Game Dev: Is It Really What You Want To Do? Why?

News & General Discussion
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Thinking about recent posts by @Master-Frog and the weekly posts asking either how to be an Indie (how to get started) or which studies to focus on in college to get into games has me thinking about it all this morning.

Of course, being game development forums for probably the most popular game dev “kit” of all time, we have a very misconstrued view of reality. From here, it often seems like every single man, woman and child on the planet wants to be a game developer.

So, I decided to do…

A brief thought experiment on this scenario

What would the world be like if truly every person was a game developer?

No longer would you go down to the local store and buy food. Or clothing. There would be no cars or even bikes. Basically it would cause a return to times of old where each person had to labor working the land growing crops, hunting, fishing and trapping to put food on the table and be able to make clothing.

Ultimately there would be little time left for game dev. Combine that with power systems breaking down and everybody too busy living and building games there would be nobody to repair such things. Nobody would be building houses. You’ll need to buy an existing one and ultimately everyone will need to build their own… maybe a little log cabin. Oh and nobody would be buying games. There would basically be no money needed anymore. Instead we’d probably see a trade like “Can I give you 3 eggs for that game?” … “Sure. That sounds good!” And that is if people even had an interest and time to play other people’s games.

Perhaps someone created a solar powered computer system before they too traded in their career for game dev. So now you’re sitting in front of your computer after a long day of hard work to stay alive with a computer that has about 2 hours of power available for you to make games. :slight_smile:

Why Do You Want To Do It?

Which led me too wondering why do so many people want to make games full-time (as in for a living)?

I get that games are fun and working on them can be a lot of fun. But so is hiking, photography, building real world objects and many other activities. Yet it seems like a large percentage of people want to make games full-time as their job (whether working at an established game studio or working as a self-employed Indie).

So my question is…

Do you really “love” game dev so much that you would look forward to doing it every day 8 to 10 hours per day with the stress of tight deadlines that have to be met or you’ll lose your job (or Indie business)?

Or do you simply hate your current job (or if you’re not yet working do you simply hate the other jobs that you know of)?

Or is it that you just hate the idea of working for someone else as in having a boss / manager “over” you and you see game dev as a way to escape to your freedom?

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I love programming and always have. But I often loathe programming things that others tell me to. I want to create something from my mind, not the mind of someone else.

I think humans have an in-built drive to explore and discover and create, and there isn’t much left to explore and discover. So we feed that drive by creating our own worlds.

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I can definitely relate to that and agree. The thing is when you are doing full-time game dev you have many other things on your mind. The pressure to make enough money to stay afloat for another month being one of the biggest. That comes in different forms. Either a manager at your company “breathing down your neck” screaming about deadlines OR if self-employed you personally dealing with the related aspects of that such as marketing, building up industry contacts of one form or another, handling the product launch, customer support and so forth.

A person can explore and create from their own mind in their spare time as a hobby. And perhaps end up having just as much time to do so and certainly much less other things to worry about. So I am mainly wondering why so many seem to want to plunge in full-time doing it for a living rather than doing it as you said, just to explore and create for enjoyment.

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The only thing better than exploring and creating for enjoyment is exploring and creating for enjoyment + money. :wink:

But to your question, I wonder how many really stop to think about all of the other things that go along with the full time nature of game dev. It isn’t all glamor and much of it is a long slog to the finish line.

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The answer should be obvious to be the next Notch, Blow, Carmack, Sweeney, Lucky…

Wait a moment I was going to save the world using game development!

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I don’t know that anyone will surpass Carmack. He’s the Einstein of game dev.

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I don’t want to plunge into doing it full-time. I’ve worked jobs where I was over-worked, and I’m not eager to repeat the experience. Trying to force a pastime like game development would just spoil my enjoyment of it. I’m content to keep it a hobby for the time being. I’m not in any hurry.

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There are only three things that interest me, games, robotics and space. I plan to work full-time in games for 3-4 years maximum and move onto the other two. If it takes longer than 3-4 years to be reasonably successful at something, either you’re doing something wrong or you’re doing something wrong.

I only have one dream game that I want to make, and once that is finished, for good or for worse, I would rather move onto something more “in this world”. Your poll option 3 is the closest to my reason but doesn’t quite hit it, I want to basically 1. Learn to motivate myself through a difficult enterprise 2. Be free of the need for a 9 to 5 job, and 3. Express a lot of creative things that I’ve always wanted to express. Expressing myself is really the main reason I’m in game development really, since motivation and being free of the 9-to-5 is probably better accomplished through other means.

