00:00
00:00
EggysGames
My names Bradley Erkelens(Eggy) owner of Eggys Games and I’m an Indie Game Developer who’s been making games for over 10 years. I make games in Flash, Unity and for Mobile. I hope you enjoy my games.

Bradley Erkelens @EggysGames

Male

Game Developer

NASHS

Perth, Western Australia

Joined on 5/22/05

Level:
50
Exp Points:
27,322 / 27,750
Exp Rank:
462
Vote Power:
9.09 votes
Audio Scouts
1
Rank:
Pvt. First Class
Global Rank:
2,778
Blams:
195
Saves:
2,976
B/P Bonus:
20%
Whistle:
Normal
Trophies:
20
Medals:
391
Supporter:
3y
Gear:
1

Game Making Life

Posted by EggysGames - February 8th, 2010


I wrote this today on my website, thought it might be a good news post to put here too.

This article is about the life of being a freelancing game maker. Not that many people actually understand what it's like to have this job. You're at a family dinner and some relative asks what you do, you tell them and they just have a blank sorta face. Adult's really don't understand games even slightly. They then try and be interested and ask questions like... "So what type of games do you make" it's pointless because they won't understand my answer anyway.

It's funny really, even my mum is like go get a job! I'm like I have a job mum...she's like... uhh yeah but.. a real job. It's so frustrating and makes me so angry. Just because I don't go into an office and have a set work time, it doesn't make it any easier. In fact it makes it even harder and this is what people really don't realise.

When you make a game or anything at all. It is not like working at your 9-5 job of boredom. You can't just shut down your brain and keep looking at the clock. You have to solve problems, you have to be creative of new ideas. Your brain is running non stop and it gets very stressful. Cause if you can't be creative enough, then you can't pay rent. That is a lot more stressful then having a solid weekly pay check where you just clock in and try get through it. I could spend a month working on a game, only to have it not sell very well and now I'm broke. It really is the harsh reality of it.

I argue with a friend who says my work is easy because I can set my own hours and get up whenever I want. Sure this great and theirs many positive things to it. Making games is awesome! I love it all, but it's not a free ride job as people think. When you work, you look at the clock different to someone at a 9-5 job. You don't hope for the day to be over, you keep looking at the clock worrying you haven't got enough done today or this week. Will I get this game finished before I can't afford food anymore?

The problem is pressure dampens creativity, but it also speeds up getting work done. It's a tug and pull.

Basically my day will consist of waking up between 9-12. I'll check up on all the usual stuff. Emails/Facebook/Reviews. Then I'll tell myself I should work, but I'll usually procrastinate till 2 in the afternoon. Usually I'll get a few hours of programming in then. Till I get angry and stressed out from programming bugs. (Programming is really a mental strain sometimes, people that work mindless jobs will never understand this. It can be related to doing your final exams in high school for the amount of stress)

Some days Ill wake up and just work from 9 in the morning till midnight. Every day varies. Depends what I'm doing and how motivated I am or if I'm inspired by a song or movie. Usually I'll be slack at the start of the game, but towards the end I'm working every day for 12 hours. Working from waking up, till I sleep to get it done.

How do you explain to someone your job consists of so many things put together. If I explain it, they don't understand and still think I'm a slacker. The process has so much you need to learn. It's something like this though..

- Coming up with an idea that is unique and fun
- Programming your idea into a workable engine WITHOUT BUGS
- Designing the art style and mood to the game
- Level Design ; making mass new levels which can take a long time when you have 50 or so
- Fixing Bugs and Glitches. (This can break people who give up)
- Designing the game to work out what the player wants
- Sound Editing. Getting sound effects and music for your game.
- Storyline, coming up with an addictive story for your game

It goes on and on really. So many things you needa worry about, because a game is made up of everything. All this goes through your head working every day full of stress and worry the game won't be good enough and you try tell me your job is harder because you work 9-5 and have to dig holes? pfft. I'm not saying it's not hard doing manual labor all day, but you'll never understand the pressure and stress of truly creating something that has to please millions of people.

I'm living out of home now. It's great and all, but I needa make sure I finish a game about once a month to keep up on bills now. In a way it is good though. It motivates me to get more games done which is what I want. I have so many ideas to be put into games that I can't wait to try. The problem is sticking to them and making them work.

In this line of work, every piece of media you do becomes research. Every time I play a game, I mentally pull it apart thinking why it's fun. I'll watch a movie at the cinemas and take a little bit away from it that inspires me. It's sorta hard to shut my brain off to ideas. Though I'll cover ideas and inspiration more in depth in another article since everyone asks how I come up with them.

