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Growing up, geeks all over the world share a common dream. Having spent a huge portion of your life with your eyes glued to a screen and a controller in your hands, it would be selling it short to say that you like to play video games. When you enjoy something this much, it only makes sense that you would want to tie it into your career, but this is where a lot of people stop with their aspirations. Becoming a game developer doesn’t have to be as hard as you think, though. To help you out, this post will be exploring the sort of skills you’ll need to be able to make it in this industry, along with some of the ways to earn them.

Programming

Of course, any video game has to start with some code, and you will need to start working on programming skills as early as possible. There are loads of systems out there which are designed to make the process of learning something like this easier. In reality, though, this can often take longer than simply going in as deep as you can. Systems like Unity make it very easy to get started with professional-grade tools which will force you to learn to code in useful languages like C# and JavaScript.

Creativity

While a lot of people see the life of a programmer as one filled with mathematical problems and other logic-based issues, a lot of the solutions you come up with when you’re coding will be creative ones. A huge portion of the jobs you want your game to do simply won’t exist yet. This means that you have to be able to find ways to simulate events and other actions, and this isn’t a problem reserved for game developers; it’s found in all programming work. Small puzzles and games can help a lot with this.

Dedication

Development companies often have to run on incredibly tight schedules, producing games much faster than they should be able to. To achieve a goal like this, they often have to work their employees into the ground, and this means that you will spend a lot of time working when you shouldn’t have to. This will take a lot of dedication, but will be worth it once you are rewarded upon the game’s release.

What Will You Get?

As a gamer working in the gaming industry, it’s easy for most people to see what they would get from a role like this. Not only will you have the chance to focus your life around gaming, but you will also be able to start learning more about the games you play. While it may take away some of the magic, sitting down and figuring out how a game was built is very entertaining, and will open your eyes to the shortcomings of even the largest development companies in the world.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling excited about the prospect of working in an industry like this. It will take a lot of effort, but getting a job in video games is a dream come true for a lot of people, and you are probably one of them.