   Please, need your advise...
  Hello, im new here and ive been recently considering on starting on game development as a hobby ever since i started studying programming in colleage. But to make a long story short i would like to have your advice on the matter before i even start. I know how hard it is to program even a simple 2d engine and i constantly hear people saying how impossible it is for a single person to program a decent game, but my quesion is, is it worth it in the long run? I mean what if i spent years trying to develop something only to find myself stuck in the middle of it and end up wasting alot of time?I dont mean to offend anyone is just that im a little skeptic on whenever or not to even try since most likely itll be an impossible task for me even if i graduate as a programmer someday...Thanks, i really need to hear your comments on this. 
  As long as you learn something, no failure, no matter how spectacular, is worthless. It''s really true. The only way to really learn, is by doing. ;  It may be [nearly] impossible for a single person to release a widely selling commercial game, but a single person I believe is still able to make decent games that can be enjoyed by a good number of people.  And more importantly, I would guess in your case, is that you   could very well enjoy it.  Game development for a lot of us is a hobby first, and may lead to a career later, but we do it originally ''cause it''s fun to do.  If you have an interest in programming, story writing, art & music, and/or general program design, I''d definitely suggest that you try it out.  I myself love   programming, love   designing things, am interested in story writing, and in art and music.  Game development encompasses just about everything I enjoy doing.  I fully encourage you to at least explore, and not be prematurely discouraged by others who tell you to be realistic/borderline-pessimistic. ;  realistically, most one-man game design projects fail. There are exceptions though. I fully intend to finish my game. I''ve been working on it for a year now and it''s coming along great.But like most hobbies, you never really "finish". If i finish the game i''m working on now (probably in a year or two) to a point where i can distribute it and have people enjoy the fruits of my thousands of hours of work, know what i''ll do next? I''ve got 4 other good ideas i''d like go at after this one! at 3 years a pop, that''s another 12 years i''ll be doing this. But even if you work your butt off on some grand dream of yours, and fail miserably (hey, even the pros do it with commercial games) you''ve now learned many things for your next big project. That''s true of anything. You might even have a great glob of reusable code. If i started another project right now, i could immediately rip out the networking engine and parts of the graphics code i already have. Woohoo! ;  Hi!I''ve been programming a long time; it''s my #2 love (just behind my family). Of all the programming I''ve done, I consider game (and other simulation software) the most fun and challenging, for a number of reasons.1) There''s a huge variety of technologies available, and you will eventually use most of them in building good games (COM, DirectX, different languages, .Net, ...)2) There''s great room (and need) for scientific work in gaming (math, physics, ...)3) Speed matters. Games alway push the hardware as hard or harder than anything else in the market. This means lots of room for creative designs and optimization4) Creativity: you''ll never have more creative freedom than when you''re building a gameThe point of all this is that whether or not you produce a great game, game programming will pay you huge benefits as a programmer. I constantly notice myself analyzing things in a way that is only possible because of my game work, both in and outside my career.As far as money goes, game programming on your own (or with friends) will teach you whether or not you love it, and give you skills that you might market to somebody for a professional game development job. A few one-man games make it big enough earn their creators $$, as other''s said above, that''s not the norm.That''s my two-cents worth. hScott 