Am I being unrealistic?

[Chuck]

Turned 40 last November and I have been discussing with my friend about starting a mobile game company.

Problem with that is, I haven't exactly been coding for the last twenty years and need to take a one year online course to get myself back on track. Only learned C++, HTML and Javascript before.

Say how feasible is it to be a game programmer for someone my age?

Long story short, I am currently working at a dead-end job where my brother majorly owns. I do have decent money but my salary is simply dreadful. Work environment is pretty darn toxic and I can't expect a raise for some time to come. Yes, my job depresses + stresses the heck out of me.

Certain I want a change.

[KAC]

Why not join one of the many startups? Might get good salary and maybe stock options that may have value in 2-3 years depending on startups IPO path.

[nutcrackr]

Passion is everything. If you want to develop games then you'll find a way to do it. Learning Java won't be too bad if you have decent experience with c++ and JavaScript.

Best plan might be to do a shallow dive into mobile gaming. Make a few basic projects and see how that goes. Age is really no barrier here.

[Silent-Runner]

i'll have to side with KAC on this one. Without any real knowledge and experience it wouldn't be a good idea to dive into that kind of business

[Trunks0]

Completely? Enjoy man. And that core experience with those languages will translate well if you switch something else as well

Not to mention, if you choose to work with an existing game engine, your kinda golden .

[Sundance Kid V2]

You can do it dude.

[koralis]

Originally Posted by Chuck

Long story short, I am currently working at a dead-end job where my brother majorly owns. I do have decent money but my salary is simply dreadful. Work environment is pretty darn toxic and I can't expect a raise for some time to come. Yes, my job depresses + stresses the heck out of me.

Certain I want a change.

Just be aware that while your salary might not be great right now, it'll be 0 for a very long time if not forever at your new venture. There are ridiculous number of mobile games out there... you could make the best damned game and not attract attention, ergo low sales. Or you could make a middling game that people don't care to play when there are better ones.

I'd council against this. If you want to do it in your off time that's one thing, but throwing away a career on a longshot bet is foolish. If you really hate your current job look for something else.


If you DID do something in your off time, work up a mockup/pre-Alpha to demonstrate the ideas and then shop it around to actual houses to try to get funding. At that point you actually have a job instead of just a dream.

[dodger]

Originally Posted by koralis

...There are ridiculous number of mobile games out there... you could make the best damned game and not attract attention, ergo low sales. Or you could make a middling game that people don't care to play when there are better ones.

I'd council against this. If you want to do it in your off time that's one thing, but throwing away a career on a longshot bet is foolish. If you really hate your current job look for something else.


If you DID do something in your off time, work up a mockup/pre-Alpha to demonstrate the ideas and then shop it around to actual houses to try to get funding. At that point you actually have a job instead of just a dream.

Yeah on top of this some markets have gotten really restrictive on game approvals and for a certain demographic in that market their game time has also been restricted such that ad revenue for them has shrunk a lot. I agree with koralis, make a game on spare time and shop it to one of the majors. Especially a major that knows how the approval process works and the manpower to turn on a dime if approval conditions change so the game isn't offline for too long.

[A2597]

I second the "Learn and make it on your own time" while maintaining a steady income stream.

[SubCog]

Watch this first:

[Chuck]

Thank you for all the great points everyone!

It sure doesn't look like this is a job that might not be able to provide me consistent money in the first year.

But how me and my friend discussed this, there will be a couple people (some with more experience) involved, where pay will be determined by how much work one puts in.

Government support have been rather restrictive here in Hong Kong as well, as my friend have been applying for government funding for new businesses for years now without any success.

Might as well just work in IT and learn programming languages such as C++ and Java on the side?