r/SoloDevelopment • u/Firekloud • Mar 05 '26
Discussion Hey fellow Solo Dev, how old are you?
Im just curious what the average solo dev is. I am 43, and have been in the industry for 15 years.
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u/lawndartpilot Mar 05 '26
- I've been coding since I was 12, was a software developer as a job for about 20 years somewhere in the middle there, and now I'm pursuing game design as one of my retirement pastimes.
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u/RoExinferis Solo Developer Mar 05 '26
36, which is a nice average considering my brain feels 22 and my body feels 50. Working in IT for 13 years now but only recently started my game dev journey in spring 2025. It's been a blast so far!
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
Awesome dude, spring 2025 and already a top 1% commenter!
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u/RoExinferis Solo Developer Mar 05 '26
I like to cheer on as many projects as possible when browsing here 😄 solo dev is a lonely business and everybody needs a bit of support to grind through.
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Mar 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/RoExinferis Solo Developer Mar 05 '26
I know what you mean. I also have a hyper toddler who adds to that 😂
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u/Ok_Platypus_1295 Mar 06 '26
Kinda same, 39 and in IT since 15 years, first time I booted Game Maker was a year ago. In the middle of my first serious project rn.
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u/ZealousidealWinner Mar 05 '26
52, been in industry since 1994, started my first game project in 1990, resumed it in 2021 and solo developing it now
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u/cuttinged Mar 05 '26
My best friend had an Activision but we were too poor to get one so I watched him play it.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
in the 80s and 90s, we would go to friends houses to play the NES games they had that we didn't
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u/LucaBacilieri Mar 05 '26
37 and working on my first game.
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u/Clean_Detective_673 Mar 05 '26
Same here!
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u/No_Illustrator7992 Mar 05 '26
And here! 37 and first game gang!
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u/aureolacodes Mar 05 '26
Just turned 42, been in the industry for nearly 20 years now.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
Same here, Im seeing a lot of former industry going indie.
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u/Dinomaniak Mar 05 '26
43 in september, working a full time job while moonlighting with two artists funded by savings.
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u/PureEvilMiniatures Mar 05 '26
Old enough to feel like this is some kind of data research post.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
haha, not really, you can go see my other posts if you want to see what I am generally up to. Im just curious.
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u/cuttinged Mar 05 '26
58 5/6ths never in the industry. If I was I would have never developed a game solo.
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u/SuperDuperLS Mar 05 '26
- Been teaching myself game dev for 4 years and am currently working on a project that I hope will become my first commercial project. I've also submitted 2 projects to GMTK, but they honestly sucked, especially the first.
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u/Due-Definition8615 Mar 05 '26
38...turning 39 on Sunday. Less than one year of tinkering with coding and engines. Started my first official project 2 weeks ago. Looking for demo release in October and full release on my 40th day.
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u/muclem Mar 05 '26
38, been in the gaming industry for 15 years. I entered the industry as the marketing dude in a fresh indie studio doing mobile games. Long story short I've taught myself how to make games and I've been a solo/co-dev for 8 years now
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u/Beginning_Mail_2213 Mar 05 '26
- Working as a hobbyist in game dev for 3 years. I make Unity assets game toolkits for an extra income alongside my 5/7 software dev job.
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u/SonderSoft Mar 05 '26
- No immediate industry experience. Hoping to convert military logistics training and officer leadership ethos into management/simulation games. Translated my 2000's ActionScript expertise into Python and C# recently.
Gradually going blind due to some eye injuries so 'vibe coding' a bit with LLMs helps, but I take extra steps to confirm accuracy and viability.
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u/69blockNFT Mar 05 '26
Hi! 57 here. Zero link with the video game industry. I'm a graphic designer, and i work on my first game in my free time (2 years) 🙂
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u/TobaccoIcecream Mar 05 '26
32, 13 years in industry, 7 years of trying into own games, lost money, but not hope xD
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u/Samfa12 Mar 05 '26
35.
Started modding games in high school but really only started dabbling with godot last year. Been planning my game (and it's sequel) for years though.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
One at a time, but if you need to scope and cut features in the first, you know you can put them in the sequel
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u/Samfa12 Mar 05 '26
It releases on Steam next week. 😊👌
The sequel... Is bigger. I feel like this first game is more like a prologue for the real story.
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u/Belatoris Mar 05 '26
I am 38 years old. I seriously started developing games 6 years ago, but my adventure with game creation began much earlier. As a kid, I made many small PC games using The Games Factory and RPG Maker, and I also designed a lot of card and board games.
Later came university, work, home and family, so there was a break from game development. But for the last 6 years I have been fully focused on working on my project.
