Stop trying to learn everything...it's not worth it!
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- I think learning everything is a bad idea. I share my reasoning in this video!
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We should also note that some of us just love doing multiple skills. Like me, I love both art and programming, and game dev allows me to combine the two!
I'm in a weird place. I started out coding games back in the 80's because I simply couldn't find new games to play so I had to make my own. It was a much different time. As I got older life got in the way and all that just kinda fell by the wayside. I'm almost 50 now and I look back and see that not doing it has left this gaping hole that I could never fill so I'm picking it all back up again. I haven't really decided yet if I want to focus on any one thing. I just know that I want to make games even if I never make any money with them or if no one ever plays them.
If you were coding games back then, I could only imagine how well you will do with some of these modern game engines or frameworks.
I started playing video games in 1988 and all throughout the 90's, during the late 90's/early 2000s I attempted to make games using QuickBasic, but just couldn't quite get it.
Nearly 20 years later, I'm back on it and I'm having a blast! I'm looking forward to see what you come out with though, it's extra inspiring to me seeing someone else get back into it years later!!
Wow good luck!
Hi Ron. Well done.
So do I. Now we are two.
Although it is a bit difficult to to take some hours from full-time job, family, dogs, a bit of sport (a must-do to keep alive), friends ...
...never give up!
I'd advise individuals to specialise in two-three areas (at a push) of Game Development & Programming. Bear in mind, there's always someone out there, who can do a better job than you in a field - So why not network with them, or even hire them?
I must admit as a Jack of all trades. I do agree I wished 30 years ago I stayed focus on art. But I do admit I did become an expert at many thing like graphic design, web design, really good 3d modeler, front end development and I am a good artist who can draw anything. But there are probably over 20 over things I have learn of those 30 years that I can do that I am not an expert at. Again thanks for sharing.
I took this to heart about a decade ago and it's been one of the best things to happen to me. Now that I'm finally making money with my skills, I'm starting to be able to pay for others to cover my weaknesses.
I like being a generalist personally. But I can absolutely see ur concern. Even being a generalist I a lot of times go over the board learning all sorts of stuff I shouldn't be involved in. I'm trying to find a group of related things I want to be good at. Trying to find my core u know.
What a coincidence this video pops up now♥️. Tnx man 😃
Tim, love your videos and your advice is always spot on and helpful..... BUT please can you set your camera to MANUAL focus... it keeps jumping form the mic to you and back again. rant over!
Ironic for a video about finding one thing to focus on :)
Yeah, I hear you! I'm working solo now. Trying to learn an entire game studio worth of skills. It's delusional. Haha. But hey, the breadth of skills is what keeps me excited and motivated to progress. In an ideal world I'd be working on a team, but like you said, I'm not entirely exceptional at any one skill so I'm not too eager to apply for specialized positions. I feel confident that I'm "good" at some of those skills, but I think at this point my strongest skill is in the fact that I can do a whole project on my own. I can create the music, the art, do the programming, etc, and create something that I find truly unique. My hope is that those visions are unique and compelling enough to inspire others to join me, or have me join them. I feel at the moment that this is the path I need to take to discover that 'one' thing I need to focus on, if necessary. We will see! Nice video, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I needed to hear this so badly, thank you brother 5 years later and your video still holds 🥀👌🏽🙌🏾🍃
I think learning everything is a great idea - this is how you can try out new things and figure out what you love doing the most. This is how you experiment. I can't recall a piece of knowledge or an experience that I've gained that was completely useless for me - I might not use it right away, but it will serve me a couple of years later. Nothing is wasted.
Or, maybe I just love to learn. :)
Anyway, I think the message that you've tried to communicate is "Don't try to become an expert in everything." I think that's more accurate. And I agree with you.
I'm constantly learning new stuff about game development and I'm trying to do a lot of things myself not because I want to become an expert in programming, or design, or animations or whatever it is. I don't see myself doing all these things in a couple of years from now. I learn that because I want to be a better manager and a better leader. I want to learn the process from the beginning to an end, I want to understand how my future employees are going to work, what to request from them and what are the realistic timelines. I want to know the pitfalls of a game dev project, so that I can avoid them once I am responsible for my future employees' income. I believe in leading by example, this is why I do that.
I have been a jack of all trades as well and have been down many roads too. One could see this on my own UA-cam channel. But now, I am trying to zero in on becoming a better programmer.
