0:04
Welcome to the sea. Hello. Welcome to the CG pro podcast. This is episode 74 With Gorka arounds Abell and Gorka is our special guest for today. He is a independent game developer, founder and CEO of of gofio. Games, studios, and has, in a short time done an amazing number of things. I'm looking forward to getting into those today. Where if you enjoyed today, you can follow us at become CD pro.com. And we're enough free Facebook group. And with that said, or one more thing, one more announcement, we do have an open day coming up on July the ninth. So sign up for that if you want to come and check it out. We've got Mad Max steam. So this Open Day, so come and check out some cool art and meet the CG protein. And with that said, Gorka, it's a great pleasure to have you with us today. Thanks for joining us.
1:02
Hey, everyone, it's a pleasure to be here.
1:06
Pleasure to have you here. And you are beaming in from sunny and while getting into evening time.
1:17
So from the Canary Islands, you thin you know, whether it's nice, you know, maybe there's some winds in the background, but it will add I guess, to the, you know, tropical atmosphere. So, you know, I guess it will show that will gain that you can also work from everywhere, right? You know, so bicycles does.
1:35
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, really, really great point that the world has become very connected place that we can do this live across that expanse of the planet, and also that you're able to do what you do. Not having to be in Irvine in California and in a place with, with lots of game studios. You You're representing a I think somewhat new movement in, in the game development. And I'm literally looking forward to getting into that. Ya know, no, absolutely. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about about you. And how you got started with all of this work was that was this something I know that you started when you were like eight years old, but it was a bit I've been with computer graphics? I was around a similar kind of age. But what was there something in particular that made you want to get started with actually making your own games? I know, you're probably playing them. But there's a big transition to actually start creating itself. What was the what was it that got you going with actually making your own games? Yeah,
2:44
so as you mentioned, I began pretty early, you know, eight, I began interested in basically programming and making my own games, really, the start comes from just one day thinking, you know, what a cool feature will be, you know, to add into this game, right? And, you know, we need to wait until the developers listen to us, and the game studios listen to us and implement it. Right. So it was like, what if I could just like, make my own game, and things like that? Right. So it was literally use a random they a random Google search, right? On how to kind of get started with with games, and just finding out that, you know, this huge programming and coding universe is out there. Also, I have to mention that from you know, the start my, my dad has really, you know, it's always really in the tech world, right. And he also pushed me to overall learn programming because, you know, I mean, look at it right now, you know, AI and all this stuff is really a big industry moving on. So really, like, you know, I was just overall wanting to try something new, you know, mini Gorka, you know, just wanted to do something different.
3:57
Was there a particular game that got you interested, or the one that kind of really tipped you over into thinking, No, I want to, I don't want just want to consume this. I want to actually do it.
4:07
Good question. I mean, there's probably a list of games that I can think of, on top of my head was probably like Minecraft, you know, in the early days, like, I guess that a lot of people especially, you know, playing on console, right, there's no mods, things like that. It was like, you know, I just want to go ahead and add my own, you know, new animal running around my farm, you know, so that, so I guess, I guess, probably that game was the one that kind of set the bar for me in terms of, you know, this thought on adding new things into games.
4:43
Right. Because I guess that it's customizable by nature. It's like a game designed to do that, right? Yeah,
4:52
yeah. I mean, you know, in PC Of course, that game has its own, you know, community of mothers and things like that, but Don't go on. So it was purely at least back in the day limited to what the studio would add. And, you know, me and others wants to add new things, you know, and overall,
5:11
is how we ended here, I guess. Right?
5:15
Yeah, no, that's it's really interesting. Just think of the point that points in time that inspired you to want to make a decision in order to switch over some inspiration from, from your dad, and the things that he'd experienced in his encouragement, which is awesome. But also your own experiences and wanting to pursue it, what what did you start doing? Obviously, customizing Minecraft? But what what were some early things that you did in terms of maybe programming or modding? You know, that's, as you said, it's something hard to do on consoles, but PC modding has been going for a long time, what what were some early kind of things that you started to explore?
5:55
Yeah, so actually, I didn't even begin with New Formatting Minecraft, or any game, basically, I began us learning the fundamentals of programming, you know, I mean, also got feedback from my dad. And what we did was basically search for simple online, kind of, you know, websites to learn to code and program. So, you know, I don't remember the names or anything like that, but it was basically some little websites out there that, you know, used like games, very simple to the to, you know, learn how to make good, right. You know, by blogs, it wasn't even like text, you know, because I was, like, at a time it is, unless we mentioned eight years old. So really, it was used, you know, this websites to kind of learn the logical thinking of coding, using blogs, or things like that. And it wasn't until a bit later, you know, it was when I was like, 10, or saw that, that I'd begun, you know, getting like an actual teacher slash mentor, and moved into unity. So also began using Unity as a game engine pretty early, with help of this kind of teacher slash mentor. And that's really what I, you know, got serious about game death in general, and really began to, you know, pick up things, and, and so on. So, yeah, basically, the transitioning was kind of odd, 10 years old, when I was like, starting to, you know, decide that this thing that I want to do a bit more, you know, and take more seriously, right.
7:29
So, it's that stepping into unity, where it's quite rich, and it's an environment, but quite technical, and you have to learn, don't have to learn code for everything that you want to do. But you have to get into C sharp and being able to, to make things be the way you want them to be.
7:45
Yeah, so I mean, it wasn't a jump, of course, like I mentioned, from this, you know, websites of use using blogs, to actual code C sharp, that's why it was fundamental for me, and, you know, to just pick up a teacher, and, you know, actually sit down learn. So, of course, you know, like, everyone, it took a couple of years to kind of understand how, you know, code as C sharp works, how to use it within Unity, and so on. You know, it took a bit of time, right. But, you know, I think I picked up pretty fast and managed to, you know, make some cool stuff pretty early. And I think the key really is used a teacher early on, right? Especially, you know, as me, I was 10 years old now, maybe, honestly, probably with, you know, resources and tutorials online, I could manage to kind of learn to code in my own. Right. But, you know, some years ago, I guess that having that extra eight, as an attorney, you know, someone tutoring you was, like, basically like a boost. Right? It was like, you know, accelerating my, my learning? By a lot, you know?