In this job it's constantly highs and lows. I'll release a successful game and have enough money to last me a few months and I relax. Other times I've been down to less then $100 in my bank working non stop for a week or two to get paid. I'm pretty good with money though. Whenever I get below a certain amount in my bank I start working a lot more, and spend a lot less. I just try manage it as best I can and have faith in my own game making abilities to get paid.

I recommend this job 100%, but only if they have the motivational and love of game making to keep with it. It's not easy, but if you can do it. You have a huge portfolio of stuff you've hand made that feels like you've really accomplished something. It's so rewarding when people say they spent an hour of your game having fun. It's still weird for me to hear that, each time I hear it I just think really? you liked it?! I'm so used to look at statistics on the game it's always different to hear it in person.

My general tips for living a life like this would be -

- Create your game making folder. Organise it into folders of sound, written ideas, engines, anything that inspires you. Throw everything in here.

- Start making every single thing and idea that pops into your head. Build up a folder of engines you can start to use to make into a game any time. If the engine is fun, then the game will be later.

- Build up some savings before quitting your other job. The first few games you make won't do as well, you gotta be prepared for failure and maybe some debt before progressing forward.

- Don't listen to anyone that doesn't make games and doesn't offer any value to their criticisms. 99% of people have no idea about game making and will put you down by saying it's not as good as their job.

- Be prepared for long hours at the computer. Try look after yourself. It's hard though. Specially since a lot of programmers take a lot of caffeine and don't eat right.

- Just go for it. Don't let anything hold you back. Sit down, don't think about making games, just do it. Sit down and start making whatever you want. Have fun!

In summary, I love my job. I wouldn't trade it now for any other besides working in a proper game studio, but even then I'm not so sure since I'd then be taking orders and can't make whatever I want. So I'm gonna keep having fun making games till it can't make me an income. Then I'll port my games onto other things or start a website that makes me income through paying. Not sure yet. I just know with all the advancing technology, theirs always gonna be more possibilities.

Now, time to stop procrastinating my work by writing this article.


Comments

hooray

that was too long to read pochie!!!! D:

I'm sorry, but every word was needed.

Oh my god I completely agree with everything you just said. I'm learning to make 3D games with the program unity 3D as well as blender, and at the moment I really want to make video games and I have so many huge ideas. If I were in your situation, I would probably try to find some people that I could regularly collaborate with for games, like a team, and that way I would probably have less work, and I could put more effort into the code or art or story or whatever part I work on. I'm only 13, so I don't really know, but I hope that's helpful!

Ah yeah, I also got unity sitting on my computer, Haven't really put much time into it yet though. If you're only 13 then thats a great headstart to learn. You have no life pressure yet, so just learn and learn then learn some more!

I work a steady full-time job that covers my expenses and keeps me comfy, but that being said, I like to create on the side. In that regard, I can't relate to you on relying on game money to cover cost of living expenses. Plus, I can't imagine working a job where I'm not around people most of the day :P That's one of the main aspects that would turn me off of strictly doing freelance work.

However, one thing I can relate to is trying to explain anything in the process to someone that doesn't know. It's hard to explain to someone how spending hours upon hours in front of the computer at home is a viable way of doing things, and it's much easier to skirt around the question or bullshit it.

Good post though.

Yeah having a job while creating is definitely good for some people. I do recommend it generally, but I myself find that after working all day, I come home and I've lost my energy to make a good game.

Lol indeed, I know the people now that won't understand anything. So I just answer in short quick sentences to end the convo :P

From now on you shall be known as mr writey writey write write

Sweet!

Wow, this sounds just like animating, especially the part about telling relatives what you do. It's as if they think of it as something cringe-making that keeps children busy as opposed to an incredibly complex art form, and with video games it's even worse. It's heart breaking that canvases painted white hang in gallereys and sell for millions, while creating an entire world from scratch is viewed as pathetic and a waste of time.
I'm actually starting work on a massive platform game this year, despite not actually being able to program. So that should be interesting.

Animating definitely comes under the same topic! Museums and galleries are pretty much the "Adult" version of what we do. It's filtered into boringness so boring adults can understand it :P Yet they still don't.

I'd suggest making a smaller platform game before diving right into a massive one so you don't lose heart and never finish it.

