First, about me, I'm 18 years old and I'm also completely new to the anything in relation to something more specific than my computer Hardware.

I've heard from a certain someone that from what he knows about this stuff it's something that unless you're a genuine genius in, You can't pull it off.
I don't want to believe that, but I already know I'm no genius and I feel like I already missed my time to learn this things even as a hobby.
I just feel like I got into it too late and now I'm missing one of those things I want most, even though it was always right under my nose.
I hope you'll tell me I can succeed in it, but if the chances are too low to trust I would also like to know that.
Thinking about my age and how I have to start studying you can see why I am confused but, at least, I don't want to get depressed and just diss this important aspect of my life (Like my phsyciatric implied to me).
Thx.

Sure. We are all geniuses here.

Like, very genius.

You did not "miss your time". You are not "too late". And you are not alone is this kind of thinking.

As for genius, that depends on how you define it. For most definitions I would say no, most are not genius. However, most are quite intelligent.

You do need to realize that making games is very different from playing games.

Many people enjoy playing games and then posit that making games would be just as fun. It may be fun if you love that aspect of the craft.

For programmers, it means you need to love software development and enjoy the thrill of crafting high performance code. For modelers and artists it means you love building models and creating textures. For animators it means a love for animation.

If you say "I love playing games, therefore I should love programming games", and then you discover in your studies that you couldn't program a sorting algorithm to save your life, that is probably a sign that the industry is not for you.

The "someone" advising you is full of crap and should not be giving out such terrible advice. It certainly helps, and you'll probably do a better job, if you've got a reasonable level of intelligence, though the same can be said of most professions that involve creativity and analytical reasoning. Here's the thing though, most of the competency in a technical field comes from (a) a passion for what you're doing, which drives (b) a lot of hard work to learn the skills. You are at the perfect age to become a genius in this field if you are interested and really apply yourself. And I don't mean slog through and have a terrible time in the hopes of "becoming smart". I mean, if you're interested, passionate about sticking with it, and you keep trying, you'll get better and better, you'll learn more and more, and producing high quality work will become second nature. You really have to want it though. Having a vision of what you want to achieve and refusing to accept the advice of people who tell you that you can't do it is very important.

I will emphasize though again that you really need to give a shit about getting good. You need to really want to make amazing things, because without that drive, you won't keep forcing yourself to move out of your comfort zone and learn new skills. It's important to realise how your brain works. Struggling with something difficult is how your brain gets better at that thing. You struggle, you fail, you feel frustrated, and when you step away from it, your brain goes to work, optimizing its neural pathways and connections so that on your next attempt you'll have a better shot. And if you fail again, that's great too, as it means your brain will passively begin optimizing itself further. That's how learning works. Struggle and failure are a good thing and when you experience them, it means you're making progress. You only actually fail when you accept defeat and stop trying. You will read anecdotes on these forums (and others) from people who struggled to understand a given algorithm for days or weeks even, but finally cracked it. The more you do it, the more your brain optimises itself for this kind of work.

Good luck!

It really depends, also, on how you want to measure success. If you want to be the next Sweeny or Carmack, well, its going to take genuine genius to compete with genuine genius. If you want to be one of the guys writing engine code at a top company, you can back off genius maybe a step or so.

If I can make a sports analogy of all things, being one of these top-tier developers is like making it into the NFL or NBA. Those kind of folks are the tip of the top. But there's a whole lot of industry that isn't Michael Jordan that lets him do what he does. Games are similar in that behind every bonafide genius programmer are 10s or hundreds of other programmers, artists, designers, and business people.

If you want to be that guy, yes its a ton of work and I would hope for your sake that you're bringing some aptitude to the table too. But to make games that are enjoyable without pushing the bleeding edge of design and technology, its frankly never been easier to make a game. If you did well in high-school math, didn't shy away from the more-difficult topics, and maybe even took some college credits, you already know most of the relevant math stuff. Go get Unity -- You can learn from Tutorials and have a game in less than a week. Is that all there is to it? Absolutely not! I only mean to point out that the means of making a game are available to everyone, for free, and are very approachable -- Really the part that no tool can give you is the design chops and the gumption to see it through. Those things, and an eagerness and ability to learn non-trivial things and apply them to novel situations, are what you need.

Agree with the above posters. Don't be put off by anyone claiming that it's only for geniuses. They're full of crap.

I'm close to releasing my first game, after c. 1 year of dev during which time I taught myself C# to develop the game via unity. If I can do it, I'm sure you can. (when I started I was just familiar with computers, having played a lot of computer games during my life ). Btw, I'm 30, so you've got 12 years on me as well

My tips, based on the last year:

1. Pick sensible starting projects - if you're new, I'd say start with a 2D game. You can worry about the z-axis later. It's perfectly possible to make a 2D game that everyone loves, and it's much easier than making a full 3D world.

2. Break larger problems down into smaller ones - a video game is a huge collection of things, like art, audio, game design, and programming. And each of these is another collection of smaller areas. Tackle individual areas individually. Make lists, they help. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the size of the whole project, so don't worry about things until you have to. Not got an idea for a game yet? Then you probably don't need to worry about all those complicated programming language tactics. etc.

3. The easiest way (I found) to learn programming is to do it on a project you love - don't try and learn a whole language abstractly. Learn what you need to know in order to build the game. It's more fun that way (you get to see a result of your effort). It's like learning a foreign language. You can study books all you want, but it's putting it into practice that really cements it in your brain.

4. Read stuff - There's plenty of info online and in books about various topics. One of the best bits about game design (for me) is the wide array of stuff you get to read about. I've read about audio design, coding, AI and tons of other stuff. Especially when you're just starting out, find some good sites and read them, they'll help a lot. ALSO - there are some good online resources for learning the basics of coding, and you can do some free lessons online. They were really helpful for me.

Other than that, I'd say just dive in. Think about a game you want to make (that isn't too complicated - see point 1), and start to crack on with it. It's tough, but if you persevere, it can be very rewarding.

I would also recommend using a game development engine (I use Unity, it's great). They're really useful, and you can get started straight away. They also take care of lots of basic things for you (like physics) and provide you with a whole array of in-built programming tools and methods that make starting out much easier.

Trust me, the only barrier to success is yourself, and your discipline. You're 18, you've got all the time in the world!

Best of luck!

PS: if you want to check out my game that I've almost finished, the website is here. It's a doctor simulation game inspired by Papers, Please.

PPS: Forgive the shameless PR, but as this good Gamasutra article says, you have to be tenacious with your game dev PR

I'd flip it around, it takes a certain kind of stupidity to work in games =)

Determination and discipline will take you a lot further than intelligence in this field.

Hey, I started getting into game dev as a hobby when I was around 30. I was a programmer before, and a gamer, but to busy doing other things to start game dev.

You are certainly never to late to learn. And you don't need to be any kind of genious.

...

You just need patience and persistence. Learning game dev is a multi year process, depending what and how deep you want to learn it, and developing a game can also be a multi year process.

If that does not frighten you, go for it!

Being brilliant helps, but in lack of brilliance, I find being stubborn enough to keep trying to be a useful substitute in my own case.