Hi guys! My name is Lennon, and i from Brazil. I started a game development course this week (3D Unity + C#), here at Gamedev.TV. The teaching method seems really excellent. I’m just worried about my own characteristics. I’m 33 years old and have no experience with development. Is it a good idea to study game development and try to get an opportunity in this area?
Please, help me with truly advices, guys.
A career in game development is actually quite the challenge. You may be able to find some type of entry level job or internship, but there will be a lot of competition for those jobs. A lot of people want to become game developers. So the real key to success is creating a portfolio of smaller projects that demonstrate your skills. You’ll need to demonstrate by example that you understand how to design and build a game and, most importantly, FINISH a project. The devil is in the details.
After you make it through a course or two, you may have some ideas and what type of game to build for your own project. That game needs to be good enough that someone will want to play it for several hours. At some point you’ll want to stop taking courses and focus on your portfolio.
My best advice is to build something much bigger and more refined than what the courses will show you. But don’t try to build something so big you’ll never get it done. A great game doesn’t have to be huge.
Once you have something good enough to show that you are capable of building, and FINISHING, a project, then employers will take you more seriously. Imagine having a game refined enough that you can actually put it on the app store, Steam, or at least web based. The goal should be that the game is fun to play for hours. The games in the courses are only good for a couple minutes of play.
Then get all that on github and you’ll be ready to show off your skills.
Thank you very much, my friend! Your advice was very clear and inspiring! I confess that no one had ever said anything like this to me before, about the importance of completing the project, and not just doing things over and over again, without any purpose. It seems obvious now, but until I read this, I hadn’t thought of it that way. Thank you!!
You are very welcome. My best friend, who taught me programming 40 years ago, has never finished a project in his life. He’s started so many things but gets bored before he gets done. It’s a really common problem.
You want to get as much done in as short of a time as possible, sure, but you have to be able to wrap up all the details in the end. Sometimes these extra things take quite a bit of time. It’s easy to never finish. 
The great news is that you are off on the right foot. You found a great place to learn.
Jerry