8:55
Yeah, no, I completely understand I did the same thing myself. And I found that even having information out there is still really helped having a mentor, because it feels like some some point, today, there's so much information out there, knowing which is the right information can be the tricky part.
9:13
That's true, that's true. You need to be careful out there, you know, to, to get from the, you know, great resources and so on. But, you know, there's a lot of cool, talented people out there that will, you know, make an awesome content and styles for free. So, you know, always those opportunities are great, even though maybe, you know, his coding skills are not the best, you know, it's out there for free. So that's always a plus, you know, you can also kind of learn on how to actually, you know, tune in into your own workflow, and be sure that actually what you're learning isn't a great way. But yeah, you know, you need to be careful out there, that's for sure.
9:51
With with the first kind of teachers that you had with a through school, or did you have to go out outside of that framework, and oh,
9:58
yeah, not everything was So out of school, you know, it was basically online. Right? There was this, you know, it was Spanish, so it was gonna easier for me to kind of have a direct communication with that. And you know, overall, yeah, it was it was outside outside of school. And yeah, it was, yeah, when I was eight, no 10. And I was with that teacher and to what I was like, and to I was 13 or 14. I was until I was 14. And so it was four years of used overall tutoring online.
10:38
Right. Amazing. What with some of the stuff that you were making in unity, how did you how did you kind of get that out there? Or if you like it, what were you making things and, and publishing your own little games? Was it more kind of you for your own sake? In the beginning? How did it start to grow?
10:58
Yeah, so, you know, I'm not very motivated person, right? Very ambitious. So you know, instantly when I started, you know, making games with him at night, so that actually, you could make like, actual cool games in there. Right. I was like, instantly wanting to make, you know, an actual game. And at least, of course, you know, first of all, I need to understand how the engine works. So, you know, first of all, was some products just for me, right to learn, you know, making like a mini game with tents or whatever. And then another thing. And, you know, later on, is where I actually begun working on a series, right? So it was basically like, three years later, from picking up unity seriously, what I decided to actually embark in a natural, like, commercial project. And it's where I basically went ahead and developed a small little game on Steam, which actually available right now, which is like a survival game. And, you know, it's basically that's basically my first like, series, right, let's say right out in the market get sick.
12:05
And it was all of you all done by yourself.
12:07
Yes. I mean, there was some
12:12
help and assistance from my teacher, which is still there was with me at the time. But of course, you know, they say 95% of the code, and everything was, was mine. So yeah.
12:24
Amazing. How, how
12:27
did that at some point transition into Unreal Engine? Using both? Or like, CFO preference? Yeah, good question.
12:37
So basically,
12:41
we went in five, came out what it was, like in 2021, something like that turned 22. Right. So I stepped into Unreal a bit early, actually, a bit early that I'm going to fight. So basically, you know, I was very happy with Unity, it was working just fine for me. But um, you know, always Unreal Engine attracted me, right? I guess that is just the reputation that it has with looking, you know, absolutely amazing. Literally low things in level, right. So I went and, you know, picked up unreal. Now, you know, the transitioning from unity to Unreal, surprisingly, was very straightforward. I think that, you know, just overall, you know, already having that knowledge on how to code doesn't matter if if it wasn't C sharp, if it wasn't C++, if it was in Python, right? Yes, overall learning, the fundamentals of coding and the comfortable thinking, right, they need to do the transition to blueprints, for example, right was very, very straightforward, literally, with a with a with a 40 minute tutorial on YouTube, I could by myself, transition to Unreal. And from there is where I started, you know, let's say mastering unreal, I fell in love with that, I think that is much more, let's say, made for games than unity. And, you know, instantly I gotta, like, you know, put in the book. And then with Unreal Engine five, I saw a huge opportunity, let's say out there in the market and for game devs to learn this new, like, branded game engine. And it's we're actually started uploading tutorials on YouTube. Right. And that's where I got the grind on and began on my journey on basically uploading the video every single day. And I think that's really where, where everything started, you know, in terms of my name as Gorka right now. So yeah, it was a straightforward transition for me, but, of course, a lot of previous years of, you know, learning, coding in general, right.
14:45
That's really, really interesting and important point. I think about programming that often scares a lot of people away from it is thinking that they pigeonhole themselves into one language and that then they'd have to relearn it completely. Have to go to another one, but as you say, is that they're actually very similar. Almost all of them have the same components to it, which makes it not so hard to swap between those different things.
15:13
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I believe that, you know, there's this thing where, you know, from, if you know how to kind of, let's say, take the skill of coding itself, you can adapt it really, really, really easily into other game engines into our software, you know, and other stuff, really, for example, even not only just coding, right, but even let's take just the 3d both right, we could transition very easily from unreal to blender, right. I mean, we have the same things that viewport, we have been the cannot be b2c tab with your tools, and so on, right? Of course, there's some things that you need to learn shortcuts and the world there is some axis that they missed out, right. There are different. But overall, is, once you got the base on overall game, that is pretty straightforward to transition to endgame. And that's why I'm not scared, right? Now. I could pick up good though, and learn it. Right? Very, not very easily, but you know, in no time, and that's why I encourage gamers to try out game engines, you know, you're not stuck with only, you know, unreal, if you start with Unreal, on your own only unity from the start, you know, you can go out and play around maybe a couple months, even this game engine, and then transition, right? Of course, I believe, and we went into the best one out there. But you know, it's your decision. And there's not really any, I guess you don't need to have that threat, you know, in your heart when picking up a game engine from the start? Or, you know, in general language, or it's all of that, right.
16:49
Yeah, it's very encouraging for people to hear that. I think that it's when you learn something that these actually, these skills are very transferable, as you're saying that you learn something in one area, and it opens up even outside of games, you can learn something, the things that you're learning, and you have learned in programming, and in 3d, they're all applied to a huge number of industries now.
17:15
Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's why you know, it doesn't really matter. Even if it's not even coding, it could be 3d in general from, you know, unity to blender or something similar. So I guess that's really also like, one of their strengths on overall the, the industry here, you know,
17:33
they say 3d, right.
17:36
Yeah, the demand for these skills, I think is on the increase that so it sounds it sounds like it was the point of which he picked up on real that it was the point that you started doing the tutorials in creating your YouTube channel, which has become really successful. What? What was the, do you remember the moment that you decided to start your own YouTube channel and why you wanted to do it?
