So You Want To Make Games?

tim-cain career-advice game-industry indie-vs-aaa game-development hobby-vs-career

Abstract

Problem: What should someone consider before trying to enter the game industry?

Approach: Tim Cain breaks the question into two major categories — whether you should enter the industry at all, and if so, what part of it is right for you — answering through a series of honest self-assessment questions drawn from decades of experience.

Findings: Loving games and having good ideas is not enough and won't differentiate you. Success requires specific skills, honest self-knowledge about your work preferences, and a clear understanding of the many distinct paths available — from hobbyist to pundit to indie developer to AAA studio employee.

Key insight: The question "do you want to make games?" is really a cascade of deeply personal sub-questions that only you can answer honestly, and dishonesty with yourself now will make you miserable later.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je3I3xQkPv4

Part One: Should You Even Enter the Industry?

Liking Games Is Not Enough

Tim rips the band-aid off immediately: liking video games and having good ideas about them does not make you special. Almost everybody who enters the game industry likes games and has ideas. This will not differentiate you from the millions of other people who want in.

He also emphasizes that no one in the industry wants to see your game ideas. This isn't because the ideas are bad — it's a legal liability issue. If someone shows Tim an idea that resembles something already in development at his studio, that creates lawsuit risk. Studios simply cannot look at unsolicited pitches.

What Skills Do You Bring?

The industry needs concrete, demonstrable skills:

  • Can you code?
  • Can you write well?
  • Can you do good art?
  • Are you disciplined in estimation and scheduling?
  • Are you organized?
  • Do you speak another language?

If you don't have any of these, are you willing to learn? And can you demonstrate competence — through a demo, a portfolio, a class project, or a live test?

Whether you learn through school or self-teaching is a personal decision (Tim has a separate video on this), but you need something tangible to show.

Will Your Hobby Survive Becoming Your Job?

Tim raises a genuinely important question many people skip: are you okay with your hobby turning into your career? Some people love something so much that making it their livelihood ruins it. Once you have to do it to make a living, the joy can die.

Being a game development hobbyist is completely valid. You can grab a free engine, build the game that's been living in your head, get it off your chest, and move on. That's fine. Not everything needs to become a career.

Know Yourself

You need to honestly assess:

  • Do you prefer working alone or in a team?
  • Are you communicative or quiet?
  • Do you have strong opinions, or do you go with the flow?

These answers determine not just whether the industry is right for you, but which part of it fits best. Dishonesty here leads to misery within a few years.

Part Two: What Part of the Industry?

Adjacent Roles

Before even considering development, Tim points out there are game-industry-adjacent careers:

  • Journalism — writing about the industry
  • Reviewing — playing games and giving feedback (he shouts out Mortismal Gaming as an example)
  • Punditry — talking about the industry without being in it (Tim's current role, which he jokingly says is "taken")

Indie vs. Published

A huge fork in the road. Tim freely admits he has never been indie — he's always worked at studios — so he can't speak to the indie experience. But he lays out the trade-offs clearly:

  • Indie: You're your own boss, set your own timetable, work at your own pace
  • Published/Studio: Someone else sets the pace, pays you, and tells you how fast to work

If you don't like being told what to do, go indie. But know what you're giving up.

Big Companies vs. Small Companies

Tim preferred smaller studios. He worked at small ones that became big, and small ones that were part of big ones. The key consideration: some games can only be made at big companies — titles requiring teams of 100-200 people. If that's the kind of game you want to make, your choice is made for you.

He speculates that AI might eventually let smaller teams make AAA-scale games, but that's not the reality yet.

Choosing Your Role

The game industry has an enormous range of roles:

  • Art: 2D, 3D, concept
  • Programming: gameplay, AI, networking, graphics
  • Design: system, level, narrative
  • Other: QA, music, production, localization, marketing

You need to choose based not just on what you're good at, but on what you're willing to do as a job — day after day, not just when inspiration strikes.

How Much Authority Do You Want?

Tim has worked with many people who deliberately cap their career progression. They stop at staff or senior level — they don't want to be a lead or director. They want to contribute to decisions without bearing responsibility for them.

This is fine, but comes with a constraint: if you aren't willing to own the decisions, you can't complain too much when decisions go against you. There's a cap on how much you can protest as an armchair quarterback. Know where you want to sit on that spectrum.

Genre, Setting, and Content

Your final filter is practical: what kind of games does the company make?

  • Genre: Studios like Troika and Obsidian primarily make RPGs. You might do other things there, but you'll mostly be making RPGs.
  • Setting: If a company is known for three franchises in specific settings, you'd better like at least one of them.
  • Age rating: Some studios make M-rated, adult-oriented content (Tim cites Obsidian's South Park game). You need to be comfortable with that.

These preferences narrow which companies you can work at, which roles are available, and even which projects you'll be assigned to.

The Bottom Line

"So you want to make games?" isn't a single question — it's a cascade of deeply personal decisions. Tim's framework:

  1. Do you even want to enter the industry, or is hobbyist/adjacent better for you?
  2. Indie or studio?
  3. Big company or small?
  4. What role?
  5. How much authority and responsibility?
  6. What genre, setting, and content are you comfortable with?

Answer these honestly. The game industry is bigger than Hollywood — there's room for many paths, but only if you pick the right one for you.

References