I have been saving up for 1.5 years to create my own game. I planned to quit my job in December 2019 but my employers asked me for 6 more months to find a replacement. This is my last month but they have requested me to stay another 6 months as they couldnt find anyone.
My plan was to work on my game full-time for 6 months, as i have saved enough to be jobless till then. I wanted to create 20% of the game with a playable demo so i can crowdfund the rest. I wont continue with the game if the crowdfunding isnt successful and try for a job again.
But the economy will take a huge hit because of the Covid situation and i dont think people would have extra money to crowdfund a game.
I also might not be able to find a job if the demo doesnt succeed.
I am still leaning towards quitting and making my game but i would like to know your opinion. Making the game while working isnt possible as i have 12-14 hour work days, 6 day a week.
Working part-time is also not possible. Its either full-time or quit.
If your current job doesn’t allow you work part time, look for other jobs that allow you to. If I’m not mistaken Eric Barone worked on Stardew Valley while having a job at the theater. It’s a safer alternative.
I work and spend free time on my project (not every second cause i dont want to go mad after some time, this is unhealthy).
Also i dont work as much as you, simple normal job 8h a day, 5 days a week and it is possible, if i end my project, release and be success then i quit if it will be failure i take experience and start working on another project keeping my current job ofc.
Conclusion:
Find job with normal work time, develop in free time till success, then you can consider quiting job.
You should seek a job with normal work hours, as 12-14 hours is too much, unless the pay is outrageously high. You are very likely to end up with health problems in the long term.
Normal advice, however is that you shouldn’t quit your day job, because most likely scenario is that your very first title will FAIL.You need contingency plan for this sort of scenario.
Reasonable options are:
seek part-time employment (safe, as you don’t lose your income),
seek employment in gamedev even if it pays less (that builds your skills),
outsource creation of your game to other people (this way you keep your job and income stream and your game still gets made).
If you have savings, I’d suggest outsourcing.
Basically, consider scenario where you worked for X months, savings ran out, and the game was a flop. What now? What if you suddenly got sick during that time and now need to spend more cash?
However, in your case, you need to do something about working hours. 12-14 is not exactly healthy.
Just got another notification about this thread, and, well, what are you on about? Fuck them!
You don’t owe them anything if they’re making you work 12-14 hours 6 days a week. You should get another job, then stuff your middle finger right in the middle of their faces and leave on the spot, no notice, no nothing.
There’s nothing wrong with working long hours, all else being equal. The point seems to be that it’s not a job you really want to do.
Ideally, find a job that gives you part time work. Otherwise, assuming you have saved for 1.5 years working 6 days a week, 13 hour days, I’d say you probably have enough money to at least put together that demo.
I work 12 hour a day 5 day a week plus I have a 2 years old daughter I’ve manage to work on my project when I have free time everyday while my partner and daughter asleep and on my work break . about 3 hour a day I can work on it .maybe you could too but I only sleep 5 to 6 hour a day
I am working as a Lead Unity dev with 9 guys in my team.
I have been working as a unity dev for 5 years now so i have gained enough skills and knowledge to start on my own.
The pay is quite high(Rs 150000 per month) for my country (India).
Even if i get a job at another company with lower working hours i still wouldnt wanna work on unity again after coming home.
My work experience pretty much guarantees me a job in india if my game fails after 6 months. But i’ll have to take a pay cut, it would still be enough to easily survive.
I got into unity just to make my own game. But i am only a coder and needed money for outsourcing 2d/3d assets. Now i finally have enough to finance 6 months.
My current company is willing to hire me back after 6 months and i have other offers as well.
Is it stupid to follow my dream in these uncertain corona times?
So you will even be able to get the well paid job back if you fail with your own game…that makes quitting a no brainer for me.
Do it, by the sounds of it all you will loose is the money you saved the last 1.5f years. That is a low price for your own independence.
I have enough to survive these 6 months and also have options after that. My worry is if people would be willing to crowdfund my game (if its any good) after 6 months.
I wanted to see what other devs think about quitting. If many think i shouldn’t that means they wouldnt. I have no experience working on my own and it would be better to know what others think before starting on my own. Its always good to have advice even if you do what you planned to all along.
There’s no guarantee of what will happen in the next 6 months, and whether the current offer from your company will still stand when that time comes.
I’m assuming that you’ve not yet start on anything for your demo. Why not work on it for a month or two (while still working) and decide based on that whether it’s worth spending your time / savings on?
I think best get an idea and prototype up and running then decide whether is worth to quit the job to do full time to do it or not . If you quit the job and have no idea for the game or direction would be waste of time and your saving
6 months is very little time. Crowdfunding is really hard and needs a lot of work on its own. Finding game concepts that people still care about is also getting harder and harder.
You could probably make the same or more with half the hours by working as a freelancer for companys in countries with higher cost of living. You could focus on fulltime freelancing and fill the downtime between contracts with working on your game.
If you are not worried about economic challenges then I don’t see that there is any reason not to do this.
Just be mindful as @Martin_H has said, 6 months is not very long. For a demo you might only build 20% of a game by content, but it probably means you need 80%+ of the games systems built.