18:01
Yeah, I remember that. Exactly. So I mean, the YouTube channel, I have it. Also, since I was eight years old. So I guess that when I was eight, I don't know how this got this, you know, boost in my ambition, right? And, and be like, a lot of things. But overall, you know, of course, I upload it, you know, just me playing games been done, right. And as it was, until I, like I mentioned, began with Unreal Engine five, where I saw this huge opportunity to teach people, you know, this new game engine, and to this new game that's out there, right. So basically, the day that I decided was, was, again, is a random day, I was on YouTube, and I, you know, have this video popped up on my feed, which was from vid IQ. It's basically like this channel where it helps you grow your YouTube things, you know, things like that. And I essentially, you know, you clicked on the video, and it was like, how to gain you know, 1000 subscribers in, you know, a month or something like that, right? And I was like, Wait, why don't I try, like, seriously to, you know, create content. And I think that now that I just, you know, saw that I'm doing five came out and a lot of people was like, you know, requesting learning resources. I was like, you know, I guess this is a huge opportunity. Like, why wait, you know, like a month or something of that. So that same day, I went up, open up OBS right, open up Unreal Engine and use decided on our tutorial, which I still remember, which is how to add wind into your Quixel grass. Yeah, and you just went and started the upload, and that they also decided that I would be very consistent and upload every single day. And I've pretty much managed to give that over the last two years. Now lately I've changed a bit in my my schedule, right my style because, you know, I mean, I've been making bigger videos and I want to kind of give more exposure to Whoo, this kind of bigger videos that I upload by leaving some, you know, space, and I, like, instantly upload on another video the next day, but, you know, let's say, a month ago, I still had that, you know, rhythm of a video pretty much every single day. So I guess that is just the, you know, decisioning something and discipline, let's say, it's really how you progress, you know, this things
20:28
that you found that help you as well making those videos?
20:33
Oh yeah, I mean of course, you know, making I have nearly 700 zeros, you know, also, like, boosted my learning and embryo of course I mean also, you know, to be honest, I don't I don't know everything about unreal no one knows everything about real game there. Right. So, you know, for new tutorials that I wanted to achieve or new features that came out, I also need to learn them myself in order to show to the people how how it's done. So of course that, you know, kept me pushing and overall, you know, let's say master more the game engine itself.
21:10
Right. So it gives you a reason to learn the thing and have to learn it thoroughly in order to be able to make the video. Yeah, exactly.
21:18
I mean, yeah, it's really a silly way of saying that, you know, it obligates you to learn it correctly, so you can explain it correctly. Right? And to understand that a bit to implement in your game, let's say,
21:33
right? Yeah, it's a gift of teaching is that you? You have to or you should learn something properly so that you can somebody else? That's right. Yeah, I often find them when I run a school at this point, I'm very, very much resonate with that. And having to to this, one of the gifts of being able to help people is wonderful and very rewarding. Something I found a bit later on in life. But yeah, it the gift is also somewhat somewhat selfish, it makes it it can make you better at it. What do you have any, any advice for people starting out with wanting to create their own YouTube channel? Specifically?
22:15
Yeah, so definitely, I think that also, apart from us, overall, people that want to create a YouTube channel for anything, I think that in the game the world, there is a huge opportunity here, like I'm doing to educate people, or also promote your own game, which is essential these days, which, you know, there's a huge competition, right? I think that one of the strongest marketing tools right now is basically deadlocks with YouTube. So for the people that want to use overall start to, you know, maybe this on YouTube, I believe that the first thing they should do is find their niche, right, everyone says that, but it's true, you have to specialize on one thing you cannot use go all over the place. So for example, in my case, it was teaching Unreal Engine five, right? For you might be, you know, creating challenge videos on, you know, on making a game in 24 hours, things like that. There's also a lot of popular videos on that topics, right? So you know, is, first of all, find your niche, and then just go ahead and get to work, right? I mean, like I said, my trick was to kind of set my myself go, and, you know, upload a video every single day. And I also went ahead and did this in summer, so it was easier for me because I will have more time, right? So so Also I've had the kind of the convenience, but there's a very, I think strong piece of advice here, which is overall, if you want to start a YouTube channel, start now like why wait, you know, like I said before, as soon as I saw that video popped up in my feed, I instantly went ahead and made the video right I didn't wait into this idea of creating videos for two months. I never did it right. I mean, right now for this people right now in the podcast, right? If you want to start to create, you know, your YouTube channel or market your game, or you know, educate people go ahead and create a right now you know, start working on that video, start to type your, you know, ideas into the notion board or whatever, you have to manage your things. And, you know, open up OBS start recording an essay, it doesn't matter if the quality of the video isn't what you want still, and you need to learn anything or whatever. You know, there's a lot of approaches to deal with that. But overall, the best way to kind of get better is practice and write. I mean, you know, my first video was was fine. But you know, I mean, after 700 videos pretty much, you know, my my my way of teaching and recording and everything has, let's say improve, right? I mean, and that comes from practicing. So you know, for everyone that wants to, for example, create a YouTube channel. Go ahead, find your niche, put in the discipline, right you will actually post you know, regularly and so now why wait,
24:58
you know That's fantastic advice and advice that applies to all sorts of things, not just YouTube videos, but games, too. I'm imagining many people myself, yeah. Would you say it's fairly similar with making your own game?
25:14
Yeah, I think it's very similar. I mean, the same concept, right? You have this game idea. And you don't know how to make games? Or to, you know, learn how to make games, right, open up YouTube. Pick up a good style. I mean, I'm not saying that you should go to my channel, but I have a good gun in there. Right. And, you know, you sell to you. Yeah. I mean, I'm just saying I have over well, nearly 700 tutorials out there. So it's a huge library. Right. I think it's a huge opportunity for you to learn. But yeah, you know, overall, is is just, I guess, you know, planning out your journey. And starting right now. I think that's the trick, really, with discipline and motivation, right? I think that discipline is more important than motivation. Motivation comes in a short term, and the beginning is what you need to get started. And to light up that discipline they need for the rest of the day. You know, I mean, for example, in my case, there's days that I didn't want to make a video, there's days that I didn't want to edit a three hour masterclass that I did, you know, things like that. But it's just the, you know, the discipline that keeps you going the same for making a game, right? Maybe you want that you don't want to code that, you know, replicate that inventory system using C++ struct and sink it into, I don't know, Amazon servers for your MMO. Right, but you know, you need to do it. Right. And it's the only way to keep going. So overall, I guess that really, that's, I guess, the trick to get going, you know, complete tasks, especially your game. Right.
