really appreciate that people still talk about chris sawyer i thought today's generation don't talk about him, he was a pure gigachad in creating assembly projects in the past and truely showed his raw talent in transport tycoon , and roller coaster tycoon games and till this day i haven't seen a crazy gamedev like him where at that time other devs already shited to OOP languages like smalltalk or more popularly C
"I wonder which one of these i am..." *these developers are usually mega nerds that are highly introverted and rarely leave their house* "Oh level 4, nice"
@samyam don't cray Sammy, I believe you will be confined to your house and more specifically to your workstation soon too, we all have full faith in you 🤗
The hardest thing about programming, is not programming. litereally, in any game engine I can program code but I can't make 3d assets, sounds, animations, and I also am too young to buy them, the hardest part of programming, is when you don't program!
Then just acquire experience, use free and simple assets and just focus on improving your programming skills. If you want to you could also start to learn about 3d modeling/2d art; audio/music production.
An example of level 7 is the original AoE2 devs. They wrote 13k lines of ASM code so the game can be played on almost any PC. Also it was kinda industry standart to use ASM and/or your custom game engine back in the 90s. So technically every developer from the 90s are level 7 devs :D Man, we are really lucky to have all these resources and frameworks/engines today. Also level 8 idea: The person who can port Doom to a pregnancy test or use Desmos to make an FPS. I call them "the esoteric game developers". Funnily enough the person who made their own 3D engine in Scratch is actually a level 8 developer.
It's more a side level than a higher one. The people who do that sort of thing range all over the main level 1-7 spread (I mean maybe not ALL over, but there's a lot of overlap is my point).
That was actually very common before C became the dominant language for programming games in the mid-90s or so. With any aging technology you're going to have the holdouts that stick to what they know for longer than the industry trends.
@@Vince-Gamedev even when C was preferable, people still used assembly to code games for consoles (and arcades, iirc) because they needed to fit the available space in a cartridge, part of which was taken by the code itself.
@@alansmithee419 Oh, I wasn't trying to downplay the achievement of developing Roller Coaster Tycoon, it definitely was REALLY impressive and I don't have any issues with Chris Sawyer being in the top tier of game devs. That said, I have frequently seen mention of that game being made in assembly like it was some unprecedented and crazy thing for the time, as opposed to being more of a slightly outdated approach. Maybe in 20 years, someone will look at a game made in the current versions of Unity or Unreal as a similarly crazy endeavor.
As someone who likes to make 3d renderers and such in scratch, thank you for representing the 0.1% technical side of scratch that actually knows what they're doing. now do note that you are actually allowed to sell your game, as long as you don't post it on the website. if its unshared its yours. also, I'm working on a fully 3d boss fighting game with parrying as the main way to attack, but progress is going extremely slow due to the fact I've been lazy or preoccupied with other stuff, and also the fact that it runs kind of slow if it has more than like, 300 objects.
level 2 i say is also where game modders is kinda for people who make mods for games since that require alot of the same skills as making a whole game but without needing to make a whole game kinda like making a game in roblox/fortnite
Interestingly, when it comes to money I've made far more money giving away my Minecraft mods than selling actual games (which has basically been a total loss).
This may be more of a multidimensional developer landscape than scale, cause technically Ive done first principles game development having constructed a simple 3D collection game from little more than a bunch of mathematics, but... well, lets just say it wasnt exactly Themepark. Im more realistically a mere level 3er. Quite demystifying as an exercise though, seeing the roots of how everything comes to be.
Im level 4 right now. Its interesting that it is possible that u never surpass level 4 or more like u dont have to if u are happy with what u are doing. it is also possible that u jump from level 4 to 6. Thats why I think 5 and 6 are different branches from level 4
You also forgot to put John Carmack in Tier 7 who brought side scrolling to PC systems and for his master work DOOM which to this day can be ported to any device humans can think of
At level 7 it should be John Carmack first and foremost, he basically created 3D games as such and the concepts created when he make Quake 1/2/3 are still used in all games today because they are part of the graphics libraries, so everyone uses them even if they make their own engine from scratch
I think there should be a level between 1 and 2, a gedeveloper who uses tons of assets and makes something nice and special with it. I personally hate the term "asset flip", what if a game developer has done all 3d models self in Blender and worked on it many years ... but people whould call the game an asset flip ? To be honest, my dream is to be one days a solo game developer who works with a super inteligent game engine that in able to generate 3d models, animations, sounds, music, game mechanics and worlds just by giving prompts or showing the engine simple hand drawn sketches.
