Should a game maker have a bucket list? (Cringe alert!)

There are dreams, and there are plans. There is ambition, and there are goals.

An anime male character daydreaming of video games

Now, enough sounding wise.

From time to time, I wonder: Am I going in the right direction? If I do what I'm doing, will I get what I want?

Which leads me to the point. What do I want?

In order to keep things simple, I want to keep it as basic as possible.

Hence - a bucket list - as it is what I want to achieve as a game maker before I die (I'm 40, hence, I'm counting)

Before I tell you what the benefits of a bucket list it's time for some CRINGE!

(I wanted to start from the most absurd level of achievement, but when reading it for the second time, it was making me sad as it was less and less ambitious. Hence, the order is from easiest to most ambitious!)

• Make a GODDAMN game! (to quote Shia LeBouff: JUST DO IT! DON'T LET YOUR DREAMS BE MEMES!)

• Learn and understand how a game works, how a game is done, and how to make ideas work

• Make even more games!

• Create a workflow that uses all you know about making software and use it in games! Name it! Get famous! Profit from training! (NOT😉).

• Create a network of creative people I can hire when making new titles.

• Collaborate with talented people in WIN-WIN scenarios!

• Become a top game maker in the technology I'll choose! (at this moment, that would be Rust)

• Become an Open Source game-making icon! (how? by open-sourcing all my game-making tools! Nobody would pay for them anyway😉)

• Earn enough money to have a solid income! (not going to quit my current job, but if I get fired, it would be nice to actually not have a problem finding a new job in these weird times)

• Create a franchise (or two)

• Go 3D! Learn how to make 3D games, and do them!

• Publish a game on every console (although right now I want to skip Xbox)

• Redefine mobile gaming, or at least earn money from it while not making games like every other mobile game maker does.

• Make a game on the Playdate (because that crank rules!)

• Achieve Jeff Vogel's level of effectiveness (one engine to rule them all, every update is a reason to make remakes that gain you new gamers/fans, not sure I want to specialize myself that much in making one genre)

• Show other game makers how it's done! Hail to the King, baby!

• Being interviewed by Thomas Brush (I like his podcast)

• Being interviewed by Alanah Pierce (I like her podcast, too)

• Get my own YouTube clip on the "Video Game Story Time" channel

• A GDC talk (if only my talk could be announced "a post-mortem of a cult classic")

• Create a game-making company and hire actual people

• Excel at team management (it isn't enough to make a company, I must do it better than everyone else!)

• Being mentioned on Billy Oppenheimer's newsletter (it's a wonderful newsletter about productive people's life lessons)

• Achieve Hideo Kojima / Yoko Taro / Hideki Kamiya / Suda51 level of status (pure hubris, nothing more)

Benefits of making such a cringe thing?

When I started writing this list, I started from the very top (or in this case, the bottom). Then I wrote what came into my mind (fortune and glory) mostly. And then magic started happening. I started to rearrange them by the level of hard work needed to achieve them. And then I started filling in the blanks? What blanks, you ask? Between one and the other. I started turning this bucket list into a plan. I started asking questions, "What do I need to achieve to achieve THIS?", "Is this in the correct place to be the most achievable?" and I started to fill in even more blanks. What was created is not a bucket list anymore. It's a plan! Started from the end.

I don't have to achieve most of them. Even the order can be considered optional. But if I ever stop, I'll know at which part of the journey I am. It will still be a view to enjoy!

One thing to remember is the stoic wisdom. Some of those points are not achievable on your own. They need to come to you. What then? Well, you have to think - how to welcome the chance of making them happen? Everything can be broken down into smaller tasks. Some of them are all you. The rest require waiting on others.