26:54
Yeah, I want to ask you more about that we have we have a good number of your your followers here saying some very cool stuff in the chat. Just so you know, and I
27:05
don't really see this because I'm, I have only one tab open with just the platform frustrated, but I imagine there's some people here.
27:13
Yeah, yeah, there's definitely got some friends here saying saying nice things about your what you do and what you contribute to the world and how you've inspired them. So it's a question coming up as well. I'll bring up in a second. One, one interesting comment from somebody says, The Unreal Master isn't actual real person.
27:36
A real person? I'm not I'm not AI or a road here, here. Yeah. Yep.
27:39
Absolutely. And
27:43
I want to ask you about one of the points you just made, because that the the D word discipline is, is really, and versus motivation. Because motivation doesn't last, right? It's something which just tick you off in a moment. But what you need to finish something that like a movie that could take four years to make, or a game might take longer than that to make is that how do you? How do you approach discipline? How do you approach those moments? Because we all have them when we want to have a challenging time, or just you just don't feel well or you don't feel like you want to do the thing you want to do that day you're supposed to do that day? How do you how do you get yourself through those challenging moments? With discipline?
28:25
Yeah, good question. I mean, well, for only 30, you know, on every case, I have my own goal, right? I want I want to achieve something, right. And from very little, you know, we all have our goals, or whatever we want to do. But overall, I guess that is just remembering yourself where you want to go, right, and I mean, everyone has their own route to do this, their own way to do this and their own time to do this. For me, for example, it was, you know, beginning, let's say, my game, that journey and starting up the videos daily on my YouTube channel, right? Overall, I guess that one, for example, there's a day that you don't want to do a video is to always look at your progress. You know, there's always progress that has been made. In my case, for example, let's take an example where, you know, I was starting up, and I got my first you know, let's say 1000 subscribers right now, and from there also, there was days that I didn't want to upload a video, right? Because, you know, it's hard to upload a video every day. But, you know, I looked back at all the progress that I made from the start room. And although the progress that I still have to go that I personally want to achieve, and is used, okay, let's keep pushing, you know, I know that it's gonna, you know, take me some some time today to make this video and I don't really want to I want to go to the beach, or whatever, right? But let's go ahead, take a moment, grind it up. And you know, later on, the resource will start to show up really is a thing on long term, and not so much on short term, right? But yeah, the guys, the best trick is to look at your current progress they have done, you have advanced, let's keep pushing, you know,
30:12
right. So it's encouraging to look at the things that you have done and not focus too much on a big goal. That's a way out. Because that can be daunting, but just look at the things that you've already accomplished and know that you're going to continue to accomplish things at that rate. But but not wish the thing that's maybe two years away to happen today, because that can be frustrating. Yeah. Yeah,
30:37
I guess, therefore, you the same thing, you know, you create this really cool big events, you know, and so on. So I guess that, you know, you have your goals of, you know, making even bigger events, teaching people things like that, right. So I guess that everyone is really related to what I said here. And overall, this discipline, packed, I guess, I put
30:59
things on the wall, I've got things up on the wall right here that are things that I've done before, and then some things next to it that have things that I want to do. And if I did those, I got those done. And then at one point, I thought I would never do them. But I did. And then those things next to it are like, Yeah, I don't think I could do those. But if I did those, then maybe I could do those. So that's it.
31:23
You need to take notes on that. Yeah, I might even kind of put it up for myself. Yeah, I don't really honestly, I don't really have them, like necessarily written down. You know, I always have them in my head. But also another key thing is, I guess, visualization. And so every single day, I go out to my literally here, right in the outdoor, right. And I you start to think and and visualize, you know, me achieving goals. Keep on the progress. And all this stuff. And I do this every single day doesn't matter if it's here in the shower, you know, but I'm from very little, I guess is he's in my head always thinking, I want to do this, and I want to do this. And literally when you start to guess to achieve those things, is visualization. Like let's say it gets bigger in your head, and you start to imagine things more precisely, and they start to become through, let's say, right? So I guess that our true factor is to believe it right? Believe your game releasing out there on Steam and being on the highlighted page, right? Believing you in the I don't know, the three events Viners not anymore, but you know, a similar one, right? And you're there in the stage, announcing your game, with your game trailer appearing on the screen, everyone typing right and being like, on IGN or things like that, right? It's overall, believing that you will do it, like actually truly believing. And, you know, as a matter of work, you will achieve it. So that's, I think, also a very important factor. Right? When it relates to Game Dev, I guess.
33:04
Amazing. Did somebody teach you that concept? Or did you figure it out?
33:08
Well, I'm from very little. My dad is a very good mentor, you know, he he always told me to, yeah, so even like maybe no, of course, necessarily on game day, right. But on for example, let's say very little school, where I had like a sports tournament or an exam or some of that, right? It was to go within, you know, do some like relaxation techniques, and visualize, visualize you going ahead and picking up that trophy in that sports event or whatever similar. So really, my dad very little introduced me to kind of this mindset, or this technique, let's say of visualization. And I guess that instantly subconsciously, it came into me, right? And since then, every single day, I'm like, Oh, they're used, visualizing different things going on. On for example, me presenting a game on an event, things like that, right? Everyone has their own kind of, let's say, go to the one to achieve. So that's a good technique. That worked for me.
34:17
Amazing. Well, sounds like you've got a great dad. And if dad's listening, got lots of
34:24
listen to it afterwards.
34:27
Fantastic. I want to bring up a couple questions that are coming in. Yes. So somebody's asking which part of Unreal was the hardest for you to learn? Niagra animations, etc.
