I’ve been in the industry for quite some time and I do not recommend going to conferences for building skills because half of them are highly demotivating, there’s a reason for that, the majority of people that participate in those sorts of events, unless it’s a big event like the GDC, haven’t had a lot of success and their advice is pretty biased, I’m not saying their advice isn’t good or that you shouldn’t listen to them, I’m saying that it’s hard to discern which advice is the correct one at the time, especially if you are new to the industry.
Impostor syndrome is a very common thing in game development, even veterans feel like you all the time. Here are my 5 tips to get rid of that sensation:
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Be aware that you’ll never know everything, it’s a never-ending learning process.
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Stop comparing yourself to others.
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Accept that you are going to fail A LOT, and if you are doing things the right way you’ll keep falling.
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Your games are never going to be as good as you want them to be, if you think your game is really good there’s a huge possibility it’s not even mediocre (Overconfidence also plagues the industry for whatever reason). Even if you become the best game developer in the world you’ll never be satisfied with the end result, I have yet to meet a dev that is fully satisfied, you’ll always notice things to improve, and that’s where this famous phrase comes from “Save it for the sequel”.
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Join game jams, Itch hosts a lot of jams all year round. Join small jams that aren’t a competition, jams where there’s no prize involved so you can learn and experiment without the fear or sensation of losing.
[Edit]
Almost forgot!
There’s a fantastic way to build your confidence and your skills. Help others, believe me, there’s no better way to boost your ability. I’ll even challenge you, get the “Master problem solver” title here in the forums, it’s relatively easy if you put the effort, once you get the title, come back and tell me if it helped you.
Hope this helps!