"anal about stuff"
-My future project manager shirt.
"About anal stuff"
Lol
06:56 that weird rule is like the fusion in DBZ and DBS where 2 people combine and get exponentially stronger instead of 2x.
Great video! It's much like a multi-role fighter. It can perform air to air, air to ground and anti-ship. Although it don't excel at any one of those roles it can do them all. Where an interceptor excels at air to air but falls short on air to ground. A bomber of course excels at air to ground but not air to air. So there you have it, an example if this with combat aircraft ;)
You need to learn how much you need to know. _Problem solved_
Good point!
:)))
Huuummm!
Unfortunately, that is not so easy:
Normally, the more you learn, the more you realize how little is your knowledge. That makes you hungry of more knowledge, what makes very difficult to find the point when the actual need changes into an addiction.
:)
Regards.
Thank you for this. I’m a medical student, but sometimes I get distracted with leaning music production, coding, filmmaking, photography, art, finance, etc etc etc. I gotta stick to what I’m good at. Thank you
I used to think that way, but now I tend to disagree. Being a game designer means you need to be creative, and the more diverse your knowledge is, the more creative you'll be.
My counterpoint to this is that I think I've learned quite a bit more by teaming up with people that are experts in a field rather than trying to learn their craft on my own.
But I agree in general...the more life experience you have the more your creativity has to pull from. It just doesn't always make sense to lose specialization in favor of general knowledge.
Unless you learn a lot of new things because it's fun.
Yeah, that's the dilemma. Keep learning new things for fun or actually dedicate to become great. Dedication is hard.
Bob Marl You can be an expert at multiple things if you’re deficated enough
Same thing my teachers told me. Thats why I try to focus only on two skills and do other stuff just for fun or to gain some general knowledge about it.
I noticed with game development. When you have an idea for a game. The idea constantly changes from day to day until you scratch it completely. I can’t get anything done! Fuck!!!
You're right, and although I thought about that many times, sometimes I'm affraid to put my money on someone that's not worth it, or ending up turning down the project having spending money for nothing ... but you're right, because I'm taking care of everything, while I'm learning how to draw and animate a character I'm starting to forget programming stuff, and I prefer programming over painting. I should focus on that part and let someone work on graphics.
The worst part is that I'm not working on this as a full time job, I've already a full time job that has nothing to do with programming or gaming, so I just have a few hours to spend on this.
Ironically, I find that I'm good at is building a team to work on projects and being able to direct them along the way. That sort of skillset is basically what a producer is, and it was such a happy revelation to me when I realized that even though I kinda know a wide variety of things but I'm simply not "fantastic" at either one of them, that this comes useful as a producer. I was afraid that I would never get good at one thing and become unemployable as at result and I simply just enjoyed learning a wide array of things that I felt stuck with that fate. But realizing that it actually prepped me for producing was a massive relief. I'm not great at digital art, okay, then I'll find someone who is. I can't code or ever want to, okay, I'll hire someone for that. Then it simply becomes my job to be able to act as a communicator between the two, and pick up the smaller tasks along the way to alleviate their workload. To me, that's probably way more fun than having to work on one single thing for days on end, rather, I can move into different things to my heart's content. I prefer it like this since I have a very short attention span anyway.
Well somehow your word really resonant with me.. I myself have been trying bunch of things relate to engineering . Even up till now I still trying new things. Everyday feel like depress but I still cant figure out what I am good at. But when I worked with other people, people start to amaze how fast I learnt. But I myself do not feel the accomplish feeling. I do hope I will find one things I am good at and enjoys the process of developing it.
thanks for the video.
Yeah right I'm good at writing stories and making game assets unity store and other online assets store are worth if you have good knowledge for making assets and characters for the game you can sell this assets
Thanks! ✨
The programmer should be able to handle most of the animated art, like the main character and enemies. Combat and gameplay mechanics with good animation, will determine quality.
Very sound advice. Thank you for this video Tim.
I agree 100%. My team was the strongest when we had people who specialized in graphics, programming, sales, etc. Trying to do it all ends up hurting your end product and customers.
This reminds me of a dutch hockey coach, Marc Lammers, who led the women hockey team to World Championship in 2006.
He has given talks about his coaching style, which was focussing much more on each players' strenghts, instead of like you say "evening out the negatives".
