information is spotty, and can sometimes be suspect. you just have to keep digging until you find what you need. asking here about specific issues can give you leads as to where to find answers.

money obviously makes things easier. you can take classes. you can buy gamedev books with code you can use. you can license content, farm out artwork, etc.

but money isn't required. most of the skills can be learned from online sources for free, you just have to dig. there are many adequate free tools available. i personally use MS visual studio 2012 express, june 2010 DirectX SDK, blender, paint.net, free clone stamp tool, anvil studio, audacity, greenfish icon editor pro, and inno setup compiler. together they provide a relatively turnkey suite of free tools for dx9 windows development. my only expenses are the cost of my pc, internet access, and something like $9 a month for a website (now that i have a game to beta).

skills you just have to buckle down and learn. a couple of my engineering related quotes come to mind:

"you gotta break a few eggs to make a REAL mayonnaise" and

"Rome wasn't built in a day"

IE if you want to do real game development, you're going to have to do some work. learning game development takes time. developing games takes time. its not rocket science, but its darn close. i know, i've been both. started in aerospace, then switched to software when the future dropped out of aerospace.

again, targeted questions posted here on gamedev can point you in the right direction for almost any gamedev topic. draw a triangle in dx11? someone here knows where a good tutorial is. latest siggraph white paper on atmospheric scattering? folks here know about that kind of stuff too.

one of the keys to using gamedev as a resource is to have specific questions, do your own research first (and be sure to search gamedev too!), then post if you're still stuck. there are developers here at all levels of experience, and odds are someone has been there and done that before. many times, as is so common in games, there are a number of ways to do things, and sometimes you'll get suggestions of viable alternate methods to choose from (each with its own pros and cons of course).

one usually doesn't just up and decide to learn game development, without some game in mind. what that game is for you, should determine the learning path you should take.

which leads to the obvious question of: "what kind of game do you want to ultimately learn how to build?"

note that i say ultimately, because unless your answer is tic-tac-toe or something of similar simplicity, you'll probably need to prototype a few different types of games in the process of learning how to achieve your ultimate goal.

as a solo indie gamedev, i'd say the biggest barrier i face is lack of advertising budget. but that's what free demos, a quality product (preferably the superior or only competitor in its class) , and word of mouth are for.

staying motivated over the course of long (multi-year) projects can be an issue - irregardless of team size.

figure out what you ultimately want to build, and folks here can probably give you the list of half dozen games to build to get you there. then get to work!

it can take a long time, and a lot of work, but it can be very rewarding. its one of the cheapest ways to do cool engineering and artwork stuff, as electricity is pretty inexpensive.

Well, TutorialDoctor obviously wants people to buy his yet to be super tutorials that promises to take those unfortunate zeros to heros in only 3 months.

Take a look at the history of GarageGames to see how you pimp the heck out of a game specific framework and quite successfully sell it as a complete game development package to zero effort people who think that they can learn how to become game programmers in only 21 days.. or perhaps 3 months, but not longer than that.

Peter Norvig wrote a great essay about the Teach Yourself WhatEvar in 24 Hours/Days - and asks the question: Why is everyone in such a rush?

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

And then he proposes a more realistic 10 year plan.

You have probably read it, but read it again.

And if you haven't read it: get the cork out and read it! :)

Information:

Generally, the larger game engine communities are big for good reasons which would benefit the raw beginner. They have methodical tutorials for learning the basic mechanics of game development in their development framework. Usually they assume that the programmer has at least a rudimentary understanding of the language being used. This is why I highly recommend that the raw beginner (noobie) spend some weeks or a month or two in making non-game applications with the language that the game engine uses. Intermediate coders can navigate most game engine learning curves without too much trouble, regardless of community size.

Money:

Much can be accomplished with no initial investment other than perhaps a computer itself and a few peripheral devices [such as a mouse ; ) ]. There are generous licenses on some game engines that allow you to get started with no cost. Usually software and smaller tools can be found which are low or no cost. Although it can be said in general that you get what you pay, some things which are no cost can get professional results even by the standards of AAA popular games, such as textures made in GIMP or shaders and animations done in Blender. Physics libraries such as Bullet Physics are no cost. Some pro software is available no cost for students under certain licensing conditions or no cost if used in a project that is not for profit. Art assets are have similar opportunities in every asset category.

