 So in this new future of incredible new tools, technology and software, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and lost as to how to start your journey. And that's why today I'd like to share some advice and direction that may help you identify what your next move is. Now I have found the solution to most of my problems is to spend time where you naturally enjoy spending at most. If you're working on a project and your favorite part is 3D modeling, then don't be afraid to spend most of your time making models and then find tools to help you do the things that you're not interested like programming. If you're passionate about programming, then spend most of your time programming and then use other software to generate things that you don't really care about like animation or special effects. Now I know this sounds really basic, but I think this advice gets hugely overlooked, especially now with the dawn of new generative technology, there seems to be a huge push where people are trying to tell you not to use any of the new tools and just learn to do everything yourself because that's what quote unquote real creators would do. But there's a huge caveat to doing everything yourself that nobody really talks about that I think you really need to know because if you don't then reality is going to hit you in the face and by then it might be too late. So you need to be honest with yourself about what your goals are. If you are making a game or a project, are you doing it for the fulfillment of knowing you did everything yourself? If you are, then by all means knock yourself out and have fun making every single little piece of it. If doing everything on your own makes you happy, then do it because you'll probably succeed because you're doing what you love. But if you are not doing it for the sake of doing it, then odds are you are not going to get the same fulfillment doing everything yourself. Like personally, I wish I enjoyed doing everything myself. I mean, I really enjoy 3D modeling and animation, but I would be lying to you if I said that I also love UV mapping or that I love texturing or love programming, debugging, making sound effects, writing and storyboarding and voice acting and uploading and marketing. I've got things that I genuinely love to do and then there are things I really don't care about that are just required to complete the project. And I feel like this is really the crux of what determines whether someone is for or against generative technology. And what I mean by this is if you are the kind of person that believes the journey is the destination where your fulfillment comes from being on the journey and you don't really care where that journey goes, or if you ever reach the end, then if this is you, you probably are against generative technology. But if you're the kind of person whose fulfillment comes from reaching the destination like me, then generative technology will save you thousands of hours of needless frustration. Some people enjoy the process of making art and that is awesome. I fully support that. But some people do not like the process of making art and for others, art is just a necessary piece of the puzzle in a bigger project. And I understand this and I support that too because I have seen what happens to people who don't enjoy making art and try to force themselves to make it. I cannot tell you the number of programmers that I've had in consultations where I can see them just hate their lives trying to force themselves to learn to make 3D art and animations for their game and just feel completely wasted two years later. Because remember, your art is always a reflection of you. If there's parts of your art that you are not passionate about, then the viewer will 100% feel that and it's going to work against you. And if you've ever wondered what would happen if you went down the path of doing everything yourself, then I can tell you what that path is like because that was the path I chose before I started this channel. I bought the Kool-Aid. I took the bait hook line and sinker. I forced myself to do everything on my own even though I hated most of the process because I was told that's what I was supposed to do as a quote unquote real artist. So today I'm going to share a personal story about my experience doing everything myself and what happened when it was over. I don't normally share this kind of experience and information with people because it's very subjective and personal, but I feel like it's highly relevant to the big questions that many new young developers today are struggling to figure out. So I'm going to go ahead and share this now. If you've been on the channel before, then you probably know that I released my first game in 2019 on Steam. This was the first project that I programmed, directed and created nearly everything by myself. What most of you probably don't know, though, is even though that it technically says in the description that the project took four years to complete, in reality, that was just the time it took for me to learn to teach myself how to program in unity with C-Sharp. If you take into account the time it took me to learn how to model, texture, rig, animate, motion capture 3D characters, vehicles, weapons, bosses, and environments for the game while I was in middle and high school, then the true development time for the game was really about ten years long. Even longer if you count the time it took for me to learn how to create and produce music for the game. Nobody really knows this, but in addition to creating all of the models, animations, assets, engines, UI, and programing for the code of the game, I also created the entire soundtrack from scratch by myself. I learned music theory, major and minor chord progression, melodic harmony, and my fantastic brother even got me the producer edition of Fruity Loop Studio in order to create all of the songs. And this is why there are only nine songs in the game. Each song took me about three weeks to complete, and by the end of the ninth song, I had run out of time, money, and resources to extend development any further before release. And honestly, I genuinely really did enjoy and love producing music, but it was clear to me that I had reached my mental and physical limits with the soundtrack, and I had no more reserves to come up with anything else. Regardless, what I'm trying to say is, I learned how to actually do everything for this project. The 2D, the 3D, the images, models, textures, animation, engine, programming for collision, physics, special effects, weapons, attacks, bosses, UI, sound effects, soundtrack, story, voice acting, debugging, marketing, everything. Any time there was something I did not know