It's very interesting. But where are your games?
On site, facebook and twitter, I didn't find them.
But sir, the point is we don't have that much money in our pocket to get an employee. I know i am good at talking to people(dealing) and also at some level in programming but the game needs bunch of more things to be great!
What should i do?
But tiiiiim that means i have to... *gag* interact with someone!!!
Tbh i was very lucky to get into game dev with a friend that had been doing it for awile but you can tell we both aren't good at art xD
The best thing is to learn how to make a lot of money and then you can go and hire someone to do what ever the things you want
nice to see these vids daily again
This video addresses my main problem right now...I want to start solo gamedev as a hobby, and amount of things that I should learn is staggering. After watching this, I realise that I probably should team-up with someone.
You dont have to be so good at "everything" but its always better to be good enough in a couple of things or atleast strive for it. Initially i did only coding for my games but there was so much limitation that caused so much dependancy on other people that it damaged the project. In around a year i learned 3d modelling,texturing and animation. Im still not amazing at art but i have the ability to make cool things and the new found freedom and flexibility for my current project is very liberating. As indies we sometimes have to sometimes make hard sacrifices in either time,energy or cash. People just need to learn to balance. Im never touching sound and music other than some quick and dirty approaches.
Well... Sometimes one's conditions kinda force him to be the jack of all trades and good enough at everything. This is especially true with tiny budget and no partners around. So I would then spend 100$ on books and some of my time to learn, than spend 10000$ on the art from professional. Even though I would like to hire them :). Also to get exactly what I need it is so much easier to do it yourself than explaining the details to someone unaware. And those that are actually aware charge even more money, so... There you go 😂 first game is tough topic. Second thing I want to mention, which I believe is super powerfull - having two or more decent level skillsets allows You do make things, that those pros at one thing could never do or even think of. Especially when those skillsets are far apart. That is for example knowing programming and accounting, or crocheting and pixel art. Pixel artists do not make sweaters, crocheters can not design tapestry pixel art. So mastering more subjects and merging them together to create something unique is a value :). Btw Tim I like Your videos a lot, very helpful.
i guess a wierd question to me is how you get someone to work with you if you just got an idea written down?
2 people who work together will get results twice as fast, but they'll get half the profits of the game.
What if I'm good at everything...
this is why so many aimless youth find themselves in rabbit holes deeper than the mariana trench. even worse, they try justifying it, assuming it causes the illusion of an intelligent character being built in the process (which actually does not lead anywhere, really).
Sorry i do not agree with you, however i understood your point o view... You can learn a bit of everything and become great at all you have learned so far... Ask yourself, do you Read? Talk? Eat? Run? Use a mobile phone? Use a pc or mac? Do you cook? Do you drive a car? Do you know how to use a camera or make a video and post it in the youtube? How did you learned everything you know so far? How did you become great at everything you do today?
I think everyone should at least have the basics of each thing understood. It really rounds out your skill set but also more importantly it lets you understand what your other teammates are working on.
if you plan on being in charge of a team then you should definitely have your foot in the door for everything. You need to be able to mitigate.
if you're a solo indie dev you should have the basics of everything down. Not an expert just the basics, because most likely you're going to be hiring people and you don't want to get screwed over.
And you can keep learning everything over time. you don't have to do it all at once but you should definitely definitely learn about everything that goes into what you're working on. Will open up new possibilities and make you think in ways that you weren't before.
A side note, if you are learning something also teach it to others. If you think you're good at something let someone ask you questions about it. I've actually learned a great many things by having someone asked me how to teach them that thing that I thought I knew how to do and realized I didn't know how to explain.
Anyway keep up the great work Tim.
this i s a good advice but like im the kind of person that wants to do all the stuff by myself like i passionate about stuff like about making my game and i feel like if i get other ppl working on my project they wouldnt be as passionate about completing my project as i am so i suppose ill learn this in the bad way
This is the best advice. Specialize, specialize, specialize
This is the main source of wealth, you know. It's called "international division of work" aka "division and specialization of work". It's the smartest thing someone can do: specialize, get more productive, because you are an specialist and you know where there are room for improvements, then you sell your stuff, make money and pay others to do stuff you don't.
I am a starting game creator, Your videos are a treasure trove...
