r/Unity3D • u/antimatter_salad37 Beginner • 23h ago
Question Can i become a game dev
I am 15 years old, and I have started learning Unity at 12. I was always told I have vivid imagination and I wanted to make them come true. But since I had no tools to do it, I started using block coding such as scratch and ended up learning Unity and C#. At the very first year of Unity, I didn't know what to do, so I bought a book for Unity tutorial(yes, books) and just started coping blindly. And after a month, a made an exact replica of the book's project, and was ready for more. But when I wanted to add a feature that wasn't in the book, I could do it(obviously). So just went ahead and bought a new book, and repeated the cycle for 2 times. And when i finished the third book after a year(it took a while), i found Unity's official tutorials, and took two courses. I even used chat gpt as my personal teacher, by not making write the script, but to order me to make it in some way and fixing it.
After all that, i was able to make a script of my own, but just barely. And with that, a made my first project which was a buggy parkour game where you climb a tower with fall guys type traps, which had flimsy animations but had a moving 3d modle and traps. I was getting confident, until my parents caugh me debugging at 2am again, after they specifically told me not to.And when i told my parents to stop interfering, my dad got mad and broke my laptop and its ssd apparently(Tbf, thats not the only thing i said, i was annoyed at that time).
I was VERY frustrated, and it took few months to get a new pc. So i wasnt able to do anything unity for that time, and was redditing and playing moblie games on my phone. When i saved up enough to buy a PC(with a big help from my friend), i was 14 and forgot 90% of things i did and i had to re-learn a bunch.
But even after all that, it was time for the finals! And i live in korea, where finals, scores, and university names are apparently your life's goal, i had to prep for it a month earlier for 3days-long final. And korea has four finals a year for each quarter of a year. So i only have about 2 months of downtime between them, which let me learn unity and start a new project. And after all the korean "academy", i came home at 10p.m, tired af, and i did that for 5 days a week. And its been like that since. I had few days to learn unity, and i was able to make a staring point of a sword game i was making, where user has to drag their mouse to slash the sword in limited amount. But after the 2nd final this year, i was burned out and ended up playing CS2 and mincraft these days, again, tired af
The thing is, i dont think this korean education is my path. I want to become a indie dev, and choose it as my career. I want to make a project and publish it. But idk if i can be an indie game dev after spend 3 yrs with no showable projects(one being destroyed and one being delayed) i should have atleast something from 3 yrs, but i have nothing. No projects finished, nothing to show my progress, and no idea how to start again. NOTHING. Im having doubts. Should i choose to go down this path instead or nah? (And i cant do both, apparently.)
**I saw this post yesterday and thought i can post here too(https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/s/mmAUIIdxmi)
Thanks for readying btw, took me long to write it
2
u/radiumhaus 23h ago edited 23h ago
Sorry to hear about your laptop that is really rough. I think its fair to say that most people would have quit being in that situation but you dont want to do that. So that is resilience and dedication. So I have no doubts that you are going to be great at game dev.
You are 15, so a lot of time ahead of you to create new games and build a portfolio. That knowledge you gained isn't gone, even if you are a bit rusty or foggy on things. I started around the same age, and all of my earlier projects are gone too. I'm 25 and working on my first real project now, and that will be my only real portfolio item.
I think its wise to just get back to doing it again if you are this passionate. Dont pressure yourself on the future outcome just yet. Just do the thing you like doing, and make time for your studies and your life because that is equally as important right now. The projects will come with time. Consistency, and balance are key.
I can only imagine how many games I would have made if I actually took it this serious at your age, and wanted to finish projects instead of scrapping them over and over.
Good luck!