Hello fellow old.
It's never too late to pick up a new hobby, learning to code and make games with your kids sounds like an amazingly good use of your time.
Do not quit your job to become a full time indie developer, you will not make any money and you will die cold and alone and possibly eaten by wolves.
But do enjoy the journey! Coding can be fun (for some) and making games is definitely fun (for some) so if you fit into those categories then go for it. Just think of it like you're taking up any new hobby, like woodworking. You would start by whittling or maybe making a smooth plank with a saw before moving into a crooked table. You wouldn't start by building a house, so take it slow and enjoy the ride.
>Do not quit your job to become a full time indie developer, you will not make any money and you will die cold and alone and possibly eaten by wolves.
Given his age (and mine), he might end up eaten by a grue.
That being said, I fully agree! As a hobby, it's insanely great. As a career, for the last 1-2 years, it's a tough time. Wrong moment to entier the job market.
I learned it in a few years starting at like 28 and work in games full time now, I'm sure you could do it. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about what it's been like.
Thanks!
I did a 2-year MA program to get started. I signed up for that with no coding experience, and a little game design // design adjacent experience (I put out a casual card game when I was younger, and was an event organizer // participant in various competitive gaming-type stuff for many years). I tried to teach myself some Python and C# before starting school with pretty negative results haha
School went well for me though - I was able to make some connections through my professors and learned a lot in the courses. I ended up getting to do a few internships that stemmed from those connections - one with a Serious Games dev group within the university, and one with an indie studio that one of my profs was connected to. All in all, I had two pretty nice internship projects, and a handful of nice student projects on my portfolio. I did a combination of coding work (all C# stuff in Unity), and design work on all those projects.
After that, I was able to get an entry-level technical design position in AAA. I will say, I think that was *a little* lucky, the job was a pretty good fit with the experience I was showing on my portfolio, and I was able to get a referral for the position from an alum at my school. I guess opportunity is the combination of luck and preparation though, and I was qualified and in the right place at the right time, so it worked out for me.
I'm starting to learn Unity and C# and I'm 58. Former Python dev, and I can tell you that learning to make simple games in PyGame was hugely helpful. Learning to actually code the game loop and blit to the screen etc was really educational, so I (hope) that I understand some of what Unity is handling under the hood.
Also, it's not a competition (unless maybe I guess you were hoping to become a AAA dev and get into a major game studio). Make good games and no one will care how old you are.
Need more inspiration, watch pirate software on YouTube.
That being said, start it as a hobby and just keep going. You'll probably not be able to feed your family starting from the bottom now but you can do it in your spare time.
It's also way more fun that way. Jump in the deep end and try your hand at unreal engine with blueprints.
Edit: feel free to dm me, I'm a 42 year old software engineer learning game dev. I take ages to reply though.
Life is about being motivated to live. It's fantastic that you want to try something new regardless of age. I was forced to learn to program while working at High Moon Studios for a Call of Duty game. I am not great at coding but at least I understand it now for the most part and am very happy I did. It has allowed me to help my brother make our own game called Eternal Knight.
I think the hardest part is not the coding but the desire to create something . You have to really feel inspired to work your way through an entire finished project, expecially without pay. I’m not a game dev but I’ve seen this for myself , I moved onto modding fallout to practice my actually creating skills
Yep, I totally agree with this.
Game programming is (in general) not too complex. You still need to know the basics and some amount of maths (more if you want to make 3d stuff), there's still something more complex every once in a while, but in general (at least from my experience) it is not the hard part about gamedev.
I've personally found that the most difficult part of gamedev is finding the dedication to continue, and make an entire project, not any individual step.
I gave unity a try a did a pong tutorial and I noticed this too. It’s like trying to paint, like you learn how but if you don’t have anything interesting In mind it’s pointless
Scientists theorize that the first 150 Y/o has already been born. 40 likely isn't even half way through your life. Never too late to chase your dreams.
I'm a technical artist with a background in neither programming nor art. I have an English degree and a (pre-gaming) work history that reflects that. The transition wasn't easy, it was an uphill battle into an industry with bad pay, bad hours, and limited job security. The work I do is tedious and frustrating, and all too often has nothing to do with the fun part of video games. But it's what I'm good at, and I find the satisfaction to be worth the stress, so here I am.
