Late in life indie game developers, Talk to me.

I'm pushing forty and finally getting around to doing this thing that I've wanted to do for a long time now. I grew up on the classics, but didn't have the opportunity to go into game design when I was younger. I'm interested in swapping info and advice with others like me. There have been plenty of challenges starting this late in the game, but I face each one confident that I will prevail and finish my game. What sorts of challenges have you faced? What sort of projects are you working on?

Hi, JJEvil

You are my peer and in the same boat.

I'm game developer, too.

and in these days, I am developing Phonegap related plugins (native wrapper plugins).

If you believe you can do, it will be done with inconsciousness.

43, spent too much time in crap jobs, and now that I'm back to computers, I find that its way too much to take in, plus relearning everything I forgot sucks.

On the other hand, the young me would be amazed at what I can do already.

I'm turning 27 and I thought I was late to the party... Somehow I felt good about myself after reading this thread.

I'm glad that I'm doing engineering job, I feel that it helped me to think of something complex and let me do something ambitious in C2, it's a dream, and yeah I'm totally going for it!!

Challenge: As a person in late 20 like me, I find it very hard to juggle things around, I need to find stability in career, make sure I don't mess things up and need to build a career reputation. As old as I am, I have a job but no assurance in living if I quit.

Games I'm working on: Nothing concrete for now, but I'm aiming (my dream that is) to build a successful multiplayer game or MMO hopefully. I feel I'm close to getting a reliable template for multiplayer game which I can recycle with a few game genre/mechanics.

for me the biggest problem is the day job and the kids that many people of our age have. if you can afford to do it full time (or have no choice due to unemployment etc) then the first may be less of a problem, but I think as you get to middle aged (yuck) then you pick up responsibilities that just eat into both your time and your creative energies.

hence why I read the forum more than I code... the forum requires less brain cells.

on the other hand, hopefully the older developer can persist longer and not give up so easily.

43, spent too much time in crap jobs, and now that I'm back to computers, I find that its way too much to take in, plus relearning everything I forgot sucks.

On the other hand, the young me would be amazed at what I can do already.

I didn't really come from a programming background, but I was in the same boat. I went thought a series of unsatisfying jobs. When the last one ended, I got depressed for a while, but then I decided making my game was something I had to do. I rekindled the old flame, so to speak. I am working again, but building this game got me though a rough time.

for me the biggest problem is the day job and the kids that many people of our age have. if you can afford to do it full time (or have no choice due to unemployment etc) then the first may be less of a problem, but I think as you get to middle aged (yuck) then you pick up responsibilities that just eat into both your time and your creative energies.

hence why I read the forum more than I code... the forum requires less brain cells.

on the other hand, hopefully the older developer can persist longer and not give up so easily.

I was unemployed for a while so I got a jump start on my current project. Now that I am working again, I try to squeeze every free minute in that I can get. One big worry is that I don't understand the audience these days, but I feel that if I make a good game and it's fun, it'll find its audience.

I'm turning 27 and I thought I was late to the party... Somehow I felt good about myself after reading this thread.

I'm glad that I'm doing engineering job, I feel that it helped me to think of something complex and let me do something ambitious in C2, it's a dream, and yeah I'm totally going for it!!

Challenge: As a person in late 20 like me, I find it very hard to juggle things around, I need to find stability in career, make sure I don't mess things up and need to build a career reputation. As old as I am, I have a job but no assurance in living if I quit.

Games I'm working on: Nothing concrete for now, but I'm aiming (my dream that is) to build a successful multiplayer game or MMO hopefully. I feel I'm close to getting a reliable template for multiplayer game which I can recycle with a few game genre/mechanics.

Whats really weird is posting a help wanted and having all the responses come from highschoolers. Nothing against them. I'm sure they're talented, but I would personally much rather collaborate with someone who I have a few things in common with.

Here's a screenshot album of my game.

http://imgur.com/a/CsOyn

It's called B.LAST- Born to Last. I'm thinking of dropping the subtitle.

Create your prototype first, assuring that what you envisioned can be logically & mechanically done, then add artwork & design to it . Nothing is simpler than possible .

Get the Job Done

I'm 30 myself. I'm in college now. I started later in life. If it's a passion, keep at it. It's easy to become disenchanted this late in life because of how young many of the members in the industry are and the rate at which games come out. It seems like it should be so much easier than it is. The talent out there is amazing. Keep at it though. Maybe we should start a community for older, newbie game devs.

I'm 31 old now, and simple accomplished all my tasks in career, so, decided learn Construct 2 (since the first public release) and now I'm doing games as my hobby, also, learning manga, Comics and other types of 9th Arts.

I can say with property, if you make games as you eat when you're alone in a isolated island for two weeks and find a banquet, you're safe, otherwise, don't try to live from games, specially these days, where games with good content are selling less than crap games.. But it's a talk for another time.

Ok so I'm in this category... wrote my first games 32 years ago in 16kb.. still have the passion

Currently working on random stuff, hoping to build enough skills to put out a quality game.

Better on the coding side than the ideas/art/marketing side.

Talk to me people

PS: JJEvil your game looks great.

I'm 30 myself. I'm in college now. I started later in life. If it's a passion, keep at it. It's easy to become disenchanted this late in life because of how young many of the members in the industry are and the rate at which games come out. It seems like it should be so much easier than it is. The talent out there is amazing. Keep at it though. Maybe we should start a community for older, newbie game devs.

The Golden Age club, lol. In all seriousness, I would be interested in discussing projects with others like me. And I have been looking for a way to find a solid collaborator for a while now. Might be worth putting together.

Ok so I'm in this category... wrote my first games 32 years ago in 16kb.. still have the passion

Currently working on random stuff, hoping to build enough skills to put out a quality game.

Better on the coding side than the ideas/art/marketing side.

Talk to me people

PS: JJEvil your game looks great.

Thanks. I'm just the opposite. I am a designer to the core, but I think logically enough to wrestle the code into doing what I want. I am going to have to find a collaborator at some point so I can focus on the design work. Thoug my full focus is not yet on design, you should check out the new screenshot post I just put up, it's getting better every day.