Is Game Development worth it?

Game Development is worth learning because of the many benefits that come with it. Games are played all over the world for entertainment. Making games is a great way to add a new income stream to your life.

The Video game market in the United States alone is valued at $95.45 billion. It is estimated that the global gaming market will amount to 268.8 billion U.S. dollars annually in 2025, up from 178 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. (Statista).

Games are the top-grossing apps on both Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. The global mobile games market generated $7.7 billion from player spending across the App Store and Google Play in August 2021, marking an increase of 8.6 percent year-over-year (SENSORTOWER)

In 2022 alone, revenue in the Mobile Games industry alone is projected to reach US$164.10 billion (Statista). This revenue is expected to grow year by year, it is projected to have a market volume of US$241.40 billion by 2027.

These estimations show how huge the game industry is and it continues to grow. Being part of this huge industry and the growth around it is certainly worth it. Here are some of the benefits of mobile game development.

When you add computer games, console games, Virtual Reality games, Augmented Reality games, and browser games, it becomes hard to imagine the magnitude of the game industry.

BENEFITS OF GAME DEVELOPMENT

There are a lot of benefits that make developing games worth it. Generally, games are built for entertainment, education, simulation, etc. Here are some of the benefits of developing games.

INCOME

Developing games is a great source of income, whether you are a freelancer, a tutor, a company or you have a full-time job, being a mobile game developer can bring you a good amount of income.

It has been reported that PUBG Mobile grossed 1.18 billion US Dollars in the first nine months of the year 2021 (Statista). King’s Candy Crush Saga alone generated $4.2 million per day in 2018 according to Sensor Tower. This show that games can make you a lot of money.

SOLVE PROBLEMS

You can use games to help and solve other people’s problems. There are games that have been developed to help students revise and solve school problems. Apps like Duolingo which is more of a game can help you to learn new languages.

Boredom is a huge problem for a lot of people, and what better way to overcome boredom that to play a game? Others can use games to learn how to drive, and to have fun with their friends through multiplayer features.

Being able to develop games to solve problems and provide entertainment is a truly worth contribution to people’s growth and wellbeing.

EMPLOYMENT

There are many game development studios around the world. These game studios provide employment for many game developers. Companies such as Microsoft, Sony, Activision Blizzard, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and many others employ a lot of game developers.

You can also build a startup around game development and provide employment for other people. This too makes game development worth it.

GROWING YOUR PROGRAMMING SKILLS

In order to develop games, you will be working with game engines, animation software, and programming languages such as C++ for Unreal Engine, C# for Unity 3D, Javascript for PlatCanvas, Lua, and many others.

You will also be exposed to APIs, Databases, payment gateways, and server-side programming languages for building the backend system of your games. Working with these programming languages and other technologies will help you to work on other projects away from games.

WORKING FOR BIG GAME STUDIOS

Great game development skills can help you to get a job in big game companies such as Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Jam City, Sony, Epic Games, Nintendo, Niantic, Pocket Gems, Namco, and many others.

These companies provide many amazing perks for developers, and having a chance to work for any of these is a wonderful opportunity that many developers would cherish.

IS GAME DEVELOPMENT HARD?

Developing games can be challenging, expensive, and time-consuming, you need to put a lot of things in place, you need to understand the platforms you are developing for, the set of game features, backend infrastructure, APIs, databases, etc.

Game development is challenging and hard, you need a good combination of skills to make successful games. Using games engines like Unreal, Unity 3D, Godot, Lumberyard, PlayCanvas, Blend4Web, Game Maker Studio, and many others makes game development relatively easy.

It also depends on the magnitude and scale of the project you are working on and your level of programming skills. Ultimately, game development is challenging and hard, but that’s what makes it worthwhile.

DO GAME DEVELOPERS HAVE A FUTURE?

Seeing that the game industry keeps growing, there is a need for game developers to keep up with the growth going forward.

Plus, the growing number of game development start-ups around the world has also added to the growing demand and need for game Developers.

Game developers are also needed for maintenance, security, and upgrades of already existing games. Because of this, there is certainly a future for game developers.

HOW DO I BECOME A SUCCESSFUL GAME DEVELOPER?

Successful game developers focus on simplicity, solving problems that people around the world are facing, and filling the gaps that other games have not filled. You need to start by identifying a problem, once the problem is identified, you can then build your game as a solution.

When you think of successful games like Candy Crush, it is a simple and easy game to play and it has a very attractive, simple leaderboard that sustains the interests of the players. These combinations have attracted a lot of users and in turn, made billions in revenue for King.

You can also become a successful game developer by learning from others. You can learn from what they have developed, the structure of their code, the problems they aim to solve, and the tools they use. You can use Github to find open-source projects to learn from.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it can be seen that game development is worth learning. The growth in the game industry ensures that game developers will be around for a long time.

You will also be providing entertainment and solving problems for people by developing games that meet their needs. Game development helps you to earn money either as a freelancer, tutor or with a full-time job.

The challenges that you will face while developing games will help you to improve your problem-solving skills in programming and in life as a whole. Learning game development is truly worth it.

If you want to get started with Game Development, you can try Skillshare classes for free for one month.