Great advise as always Tim. I do find it difficult to choose what I want to excel in. I find that I want to choose something that is more practical and stable from a professional point of view. For example programming, where it feels like there's more of a right and wrong way to do it. Even though I enjoy making music and art in my games, they are much more subjective skills, and are more freelance type professions. It's probably just an apprehensive way of thinking, but I think there's some logic there.
E.g.
- 'Here's that naked figure you wanted me to draw'
- 'I don't want that naked figure, I want this naked figure. YOU'RE FIRED!'
Whereas with programming:
E.g.
- 'Does it jump?'
- ' Ye, it jumps.'
- 'Great. Now make it not jump.'
What do you think?
Thanks for your content.
Peace
Nice video, thanks!
This was a very good one!
Hey... Something is wrong in this episode... A few vlogs earlier you said, that you have to try everything before you even consider hiring someone to do particular stuff. You have always been person who do all the stuff by yourself. So where is the ballance? Many ppl said that for example - for programming - you have to push hard on the start to see how fun it is on the deeper lvl. So how can i know how much time i have to put on certain skill to figure out that it is not for me? And what if i left that profesion to early to see the real fun in it?
How do you find contractors you can actually trust with your clients?
What if you are very new to game dev and don't have the money to pay people to work with you?
Then team up with others like you, but with people who are good at other things that you don't like
I work hard on my hobbies, that's it ...art, music and gaming etc.
he is actually right .
Not being cocky or an asshole, haha but I did started when I was very young so I think "I'm not good enough in any of those trades" doesn't apply to all of us, I know I can do a better job in any of the trades that I know, I mean a better job than an average profesional working on that area. BUT having said that, you are definitely right here, *It doesn't worth it*, so many hours get wasted like that, this entire month for the first time in years, I'm just focusing on programming / accounting, and I'm making money with that to pay other people to help me and YES, it's thousand times faster. Also as a good side effect, I can sleep at nights and I can FINALLY play some games too! Which is the best outcome tbh!
I agree and disagree to an extent. I agree that people should learn to focus on their strengths, and specialize, but if you have ambitions of being a director or taking a strong leadership role, having some knowledge of other areas outside of your specialty is much recommended. So if you're an artist, learning a bit of programming and knowing how to use the basic engines is a good idea. Learning game design is a good idea too. If you're a programmer, learning a bit of music and sound design wouldn't be so bad.... etc. So, find your strength, focus on that, but don't just settle for just doing that one thing. Branch out and expand your knowledge. Don't expecting on mastering ALL the skills, only focus on mastering one, but having a bit of knowledge of a lot of the core elements will ultimately work in your favor in allowing you to properly direct and guide your team as you'll have a better understanding of those skillsets. You'll know what to demand.
im not along with all what you say but some things are quite decent insights of your business
reason to learn everything is the reason you already gave - to get hired - but yes, jack of all master of none.
How old are you?
Thumb up for the title. lol
So true man so true
Sorry but I disagree.
I do programming, 3D art, Animation.
And I am DAMN GOOD at them. I mean really good.
I'm good at multitasking.
"was"
You are lucky to be so talented. That's pretty awesome
@@RorretsNet well. Clearly I'm so good at English.
@@barret232hxc this may sound weird but in game dev environment, programming makes me a better 3D artist, 3D makes me a better animator, animation makes me a better programmer.
5/5
Love that shirt
Not to mention capitalism as a whole doesn't really promote people learning everything possible.
Speak
But I'm not good at anything, so there's that.
well say :)
I like how every video you make it seems like you're just trying to put people down
I love ur advises very much, but with this one i need to disagree very very much! As a youngster where you DONT know what u really want and DONT know what is actually possible in your surroundings you are forced to learn everything about game development!
My teachers and professors(People who thought if they specialize one thing they get everywhere, but ended up teaching) always adviced us to learn every aspect about gamemaking so we are actually prepared for work situations in a team or else we end up as teachers or professors who only know one particular thing about game making and the only place where you can use that is teaching other people todo better! Being a teacher is not bad, but if u have dreams and want to do bigger you need to get better in everything you can possibly achieve, particularly if you are still young and have the time for!
Specializing is always possible and if your are actually one of the lucky ones who are employable to Gamedevs there is no way around that and u form a skillset 4 your position you are filling. Even as a Programmer u cant just focus on Back End Prog Stuff? You also need to know very much about Front End Programming or you are not employable anymore xD