

Ohhh, that's good to hear man Full power to you! I hope you find my YouTube channel helpful, there isn't much content on it yet but I am working on it :D

And if you ever need any sort of help or advise regarding game dev then you can connect with me on Discord, I have put link to the server in the original post itself. If you feel like joining then you are very warmly welcome to the community :D

I will gladly join your server, thanks :)

That be great man, thank you :D

I'm looking to becoming a game developer. Is there any good places i can learn C#?

Oh that's good to hear bro :D Definitely there are some great places to learn C#, the Unity's site itself. Brackeys has series on it and there are couple of series where you learn C# along with learning game development

Do you have prior experience with coding or starting from scratch?

Starting from scratch for the most part, I don’t have much experience with coding.

Oh alright, so if you are almost starting from scratch and don't have much experience with coding Then my best advise will be that you watch some series solely dedicated to C# first and then start with following some game development tutorial series.

Now if you ask why go this route. Thing is if you jump directly into following a dev series then you will have more trouble understanding that which function of code work how and what does it mean. But if you will have prior understanding of how C# works and which function means what then it will be easier, faster and better for you to follow the gamedev series.

Any tips for aspiring game programmers, and what kind of work ethic should they have?

My best advise for aspiring game programmer will be that always keep your code clean and do proper commenting in it.

It is one of the most crucial habit you can built while coding coz when working in a group project where you have multiple people working on a project, it is very important to keep your code clean so that anyone who opens the code don't feel like he has just opened the box of big maze.

A programmer always know where he did what and how his code works but it is important that other team member majorly programmer or it could be designer also sometimes, understands the code if they ever need to make changes to the code or just look at it.

Now for the work ethic, majorly it is seen that industry is not well known for its accessible for entry-level jobs so it is always best idea to just start with a small studio or just work on a project to have a strong portfolio.
This will give leverage to you and people won't see you just as a beginner who doesn't have any experience of development. This is specially true when you are aiming for a big studio coz they rarely accept beginners and are competitive but if you have good experience of working on a solid project then you are just way to go.

How many hours do you work in a day? and have you ever thought of joining a large company?

I pretty much work whole day until I go to bed. I take little breaks in between through out the day coz sitting continuously is very damaging to your health.

I have thought to join large company before but now I really just want to work toward building independent game development studio.

Have you read Siddhartha?

No, I haven't read that but I am definitely going to add it to my read list now :D

You see I am not a avid reader

Favorite modern console?

Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4

I don't have a PS4, but I heard good things about it. I do have a Switch, though, and I love it.

I don't have Switch coz Nintendo is not official available in India yet

But trust me, some of the most fun games are available on Switch only. The best indies are on Switch and well Switch is best console to play them on in itself :D And their exclusive titles are just so well designed O_O <3

Now if you are looking for more deep immersive story experiences then Playstation has some of the best exclusives.

I recommend you get the Switch whenever it does come over to India.

Oh yes definitely man Publishing my game to Switch is my aim for next year coz it will perfectly fit the Switch platform :D

Let's see how it goes

What's this game called?

We haven't finalised on name yet but we might call it Corrupted Relic

It's a game we developed during a 24 hour gamejam and we really liked the idea of it so we thought we develop it further.

We were originally working on a 2D beat'em up game but we have halted development of it for a while and finish work on Corrupted Relic.

You can find it on my YouTube channel, I made a devlog video of the complete gamejam but audio is little bad in it so please bear with it little :sweat_smile:
Sid Makes Games

What console or consoles did you have as a kid and what were your favorite games?

Well as a kid I only used to have some duplicate copies of NES

Finding original NES and systems like this was quite difficult during that time in India.

My favorite games were I really don't remember exact names of those games coz I was a kid and from what I remember they were mostly the Japanese copy of game so we didn't understood a thing.

But Double Dragon, TMNT 3, Adventure Island, Excite Bike, there was this galaxy game where you can transform into player, spaceship and one more thing it was of white color, Contra, Aladdin, Road Figher, Kung Fu, Pizza Cats, Tiny Toon Adventures, Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle

There must be many other too but these are some of the most loved I remember

What are some of the most valuable things you learned from the motivational speakers you follow, and how did it impact you?

Well, this is definitely my another favorite question of this AMA.