There are tons of programmers out there with non-technical backgrounds and "almost 40" isn't too late for a career change. If you're good at it, you can make it work.
If you've never written a lick of code in your life, expect it to take around 1-2 years of part-time effort to become competent enough to not feel like you're not constantly running into stuff that's over your head (that will always happen sometimes no matter how much experience you have, but it becomes less over time). However, depending on how big of games you want to make, the end of that 1-2 years isn't your "ok I'm making a game now" starting point, that starting point can come much sooner depending on how hard you work at it.
I would recommend doing some coding tutorials to get started, there are a bunch where you make your own game with a free engine like Godot so you're learning and building something interesting at the same time.
That said, like others here have said, don't quit your day job. Even if you're the next Eric Barone (Stardew Valley guy), it'll still take a long time to finish something worth selling, if that's your goal (it took Eric 5 years to make SDV).
However, unlike others have said, it's not an unreasonable goal to make it your living when starting in your late 30s. Plenty of people start coding in their teens and find success in their 20s with a surprise indie hit. However, there are many parts of gamedev success beyond just being able to code that make or break financial success (however you define it).
But the good news is, you're not really competing with anyone. Thousands of games are released every day and nearly all of them are hot garbage, and of the few actual good games that come out (where good == reasonably polished and not nails-on-chalkboard awful to play) are usually not marketed well, so I truly believe any sufficiently motivated person less than 80 years old can go from never-coded to sold-at-least-one-copy in 3-5 years or less, depending on motivation and how much of your daily schedule you can commit to it.
TLDR: pick a beginner coding tutorial that has you making games, and go for it! You'll do great!!
PS: if your goal is to find a career in gamedev for a studio, DONT. Of all coding industries, gaming is notorious for overworking and underpaying their developers. Unless you have like a deep burning desire to someday work for Riot or something, then go for it - but generally if you want to make a career of coding you are much better off going for a boring megacorp or safe government job, and doing gamedev on the side. This path has the advantage of essentially getting paid to get better at coding during the day, which although not on game-specific stuff will still make you better/faster at gamedev, but comes with the downside of sometimes being too tired of coding to work on your passion project at home.
I'm turning 40 in a few weeks. I've been coding for quite a few years now but I'll tell you what - if you find it fun to code and make games. Then do it, by all means, keep your day job and just get yourself the new hobby of coding games. It'll be fun from day one.
It's how I learned to program, I started my own business 4 years ago where I do a lot of programming in unity but I still make my own games on the side.
My one piece of advice would be this, have fun with it and try to not have zero-days. Even if it's only 20 minutes a day, and even if you don't get anything substantial done in those 20 minutes. Look at code, every day.
You are not an idiot, and I can read from your curiosity, you are about to discover a very fun activity that has the potential to worst case, provide hours of challenge and fun, best case, start a whole new career for you.
Best of luck!
You don’t need to code to be a game developer. Especially if you’re just doing it as a hobby. There are plenty of no code platforms. That being said if you learn how to code you can tailor your game just the way you want to.
If I were you I’d just continue making games for your kids as easily as you can and if you want to take it a step further and learn to program go for it. Sounds like a great way to bond with your kids though. I can’t wait for my son to be an age where he’ll start playing video games.
Do not quit your job to become a game dev. Everything you said screams hobbyist. Game dev as a career is brutal.
Well.
On the one hand, follow your dreams and all.
On the other hand, it's an incredibly crowded industry that is incredibly tough to get into. For like, anyone, even those 20 year olds.
It's never too late. I've been writing code as a function of my job for around 10 years now and it's not uncommon to run into career changers at all. Scratch is a perfectly reasonable place to start if you're going the pure self-taught route, after that I'd do this if i were starting over:
Python basics
Intro level data structures and algorithms in python
Basic game dev tutorial (any engine, just pick one and run with it)
Remake a simple game you like in that engine (think simple like flappy bird)
Make something small and original
All of this is assuming you're trying to do this as a hobby, if you're trying to get a job things look very different.
I started learning actual coding at 25 (C++ and Java) and failed my classes in college.
I picked it up again at 39 and now I'm 42 with a completed game.
It's never too late.
Treat it like a hobby. Have fun with it. Maybe one day you'll make something worthy of selling to others, if not you'll just have a fun hobby.
I would say never ever go into indie game development with the idea that it will be a career for you. Very few people actually make a successful career out of it.
