How to Become a Game Developer?

Those who love playing games and those who are interested have always wondered how the games we play are made. Those who are interested in both coding and playing games, on the other hand, want to become game developers. Becoming a game developer is not as easy as it seems. To develop games, you need to learn several programming languages and, in addition to programming languages, game engines you will need to learn. So how does one become a game developer?

If you say, I want to become a game developer or if you don’t want to become a game developer and are just curious about the steps a game developer goes through while making a game, then continue reading my article as we’re starting.

Game Developers

Game developers, work in teams to plan, design, and produce video games for computers, mobile devices, or game consoles. Their work involves creating visual content for the game and writing code to implement all the features and functionalities of the game. This career requires a foundation in software development and mathematics, as well as the ability to collaborate well with others to achieve project goals. While many work full-time in game studios or software companies, there are opportunities for game developers who prefer remote work or to publish their games online as independent developers.

How Much Do Game Developers Earn?

You might be wondering how much game developers earn. It is also beneficial to answer this question before becoming a game developer step by step. Game developers in Turkey earn an average salary of 6000 TL at a company. If you decide not to join a company and work as a game developer but instead build your own team and develop and publish your own game, it is certainly possible to earn more. Like in all other software fields, how much you earn and what you do in game development entirely depends on you.

Becoming a Game Developer Step by Step

Step 1: Define Your Purpose

The first step to mastering a subject is always to be a master student of that subject. For example, if you want to be a great musician, you first listen to great music. This also applies to game developers. The first step to becoming a game developer is to be a good player. You should play games and understand their stories. After that, you can move on to the rest of the work.

This is the first step to becoming a great game developer.

Step 2: Make a Plan

You have understood the logic and story of games and decided to develop yourself on this path. Now, to advance in game development, you should make a plan and draw a roadmap for yourself

First, you need to determine what your ultimate goal is. That is, you need to decide what type of game you want to create. Do you want to develop the future Pokémon GO game or Assassin’s Creed?

The things you need to learn will vary greatly between these two goals. Therefore, you should decide what type of game you want to develop in this step.

Step 3: Make Your Choice

Since you have completed step 2, you have now understood the logic of games and determined your goal. Now you need to make a choice. In this step, you need to select the game engine that suits your goal. If you don’t know anything about game engines, don’t worry, I will summarize it for you.

What is a Game Engine, Which Game Engine Should I Choose?

Game engines; are programs used to design and develop games on platforms where we play games, such as computers, mobile devices, and consoles. There are both free and paid game engines available.

Let’s take a look at the most popular game engines and the games made with those game engines.

• Unity:  (The Forest, Rust, Among the Sleep...)

• Unreal Engine: (PUBG, Fortnite, ARK: Survival Evolved...)

• CRYENGINE: (CRYSIS, Far Cry, Evolve...)

• GODOT: (Good Night Bobby, Until Then, Scrabble...)

If you would like to learn more about the most popular game engines listed above, you can research each game engine on their official websites.

Step 4: Choose a Programming Language and Start Learning

Game developers face tough competition in the software industry, so they need to prepare themselves with advanced programming courses, bachelor’s degrees, portfolios, and internships, hoping to obtain entry-level positions that will take them to higher positions in the programming world.

The programming language you need to learn will largely depend on the type of game you choose to make and the game engine you use.

For example, you need to learn the C++ programming language for Unreal Engine and CRYENGINE game engines, while you need to learn the C# programming language for the Unity game engine. Once you have decided what kind of game you want to make and accordingly which game engine you will use, you can start learning the necessary programming language.

Step 5: Develop Projects and Prepare Your Portfolio

Let’s see what we have done so far. We have defined our purpose, made a plan and roadmap, learned the necessary game engine and programming language, now it's time to develop plenty of projects. You can start improving yourself by making simple games. You can start building a portfolio with the games you create.

Remember! No matter how tough this path is, you will reach the place of your dreams at the end of the road!