I'm also planning on making games for a living. I don't even know everything there is to know yet. I am also 20 but I live in Las Vegas. Hell, I still live with my parents. That's going to change in 5ish months. At the Boulder Beach campground in Lake Mead, in June one of the camp hosts is going to leave, and I'll take that job. Well, it's not a job, more like a volunteer position. Due to bad economy, and the fact that I spent 10-12 grade in Canada, means I've never had a job. (If you're wondering what living in Canada has to do w/anything, being on a student visa meant I could go to school, but not work.) Now, being a camp host is not demanding, it means I check tickets to make sure everyone's paid 3 times a day. Other than that, it's living for free. See, I would have the spot, so no rent, and they would also pay utilities. Especially handy in Vegas' 100+ summers. I'd still have the other normal expenses, although for a while I'll have to mooch. Now, making a living off games wouldn't be that bad out there if some of my bills are covered. I am hoping that I meet some people so I can have a team, cuz I have this book, and learning from it I've already learned some things I'm not good at. I.E., some of my animations don't work right. Anyway, I tend to talk a lot when I get started on the right subject, and I'd want to work w/you if it wasn't for the fact that we're on opposite sides of the planet. So, I'll let you get back to getting Carpal Tunnel. That's what I joke about doing on the computer. :)

I have made games before, only not in flash. So I know how to go about it and think like a programmer... but in the wrong language. I suppose that's why I still feel up to tackling this project, but it won't surprise me if I give up and get someone else to program for me. I don't mind that, but I definately want to try it myself first, just as an experiment if nothing else.

wow, nice article, you've really inspired me, I want to be a programmer too when I graduate. I really love games and I love programming even more. What programming languange do you recommend me to learn, they're teaching pascal at my school this semester.

yeah i totaly agree
but, i have a minimal knowledge of coding too many ideas to wright down and i spend my spare time voiceing game characters and somehow manage to help run a programming class and all sorts of crazy ideas that somehow work.
you seem to know what your doing with code so help would be aprecieted and your welcome to ask for ideas from me ive just got to many im giving them away
oh and good luck

Most of this was a pretty good read. Thanks for the article.

I really dont know what to say when people ask me 'what kind of games do you make?'.. I get asked that question ALL the time.. Like umm, wtf do you want me to say?

Every time I have the same answer "uhh, I make games like Mario and stuff.." Because most people know Mario, so whether or not I make games like Mario.. it doesnt matter because it gets them to shut up and hopefully not ask stupid ass questions.

:)

Anyways yeaa. its almost 5AM now.. I need to go to bed. Cya!
oh btw check your messages I have a question for yee.

You know, when I was a teenager, and decided designing/making games was something I wanted to do, my parents were actually fairly supportive. I kept that image in my head for over a decade, ever since I was a child. But it was I, myself, who had to decide that if I wanted to bring home enough cash to live off of something other than ramen, I needed to at least get myself into a "9 to 5" and see if I couldn't work myself into something creative later. Now, I'm in the army, in my mid-twenties. I do game programming and design as a personal hobby. But I'm realistic.. my chances of making serious career money by making games by myself is very low. My chances of getting into a game development company where I do anything but playtest is also low... even lower, because I don't have a college degree yet, from lack of funds when I was a teenager.

...When you buy a video game, you're looking at the successes... you don't see how many failures lay dead behind it. I won't pretend to know exactly where you stand as far as career progress. However, I'll say this: If you can put gas in your car and pay the landlord off of the money you make from what you do - even if it's a fairly modest living - it's still a living, and then your family has little room to spit venom your way. But if you are living with that family, and not paying for the internet you're using to upload your Newgrounds post to, then you may want to re-evaluate some things. A job requires a paycheck. Otherwise it's just work for it's own sake. I wouldn't call personal game design a pipe dream by any means, but for most, it *is* a dream.

Well I didn't have a college degree. All I did was finish high school and even that didn't help me to make games. I self taught myself in class when I should have been working on other stuff.

You can just build up a portfolio with stuff you've made and companies will hire off that these days.

Hah yeah exactly. I do live out of home and support myself so they're forced to accept it's something you can live off.

That was too long for me to read sorry...

Heh, I have the same with with creating icons/pixel art for a game i'm working on. Except i'm not getting paid ):

But I know where you're coming from and it's awesome to see you tell everyone about it! I'm positive that there will be quite afew people would of needed to read this.

Reading that was heartbreaking. For your own sake: please grow out of it.
I make games n sell em exactly the same as you, so we're on a level playing field here. Actually- read my latest post thing.