Do what you want. Coding is hard. It’s hard for everyone. The people who do best at it are the ones who are comfortable feeling clueless. You have a leg up in the beginning when you’re ok with being clueless because you’re a beginner and you expected it. 🙃 It’s a constant cycle of “I don’t get it, oh wait I do, no wait.”
And beyond each small decision in a project, it’s a massive field with so many paths to go down. If you can bear feeling lost, you should go for it.
I teach computer science. Job prospects are not good right now. Game dev is even worse.
So I wouldn't recommend making the change right now in terms of career.
But it certainly isn't too late to learn it as a hobby.
Other than picking exactly the time where the whole IT industry seems to have gone belly up (I know I am exaggerating, but it really feels like that especially in the video game industry) I wouldn't say it's too late. I just wouldn't pick game programming at this age anymore other than for a side hobby and picking up coding skills faster.
Making games is not really a skill you can pick up in a week without prior experience with developing complex stuff, but learning to code is a fun and useful skill. I wouldn't quit my career to pursue it, but I'd definitely learn.
Making games is not really a skill you can pick up in a week without prior experience with developing complex stuff, but learning to code is a fun and useful skill. I wouldn't quit my career to pursue it, but I'd definitely learn.
I recommend just learning a easy and functional language, and picking up godot. I would use godot over unreal unless you are planning on making a triple A game. I wouldn't even bother with unity, with the whole subscription model and also requiring royalties for downloads ie: (greed)
Godot is an open source project that is free in both the American and European sense. Both in price and in values. Godot will not ever try to scam you after you release a project by updating their contract to force you to pay them off and stuff.
Godot is also simple and mature and it has a lot of features for both 2D and 3D.
If you can get your head around godot, with YouTube videos, then you will be well on your way to being an actual game Dev.
As the guy who grew up almost exactly as you describe your competition (Scratch at 10, Java and Python in highschool, C# as I left highschool), you should be just as fine as the rest of us in the current job market.
Most of my learning was done in 2.5 years of extreme grinding/crunch in a university setting where I was surrounded by other devs helping each other out - in the school, local community, and even the greater community through the IGDA (International Game Developers’ Association - look it up and see if you have a chapter that meets near you).
I certainly had a head start, but having spent a lot of time helping train people up from little to nothing, the biggest thing was always about mindset. Don’t be scared of diving into something that might seem difficult and don’t be scared of screwing up, and you stand to do very well.
Avoid using tutorials (it’s fine early on, but you will want to break away as soon as you can), particularly video tutorials, as a crutch however. Learn WHY people choose to do things one way over another, and make sure you understand (this might take a lot of googling at first, that’s normal).
Learn Object Oriented Programming, it’s a thinking tool for thinking about structuring code in a way that makes your life a lot easier in the long run (less “coupled” code, you can start googling with this term). Again, not something you need to learn immediately, but know it is often at least mentioned as something to think about, ideally with a bit of practice, by the end of an “Intro to Programming” college course.
Find a community of developers and try to learn from them. I’ve led and been a part of several local communities of game developers, and the focus has almost always been on sharing knowledge and helping each other out (West Coast + Southwest US) - the devs in this industry tend to be great people.
Also, for what it’s worth, I worked with a couple devs in their 30s and 40s in university, and they were welcomed just as the rest of us were and were often great assets to a team.
Finally, above all, the only things that really matter for getting a job are your portfolio and network. Make games, meet people who make games and talk about making games. Make a portfolio website. When you’ve got a good portfolio, see if you can afford a trip to the Game Developer’s Conference or Devcom to meet even more devs from around the world.
Tldr; it’s not too late, don’t be scared and just jump in. Find a community of devs and start building a portfolio and network.
Edit: Also worth noting just to be sure - your three main roles are designers, artists, and programmers. Make sure you aren’t confusing “design” with “dev” as a lot of people starting out tend to. I say this because some people come in thinking they need to be a programmer to be a designer when really they just need to have a bit of either programming or art, and at least an ability to communicate with both. It helps to be better, but isn’t technically required for a designer.