34:44
Yeah, I mean, each for me, real is a very, very, very big engine. And it has me if it's things and many first things I don't, you know, I maybe mess with them a bit right, but not entirely. So let's say for example, I guess that, um, you know, Niagra is hard, right? And for me, for example, I can make some basic particles, right. But more than that is it's hard. Right? I think that's honestly, I was one of the hardest behavior trees AI is also like a big thing, overall. And, you know, but really what I think that is the hardest part of our interview is joining all of that, right, you have all these sections of animation, 3d modeling, blueprints, code, and overall, just joining everything into one and making sure that the work is I guess, the hardest part, you know, having like a natural and, like kind of result working right. And also against that the hardest part was stepping up in terms of blueprints. So things like, you know, practice, like not having all your code in one Character Blueprint, right? split everything into multiple actor components. Using databases, you know, we're always used to learning more, let's say, parts about unreal, and knowing how to combine them and use them all together, I think that's really the hardest part. There's no specific one. But it's overall, making everything is synced together. Right. And in my case, I think it was kind of that area, right? Where you step up a bit into more of an advanced level and start to use one of their cool, you know, features.
36:29
Right. And some companies are asking, Where do you find collaborators? I guess, on the games or projects that you're well,
36:39
yeah. Yes. So for example, you know, I make for the people that are no, I participate, you know, every so often in game gems, or, you know, recently I released a video where I invited 10, game devs to like, compete on a video to make the best game under an hour, things like that. Overall, I do in my Discord server. So you know, the link will be available in all my videos. And basically, we actually have a huge unreal community in the discord server, there's nearly 8000 members. And you know, I'm super happy with the community there. Because, you know, it's just a huge, you know, let's say list of Unreal developers that are helping each other sharing their games, their progress. And every so often, I go there, go to like, for example, the showcase channel, and you'll see me work cool. That's our making, right? And, for example, I see this specific discord member that I don't know, this kind of prototype, looking like Uncharted. I said, That's a cool, I'm gonna reach out to him. And you know, possibly just invite him to a video later on. Or, you know, maybe he's talented, and I'm out to work on a project later on, or in a game jam, you know, so I guess that this quote, and also Twitter, right, but mainly for people involved in my community, Discord.
38:02
Raising? Well, that ties into a little bit to another question that came up from our own. Lily Tuttle. She is asking, do you find it hard to not be connected to the gaming industry, where you currently live versus being say, in a more concentrated area of game companies? Like a Southern California or? Yeah,
38:22
good question. Good question. Well, actually, I'm not really, I mean, first of all, is that I've been, you know, living all my life in the Canary Islands, right, in this little island. Of course, I've, you know, gone to different parts, like, you know, let's say, that are more connected, like even Silicon Valley itself, right? Where I was crazy, right, all these tech companies over there. So I haven't tried the other side of, you know, actually, like living, you know, and working there. But from what I've experienced, and from what, you know, a lot of other people in our community say, it doesn't really matter, because now the online world is you so big, that you can do everything from, you know, from where you want, right? Especially game that, you know, again, they've the majority of studios lately, especially in the US, right? Oh, work online, right. They don't have like a set studio anymore. Right. I mean, I'm speaking very broadly. But you know, there's a very, very big number of series studios right now that, you know, we're all online, and they don't have like a studio. So I think that's really important that you don't need to spend all that money if you want to make like a studio on renting out on Orpheus and all this stuff. You can do it online, in this court code, right. organize everything from there. So I think that's very important.
39:45
One of the silver linings of COVID Is everybody realized that we could do that? Yeah, well, the only good thing I guess about that pushed a lot of things forward in remote working and also first Yeah, I made huge advances
40:00
in that terms. Yes, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Everything
40:05
that you difficult that you go through is always a gift. Somebody saying here, he's like the Tony Robbins of Indie Game Dev right now. Yeah, I
40:15
think I went, motivating myself a lot of there in my speech, but
40:20
it's it's really important, I think, for people to understand that this was possible. You know, I think you're, you're showing that that example to people was was possible, and also how you do it, breaking it down to something that's really quite straightforward. It's not people, I think often look at people have achieved bigger things and think that there's, there's some magic to them. I'm not saying there's not any magic to use, but but the way you're breaking it down is sharing with people that it's habits, and those are quite, fairly straightforward. Yeah, I think that's the Yeah, I
40:53
see that all the time. You know, people, like, for example, in the comments in my video saying, Oh, I would love to have my, you know, game out there in steam sailing, you know, and YouTubers play? And it's like, well, you actually can, you know, it's just getting to it, you know, it's not so much about thinking it. Also, of course, like I explained before, but actually, you know, starting up and getting to 20, you know, so everyone can achieve it. I'm, I'm a normal person, like everyone like, you know, is, is just going ahead and and get into it, I guess. I
41:29
love I love that about this conversation about how relatable it is. It's very practical advice that you're giving to people basically, talking about the habits, the things that you do daily, the visualization, the goal setting the many things that Tony Robbins does talk about this.
41:50
Interested in, because I haven't actually listened to, you know, Tommy Robbins or similar?
41:56
It's the same concept. A lot of lots of different people. Yeah, well,
42:00
I guess it's just what works, right. Yeah,
42:03
yeah. And what works is more, I think, more straightforward than people. Imagine. Most of the time. I think people distance themselves from big goals and thinking that they're unattainable. But really, as you're saying they are, they are achievable if you if you just take it one little piece at a time. Yeah. Do that consistency is the key, though, right? Yeah,
42:25
yeah, I definitely believe that. I think that discipline and consistency, work together to overall, you know, achieve what you want, I guess,
42:34
how much is this community, important to you in terms of continuing to be motivated and continuing to keep moving?
42:45
Well, very good question. You know, overall, the community is really what kept me to push forward, really, in the YouTube side of things, right. From the start, I guess that, you know, since I started to produce tutorials, and videos, and people started to find them, you know, helpful. Overall, the feedback, allow me to get pushing, and to also believe in myself, right? It's very important because made from the start, and happened to me, I believe that will my tutorial, maybe this is always amaze or great, but then when you receive the feedback, it's like, oh, actually, it's better than what I thought, you know, and actually, I'm better at explaining things, also, from what I thought, right? So we're always, you know, the feedback would keep me pushing on. And it played a very important role to grow my YouTube channel, definitely. And also learn Unreal Engine for myself, right, because it motivated me right to, to go ahead and keep on with the engine, and believe that it was also the correct decision, and things like that. So definitely, the community played a huge role. And that's why I also give so much to do it right. From the huge Discord server. So too many events that I do, to selecting, you know, community members to participate in my videos, you know, things like giveaways, things like that, you know, I love to just work also with my community. Right and, and keep pushing.