Skills: Rarely do profitable accomplishments come with little effort. The more and better skills that you have then the greater your probability of success with any particular game.

Get skills! Game development is often hard work and giving it long hours of effort is the only way that some skills are acquired. Talent you have naturally but skills are earned with many hours of work.

The information to acquire skills is abundant, but you have to mine hard and deep for it. As my signature at the bottom has: Research is the intellectual spine of game development. Progress depends on research a lot in this field.

You might get lucky with little work and something falls into place, but don't count on that ; )

This helps you to appreciate the game developers who have spent literally thousands of hours and sometimes millions of dollars to create their first game with a lot of profit. Remember that everyone has to start as a raw beginner. You can do it, too. Being smart in your daily and overall decisions will make the difference between making games or not, but count on hard work.

Rarely do profitable accomplishments come with little effort.

Well, TutorialDoctor obviously wants people to buy his yet to be super tutorials that promises to take those unfortunate zeros to heros in only 3 months.

3 hours, but maybe not heroes.

The curriculum has 3 parts, and I have timed the first 2, and it comes out to 2 hours with no questions.

LEARN (concepts)

PLAY (see apps, games websites in action, and play with them) approx 30 minutes

CREATE (create a game)

3 hours (which is the time limit I have anyway) I can get the students on their way to making their own games. Of course, they should go out and do their research to become better developers.

As a start, the content creation will be handled. They will have a sample project to tweak at first, and even then, I am using a voxel modeling program that makes that process easier for beginners.

This post however was to start a discussion on the barriers you perhaps faced in the past, or still do face, and to discuss some solutions. It is mainly research.

That sounds reasonable.
Like a 3 hour primer. A game creating kick-start.

You can start create games with Scratch after a small introductory video tutorial, and followed up by one or two additional tutorial videos where more advanced concepts is being covered.
But it still doesn't exceed 1 hour.

Just a suggestive question: if you want to do research I think you probably should move on to something more methodical than Gamedev.net forum questions?

Just a suggestive question: if you want to do research I think you probably should move on to something more methodical than Gamedev.net forum questions?

A question about game development?

The responses here are usually very informative and helpful. Like the one 3Ddreamer provided.

Toolchain cost is not an issue in most cases.

Unity has a free edition that has everything you need for basic games.

Visual Studio 2013 is free for the community edition

Paint.NET and Gimp are free for 2D art, not sure on 3D tools but bet they are out there

I believe there is a free edition of Unreal that does not require the subscription but has licence limitations.

There are a mountain of free game engines that cover all your needs if you don't want to build from scratch.

What is listed above is a mother load of tool chain for a novice to wrap their head around :)

As for skills, there are mountains of free information, online lessons and how to guides to get you started. The old saying "I can tell you how but I cant make you understand" comes to mind as only you can have the drive to want to do it. If you don't have the focus to learn and improve then you will fail before the first hurdle :)

What you should attempt depends on your current skills. Don't think you will create the next COD is you do not understand basic coding etc. Start small and grow :)

Perhaps language and searching skills were a barrier for me, and lack of internet of course.

As with everything in life, you need two things to suceed in game dev: Hard work and money.

No Money > you need to work even harder.

Not able or willing to work hard > You need even more money.

If you are unemployed and broke, that is your problem #1! Forget game dev at the moment, if you are not a professional already. Find a job, and earn enough money to be able to afford some free time you can spend again on game dev. If you are a professional, forget your own projects for a time and find a job in the industry. Earn enough money to afford the free time to develop your own things again.

If you lack the education to get a job paying enough for covering your bills, AND getting you the free time and basic budget needed for game dev, go back to school, work hard, and get a degree.

About the skills: There has never been a lower barrier to entry into game dev than today. You can get tools, engines, and education/tutorials for free. On almost every subject you can think of.

Of course, as everywhere, quality costs money. But the quality you can buy for a sum affordable to everyone with a paying job today is quite amazing.

If there is a barrier to entry when it comes to aquiring skills today, its more about too much choices to choose from, and that with all the help available, hard work is still irreplaceable.

The barrier to entry on the money side is again too much choice (either you need ages to select the right tools to spend the money on, or you just buy all of them), and what the person trying to enter the game dev space is ready to spend.