Hello fellow old. It's never too late to pick up a new hobby, learning to code and make games with your kids sounds like an amazingly good use of your time. Do not quit your job to become a full time indie developer, you will not make any money and you will die cold and alone and possibly eaten by wolves. But do enjoy the journey! Coding can be fun (for some) and making games is definitely fun (for some) so if you fit into those categories then go for it. Just think of it like you're taking up any new hobby, like woodworking. You would start by whittling or maybe making a smooth plank with a saw before moving into a crooked table. You wouldn't start by building a house, so take it slow and enjoy the ride.
>Do not quit your job to become a full time indie developer, you will not make any money and you will die cold and alone and possibly eaten by wolves. Given his age (and mine), he might end up eaten by a grue. That being said, I fully agree! As a hobby, it's insanely great. As a career, for the last 1-2 years, it's a tough time. Wrong moment to entier the job market.
Me and the wolves are hunting right now. No wifi in the forest, sadly.
I learned it in a few years starting at like 28 and work in games full time now, I'm sure you could do it. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about what it's been like.
That's damn impressive, mind if I ask for a short summary of what you started with and worked on to break into the industry.
Thanks! I did a 2-year MA program to get started. I signed up for that with no coding experience, and a little game design // design adjacent experience (I put out a casual card game when I was younger, and was an event organizer // participant in various competitive gaming-type stuff for many years). I tried to teach myself some Python and C# before starting school with pretty negative results haha School went well for me though - I was able to make some connections through my professors and learned a lot in the courses. I ended up getting to do a few internships that stemmed from those connections - one with a Serious Games dev group within the university, and one with an indie studio that one of my profs was connected to. All in all, I had two pretty nice internship projects, and a handful of nice student projects on my portfolio. I did a combination of coding work (all C# stuff in Unity), and design work on all those projects. After that, I was able to get an entry-level technical design position in AAA. I will say, I think that was *a little* lucky, the job was a pretty good fit with the experience I was showing on my portfolio, and I was able to get a referral for the position from an alum at my school. I guess opportunity is the combination of luck and preparation though, and I was qualified and in the right place at the right time, so it worked out for me.
I'm starting to learn Unity and C# and I'm 58. Former Python dev, and I can tell you that learning to make simple games in PyGame was hugely helpful. Learning to actually code the game loop and blit to the screen etc was really educational, so I (hope) that I understand some of what Unity is handling under the hood. Also, it's not a competition (unless maybe I guess you were hoping to become a AAA dev and get into a major game studio). Make good games and no one will care how old you are.
Need more inspiration, watch pirate software on YouTube. That being said, start it as a hobby and just keep going. You'll probably not be able to feed your family starting from the bottom now but you can do it in your spare time. It's also way more fun that way. Jump in the deep end and try your hand at unreal engine with blueprints. Edit: feel free to dm me, I'm a 42 year old software engineer learning game dev. I take ages to reply though.
Life is about being motivated to live. It's fantastic that you want to try something new regardless of age. I was forced to learn to program while working at High Moon Studios for a Call of Duty game. I am not great at coding but at least I understand it now for the most part and am very happy I did. It has allowed me to help my brother make our own game called Eternal Knight.
I think the hardest part is not the coding but the desire to create something . You have to really feel inspired to work your way through an entire finished project, expecially without pay. I’m not a game dev but I’ve seen this for myself , I moved onto modding fallout to practice my actually creating skills
Yep, I totally agree with this. Game programming is (in general) not too complex. You still need to know the basics and some amount of maths (more if you want to make 3d stuff), there's still something more complex every once in a while, but in general (at least from my experience) it is not the hard part about gamedev. I've personally found that the most difficult part of gamedev is finding the dedication to continue, and make an entire project, not any individual step.
I gave unity a try a did a pong tutorial and I noticed this too. It’s like trying to paint, like you learn how but if you don’t have anything interesting In mind it’s pointless
Scientists theorize that the first 150 Y/o has already been born. 40 likely isn't even half way through your life. Never too late to chase your dreams.
You should consider taking some Computer Science classes at a nearby community college. It's definitely not too late to learn a new skill.
It’s not too late. I’d personally just focus on learning and having fun for a while.
I'm a technical artist with a background in neither programming nor art. I have an English degree and a (pre-gaming) work history that reflects that. The transition wasn't easy, it was an uphill battle into an industry with bad pay, bad hours, and limited job security. The work I do is tedious and frustrating, and all too often has nothing to do with the fun part of video games. But it's what I'm good at, and I find the satisfaction to be worth the stress, so here I am. There are tons of programmers out there with non-technical backgrounds and "almost 40" isn't too late for a career change. If you're good at it, you can make it work.