how to do, I hunted down all the tutorials and information I needed in order to figure out how to do it. I was under the impression that if I could figure out how to do it myself, that I should do it myself. And in the end, that is ultimately what harmed and made my project suffer. You see, I was a 3D animator forcing myself to write a story. I was a 3D animator forcing myself to make music. I was a 3D animator forcing myself to learn to advertise and market. And the truth is, each of these things that I was forcing myself to do normally takes trained professionals a lifetime to master. The idea that I was going to pump out a AAA story on my spare time was never reasonable to begin with. What I really enjoyed was making animations and gameplay. So that is where I focused most of my attention. And the things that I didn't really enjoy or specialize in, I didn't do very well at. I poured my heart and soul into the gameplay mechanics because that is what I loved. But I can't really say that about texture maps or marketing or the story. Don't get me wrong. I didn't try any less hard on those other aspects of the game. I simply didn't enjoy and wasn't as good at doing them. And that was very apparent to people who bought and reviewed the game. And luckily, I feel like most of the reviews for the game were very honest and fair. A lot of it was, the gameplay was good, but the characters were bland. Or the bosses were fun, but the story was ass. Or the game was fun, but the soundtrack was basic. And for me, that made a lot of sense because those are the aspects of the game that I really weren't very good at. Or naturally enjoyed creating. You see, the fact that the basic soundtrack took everything I had to create did not matter. Because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the audience's experience. Was it a fun game? Was it a good game? That is all that matters to most people. Nobody cared how the game was made. Nobody cared how difficult the game was to make for one person. And honestly, that's just how it is. And that's okay. Because I just feel honored and happy with the fact that they enjoyed the gameplay, which is where I spent most of my time and effort. When people say the story sucks, I don't even really blame them because it's true. And I know it's true because I as the director did a poor job scaling down the story into a feasible size for the resources and time I had available. In fact, if you play my game now, please just skip through all the cutscenes because they're not going to make any sense. It technically has a story, which was basically the main character is a fighter pilot aboard a ship like the Enterprise. The pilot is proud and has firm beliefs of being a good officer that does the right thing. Early on, you encounter an enemy rival pilot who shares similar beliefs, but on the opposite side, we're just going to call them the evil Enterprise. And in the middle of the game, you have the opportunity to destroy the evil Enterprise, but your captain orders you not to kill them because they're unarmed. You have your doubts, but you're a good soldier. So you decide to listen to the captain and let them go towards the end of the game, though the evil Enterprise that you spared ends up regrouping and destroying your entire crew later on, killing everyone and the captain that you so loyally served at the end of the game. When you finally have the chance to destroy the evil Enterprise again, this time, instead of sparing them like your captain ordered before, you kill everybody and the game ends. That's the gist of the story, but it is so poorly executed that I'm sure nobody understood what was going on. My point is I could have made it a more enjoyable experience for the target audience if instead of trying to do everything, even the things that I hate, I probably could have made the game better if I had just focused my time and energy on what I enjoy about gameplay and animations and just had an AI to help me debug or chat GPT to help make a better story. Or instead of killing myself to make a soundtrack, use something like Ava to make better music that players think would have fit the levels better. You have to remember your art is always a reflection of you. Your feelings, your emotions will leak into your work unconsciously, even if you don't mean for them to. It was clear to everyone playing my game that I was not a story guy. At the same time, it was also clear that I was very passionate about high octane action and epic boss fights. And in a crazy way, the player can actually feel the emotions I had while I was building the game. See, in real life, when I was working on the project, I felt like it was a war just to build one more piece every day. I felt stressed and overwhelmed making it. And the farther into development I got, the more stressed I became and the more overwhelming and impossible it seemed. And that just so happened to be reflected in the boss battles. Every boss is bigger, faster and more overwhelming than the last one. And that really wasn't on purpose, it's just how I felt as I was making the project. So ask yourself, if you enjoy all the parts of the journey and you're just doing it for your own fulfillment, then sure, by all means, go do all the parts yourself. But if your goal is to create a better experience for your target audience, then I think the right thing to do is to spend your time and resources in a way that will provide your audience with a better, more enjoyable experience. Remember, nobody cares how hard you struggled to make the story or to make the graphics or to make the music or the sound effects or the programming. The only thing most people care about is, was it enjoyable and would I like to see more? And this has been my philosophy from the inception of this channel. For me and many others like me, the destination is the destination. The art is just one piece of the puzzle for the experience of the player. And if there's anything I can do, any tool or software available for an affordable price that I can use to create a better experience for my target audience, then I feel I have an obligation to use it because it's not about me. It's about the player experience. So keep this in mind if you're not sure about going down the path of doing everything yourself. I've been down that path and personally, I realized it wasn't for me. And after coming to this realization, I've accepted and come to peace with what I truly enjoy, which is crafting fun experiences for other people. So ask yourself, are you there for the journey or the destination? Let your answer help you decide what's best for you. I hope that helps. And as always, hope you have a fantastic day and I'll see you around.