All the WRITING INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE and CONTEXTUAL CONTROL INTERFACE an all that academic bollocks people like us use to legitemise ourselves is all just a romantic fantasy.
Face it: we don't know anything about sound design or art direction or fuckin ludo-narrative dissonance. We're both just pretending we do to keep our parents off our backs. Your last game was the kind o thing tutorials are based on, and mine aren't too far off. I've worked at a studio- That couple hours work we do in the middle o the night? They do that all day, without even looking at the internet. It's a job, with hours and deadlines and responsibilites. The only reasons neither of us have a job right now (no you don't) is just because we're avoiding that. I DON'T LIKE HAVING A BOSS isn't an excuse, you're just being a baby.

The GAMES ARE ART thing is a fun dream, but it doesn't hold up. It's just internet nonsense. Start listening to real people, get a normal job, and do this in your own time. Stop kdding yourself, and stop avoiding growing up cos you don't want to. It's better to snap out of it now than to stick to your guns and have some kind of breakdown later.

Side note: what the fuck, stop thinking people are idiots cos they don't know how fucking VIDEO GAMES ARE MADE. Normal people like that have got the kind of common sense you n me don't, and they usually end up a lot better off. You need that balance, so don't ignore it.
Sorry to sound like a dick, but yo there's two sides to every coin, n I'm yours.

Rofl. I'd take offence to this but I've read your last blog before which is a fairly cynical exact opposite to this one. I still liked it though :)

If you're basing this all off my last game then your rant becomes pretty pointless. I have made a lot of bigger games with way more depth. Those games take more then just whinging it luckily off a tutorial and hope that it somehow gets a high score like you may have done. Which I've done in the past too don't get me wrong. But that as you say, is the point in which you grow up.

I feel sorry for you really. It sounds like someone has stepped on your dreams and crushed them. Maybe you have people that tell you everyday that what you do is a load of shit and you let it get to you.

"Get a normal job and grow up" is the worst advice to give anyone. You'll never be special, you'll never get a job you want to go for your dream. You're gonna be stuck in a 9-5 job because you were forced to to make an easier wage. Fuck that. That road leads to suicide jumping off your office buildings balcony because youre living with "NORMAL" people who only know how to talk about their weekend out fishing and their wifes new casserole.

"Normal People" are idiots. Go work customer service for 6 months and get back to me and see their stupidity. We'll see how much hate you have for the flash game life then.

Good luck though. I really hope you don't lose all your motivation for flash from what people have said to you. You've made some cool stuff.

Very inspiring little story here, I hope to go to Digipen college in Seattle and work at a Nintendo department from there as a career, so this was pretty a inspiring article, good luck with your future projects! (by the way, this is just coming from a fan, but I thought the Infection was a brilliant game, my favorite out of all your games)

U do write well.. u express your ideas in a cool way making the article easy to read and not boring. Here are some suggestions you may want to take in account for future ones:
* Add images (for blog version), if people come across a long plain text they may not read it, so if you make some stops in between with a few pictures illustrating it, it may be better. For instance, for this one, you could've added a picture of your studio, of you working, or maybe a picture where someone acts as a dull boss and you suffering it.

I would've changed the order in your process of making games... specially the "Designing the game to work out what the player wants" you need to define that first to then think about what the game will look and give to the player's experience. Anyway most of them are crossed together and you go back and forth through all processes I guess... So this would be the order I'd use:

- Coming up with an idea that is unique and fun
- Programming your idea into a workable engine WITHOUT BUGS
- Designing the art style and mood to the game
- Level Design
- Designing the game to work out what the player wants
- Storyline, coming up with an addictive story for your game
- Fixing Bugs and Glitches
- Sound Editing. Getting sound effects and music for your game.

but I'm still wandering what you mean by "what the player wants".. what you do to get this info? in percentages how much you spend for what users would like and how much for what YOU like? what covers what the player would like? (I mean, which of these: art-style, type of game, etc.; what else?)

Great article again ^^, keep writing :D

Yeah I should put pictures. My website doesn't have an upload system yet which is why I havenm't been mainly.

Well every part of the process is actually what the player wants, specially the base start idea, but yeah I should have gone into more depth.

It means everything the player complains aout and say what needed to be added like upgrades etc. I find this out from reviews and such of my games.

I've played Nodes, Nodes 2, Mouse Under Siege, The Unfair Platformer, Stickya Adventurya, Down the Well and Infection as they came out. Yo Im jus sayin.

and all these guys who agree with you are like 13, which should give you some indication of what I'm talkin about.

I-Smell is the perfect kinda of person you see in the industry and avoid.
I have 3 years in the industry, not counting flash games, actually game making and i agree with eggy all the way.

from games to art and animation, you always have those cynical ppl who just seemed defeated and make it there life's mission to try and bring all those around them down.

even when im broke i still feel better doing what i love rather then having money and hating my life.