Many people want to start game development but tend to give up because of their age. No, this is not limited to game development but can be applied to anything from playing the piano to being a YouTuber.

For some reason, it is a common perception that when you reach middle age, your physical and mental strength declines somehow. However, this is not true. There is no evidence that this socially accepted notion applies to you. It doesn’t matter if you are a middle-aged businessman, a first-grader, or a 90-year-old. The moment you decide you want to do something is the youngest time to start doing it.

In the end, life is about doing or not doing. At the age of 100 years of life, there are few cases where it is too late to start doing something. It would be a shame to make a decision based only on a vague impression that game development sounds too difficult for you. You will never know the truth until you try it.

It is a fact that game development is often thought of as a hurdle for the average person. When inexperienced people hear the word “game development,” they tend to imagine that they have to learn to program, that they don’t have a sense of design, that they can’t compose music, and so on. This impression of “difficult” gets stronger with age.

But again, age has nothing to do with it. If it seems difficult, it probably means that you will not be able to acquire the necessary skills. Why do they think that? It’s because they believe that at their age, their brain has deteriorated and they don’t have the energy or stamina to learn new things. Is it because they are comparing themselves to their younger days or the young people around them? What nonsense. If you can’t compare yourself with people who are living completely the same life as you, the difference will not be significant.

By the way, have you ever heard of Ms. Masako Wakamiya? She became a household name with “hinadan,” a game for seniors in which you have to arrange dolls. As the “oldest app creator” at the time, she was even approached directly by Apple CEO Tim Cook to meet with him. She too has been taking on various challenges because she thought it would be interesting, and I am very proud of her. She is proving that age does not matter.

I’m about to turn 40, but I started programming two years ago in 2020, and I’ve also started developing games. I feel that I am in the best physical and mental shape of my life right now. I have the feeling that I can learn all kinds of new things as long as I am interested.

Here, I have listed what exactly is needed to start game development. Anyone can start game development as long as the following three conditions are met.

  • Have an interest in game development (feeling)
  • Able to devote an hour or more to game development every day (time)
  • Have a PC and an internet connection (environment)

That’s it. What do you think? Even if you feel that it is difficult, don’t you think that anyone can start just by starting?

For those of you who have not yet decided to start game development, let’s get started right now. There’s no need to read the rest of this article. Let’s download the game engine right away.

The Official Web pages of Game Engines


If you’re still hesitant after all this, you may be wondering why you should download a game engine. You might be thinking that it’s impossible to learn skills such as programming, graphic design, and music composition.

It is true that a long time ago, personal game development may have been a real hurdle to overcome.

This was because it was hard to set up a development environment and acquire the necessary skills. However, this is not the case now. The Internet is full of free know-how on how to make games, so it costs very little to learn. Furthermore, in this day and age, it is common to develop games using a tool called a game engine. The game engine takes care of all the complicated things, such as rendering graphics, physics calculations, camera adjustments, and so on. In other words, developers can concentrate on developing the game itself.

Even the computers used for development can be of basic specifications, as long as they are connected to the Internet. Most game engines are multi-platform, so it doesn’t matter if you have a Windows or Mac computer.

Even if you don’t have any design or composition skills, you can buy materials from the Asset Store. I have almost no composition skills either.

Furthermore, some game engines do not require programming.

For example, a relatively popular game engine called “GameMaker Studio 2” has a feature called visual scripting. It is like visually laying out the necessary commands and connecting them. There are also other tools called the Tucool series, such as “RPG Maker” developed by ASCII. The company has developed many Maker-based applications that specialize in specific genres. These should be easy to use even if you have no programming knowledge. There are many different types of game engines available, so it is a good idea to check them out.

The first step is to use an engine that can be developed without programming. Then, when you want to make a more complex game, you can try programming. Even if you want to make an open-world online MMO game, you should keep the project in mind. Imagine what would happen if a boy who just started playing baseball went to a professional baseball game. It is almost certain that you will end up feeling depressed and quit, thinking “Oh, I can’t do that” or “I can’t be like that.

To tell you the truth, up until two years ago, I thought that programming was something completely different from what I was used to. However, when I started programming, I found that I was able to use programming to some extent even though I was self-taught, as I repeatedly googled and googled and googled. Each day’s progress is just a little bit different. But after a week, a month, or a year, I was surprised to find that before I knew it, I had acquired sufficient skills. The most important thing is to build up your skills little by little, every day. And personal development, for better or worse, can be done at your own pace. So you don’t have to suffer from unnecessary stress and pressure. It’s very important to build up your learning every day.

Now that I’ve explained this, I think you understand the following.

  • The fact that game development seems difficult is just an impression.
  • The hurdles to game development are not high
  • If you have interest, time, and a PC with an Internet connection, you can start developing games right away.

Let’s try again. If you are interested in starting game development, let’s start right this moment. Let’s download a game engine right away.

The Official Web pages of Game Engines