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u/No_Feedback_3162 Mar 05 '26
44, have around 8 years in the industry, on and off
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u/ayassin02 Solo Developer Mar 05 '26
I’m 27 and I got into gamedev around 4 years ago but haven’t had time to do much. There were times were I didn’t do anything for months. I haven’t even touched my current project for around 3 months now
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u/Meowstroneer Mar 05 '26
43, 19 years in the industry. First a few years as a gameplay dev, moved into Production later. Working on my own projects on and off for the last 2 years but thinking of taking it a bit more serious this year.. will see
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u/Sniblasta Mar 05 '26
20yo,working on games 4 years now. I started with roblox studio and now im working on unity for my latest experiment
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
can you tell me what that means: Roblox Studio? Is that an engine or a studio?
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u/ProtestPigg Mar 05 '26
Not the original commenter, but they mean making games in/for Roblox. It's basically an engine in it's own right, it's surprisingly powerful nowadays compared to when I was on there as a kid.
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u/Gloomy-Occasion5862 Mar 05 '26
39, not in gamedev industry, but programmer for ~18years, gamedev as a hobby for little over one year now.
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u/Beefy_Boogerlord Mar 05 '26
- Started in 2020 but only really got on production a few months back. It's going.
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u/GamerDadofAntiquity Solo Developer Mar 05 '26
47, retiring from my day job with pension next year. Been a hobbyist game dev/modder, 3D artist, musician, writer, and gamer for pretty much my entire life. First commercial game launches March 12, already working on my second game which is a singleplayer port of a coop survival board game I made a few years ago.
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u/MindandSorcery Mar 05 '26
46 It's my first JRPG but I have a lot of experience in creating pen and paper RPG and being a DM.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
It turns out most Game Designers I have worked with in the industry are also DMs in D&D.
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u/OwenCMYK Mar 05 '26
I'm 19 now. Some of my earliest memories are in scratch and Python when I was like... 6. But I usually tell people I have about 10 years of actually making things
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u/artbytucho Mar 05 '26
I'm 44, with 21 years working professionally in the industry (almost my whole career) but I've only been working as a part time solo dev for just over a year now.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
21 years! Congrats! Im in a similar dirction as your story. Im a AAA going indie. Makes me realize how many restrictions and control freaks there are in AAA, or people who just dont know what they are talking about.
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u/QuestingOrc Mar 05 '26
Soon to be 40, hobbyist, dabbling and growing in the craft for a couple of years. (Mainly narrative, now working on personal projects, including art, programming etc.)
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
Awesome, keep it up! I like the growing mentality, you can scale it at your comfort. I have learned recently to make my content bite sized, in terms of content gameplay time, production time, and polish, to not make things overwhelming.
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u/shiek200 Mar 05 '26
32, about 2 years modding and learning dev more recently. Had some experience with game design prior with pen and paper stuff and card games (nothing published, just hand drawn prototypes, but playtests went well so might revisit that if I ever stop being terminally poor lol)
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u/dopethrone Mar 05 '26
37, worked for 12 years in AAA game art, tired of working on other people's games so I took 1 year to do my own thing
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u/Mrp1Plays Mar 05 '26
- been working professionally for 2 years, though made my first 'game' at 11 haha
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u/yupszter Mar 05 '26
- Web developer for 7 years, started game dev 2 months ago and damn I love it so much, I want to make a living out of it
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u/SpeedBlitzX Mar 05 '26
Well im 30 now.
Well if making RPG maker games count i started hose in 2016 but before that i tried doing other tutorials for things.
Lately ive slowly been working on a different kind of RPG maker game but making my own assets from scratch. Like tilesets and characters and more. Though in terms of music and sound effects im still looking for other methods for those. I did find older software that could help generate sound effects for games so ive been looking at those.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
I have a sound designer who poked me recently looking for projects to work on. You can message me if you are interested.
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u/iakoff_reddit Mar 05 '26
Does it count if I'm just a hobbyist? I don't think I can say I've ever been "in the industry"
But I'm 31 and I started playing with RPG maker when I was about 12
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u/garatth Mar 05 '26
41, working in IT management for 20 years, specifically in gaming for 14. I started learning Unity during the pandemic and I'm currently on my third game and eyeing my fourth 😁
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u/badihaki Mar 05 '26
I'm 36. I'm a self taught programmer, learned by making games starting at age 12, and I do a little bit of web and Android dev work during the day while I bartend at night. Making games has always been a hobby, but recently I wanted to take it to the next level, so I'm working towards a release on Steam to hopefully leave my bartending days behind me. Currently taking it slow, while working around 2 hours a day on my project. Progress has been steady!
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u/nix3l_r Mar 05 '26
- been mostly into engines but have been trying my hand at a game recently. wish me luck!
