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Robert Tamayo

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Thoughts on Game Development: Going Forward

I'm a game developer. I don't work for a game development studio, and I've only made 4 games so far. I enjoy games for being games. I don't put ads in my games, and the ones I've released to the public so far have been free. Which means I haven't made any money out of game development.

I'm not in game development to make money. I make games because I like video games. I like to make games I want to play, not mobile game clones. I've primarily focused on making 2D games so far, with 2 platformer games under my belt. Because I don't make many "mobile" games, it takes longer for me to develop a game than I would like. The 2 mobile games I've made so far took me only a weekend to make all of the basic elements, whereas the platformer games took months.

Because game development takes such a long time, I've had moments where I seriously questioned whether I should continue. It wasn't a matter of passion, skill, or payoff; it was simply time that made me wonder whether I was on the right path. I have no lack of passion, and I'm skilled enough in making games, but the payoff is always a question in mind. Will this game ever pay off? What is the purpose of making games if I'm not likely to work for a game company or make a lot of money off of them? In the end, however, I always conclude that I'm first and foremost a game developer at heart. I will always be creating a game, because that's what I do.

That said, this next game I'm working on (after Robot Ops and Skull Fiesta) will probably take me a few years to make. During that time, I won't have anything new in my portfolio except a work-in-progress. Because of this, I'll take a different approach to developing that game than I did with my other games. I'm going to constantly be providing updates on the development process. I might also end up only releasing a portion of the game and leave it at that. It will be worth it for me to finish it, but "finished" might take a different meaning to me 3 months into development.



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