The most valuable things I learnt from the motivational speakers I follow are:

1) You need to have vision, if you don't have a vision then you are going to drift off

2) Don't have a vision yet, struggling to find your vision? Try to taste different things, whichever you interests you truly, tripe down on that thing. (This is something I took by heart by Gary Vee)

3) Human mind and body is completely trainable, there is nothing you can't learn and their is nothing you can't do. You can learn anything if you put your full dedication to it

(This is something I learnt very well from Tom Bilyeu, we already know this but no one really preach about this to us so we make safety nets around us and limit our ability to learn and excel. Just coz of Tom Bilyeu preaching about it I was able to come out of fear that I cannot do coding. I had some basic knowledge of coding but I always had this fear that I cannot do it like professional and I cannot develop a complete game coz I was always more interested in game design side of game development and just coz of this fear I said no to some great projects but just coz of Tom Bilyeu and his preaching I was able to come out this fear I was engulfed with for a very long long time. And then I heard story of Thomas Brush, he is founder of Atmos Games and creator of Pinstripe and Once Upon a Coma, his story inspired me even more as he is a solo developer and managed to develop such beautiful game. Then I heard story of Alex Preston, I won't go too deep into his story but he has heart issue since childhood and he decided to tell his story via video games and he developed Hyper Light Drifter, such a beautiful game. There are many other people in the row also but that is story for another day I believe)

4) It is a marathon and not a sprint (This is something said by almost everyone, and we also know this somewhere but we just need a reminder every now and then. Everyone has their own method of saying but the sum of their saying is this)

5) Don't be patient (We generally hear people telling us you gotta be patient, it takes time. That is absolutely true but this statement gives a safety net to us and slows down our ability to perform sometimes. So don't be patient and just do it. This is something Tom Bilyeu preach a lot and so does Gary Vee, difference is just their words are different but it means the same thing in the end)

5) Oh, this one is my top favorites. It is a statement I heard by Robert Kiyosaki on London Real podcast. It goes like this "A question opens the mind. A statement closes the mind"
I believe it is quite self explanatory. It is such a powerful statement which can shift your mindset if you take it by heart.

These be my top 6 pick I will say.

How did it impact me? Well I have mentioned a big part of it in points above only but in whole, it has made me a better person who has way less fear of life and future and have enough confidence that with my skills and talent I will be able to make through even when the times will get rough :D

What game developers have personally inspired you to pursue your passion in game development?

Very good question man. Thank you for asking this :D

Video games have always been the aim but I wasn't sure how I am going to do it until I discovered Unity. So I started using it during that time but at that time the boom of indie was not as much as it is now.

Fast forwarding to today, we have so many examples, I will credit it to Thomas Brush who really helped me coming out of this fear of not being able to develop games.

After that I am inspired from Team Meat, Alex Preston, Studio MDHR, co-founders of Rockstar Games, co-founders of CD Projekt RED, co-founders of Insomaniac Games, co-founders of Naughty Dog

I sent quite some time just learning their stories and they sure are very inspirational

Where would you recommend as a start in the industry?

It really depends on your current situation. Do you want to go into AAA video game industry or want to continue as an indie developer.

If you wish to get into AAA industry then start working on one skill that you love, it could be sculpting and texturing (these days generally studios look for people who can sculpt and texture, or at least have knowledge of texturing), lighting, rigging, FX artist or if you are interested into more technical side then focus on your problem solving skill using code.

If you wish to go down the indie path then generally it is best idea to have a job to keep you going financially and start working on your game and share it with people online and if you believe you have started getting traction for your project and people are loving it and you have gathered enough fan base then you can launch a kick-starter and if it is a success than you can easily quit your day job and work on your game full time.

And if you are young and still studying then it is best time to get into game development if you want to go indie route.

And one thing I have really learnt is that you should always try once at least if you really want to coz jobs will always be available. If your game fail and you cannot sustain yourself after launch of your first game then you can anytime go back to another job. Although it might be easy or tough to find a good job again, that really depends on your skills and the location where you live but that is the in general.

why you so fine?

:thinking:

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Guess just trying to keep my life together after almost breaking it apart

lmao i didn’t think u were going to answer. now i know

Ugghhh... well I thought why not :D

The most challenging question goes to you bud

WH OMEGALUL?

I am confused, what did you ask exactly bud?

What university did you graduate from ??

I graduated from Chandigarh University

Ah. The City Beautiful. Nice :)

Ohhhh, you know Chandigarh

Are you from India?

Yep.

Ohhhh :)

I hope you are doing good :D

I am. :) Hope you're too.

Yes, doing quite good too

are women equally capable of developing games?

Oh yes definitely man, I mean why not :shrug:

Jade Raymond is the lady who led the creation of original Assassin's Creed

And Amy Hennig is the lady who is director and writer behind Uncharted games, she also has many other games under her belt but I came to know about her from Uncharted franchise.

And there are a lot more examples out there.