Yeah, this is me. Coming up on two decades in game dev, and I've always cared way more about building things that are genuinely robust and also make sense to humans, but everyone just wants "fast and cheap", thinks documentation is a waste of time ("you can just talk to people"), doesn't understand "tech debt" as a concept at all, and refuses to prioritize tools work because "it's not player-facing".

All software is rushed software.

Do not, under any circumstances, attach your sense of self-worth to your games.

Never make game development your identity. Let it be a thing you do, not a thing you are.

Build a community outside of game development as soon as possible, even if you're an introvert. You won't understand why this is so important until the day you need it and don't have it.

You can do what 👀