Luna Rasheed
Hello indie devs, and welcome to this week’s post. As school and university lets out for many, it’s important to consider our summer breaks and what opportunities we as upstart developers can take to further our careers. While a break between classes is important for rest, it is also important to consider new avenues that open up for you if you have the time and energy to follow them. Let’s dive in!
Firstly, I recommend documenting any and everything you do down to the date you did it, the time it took, the resources you used, and the reason you attempted it. Having a book of work or a work log is going to be handy, and it’s a good practice to get into, no matter what field you’re in. Cataloging these skills will be helpful in the short and long term; you never know what skill will be called on in an interview, or in a chance meeting with an industry professional. There are a ton of resources for indie devs to scour online, a lot of them free, so don’t be afraid to try your hand at something new. Why not try your hand at game design? One incredible resource is Kenny’s free assets, linked here: https://kenney.nl/assets#.
You can access assets and starter scenes for free thanks to charitable donations from the community. Here’s another helpful resource, a post on itch.io’s forum about helpful resources on and off of the site. Please, as always, use your own discretion when picking resources or clicking links to an external site.
Try the Game Audio Learning roadmap, a huge course by Greg Lester and Johnny Sands, designed to accumulate their favorite resources regarding game audio in a comprehensive guide to break into the industry. Check it out here: https://www.gameaudiolearning.com/learningroadmap!
You could try the DNA CODEX, a database managed by DnA Creative that collects a myriad of resources and creative ideas from game devs to access. It’s updated every week at https://dnacreative.notion.site/codex, so check back frequently for more!
We spoke about accessibility in gaming a couple of weeks ago: here is a link to a straight-forward guide to accessibility in gaming for anyone to use.
https://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/. Be sure to check out its core contributors, listed in alphabetical order: Barrie Ellis, Gareth Ford-Williams, Lynsey Graham, Dimitris Grammenos, Ian Hamilton, Ed Lee, Jake Manion, and Thomas Westin.
More valuable than any tool I could link here is community. Community, community, community.
Nothing is stronger than a group of creators looking to better themselves and their community. Every resource on this list, every word that I type, every post from our weekly blog is the direct product of community, activism, and artistry all rolled into one. If you take only one thing from today’s post, it should be to find your people. Look online, in-person, go to your local library, anything. Now more than ever, what we need is to rely on our community.
Speaking of, you might be interested in participating in a collaborative event, such as a Game Jam or a Hackathon. These opportunities are invaluable for experience, portfolio building, networking, and testing your skills. It’s also very enticing for employers to see an example of what you can do with a team under a time limit. We here at ENTRY LVL are hosting our own Game Jam called ENTRY JAM from August 1st, 2025, to September 1st, 2025! If you are
looking to make connections with other indie creators, this is a great way to do it. I also recommend volunteering if you can to flex your creative muscles. It’s one thing to have an idea, but to actually produce something in the real world is difficult, and requires guts and practice.
Don’t be discouraged if you lose steam; producing art at a steady, consistent rate is a muscle that needs to be exercised, taken care of, and relaxed, just like any other skill. I’ll also remind you of the fallacy of self-perceived skill, documented pretty well in this Reddit post by u/Procrastin8rPro:
https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/k3akdm/selfperceived_skill_of_artists_as_they_improve.
So don’t forget: your perception of your work is going to fluctuate over time, so give it room to breathe and grow. Use this time to not only challenge yourself creatively, but also to rest and recuperate if the opportunity presents itself.
Have a great summer!
HOME 
Leave a comment