44:13
That's definitely a good number of them here. Another question from one is, Gorka, you've taught me so much about Game Dev and unreal. How do I send you a little thank you?
44:26
Well, I mean, by being here is more than enough. You know, really, the support as I mentioned, yes. In the comments, and in the discord and things like that, is we're really used, you know, goes into me and I continue to work on Yeah, yeah, have my Patreon page and whatever, but that's all a part that's really to benefit you actually, with all the resources profiles and things like that put in right and of course, that's, you know, also thing that helps me to get going but really, the main In support, you know, even though it sounds stupid, but yes, comes from just, for example, you've been here right listening and our our taking part in the conversation right in the chat and things like that. So we do run out of money.
45:16
Another question that came in is, is I think I'm asking this right is unreal five on Mac worth it? I don't know if you use it on a Mac. So
45:26
yeah, good question. Me personally, I haven't tried it. So I can't really confirm that. But overall, I've heard good and bad things, you know, for this new version of Apple silicon. Overall, I think that too, if you want to, for example, learn unreal, is, I think that is going to be more than enough, you can go ahead and download it right now and start to learn unreal, and make some cool products. Now, if you're gonna go seriously about it, or you're already advanced in unity, or other game engine, or whatever, and you want to, like, for example, make a serious commercial game or something similar. I believe that when those is the best option, use overall, generally in the game of wealth, because of the tech features. But you know, if you just want to learn on wheel, I'm also going to definitely work personally, I guess,
46:19
not a great answer. And similarly in, in our school as well. It's not as good on a Mac. There's no two ways about that. But it's certainly functional and good for
46:32
exactly. That's the thing. Yeah.
46:37
Someone asked, Do you just learn on the go? Not knowing everything, but on the fly? Interesting.
46:45
I guess that's around real things. Right? Um, good question. Yeah. So for example, let's say this new feature game comes out, right? Let's take I don't know, meta sounds right? Overall, this is going open up Unreal Engine, and taken out their documentation, right, it's in a bit the basics, and just trying out some basic stuff. Is, I guess it is steps. First of all, it's learning the fundamentals. I guess we'll use the unreal official tutorial or documentation. And then also, as soon as more people specialize on that, right, and bring up also cool tutorials and resources. I also learned from them, you know, I'm not the only one seen YouTube videos to learn real, you know, even though I make them myself, I also go ahead and just start to watch those on YouTube and see how I can learn new, you know, parts of unreal. So really, I guess that also, as soon as you know, kind of how the game in your game engine works. You pick it up faster. But still, I need resources nine to learn new features. Absolutely.
47:59
Yeah, it's I came here. I run a school teaching Unreal Engine and I do tutorials. Yeah, I imagine right.
48:05
Yeah. Learn everything you know, from the go. Right. And it's your when you have some, you know, experience but not instantly, right.
48:14
Yeah, yeah. There's a huge community and I love the fact that people doing putting so much out there for each other, we're all learning from each other to some extent, sometimes they want to know a little more of a class and more structure as you take my own courses, but I have the luxury of doing that because my school when I split, but do plenty, plenty of YouTube learning as well. Yeah, it's really really Yeah. When I was starting out in computer graphics, I'm old enough that it was books you know, with, right,
48:45
yeah. Yeah, I mean, recently, you know, online, I guess terrain has really gone crazy. So it's really nice. Yeah.
48:56
Somebody is asking about your pipeline for recording and publishing your videos. So
49:02
good question. So I have let's say I'm perfected my workflow right to enable me to make a video of pretty much every single day. So what I have is first of all, a big notion board right? I have a big dashboard is absolutely huge. With literally, like, let's say hundreds of video ideas. So what I do is every day is go ahead and pick one right? I could also sometimes what I do is have like a day where I go in and plan out a whole week right of videos. And I put this there's gonna be this the this next day this and this. But Allah days I pick up a video that I like, and as soon as I have that topic, what I do is decided what I need, do I need a 3d model to the node? You know before starting the video or not, do I need like a sword do I need like a sound if you're making that Throwing bowling that if if so go ahead and pick it up. And if not, I used to go ahead and open up on the window. Next up, of course open up OBS, and overall is just started recording, right? I have my kind of video layout, right? Where it is basically intro right showing up the results, and then the tutorial and an outro. So what I do is press record, say the intro, an insulin use begin with a thorough as normal is also a thing easier if I don't have my facecam. Right. So that's why also, you know, I can use to be, you know, more and more straightforward with this. But let's say that once the recording has ended, I go into my software, which I use DaVinci Resolve to edit. And what I have done is this template, right you have this template that I built for, you know, and I build this in the beginning when I actually started making videos, or like over two years ago, and this, this template of the things that I need for the video. So it's the music already played in the timeline, the outro, the, the sound effects, the text that will put how to literally have it like in a template, how to and then a space. And that can just quickly type it in, right. So it will enable me to kind of make it quicker, let's go ahead and pour the video, put it in the timeline and to grow used edit it very, very quick, right? The good thing is that I don't do a, you know, fancy editing or whatsoever, I go straight to the point. So as soon as I seen the wavelength of the audio goes down, I know that I need to make a cut because I you know, start speaking with terrorists I use cut it up. And that's it the good thing or know how to do it is that I, you know, thankfully don't make so many mistakes. You know, I don't know, it's easy to practice also, those nearly 700 videos, right? I probably isn't the same for you at. But overall, I think that trying not to make mistakes saves me a lot of time in post production, right? So as soon as the video is ready, right? Just go ahead, export it, make the thumbnail and upload it to YouTube, right? Pretty straightforward. Again, with a thumbnail have like my own, when it's going to have like my own kind of layout where I drop the image in from Unreal, fill in the text with Unreal logo and export. Right. So really, as you can see, there's a lot of like templates that I made. And that's key, right? Sometimes you have to spend a little time from the start, even though you will not have a result to then enable you to later on, make videos for example, faster, right? So that's really my workflow. You know, it changes depending on the situation and things like that. But briefly, that's
52:43
basically it. Yeah, again, great advice for doing all sorts of things. If you can create structure for yourself, then you help yourself save time and reduce friction being able to start.