In this case I was referring to people who do not make their own assets and just mash things together without changing anything or caring about coherency- as "asset flippers".
@@samyam I understand what you mean as level 1 asset flipper, but which level would be a game developer who follows tutorials step by step (learns nothing, uses them just to implent new features), got no programming skills, uses hundreds of assets (changes nothing) and tries to make at the end a good game ?
Lol at "cloned". You are repeating things without actually checking them yourself. Especially in Notch'es case. It is inspired by Infiniminer sure, but Minecraft had SO MUCH MORE to it than Infiniminer. By your logic all games "cloned" the first game
@@Navhkrin While also ignoring the fact that notch co-created wurm online over 20 years ago and became a billionaire after selling minecraft. If he's not a prodigy then we're all low iq primates.
Also ConcernedApe used XNA for his 'Harvest Moon Clone', which is a framework, not an engine, which is like half creating your own game engine. Same with Notch, who used the LWJGL library, making them rather level 6.5
10:19 I know what you mean however you still have to compile assembly otherwise you would have to code in literal 1's and 0's. Chris wrote RCT in Microsoft Macro Assembler which has a bunch of nice features like labels and macros. This video was real fun! I hope to get to the 4th level soon. 😂
Well, both Notch and Concerned Ape developed their engines from scratch. Most AAA studios do that too. Other devs that did, btw, were the Delver devs, and the Penumbra/Amnesia series devs.
I put them at 6 because they used existing frameworks and libraries to help make their game. Concerned Ape started with XNA but moved to Monogame, and Notch used the LWJGL (Lightweight Java Game Library) and also later hired a team once the game started to get popular.
Solid high end 3, I'd say 2025 will get me to level 4. That's quite a good tierlist for personal development, the hard part is being honest to oneself. Great video!
i’m a few years away from being a level 7 game dev goddess, i’m still building out my framework for the engine. it’s indeed a very slow road and i don’t leave the house as much as i should 💀
I do be struggling. I've just forced myself to make smaller games. I have a couple ideas for learning general programming in Unity (I know some other languages but nothing for game dev), then asset use, before I make anything too big.
I'm probably level 3? So much i don't know about game engines still after all these years, and haven't gotten close to releasing a game. Really just a hobbyist at this point
I actually think Asset Flip is a level higher. It's hard to glue pieces of code and assets together in an engine. Requires actually understand the engines and tools in order to expliot it to minimise work.
That’s true, but I also added the general consensus feeling towards them into my “calculations” which is why they ranked lower. In a way Roblox/Fornite also flip assets but a lot of the devs there do make rather impressive games.
i think there should be something between tier 2 and 3, roblox is not a drag and drop but actually really similar to unity.. fornite should be on tier 3 and roblox on tier 4. and rest up to 8 instead of 7
This tier list wasn't going the way I expected it to go since I was expecting it'd be skill based/less memey. At first I was like I'm probably level 1 but seems I'm more level 3. Not quite level 4 yet however but progress at least.
amazing content! would love to hear more about how you unify all the assets' styles (or generally tips and tricks about assets). as a programmer this might be the single most annoying thing to manage in game dev
You forgot to mention there has to be another level. There's one game dev everybody knows who has developed his own programming language and engine for making his games.. o.o
If game engine developers are 7, then beyond that would be actually creating a programming language just to eek out efficiency and performance in their future games/game engines. Enter Jonathan Blow. Why was he not mentioned?
Level 6 pretty much does everything by themselves (code, art, music), Level 4 can use outside resources like assets or hire people to help. Either way both are still impressive.
@@samyam I think I'm actually pretty much already out of tutorial hell, I am starting to get pretty good at learning with just the Godot docs but I still haven't actually made any money off of gamedev yet, but everyday I get a little closer to that!