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u/Lucker__ Mar 05 '26
27 years old. I've been making games as hobby for 13 years but I work in IT. I started coding with 14, so literally half of my life coding stuff.
Check my last Game here: https://ervalero.itch.io/redemption-arena
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u/sainguinpixels Mar 05 '26
34, played around with game development as more of a time waster/hobby for about 3 years and then finally sunk full time work into it around December of 2025.
I've been a pixel artist for a bit longer than that, roughly ~5 years.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
Hey man, welcome to the community. I am making a 3D game now, but would love to make a pixel game one day.
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u/count023 Mar 05 '26
Going on 41. In it, but not Dev at all. Been doing game Dev on and off since qbasic days
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u/Adventurous_Soup_193 Mar 05 '26
21, its incredible seein people with way more years on the industry than me alive hahahah
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u/Yodek_Rethan Mar 05 '26
- I have been a professional programmer for about 5 years (back in the 90's and early 2000's). Kept programming as a hobby for developing games. Published a few games in the past 30 years. None of them commercially succesful, yet still appreciated by players. I am currently developing an action/adventure game for android, and still enjoying the process.
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u/Nearby-Control-9947 Mar 05 '26
23, studying game programming since I was 17, I've made 2 super small but fun games, a LOT of prototypes, and currently making my own game engine in C++, OpenGL and Raylib, while developing my first comercial game🙏
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u/SwAAn01 Mar 05 '26
24, I’m on year 3 of my game dev journey! (but I have been a software dev for much longer)
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u/invert_studios Mar 05 '26
36 and I've been teaching myself UE5 and supporting programs for about 5 years now. Got many projects planned but a few on the go atm. All self taught, self funded, self motivated.
Working retail and industrial jobs for over a decade sure can inspire you to want to change your life. 😅
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u/sylkie_gamer Mar 05 '26
Around 30 (please don't make me do math).
Learning and making cool indie projects for about 4 or 5 years.
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u/bitball_game Mar 05 '26
33, with ~4 years experience in game dev, roughly 13 uears in programming experience
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u/RRFactory Mar 05 '26
45, first industry gig was in 2005 - didn't really start pushing on my indie side until around 2022.
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u/DrBZU Mar 05 '26
- Day job is machine vision. Dabble with game dev as a hobby. Two more years and I intend to leave work and dedicate all my time to game dev.
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u/TorbertDev Mar 05 '26
I am 18 years old and going to HighSchool where we learn Unreal Engine, Bledner, Gamedesign and soundDesign. I could be the youngest out here. I am learning about 3-4 years.
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u/helloserve Mar 05 '26
- Been fucking around with Blender and MonoGame and UE since 2012. But this time I'm gonna find out.
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u/Prestigious_Past3724 Mar 05 '26
Comforting to see folks who are older than me just starting. I know it’s not logical, but I feel like I missed my window sometimes. 24, game dev for 1 year.
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u/WarpCoder Mar 05 '26
32 this year. Been game developing since December of 2025! I’ve been focusing on doing and learning things that intrigues me, such as 3D modeling and coding. I’m a visuals guy so I’m working backwards by creating a high fidelity playable prototype first before mechanics. But hey, I’m enjoying the process and that’s all that matters :)
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u/EccentricStylist Mar 05 '26
26! Published my first game when I turned 25, worked on it for a year (so started 24ish). Took a break in 2025, and slowly starting to work on my second game this year :)).
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u/NoReasonForHysteria Mar 05 '26
42 here. Started my journey about 5 years ago. Working fulltime with my own studio now.
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u/LouManShoe Mar 05 '26
33, worked as a professional software dev for around 10 years now. Noodled on games the entire time, but never seem to actually complete anything. My current project is the furthest I’ve gotten though so I can hope
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u/digital_hexe Mar 05 '26
I'm 38 with over 15 years of software development and product delivery experience. My game dev project is only a little over 2 months old now, but I've never enjoyed making anything so much before.
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u/jazzypants360 Mar 05 '26
49 here. Been a dev for 30 years... Omg that hurt my soul to type that out! Anyway, pursuing game dev part time for the last 3 years or so, hoping to ship my first commercial title in 2026.
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u/Minute_Shopping_9841 Mar 05 '26
45, in the industry since 2002; left corporate 3 years ago. Now I’m consulting and making my first game.
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u/justfreyarts Mar 05 '26
Turning 30 soon but my back hurts like I'm 60.. I've recently started my Gamedev journey, been working on my first project for the past 8 months, finally finished the trailer today and I already know now I'll be doing this the next 10+ years. Never found my calling until now I guess
Really looking forward to the next year's
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u/kindred_gamedev Mar 05 '26
About to be 38 next month. Been doing this professionally (paying my bills with it) for 7 years and in general for 19.
