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by dimgl 1089 days ago
> I watched dev logs where people seemed to effortlessly build their ideal worlds and then go viral for it on youtube

Heads up that a majority of these are “fake”, and/or stretch the truth considerably. There was one where in one video they had made a fully realized open world in Unity and in the second they implemented flying.

It’s all smoke and mirrors. These creators have spent weeks getting these games to the point at which they’re at. Whether it’s in training, or in previous failed games, or in creating templates to make future games, it’s never that easy. There are so many nuances to these engines that you can easily lose an entire day just fiddling with one feature or fixing a bug.

So take it with a grain of salt.

3 comments

Thanks man, I appreciate that reminder. It’s honestly the same in web dev. Lots of people building “the next unicorn” with no experience or anything. I always have to remember that social media and the content posted there is nearly always posturing.
This is one of the reasons why I prefer written tutorial over video tutorials, usually they start from scratch, and if they don't they usually point out a tutorial where you can start at.

That, and I my mind usually loses focus at some point in the video and I lose track easily switching between the video and whatever I'm trying to do.

That’s one reason why I love the devlog videos from Randy. Not only does he not hide it when things get hard, he truly takes you on the journey to see his most painful-est of moments in a way that really allows you to either learn from it or just simply laugh at the absolutely absurd circumstances that he threw himself into.