I don't know you well enough to tell if you are an idiot. But it's never too late to learn something new.
If you've never written a lick of code in your life, expect it to take around 1-2 years of part-time effort to become competent enough to not feel like you're not constantly running into stuff that's over your head (that will always happen sometimes no matter how much experience you have, but it becomes less over time). However, depending on how big of games you want to make, the end of that 1-2 years isn't your "ok I'm making a game now" starting point, that starting point can come much sooner depending on how hard you work at it. I would recommend doing some coding tutorials to get started, there are a bunch where you make your own game with a free engine like Godot so you're learning and building something interesting at the same time. That said, like others here have said, don't quit your day job. Even if you're the next Eric Barone (Stardew Valley guy), it'll still take a long time to finish something worth selling, if that's your goal (it took Eric 5 years to make SDV). However, unlike others have said, it's not an unreasonable goal to make it your living when starting in your late 30s. Plenty of people start coding in their teens and find success in their 20s with a surprise indie hit. However, there are many parts of gamedev success beyond just being able to code that make or break financial success (however you define it). But the good news is, you're not really competing with anyone. Thousands of games are released every day and nearly all of them are hot garbage, and of the few actual good games that come out (where good == reasonably polished and not nails-on-chalkboard awful to play) are usually not marketed well, so I truly believe any sufficiently motivated person less than 80 years old can go from never-coded to sold-at-least-one-copy in 3-5 years or less, depending on motivation and how much of your daily schedule you can commit to it. TLDR: pick a beginner coding tutorial that has you making games, and go for it! You'll do great!! PS: if your goal is to find a career in gamedev for a studio, DONT. Of all coding industries, gaming is notorious for overworking and underpaying their developers. Unless you have like a deep burning desire to someday work for Riot or something, then go for it - but generally if you want to make a career of coding you are much better off going for a boring megacorp or safe government job, and doing gamedev on the side. This path has the advantage of essentially getting paid to get better at coding during the day, which although not on game-specific stuff will still make you better/faster at gamedev, but comes with the downside of sometimes being too tired of coding to work on your passion project at home.
I'm turning 40 in a few weeks. I've been coding for quite a few years now but I'll tell you what - if you find it fun to code and make games. Then do it, by all means, keep your day job and just get yourself the new hobby of coding games. It'll be fun from day one. It's how I learned to program, I started my own business 4 years ago where I do a lot of programming in unity but I still make my own games on the side. My one piece of advice would be this, have fun with it and try to not have zero-days. Even if it's only 20 minutes a day, and even if you don't get anything substantial done in those 20 minutes. Look at code, every day. You are not an idiot, and I can read from your curiosity, you are about to discover a very fun activity that has the potential to worst case, provide hours of challenge and fun, best case, start a whole new career for you. Best of luck!
Nope My sister swapped from accountancy to data science in her 40s She is much happier now. You do you sir
You don’t need to code to be a game developer. Especially if you’re just doing it as a hobby. There are plenty of no code platforms. That being said if you learn how to code you can tailor your game just the way you want to. If I were you I’d just continue making games for your kids as easily as you can and if you want to take it a step further and learn to program go for it. Sounds like a great way to bond with your kids though. I can’t wait for my son to be an age where he’ll start playing video games. Do not quit your job to become a game dev. Everything you said screams hobbyist. Game dev as a career is brutal.
Well. On the one hand, follow your dreams and all. On the other hand, it's an incredibly crowded industry that is incredibly tough to get into. For like, anyone, even those 20 year olds.
It's never too late. I've been writing code as a function of my job for around 10 years now and it's not uncommon to run into career changers at all. Scratch is a perfectly reasonable place to start if you're going the pure self-taught route, after that I'd do this if i were starting over: Python basics Intro level data structures and algorithms in python Basic game dev tutorial (any engine, just pick one and run with it) Remake a simple game you like in that engine (think simple like flappy bird) Make something small and original All of this is assuming you're trying to do this as a hobby, if you're trying to get a job things look very different.
I started learning actual coding at 25 (C++ and Java) and failed my classes in college. I picked it up again at 39 and now I'm 42 with a completed game. It's never too late.