I'd say Level 7 is more for making a very impressive game either visually or story-wise like the examples in a custom game engine, but you can choose whatever level you're most comfortable in :D
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Wishlist my level 4 game Desktop Cat Cafe on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/2978180/Desktop_Cat_Cafe/?UA-cam
really appreciate that people still talk about chris sawyer i thought today's generation don't talk about him, he was a pure gigachad in creating assembly projects in the past and truely showed his raw talent in transport tycoon , and roller coaster tycoon games and till this day i haven't seen a crazy gamedev like him where at that time other devs already shited to OOP languages like smalltalk or more popularly C
"I wonder which one of these i am..."
*these developers are usually mega nerds that are highly introverted and rarely leave their house*
"Oh level 4, nice"
There's also the level -1 game developer: the idea guy
I don't think they classify as a developer 😅
@@samyam They for consider themselves to be for sure. 😂
Video idea - make a video about the famous goddesses of level 6-7 devs
Asahi Lina must be up there right?
I noticed the higher you go in the chain the less you leave the house 😅
😭
@samyam don't cray Sammy, I believe you will be confined to your house and more specifically to your workstation soon too, we all have full faith in you 🤗
The hardest thing about programming, is not programming. litereally, in any game engine I can program code but I can't make 3d assets, sounds, animations, and I also am too young to buy them, the hardest part of programming, is when you don't program!
Exactly
There are so many free assets available that shouldn't be a problem!
Then make a game engine and sell that. I thought about doing that myself actually.
Then just acquire experience, use free and simple assets and just focus on improving your programming skills. If you want to you could also start to learn about 3d modeling/2d art; audio/music production.
An example of level 7 is the original AoE2 devs. They wrote 13k lines of ASM code so the game can be played on almost any PC. Also it was kinda industry standart to use ASM and/or your custom game engine back in the 90s. So technically every developer from the 90s are level 7 devs :D
Man, we are really lucky to have all these resources and frameworks/engines today.
Also level 8 idea: The person who can port Doom to a pregnancy test or use Desmos to make an FPS. I call them "the esoteric game developers". Funnily enough the person who made their own 3D engine in Scratch is actually a level 8 developer.
It's more a side level than a higher one. The people who do that sort of thing range all over the main level 1-7 spread (I mean maybe not ALL over, but there's a lot of overlap is my point).
Bro said "I'm board imma make a whole game in assembly". 💀
10:48 "You think a custom C++ engine is gonna write itself"
sure it does not 😭😭
an entire game in assembly W H A T
ikr 😭
That was actually very common before C became the dominant language for programming games in the mid-90s or so. With any aging technology you're going to have the holdouts that stick to what they know for longer than the industry trends.
@@Vince-Gamedev
Ok, but games as complex as roller coaster tycoon were *not* very common before that, and it was made by one guy lol.
@@Vince-Gamedev even when C was preferable, people still used assembly to code games for consoles (and arcades, iirc) because they needed to fit the available space in a cartridge, part of which was taken by the code itself.
@@alansmithee419 Oh, I wasn't trying to downplay the achievement of developing Roller Coaster Tycoon, it definitely was REALLY impressive and I don't have any issues with Chris Sawyer being in the top tier of game devs. That said, I have frequently seen mention of that game being made in assembly like it was some unprecedented and crazy thing for the time, as opposed to being more of a slightly outdated approach. Maybe in 20 years, someone will look at a game made in the current versions of Unity or Unreal as a similarly crazy endeavor.
As someone who likes to make 3d renderers and such in scratch, thank you for representing the 0.1% technical side of scratch that actually knows what they're doing. now do note that you are actually allowed to sell your game, as long as you don't post it on the website. if its unshared its yours.
also, I'm working on a fully 3d boss fighting game with parrying as the main way to attack, but progress is going extremely slow due to the fact I've been lazy or preoccupied with other stuff, and also the fact that it runs kind of slow if it has more than like, 300 objects.
roller coaster tycoon being made in assembly is something I continually forget and repeatedly astonishes me every time I'm reminded of it.
level 2 i say is also where game modders is kinda
for people who make mods for games since that require alot of the same skills as making a whole game but without needing to make a whole game
kinda like making a game in roblox/fortnite
Great point!
