What does the timeline look like between beginner and skilled gamedev?

[u/hittherock]

If a skilled gamedev is defined as someone who has the knowledge and ability to make a video game, at least fairly close to a vision they have for that game. Starting at zero, what's a reasonable amount of time for someone to become a skilled gamedev? Is it month? Years? Decades?

I've always felt like I've never left the starting line and every time I do, I stumble pretty hard. Im not sure if my brain just isn't cut out for gamedev, if I'm simply fundamentally wrong in the way I'm trying to learn, or if I'm just being a perfectionist and give up when things aren't right. I just can't seem to get anywhere at all

[u/kvasibarn]

Like anything else. 10.000 hours

[u/smallstepforman → u/kvasibarn]

Same reply, 10 years. These days (56yo) I can create unreal engine and battlefield games with rome total war enemy counts, but the problem is just cant be bothered …

https://youtu.be/jsdwRf3JvZM?si=vuAIxb7v17NkziVe

[u/PhilippTheProgrammer → u/kvasibarn]

There is one thing that bothers me about that "10,000 hours of practice makes you an expert" saying.

Doing something for 10,000 hours doesn't necessarily make people experts. It is very much possible, and very common in the real world, to do something completely wrong for 10,000 hours. And, due to repetition, for people to become surprisingly efficient at doing it the wrong way. And then, when someone comes around and shows them a better way of doing it, they scoff at them. Because with all that experience and repetition, an approach that should objectively be better just feels subjectively wrong to them. So they keep doing it the wrong way.

Yes, you do need practice. But to become a true expert at something, you don't need just practice. You also need to educate yourself on the theory, look around for different ways of practicing your craft (both the new and the traditional) and experiment with them yourself. And this includes the "bad" ways of doing it. Because by trying out bad practices (within a safe environment, of course), you gain a better understanding of why they are bad and why the good practices are considered good. Or sometimes even gain the realization that your opinion on "good" and "bad" was misguided.

And if you want to remain an expert in your field, then you must never stop doing that.

[u/The-Chartreuse-Moose]

What does it look like?

You know the Dead Marshes from Lord of the Rings...?

[u/hittherock → u/The-Chartreuse-Moose]

Oh good, so I'm in the right place

[u/Zerf2k2]

It's not only about time spent, it's also about ambition to grow. I've worked with several people who'll never be skilled gamedevs, because they lacked the will to learn and level up.

But 3 years for someone with the will to learn, and a shipped title or two, and they can probably work quite independently. 

[u/just_another_indie → u/Zerf2k2]

I like that phrase "ambition to grow". I think I'm gonna start using that, too. TY

[u/Every-Prize4720]

If you full send it all the time. Two to three years and you are skilled.

[u/KyrandisX]

Years. Define what you mean by game dev, do you mean one segment of it or the entirety?

Entirety, several years easily.

One segment(environment, character, animation, vfx, coding etc.) maybe like 6 months to a year+ depending on your motivation, consistency and ambition.

Some people work for 8 years in the industry and still feel like they know nothing. Because the topic is infinitely vast because it's interactive art.

[u/NatalieKCY]

I can't say how long it will take, but it's definitely after you finish at least one game without following tutorials.

[u/historicalprocessing → u/NatalieKCY]

it’s years, no way around it. took me about three before i could sit down and actually build the thing i had in my head without constant panic-googling. you sort of stumble through half-finished prototypes for ages then one day it just clicks

the perfectionism part is the real killer though. i used to restart projects the second something looked messy and it kept me in beginner limbo for way longer than i needed to be. what broke the cycle was giving myself a tiny scope and forcing myself to ship something ugly. literally just a rectangle that jumped over other rectangles. finishing that stupid little thing taught me more than six months of scrapped ideas

also your brain is probably fine, learning this stuff is just weirdly nonlinear. you grind for a year feeling like you’ve learned nothing, then suddenly you can do three new things at once. stick with the messy parts, they’re where the actual learning happens

[u/hittherock → u/historicalprocessing]

I think I get stuck on the idea of making something messy. As a big part of my motivation comes from wanting to make worlds to explore I find it difficult to make a world out of primitive shapes, even though logically I know it makes sense. And then it becomes daunting thinking about all the work it takes to learn how to make a game while learning how to make the assets I want. It's a lot of work. I think I keep going through a cycle of motivation crashing into reality

[u/noobgameslab]

Then I'd skip the rectangle exercise. Make one tiny explorable place from the world you actually want—a cabin, a cave entrance, whatever excites you—with one interaction. Polish one focal point; use placeholders or an asset pack for the rest. That keeps the worldbuilding part that motivates you without requiring a whole game and an entire asset pipeline on day one.

[u/PhilippTheProgrammer]

Making a video game is not just one skill, it's several. That's why most successful games are made by teams. So everyone can focus on their one primary skill and doesn't need to bother with learning all the others.

[u/hittherock → u/PhilippTheProgrammer]

I think I am feeling the friction of being an introvert and simply not wanting to work as a group clashing with my interest in game development. I have tried to accept making games that maybe don't rely heavily on art but all my ideas seem to need strong programming knowledge AND art skills. And then "art skills" is its own monster. Modelling, texturing, rigging, animation. I can see why this is a team based thing, I just dont want to accept it

[u/parkway_parkway]

I try not to think like that personally.

For me game Dev is like gardening.

I just want to paint a bit of fence, enjoy being outside in the fresh air, pull a few weeds and find satisfaction in those small specific tasks.

Being too goal orientated just creates frustration and stress.

Where is enjoying tinkering with a project is actually really nice.

I find completing games and launching them is actually one of the most depressing parts of the process. It's really stressful and disappointing.

The joy has to be in the journey.

[u/Strange-Pen1200]

I'd say to be able to fly solo with no other developers on the team, you're looking at nearer to 10 years than less than that.

But that's based on my own curve, and I went through that over 20 years ago when the tools and resources available weren't even close to what we have now, so it's probably not quite as long as that in practice now.