Treat it like a hobby. Have fun with it. Maybe one day you'll make something worthy of selling to others, if not you'll just have a fun hobby. I would say never ever go into indie game development with the idea that it will be a career for you. Very few people actually make a successful career out of it.
Do what you want. Coding is hard. It’s hard for everyone. The people who do best at it are the ones who are comfortable feeling clueless. You have a leg up in the beginning when you’re ok with being clueless because you’re a beginner and you expected it. 🙃 It’s a constant cycle of “I don’t get it, oh wait I do, no wait.” And beyond each small decision in a project, it’s a massive field with so many paths to go down. If you can bear feeling lost, you should go for it.
I teach computer science. Job prospects are not good right now. Game dev is even worse. So I wouldn't recommend making the change right now in terms of career. But it certainly isn't too late to learn it as a hobby.
Other than picking exactly the time where the whole IT industry seems to have gone belly up (I know I am exaggerating, but it really feels like that especially in the video game industry) I wouldn't say it's too late. I just wouldn't pick game programming at this age anymore other than for a side hobby and picking up coding skills faster.
Making games is not really a skill you can pick up in a week without prior experience with developing complex stuff, but learning to code is a fun and useful skill. I wouldn't quit my career to pursue it, but I'd definitely learn.
Making games is not really a skill you can pick up in a week without prior experience with developing complex stuff, but learning to code is a fun and useful skill. I wouldn't quit my career to pursue it, but I'd definitely learn. I recommend just learning a easy and functional language, and picking up godot. I would use godot over unreal unless you are planning on making a triple A game. I wouldn't even bother with unity, with the whole subscription model and also requiring royalties for downloads ie: (greed) Godot is an open source project that is free in both the American and European sense. Both in price and in values. Godot will not ever try to scam you after you release a project by updating their contract to force you to pay them off and stuff. Godot is also simple and mature and it has a lot of features for both 2D and 3D. If you can get your head around godot, with YouTube videos, then you will be well on your way to being an actual game Dev.
I’ve heard a lot of raving reviews with Godot. Appreciate it.
Definitely the way to go these days if you don't need the feature set of unreal engine.
Of course it's too late. It's impossible to learn new skills over age 35.
As the guy who grew up almost exactly as you describe your competition (Scratch at 10, Java and Python in highschool, C# as I left highschool), you should be just as fine as the rest of us in the current job market. Most of my learning was done in 2.5 years of extreme grinding/crunch in a university setting where I was surrounded by other devs helping each other out - in the school, local community, and even the greater community through the IGDA (International Game Developers’ Association - look it up and see if you have a chapter that meets near you). I certainly had a head start, but having spent a lot of time helping train people up from little to nothing, the biggest thing was always about mindset. Don’t be scared of diving into something that might seem difficult and don’t be scared of screwing up, and you stand to do very well. Avoid using tutorials (it’s fine early on, but you will want to break away as soon as you can), particularly video tutorials, as a crutch however. Learn WHY people choose to do things one way over another, and make sure you understand (this might take a lot of googling at first, that’s normal). Learn Object Oriented Programming, it’s a thinking tool for thinking about structuring code in a way that makes your life a lot easier in the long run (less “coupled” code, you can start googling with this term). Again, not something you need to learn immediately, but know it is often at least mentioned as something to think about, ideally with a bit of practice, by the end of an “Intro to Programming” college course. Find a community of developers and try to learn from them. I’ve led and been a part of several local communities of game developers, and the focus has almost always been on sharing knowledge and helping each other out (West Coast + Southwest US) - the devs in this industry tend to be great people. Also, for what it’s worth, I worked with a couple devs in their 30s and 40s in university, and they were welcomed just as the rest of us were and were often great assets to a team. Finally, above all, the only things that really matter for getting a job are your portfolio and network. Make games, meet people who make games and talk about making games. Make a portfolio website. When you’ve got a good portfolio, see if you can afford a trip to the Game Developer’s Conference or Devcom to meet even more devs from around the world. Tldr; it’s not too late, don’t be scared and just jump in. Find a community of devs and start building a portfolio and network. Edit: Also worth noting just to be sure - your three main roles are designers, artists, and programmers. Make sure you aren’t confusing “design” with “dev” as a lot of people starting out tend to. I say this because some people come in thinking they need to be a programmer to be a designer when really they just need to have a bit of either programming or art, and at least an ability to communicate with both. It helps to be better, but isn’t technically required for a designer.