Interestingly, when it comes to money I've made far more money giving away my Minecraft mods than selling actual games (which has basically been a total loss).
I don’t have glasses because this is the first thing I watched waking up and I haven’t put them on yet THANK YOU VERY MUCH
I'm so happy you included the Roller Coaster Tycoon dev!
Level 2 is what is getting my sons interested in programing. I'm between level 3 and 4, working towards being completely level 4.
That’s great!
This may be more of a multidimensional developer landscape than scale, cause technically Ive done first principles game development having constructed a simple 3D collection game from little more than a bunch of mathematics, but... well, lets just say it wasnt exactly Themepark. Im more realistically a mere level 3er.
Quite demystifying as an exercise though, seeing the roots of how everything comes to be.
Level 6 dev here...still not famous, but I do love doing everything in game development
As a Level 5 dev, It hurts to be called out. But you right. Lol
as a level 3 dev. i agree
Im level 4 right now. Its interesting that it is possible that u never surpass level 4 or more like u dont have to if u are happy with what u are doing. it is also possible that u jump from level 4 to 6. Thats why I think 5 and 6 are different branches from level 4
You also forgot to put John Carmack in Tier 7 who brought side scrolling to PC systems and for his master work DOOM which to this day can be ported to any device humans can think of
At level 7 it should be John Carmack first and foremost, he basically created 3D games as such and the concepts created when he make Quake 1/2/3 are still used in all games today because they are part of the graphics libraries, so everyone uses them even if they make their own engine from scratch
Not gonna lie your content is amazing and Im working toward level 4 Im hoping to release my game in 1-2 years! Or maybe even 7-9 months!
Thank you so much! 😊
I think there should be a level between 1 and 2, a gedeveloper who uses tons of assets and makes something nice and special with it.
I personally hate the term "asset flip", what if a game developer has done all 3d models self in Blender and worked on it many years ... but people whould call the game an asset flip ?
To be honest, my dream is to be one days a solo game developer who works with a super inteligent game engine that in able to generate 3d models, animations, sounds, music, game mechanics and worlds just by giving prompts or showing the engine simple hand drawn sketches.
In this case I was referring to people who do not make their own assets and just mash things together without changing anything or caring about coherency- as "asset flippers".
@@samyam I understand what you mean as level 1 asset flipper, but which level would be a game developer who follows tutorials step by step (learns nothing, uses them just to implent new features), got no programming skills, uses hundreds of assets (changes nothing) and tries to make at the end a good game ?
@@paluxyl.8682 In my opinion is someone well on their way to level 3 😉
Calling ConcernedApe and Notch "prodigies" is a bit excessive when they basically just cloned Harvest Moon and Infiniminer, respectively.
Lol at "cloned". You are repeating things without actually checking them yourself. Especially in Notch'es case. It is inspired by Infiniminer sure, but Minecraft had SO MUCH MORE to it than Infiniminer. By your logic all games "cloned" the first game
@@Navhkrin While also ignoring the fact that notch co-created wurm online over 20 years ago and became a billionaire after selling minecraft.
If he's not a prodigy then we're all low iq primates.
@@Navhkrin My point is that the concept wasn't novel. He added more features but the actual concept was originally first showcased by Infiniminer.
Also ConcernedApe used XNA for his 'Harvest Moon Clone', which is a framework, not an engine, which is like half creating your own game engine. Same with Notch, who used the LWJGL library, making them rather level 6.5
Lvl 6/7 should be joined together, no difference between Animal Well dev and SV/MC
Animal Well made his own engine from scratch, the others used pre-existing libraries and frameworks to help. Nothing wrong with it though!
10:19 I know what you mean however you still have to compile assembly otherwise you would have to code in literal 1's and 0's. Chris wrote RCT in Microsoft Macro Assembler which has a bunch of nice features like labels and macros. This video was real fun! I hope to get to the 4th level soon. 😂
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
Well, both Notch and Concerned Ape developed their engines from scratch. Most AAA studios do that too.
Other devs that did, btw, were the Delver devs, and the Penumbra/Amnesia series devs.