52:55
Yeah, that's great. Yeah,
52:56
the same for you know, making a game, you know, having a big notion board with all the tasks they need to do, then those are some things that I cover, like online mentorship that I offer in one of my patrons series, right. And as really what I focus on for those that want to actually make a serious, you know, commercial game, right. And I think that organization is also key for making your games.
53:20
What are you working on right now? Game wise?
53:23
Well, right now, good question. All right. Now, of course, my main focus is, you know, YouTube, so you know, it's really make it stylish, right. And this varies from quick 10 minute tutorials to three hour masterclass is also really useful. So, let's say that each of those, let's say big videos is on point, right. But overall, if you're asking, you know, externally, apart from that, really have a second course going on, right? Like, let's say, you know, outside of YouTube, right, which is kind of game that TV, I don't know, if you know about them, and you know, is basically making a second course, which is I guess, more quality content, let's say because I have the time, and the team to make like, let's say more quality, educated videos, and then also have more challenge videos coming up involving again, my community, so be sure for that in this court, and then also planning on starting a next commercial game. Now, there's no really date for this. But I'm kind of assembling a team, let's say and in having them in my network. So when I'm ready to actually go out, we'll be ready. But also I want to kind of make a podcast in the future. So this is actually a pretty cool project to be here to see how you organize everything, you know, for for kind of the game of wealth. So that's that's kind of my plans right now. There's some or that I don't, you know, I'm not going to share because, you know, surprise, right. But yeah, that those are the overview I guess we could say.
55:10
Fantastic. Well, yeah. Love, love to see the podcast go out there and definitely encourage that it's a great.
55:18
You'll definitely be I guess, you're saying, Oh, that'd
55:21
be great. Yeah, I'd love to. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know that community is a huge part of it the same same deal here. And it's great to be able to, to do what you're doing has amazing benefits of being able to bring people back into your world and connect with people and see very, very interesting how it works in that way. The more that you give, the more that things do come back to you. There's something kind of I don't know, almost biblical about, about that. Yeah, very, very cool to see what you're doing and how it's showing up in the world.
55:57
Thank you.
55:58
Yeah, no, it's clear from all the people who are here, as well as another couple of questions from your audience. Somebody asks, What are you most excited about in upcoming releases? And what areas of the engine Do you think need the most attention? Epic?
56:13
Good question. Well, the big thing here is all of that came out recently is motion matching, right? I don't know you also know about the EAD. But look, what you can then write with this little template that they released, and even the the plugin itself that you can make your database and things like that. I mean, I think that it will enable indie games to use look way smoother, and look more like triple A games without the need of, you know, so much work, honestly. Right? I mean, yes, to the still, motion matching is huge, and so on. But that's why also the template is out there. I'm gonna go ahead and, and get into, right. So I'm very excited about that. I want to learn it even more. So, you know, this is an example of learning more things about unreal, right, I need to go ahead and deep dive into it, see already resources out there and how others are doing in and so on, right. And then later on, giving that information to resource in myself that it seems that, you know, some people like right and in the way that I explained things, and then in areas of the engine that I think need more work. I mean, right now, on top of my head, I can really think of it. I mean, let's be honest, in general, the the engine, I like a lot. Sometimes I guess that it will be nice. Some more, you know, assistance in the connection between online repositories and things like that. But that's really, you know, of the engine, you know, like having your GitHub repo. So you know, you pride is backed up, and more team members can access it. But yeah, I mean, on top of my head, farts of the engineers were worried coming, bro, there's a million, but I can't really think of it.
58:01
It's just that good.
58:03
Yeah, is that good? Definitely not. But, you know, on top of my head, I don't know. Yeah, I guess.
58:12
Yeah. Interesting question that came up there for me is how do you collaborate with other people on your projects? What do you use for collaboration?
58:20
Yes. Oh, good question. So what I do, as I use said is, of course, I have a repository, right? I mean, this is on world, there is multiple services platform tools out there. But really, the simplest way to go is using GitHub, right? GitHub is very popular, you probably everyone in the title, we're going to have heard it in the past. But overall, a repository is essentially like, imagine your project packed up in the in a server, right? And it allows you to have, first of all a version of each, you know, feature that you added, things like that. So if you mess up, you can go back. And also it enables you to add set, collaborate with others, right? So for example, you are working on your pride, the repository is in GitHub in the cloud, you upload your changes, now, it's in the server, and then your teammate goes ahead and downloads the service. What are the changes in the server, right? And now it enables the other person to have the changes, right? And you don't need to like imagine manually change the hard drive and things like that. That's stupid right? Now, we have the tools to do this online. So GitHub is the way to go. And then I will say that the simplest way is also use GitHub dekstop, which is their own version control software, right, also, Florida, but I use personally SourceTree. I don't know if you know about it, but it's a bit more advanced, you know, for all this kind of things. And also getting that which is similar to GitHub, but it has some extra stuff, things like that. But I guess that the way to go GitHub, and GitHub expert right is I guess The most straightforward way.
1:00:03
That's a great advice to folks out there. And also interesting seeing what's happening with Unreal fortnight. I was curious if you, because that has its own kind of built in mechanism, which is free. I'm curious if you're dabbling in that world as well.
1:00:18
Yeah, so actually, good question. I haven't actually gone so much into Unreal four. And I have, you know, played around with it a bit. But honestly, not not so much. You know, I don't know, if it doesn't drive me crazy. You know, I think it's good. But overall, I prefer to kind of go into the native when we went in, and kind of build, you know, the military assistance by myself. But I think that for a lot of people, especially new ones that I want, don't want to learn unreal, specifically for game that can use Unreal Editor for fortnight to learn way easier, right? Because I mean, you know, things are made already. And you can use drag and drop, for example, the weapon spawner. And it will work, you can pick it up things like that. Right. So I think there's a huge opportunity. But personally, I haven't, you know, dive in so much into it, but it's something I want to do you know, more often?
1:01:13
Well, yeah, it's great. I think it's great advice there for people starting out because it does remove a lot of the friction, things that can take years to learn in Maine. And yeah, good call. Some last question here we got from the audience. As we're wrapping up, what what should you focus on before doing actual projects? I already know the basics and have some knowledge of C++, but not in Game Dev.
