Ever considered a career in the Gaming Industry?

[AmishSamurai]

I think a lot of people had the phase of wanting to be one, but I realized how much damn work it was and how high of a percentage of games suck. That and I found an interest in other things. If I ever learn any coding I may try and make a game on the side, but I'm not enough of a masochist to join any company.

[Mozgus]

Why would you want to turn what you enjoy into your career? I never understand this logic. Work isn't supposed to be fun.

It's like the guy that goes "Hey! I love pussy! I should become a gynecologist!" 10 years later, he has a sex drive even lower than mine.

[elvis]

My only advice to anyone still considering the career of indie games developer is not to limit your customer base. I've lost count of how many people I've seen make Windows-only games and then bitch that they can't get noticed.

Make your game cross platform (that might mean iPhone/consoles/XBLA, and that might mean MacOSX or even Linux). The shallow counter-argument is that these latter markets don't make up raw numbers of people, but consider that they're markets that aren't already saturated with titles, and generally full of people who are willing to spend money on quality smaller games (either the the case of Mac users who are happy to spend more, or Linux users like me who are just plain desperate for good games on their platform).

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I want to open a game shop/arcade and or startup a company that manufactures dead or disappearing tech like CRT's and disc drives for older CD based consoles along with 100% accurate (None of that system on a single chip crap!) reprints of classic consoles using authentic parts and mechanisms.

[Jrecee]

I want to open a game shop/arcade and or startup a company that manufactures dead or disappearing tech like CRT's and disc drives for older CD based consoles along with 100% accurate (None of that system on a single chip crap!) reprints of classic consoles using authentic parts and mechanisms.

Not sure how feasible that would be considering a ton of the parts probably aren't even available anymore. And I don't think the market for it would be big enough to justify the massive costs of producing all the individual parts required. I think the best you'd do on that front is the "system on a chip" thing inside of a replica casing to at least make it look like the originals.

[Zeonik Freak]

If you guys want to know what happens in the game industry, read David Kushner Masters of Doom. Its an excellent book.

Also, Wake Technical Community College up in Raleigh NC has a department soly based on setting people up for the game industry. Im currently trying to get an Art Certificate for Character Design (what im shooting for) and they have tons and tons of other classes they have been bringing in since it began. One of my good friends works for the department and was a game tester for Gears of War 2, his name is in the credits and everything.

Yea, ill put it to you this way, the game industry wants the best people who will work immoral and ungodly hours to get a game done. Usually a few months before a game is put out, they go into "crunch mode", where work days are the 16 hour norm for an entire week, no matter what you are doing, and this is every day weeks on end. They want people who can put up with this and love the job at the same time, or mostly can put up with it.

This isnt something that is a "9 to 5" job, it takes alot to put into. If you wanna see a game that was done with the "9 to 5" attitude, look at Duke Nukem Forever... nuff said.

Raleigh NC alone has top game companies such as Epic, Red Storm, a division of EA, Destineer, Vicious Cycle and much more.

If you wanna be in the industry, either join or start your own, if you join then be the best at that position for them to look at your stuff, if you start your own, you need some sort of market for you to make money...

[Haoie]

Thought about it, dismissed it outright.

[HellHammer]

Thought about it, dismissed it outright.

Haha. I'm along these lines.

My best friend did QA testing for 2K for quite a while. I though I'd be interested in it as well, but then he tested Bioshock and hated it. And all because the experience of testing ruined it.

I don't want to be in a position to potentially hate anything that I would otherwise love.

[foulweather]

That said there seems to be a booming industry with the iphone, xbox live arcade, wiiware, etc. I'd be interested to hear what people on that side of the industry have to say in comparison to the big budget studios. I'd guess it's a lot more rewarding, but at the same time a lot bigger of a gamble, and therefore a much less stable career.

I came straight out of grad school and into a cellphone, iphone, wiiware and ds team. The older devs are mostly former EA devs. They say this is way better for family life since we can actually work relatively normal hours. 50-60 most weeks.

The only other work I've done is e-commerce credit card stuff and that bored me to hell since there was so much non-programming. I honestly spent 20 hours a week in spec or bug status meetings, and then have to put in extra hours to code.