Notch game concept is not original since it's inspired by Infiminer and Dwarf Fortress and Concerned Ape is a remaster of Harvest Moon
I put them at 6 because they used existing frameworks and libraries to help make their game. Concerned Ape started with XNA but moved to Monogame, and Notch used the LWJGL (Lightweight Java Game Library) and also later hired a team once the game started to get popular.
@@Ruyeex that's besides the point, though. And all games are based on other games, anyway.
@@samyam Fair enough. I think Delver and Penumbra devs might still fit your level 7. Also Jonathan Blow.
pretty sure notch made his own java engine
Solid high end 3, I'd say 2025 will get me to level 4. That's quite a good tierlist for personal development, the hard part is being honest to oneself. Great video!
Thank you!
Congratulations on your 200th video
Thank you so much!
i’m a few years away from being a level 7 game dev goddess, i’m still building out my framework for the engine. it’s indeed a very slow road and i don’t leave the house as much as i should 💀
LEVEL THREES UNITE!
Not there yet but please accept me 😭
We are here, brother!
I do be struggling.
I've just forced myself to make smaller games. I have a couple ideas for learning general programming in Unity (I know some other languages but nothing for game dev), then asset use, before I make anything too big.
I feel like hardcore scratchers have acquired other programming skills
Definitely, they might be in Tier 6 ngl
I'm between 3 and 4. Nice video. Gracias. Already whislisted. :-)
Thank you! 😊
Camera is high again today for the second time but it is inversed. 😂
Fixed in the next video 😭
@@samyam The video is cool btw! ❤
@@phantomabid Thank you
Today I learned I am a slightly higher level than I thought I was.
Me casually watching this on one screen, with Unreal opened on another screen, while wearing said glasses
C++ The Grandfather of Game Development Languages, Ufff, love it.
Video Idea - Game genres in order of development difficulty.
I'm probably level 3? So much i don't know about game engines still after all these years, and haven't gotten close to releasing a game. Really just a hobbyist at this point
Really entertaining!!
Wishlisted 🎉
Thank you!!
0:43 CORRECTION: griffpatch
For a one person developer, I'm surprised you didn't mention ThinMatrix.
He's awesome!
I actually think Asset Flip is a level higher. It's hard to glue pieces of code and assets together in an engine. Requires actually understand the engines and tools in order to expliot it to minimise work.
That’s true, but I also added the general consensus feeling towards them into my “calculations” which is why they ranked lower. In a way Roblox/Fornite also flip assets but a lot of the devs there do make rather impressive games.
Thanks for the quality content🥰
i think there should be something between tier 2 and 3, roblox is not a drag and drop but actually really similar to unity.. fornite should be on tier 3 and roblox on tier 4. and rest up to 8 instead of 7
This tier list wasn't going the way I expected it to go since I was expecting it'd be skill based/less memey.
At first I was like I'm probably level 1 but seems I'm more level 3. Not quite level 4 yet however but progress at least.
It’s supposed to be a little fun video :)
@@samyam I get that. And it was funny.
I wonder where Zach Barth belongs since he's the inspiration of Minecraft and created a genre of Zachtronic games
My bet is 7.
Those that started out with scratch are the real ones. I'm heading to level 5 in a few months, hopefully.
It would be so much funnier if scratch would be called babycode
I think i'm in level 3. That midlife crisis fueled by regret was real. 😂
amazing content!
would love to hear more about how you unify all the assets' styles (or generally tips and tricks about assets). as a programmer this might be the single most annoying thing to manage in game dev
Thank you! My next newsletter will go into some of the details! samyam.dev
Really great video. Especially the humor. But a stupid question, wasn't that 8 levels? :D
i guess i'm going back to level 3 😭
A lot of things I would like to comment about, but I'll stick with the most valuable, Rollercoaster tycoon. Yep. Masterpiece.
Yeah the iceberg goes the other way, it's not a mountain
Wishlisted to support you!
Thank you so much! 🙏
7:12 reltable, once I overwrite my work, and replace it with other work I did 3 months ago (I went back 3 months back in progress)
don’t hate on scratch, it’s limitations encourage creativity🙏
Funny video, and it was easy to find in what criterion I belong to
How do I have the characteristics of lvl 6 and I started learning to program and started having this love for making games last year???🤔🤔
10:28 i would say you are goddess in Game Development content on UA-cam , seriously your content is amazing.