In the end, I am motivated by accomplishments, not the pleasure of the day-to-day, in fact I enjoy the prospect of suffering through something to achieve what I otherwise wouldn’t. Even my hobbies loosely fall into this category, for example exercise I don’t particularly enjoy, but I do feel great at achieving a level of physical capability.

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Personally I would much rather be the next Tarn Adams. Find myself a niche and fill it.

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@GarBenjamin

Simple question, why not?

A lot of people enjoy it, it’s a nice release from work / studies / life etc. and you can bash out a small title in weeks / couple of months and sell it. There’s nothing to loose and everything to gain, just like playing the lottery really.

You could be out destroying your liver drinking every night, but this seems more of a logical choice. A couple of hours having fun making a game whilst having a cup of tea.

I think we probably over-estimate the amount of people willing to go big and quit their job, then either raise money / save money / apply for business loans and go all out competing against A / AA companies. It’s probably not a large occurance (well I’ve rarely ever seen it).

Why I started? Well I suppose the POE principle applies to me, I like Bioware games. There aren’t enough like them, so that’s what I wanted to do…

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@ I agree completely game dev is an excellent hobby and certainly a much better choice for me than some activities. It’s challenging and fun. It’s tedious and yet also can be very interesting.

I’m wondering about all of the folks who want to do it full-time for a living. And maybe it is simple as @Dave-Carlile suggested… most folks haven’t really considered the actual work and stress side of things.

Maybe it actually is that simple of an answer. I guess I just figured many of them, if serious about it, would have looked at the whole picture. Learned about the industry norm of long hours and high stress as an employee or learned about all they would have to do build and operate a successful Indie business.

I definitely understand people doing it in their spare time outside of their current job in a no stress no deadline no-need-to-succeed-to-pay-the-bills way. Then it is simply an enjoyable passtime. A hobby.And one where there is always just this tiny bit of chance that something really positively life changing can come out of it. :slight_smile:

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$$$

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In some ways I think this may be the answer! Not just the money but literally you. People probably dream of their “job” being much like yours. You know never worrying about having enough money, never thinking about marketing, building a list of customers, prospects and helpful contacts, working 4 to 5 hours per day… while sitting on a floatee thing in a heated swimming pool inside your mansion sipping those little drinks with umbrellas… oh and working on your games of course. Lol

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I don’t usually put umbrellas in my gin and tonic, but yeah maybe I’ll try that today!

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I’ll shorten this down, how many people do you know of quit their current careers and switched to games development?

Even if you know some, how many survived past their first year? Again I believe it’s rarer than you may think. Plus the “indie” mobile / small game segment doesn’t really require you to quit your day job.

There’s a lot of game dev students I know of trying to get a job in this segment, apart from that I’m drawing blanks…

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Some people would view such a hobby as a waste of time and effort. Those people are fools. Game development is incredibly technically and artistically demanding. Even as just a hobby I have learned an enormous amount from trying to develop games. Quite a bit of that knowledge has helped me expand my skillset, and regularly applies to the day jobs I’ve held over the past decade and change. (despite none of those day jobs having anything to do with games)

A hobby does not have to financially benefit you. Ever. If you enjoy it, and it enriches your life in any way, than you’re doing it correctly. Not everything in life has to be a constant struggle to compete or excel. Sometimes you just want to make something nice that has personal significance to you, and that’s okay.

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So true. I would say one of the main reasons why I’m doing this is because there aren’t enough Bioware games and not enough Kojima games. Games with depth and character and not lacking in the visuals. I hope I can tap into a little of that magic sauce myself.

I play SWKOTOR every now and then, one of my favourite games of all time.

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Yeah, and the Nile is not just a river in Egypt.

We all want affirmation from others. For those who genuinely do not care, there is a term: clinically depressed.

C’mon, nobody really wants to believe that none of their dreams can come true. No matter now many times you say “and that’s okay” it will never seem real.

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Your options are too limited. If you have skills and know how to limit your scope you won’t need to work 10 hours a day to get a game done.

Personally I enjoyed making my game and I don’t feel burned out, in fact I have more free time and I feel less stressed than when I had a “normal” programmer job (no boss, no schedule, not stuck in a position till I retire). The game didn’t made me rich but gave me enough to make another.

Yes, making games is hard but guess what, everything is. You may think “oh, gamedev is such an unstable and demanding industry” well, so are the rest, maybe a corporate programmer job may not be as demanding but they can still fire you at any time because there’s a ton of programmers and projects still get cancelled, meanwhile you were stuck for years in a job you hated because you thoguht it was “stable” until reality hit you in the chin.

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I really like all of the different opinions and experiences found on these forums. Great stuff. Thanks to all who have contributed.

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