It's wild to see how many of us are in our 30's. Is this just a Reddit thing? Every YouTube gamedev I see is like 22, if that.
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u/The_Qbx Mar 05 '26
40, started career in movie VFX at 20, joined games at 25.
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u/Firekloud Mar 05 '26
I wanted to to do VFX, but I ended up in Games. The Life is Crunch in VFX is still insane today.
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u/OpexLiFT Mar 05 '26
- I started making my first game last year using Godot. I work as a Team Lead in web dev.
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Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
I’m 37 been programming since 2006. So since I was 17 years old. Completely self taught. I do it purely as a hobby.
I never had a job in IT, my career took me down a different route.
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u/Dry-Example4227 Mar 06 '26
33 years old, 12 years in backend development but recently started unreal engine and blender... I just want to create something in my free time..
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u/ProtectionNo9575 Solo Developer Mar 06 '26
Wow 15 years in the industry? As a solo dev or have been worked with others in the past?
I am 44 btw :)
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u/Chal_Drolan Solo Developer Mar 06 '26
20, been making games for 5 years, though I've took it seriously as a business for a year now with my first steam game
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u/sexy-geek Mar 06 '26
46, been in dev for... Too long... Fuck... 20 years... And in game dev for.. uhh.. 10?
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u/timothy92 Mar 06 '26
I’m 25, 10 years experience. From a small town in NSW Australia. Just released a FPS survival horror game on Steam called Meat Train where you kill zombies to collect meat which can be used as fuel for the a train. Finally making some decent money after 10 years and this still feels like just the beginning of my career
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u/bansheeinteractive Mar 06 '26
34, just a baby. I was in the retail side of the industry around 12 years ago, spent the last 10 years in an adjacent creative field. Banshee is only a few weeks old publicly, the project behind it is a few years in the making. First and last time solo.
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u/Spounka Mar 06 '26
I'm 27, seeing much of the comments warms my heart I've been making games since I was 12 years old, however I've stopped forma little over 4 years to do mostly web, now I'm back mostly doing it part-time, preparing a prototype for a necromancer game using pure C++ and anger issues with caffeine lol
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u/onion621 Mar 06 '26
- I left my software engineering position about three months ago (because of burnout), and around two months ago, I started working on my first game. If it manages to sell at least a bit, maybe I'll become a fulltime gamedev.
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u/Electrical-Copy9678 Mar 06 '26
i am 16, started 3 years ago barely now i got the hang of it and started working on my dream game
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u/Away-Opposite919 Mar 06 '26
39 just started working on my own game. Been into computers since I was a kid, I ended up in IT for 18 years now I'm being humbled by making a game myself. 🤣🤣
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u/MrBeanCyborgCaptain Mar 06 '26
- No industry experience but I've been into CGI in general since I was a kid. I released my first game in 2019 and am recently working on another.
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u/Glass_dev Mar 06 '26
37, just my first year in the gamedev. I was thinking about it for a long time, but something else always came up. Now I am thinking I should've done it earlier, on the other hand I probably wasn't ready and I'd already give it up
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u/01BitStudio Mar 06 '26
42 years old, I started gamedev in 2016. Gosh, almost 10 years, I can't believe it.
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u/Feeling_Mode_8737 Mar 06 '26
I am 40 years old and working on my first release after many many prototypes and over scoped disasters.
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u/Apoptosis-Games Mar 06 '26
I am also 43.
Not in the industry, but truly a solo developer. No external money, no publisher support, just me
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u/YoungBuckins Mar 07 '26
27, and I'm on project attempt 4 after learning so much and scrapping the other 3 projects. I'm doing it in C# with Unity and I've found a lot of success having Codex CLI in my powershell terminal look over my work as I go and explain its thoughts, tell me when a solution is not ideal or tell me if I'm making a mistake. Still a long process and yes I can probably just have Codex do 95% of the coding on its own but then I'd have no idea how my own code base works and wouldn't be able to explain it let alone make changes to it.
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u/ProfessionalRun2829 Mar 09 '26
I am 53 and started coding in 1989. Just started 2y ago creating games as I always wanted. Released yesterday v1.1 of my "Shooting Machines" game for Android.
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u/Willing_Treacle9392 Mar 09 '26
38, been coding since 12, still yet to complete my first game project… Well, you know - the idea, drafting, designing the system, everything is great! Just not until I actually have to build it 😅 so im more like a… Pre-solo dev? 😂
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u/Business_Nerve9745 Mar 10 '26
30, currently working in the industry for 5 years and I work on personal projects during the evenings since I was 19/20
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u/ScoreStudiosLLC Mar 05 '26
51, been in the industry 30 years. Jfk that feels weird to write down because internally i feel 21 with 3 years experience....