1:01:43
Yeah, so in terms of knowledge on like, technical knowledge, um, there's not really an exact, you know, formula or amount of features they need to learn, right. But of course, everyone has their own, like, let's say, knowledge, and, you know, let's say level on where they decide to step up into an AI to quit. I will say that overall, you know, learning game, let's take real, for example, learning the basics of blueprints, right? How to make them work, how to create, you know, let's say, actors that can move around, for example, simple AI, that can, you know, pick a random point, go to you, and attack, you know, kind of that area, right, is we're really, I think, you're going to need to start to create games. The same for materials, you know, really learning the basics on us, dragging up the albedo, textures, the specular with their, you know, appropriate outputs is really what you need. So, really, I mean, with the basics, you can start to get into it, right? I guess that when you step it up, is where you start to use your, for example, record more muddler, right, and split things into different classes and so on. And it's things that will, you know, make their pride a bit more, let's say, efficient in the long term, are not really necessarily right for the beginning. Oh, yeah. I mean, really, as you go, you will start to kind of know if you are manageable or afraid. Right.
1:03:16
Right, right. So I used to be a software developer in my previous life. So I've lived that reality a little bit. Yeah. They measured Yeah. Yeah. Great, great advice. All round. As we as we're wrapping up, is there anything else that you would like to share on over already shared your LinkedIn? In various chats from the YouTube channel? The Patreon? Is there anything anywhere else people can follow you? Or anywhere? Anything else you'd like to share?
1:03:46
Yeah, well, really, I mean, like I mentioned, the priority one is YouTube, right? Where you have, you know, nearly 700 videos, right? It's, I guess, it's a huge library, if you want to learn unreal and gain that in general. I mean, imagine if you were to, you know, watch all those 700 Like, I mean, you would like Master everything, right? But I guess that really the cool thing is the discord server, and then that you can get to know a lot of other game devs that want to embark in projects and possibly go with you. You also have the opportunity to you know, to kind of have my help, right and maybe we solve some things you can get help from others, share your progress. And also potentially, you know, get noticed by me and you know, embedded into one of my videos to work or something similar, right? Because I'm always every single day in my Discord is going ahead and picking everything up. So my Discord is basically Gorka games literally just tight like that. I mean, you can search on the Discovery server, or you can also access it through the link is all my videos. I don't know if I can pull up the link here. But basically, Gorka games is to say As my channel, you can access it also through my discovery channel. So, yeah, basically that
1:05:08
that's the well, we'll definitely drop those links in. I'm sure they're probably being dropped in right now. And one that actually one last question. I keep saying, Yeah, but I'm curious what you think about the sort of changes going on. Because this sort of stuff that didn't used to be possible people like maybe could mod a little bit and there wasn't really so much the beginning of the games industry, everybody was trying to, it was an indie developer, because there was no big companies making games. But then it became this big kind of corporate game with big likes of Microsoft and blizzard and whatnot, this merging at this point, I guess, some of them, but it seems like a rewriting of the of independent game developers, I'm curious, your perspective what you see out there?
1:05:57
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, definitely. Through this couple of years, the in the industry has grown a lot. Overall, especially lately, I feel like I've been seeing a lot of news where people are not happy with Triple A games. You know, it could be like, yes, you know, you know, trends or whatever, right. But overall, there's a lot of people looking into in the internet, think that now is the best time to roll become also an indie game, because you have, you know, all these tools available, right? First of all, everything. Now you can work online, right? As we kind of mentioned before, Unreal Engine is totally free, you can use it, you to re learn how to use a steam, you know, you just need to pay like a little $100 fee at the start. And then they return it back as soon as you start to make sales. So technically, you could also put as free. So overall, it's used, I guess, time, the only thing that you need, right time and dedication, make sure that you actually like it. And that's really how you could kind of become on an indie game. That, and yeah, and definitely now the trend is going up, a lot of people are looking more into indie games than triple A games that is actually approved. So I guess that's the way and it doesn't even need to be, you know, to the route of steam. It could be each IO, where it's super easy to upload a game or things, you know, similar, right, I encourage a lot of people to create their own channel in YouTube and post their vlogs I think that that's one of the best ways to advertise your games right now. And you know, also have fun making videos. So yeah.
1:07:41
That's great. Yeah. Really great advice. All round in, I think, again, is so applicable to most types of endeavors in life to think beyond beyond games, but, but certainly very, very specific to games, very encouraging to people, I think I'm seeing a lot more people becoming interested in. And I think you're showing showing people what's possible is really important to people being able to see that it's possible, especially young people starting out, but also people who are making career transitions, we see a lot of people getting getting past, you know, maybe the been in visual effects for 20 years like me and becoming interested in making moves. We're seeing a lot of people like that, too.
1:08:29
I totally agree with that. Yeah.
1:08:32
Well, thank you so much, Gorka.
1:08:34
I really appreciate your being here and sharing all of your wisdom and experience in passionate.
1:08:42
Yeah, but also, I mean, I have so much fun here, as we like time went so fast, you know? And definitely, I mean, it was a pleasure. Thanks, everyone that tuned in, you know, from my side and from the pro side, right? To go ahead and listen to the podcast. And yeah, right now as us Go ahead, put on your work, right, go ahead and start to create awesome games. And definitely with time and dedication, you will become a successful game that and you will manage to you know, have your game out there and steam highlighted and you know, other people playing it and overall just become, you know, a game dev in your dreams out. So definitely
1:09:24
love, love the spirit and the passion and the encouragement and showing, showing that it's possible and how to do it as well. It's been a pleasure talking with you, Gorka. Thank
1:09:35
you so much.
1:09:36
And thank you for inviting me.
1:09:38
It was a better thank you also to our audience. Thanks for all of the new friends that we met through through your channel Gorka and through the our community. Thanks for joining in and asking great questions. Sorry if we didn't get to all of the answers, but I think I got most of them to keep in touch. You know, go has a very connecting person. So we've shared a lot ways of connecting with him. And no just I echo the spirit of it, go out there, make cool stuff, do things that you love and we look forward to seeing you soon. Our Open Day is on July 9, if you want to come join us at CG Pro. It's free and what you're very welcome to jump in. And yet another two weeks we'll be on another podcast and I hope you all have a great day out there and look forward to seeing you soon.