Haha thank you so much!
can you please make a video for level 3 becz i always feels confused what to make how to make where to get assets from etc etc
you forgot to mention "Sebastian Lague" he is Level 7.5 for sure
He's very impressive, but hasn't really published a well-known "full game", more like prototypes and fun technical demos.
Lague is level 10 💀
If the array is zero-indexed then the length is actually 8
Yes… but Level 0 doesn’t count for the title 😆
@samyam scratch devs matter (coming from a non scratch dev)
this should have had 8 levels, with the level after 4 being gamedevs like DaFluffyPotato.
DaFluffyPotato is awesome!
@@samyam I know, I make games without an engine just like he does. In fact he's the reason I don't use game engines to make video games.
@@samyam Now I'm gonna build my own
thank you for including godot, it is a simpler engine, but really powerfull tool
What about game developers who make games entirely out of AI? From music, to art, to code, to sound effects, etc.
I think they’d be between 2 and 3 🤔
i never passed through 1-6 i just wanted to make my own engine from the start
Im curious what a 3D artist version of this would be
I’m feeling a little called out here Sam. Especially the glasses comment.
I can create a 2D Minecraft clone in scratch in 30 minutes
Well, really sad to know I didn't even make to level 3 😢
You forgot to mention there has to be another level.
There's one game dev everybody knows who has developed his own programming language and engine for making his games.. o.o
Level 8 ----- John Carmack
If game engine developers are 7, then beyond that would be actually creating a programming language just to eek out efficiency and performance in their future games/game engines. Enter Jonathan Blow. Why was he not mentioned?
There’s a lot of great examples, I just chose a few for the video! Great point!
@@samyam Entertaining video nonetheless.
4:52 This is so true! lmao I just put a 🤡 on their impatient messages
Level 1 is where its at 🗣🔥
proud to say I'm Level 4
Saying Verse is if Python and Lua had a baby is the most illiterate shit I have heard in 2025.
So many wonderful games have been created by warcraft 3 map editor
yay im not level 0
🎉🥳
Shout out to the level 4s here!
glad i'm not any lower than level 2
(btw making roblox slop games for children to make them into a cashcow is the least fun thing ever)
so technically i am on level 3
You look like my aunt, but brain cells vary alot
0:55 griffpatch: I disagree
Where the level 3s who think they're level 4s at?
level -1: baby in the womb
actually, u can make big and huge games in scratch. EVEN 3D GAMES ARE MADE THERE. IDC IF U SAY SCRATCH IS MADE FOR BABIES
I mean isnt lvl 4 also a jack of all trades like lvl 6 ?
Level 6 pretty much does everything by themselves (code, art, music), Level 4 can use outside resources like assets or hire people to help. Either way both are still impressive.
Im here, a Mario Maker level Creator...
Level -1 maybe...
Nah I’d say Modders are Level 1-2! Depends on the mod, some are incredible
@samyam IS not mod hehe... IS the switch game... -1 or -2 hahaha
I'm definitely a level 4 :)
I say Im between level 3 and 4 then. Fairly experienced with the 3 big ones Unity, Unreal and Godot but no god yet.
you are using the iceberg wrong
But what about when you just don’t use a game engine, what level at you on then?
What are you using to make the game? Your own game engine?
@ no I use python
@Gummigrodan555 I'd say it's similar as Lvl3/4
level 3 here
I'm currently at Level 3 in Godot but I am working to become even better :D
You got this!
@@samyam I think I'm actually pretty much already out of tutorial hell, I am starting to get pretty good at learning with just the Godot docs but I still haven't actually made any money off of gamedev yet, but everyday I get a little closer to that!
Am I level 7? I've made a custom game engine and made a simple game in it, but I would not say I should be level 7?
I'd say Level 7 is more for making a very impressive game either visually or story-wise like the examples in a custom game engine, but you can choose whatever level you're most comfortable in :D
@samyam probably like 4.25
Yep, level 3 that's me. Probably be level 3 for ever because I'm an artist first and I'm laking games solo absolutely solo ...
You can always find a teammate to help!