working for a game developer

Just some background...I love coding and I love playing games so naturally I
think it would be great if I could work as a game developer. Plus I'm
working on my own game at home...at a snails pace, but it's getting there.
I got my degree and I'm currently working at a Tech company as a software
engineer...coder basically. My question though is...is it fun or worthwhile
to work for a game developer? I imagine the responses will vary a lot, but
in general if you have a passion for games and coding I would assume it
would be very enjoyable...maybe not high job security or pay, but is it
enjoyable....I'm just curious.

thanks,
dn

dn <x@microsoft.com> wrote:
> Just some background...I love coding and I love playing games so naturally I
> think it would be great if I could work as a game developer. Plus I'm
> working on my own game at home...at a snails pace, but it's getting there.
> I got my degree and I'm currently working at a Tech company as a software
> engineer...coder basically. My question though is...is it fun or worthwhile
> to work for a game developer? I imagine the responses will vary a lot, but
> in general if you have a passion for games and coding I would assume it
> would be very enjoyable...maybe not high job security or pay, but is it
> enjoyable....I'm just curious.

Ah, is it fun working for Hollywood and making movies? Same deal, you
are in or entering the entertainment industry which I imagine is a lot
more interesting than coding PeopleSoft interfaces and doing backend
database integration for shopping carts.

Talent rules, there is no security and only the truly creative survive ...
or even apply.

--Thom

p.s. 30 years ago everyone had a novel in their drawer at home somewhere.
20 years ago everyone had a movie script. 10 years ago everyone had a TV
script. Today is games. Individuals do not create games. You need a team
of folks willing to take a chance for incredible failure.

I'm a software engineer for a large game development company, working on a
title that ships in September. We're in Alpha right now, which means 14+
hour days, so the enjoyment is somewhat diminished. Right now I would enjoy
sleeping in.
The previous responses to this post differ from my experience.
The fact is, it all depends on the company you're working for. Go for a
large company. You'll have more security, better benifits, and they're more
likely to hire someone with less experience, as they can afford to train
him. You'll also be more likely to work on a title that will sell more
copies, which is nice.
I enjoy my work to a great extent because I work with a really great team.
A good studio is careful to pick a candidate who will best fit in with the
rest of their developers. At 2:00 AM, you'd better be around people you
like, or you won't be happy.
Especially at first, you probably won't have much choice in the title you
work on. Once you have some experience, though, a good company will pay
attention to your interests and try to put you where you'd like to be.

Even as an engineer, you'd be surprised at how much influence you can have
on a game design. A good producer or designer will recognize a good idea
when you say "you know, the game would be better if we did this..." Of
course, it has to be a good idea.

Talent doesn't rule. Talent is important, but is worthless without
reliability. Creativity is important, but if you can't get that product out
the door, you've got nothing.

Is it enjoyable? For me, yes. But it's still a job. There are lots of
ways in which it could be more enjoyable. It can be easy to get burned out
on it, especially the hours. Naturally, it's cool to be in EB or Gamestop
or WalMart with a friend and casually point to something on the shelf and
say "I made this."
It mostly just depends on where you are, and who you're working with.

dn <x@microsoft.com> wrote in message news:bd7tii$hn4$1@news01.intel.com...
> Just some background...I love coding and I love playing games so naturally
I
> think it would be great if I could work as a game developer. Plus I'm
> working on my own game at home...at a snails pace, but it's getting there.
> I got my degree and I'm currently working at a Tech company as a software
> engineer...coder basically. My question though is...is it fun or
worthwhile
> to work for a game developer? I imagine the responses will vary a lot,
but
> in general if you have a passion for games and coding I would assume it
> would be very enjoyable...maybe not high job security or pay, but is it
> enjoyable....I'm just curious.
>
> thanks,
> dn

> My question though is...is it fun or worthwhile to work for a game developer?

Me and several friends had an opportunity to work for game companies.
My best friend decided to do it, i decided not to. A small part of
that was money - game companies don't pay all that well (for
programmers) compared to normal businesses. A much larger part was the
hours. i was married at the time and quickly ended up with 3 kids and,
as much as i like games, i like my daughters more

Another factor was that some of the games just weren't things i was
interested in. i wanted to work on RPGs. i had one opportunity like
that there was also a baseball game and a wakeboarder game. Good
games, just not my particular interest and so (i think) those would
have been less interesting for me

i didn't realize at the time (10 years ago) that job security was an
issue. Growing up in Austin, many of my friends landed at Origin, a
pretty big company back then. But my buddy got laid off and went to
Origin #2 (Digital Anvil). Once again people were shuffled and people
left and he went through a couple of different places. One time he was
so hard up for work he interviewed to work on a budget title rodeo
game. He worked on a port of some relatively big game (Spy Hunter i
think) and worked for a couple months and wasn't paid at all (the
developer/port house had gotten rid of the Austin branch to cut costs
but said if they kept working on some prototype they might help the
company land a new contract and thus get re-hired; didn't happen)

My buddy really likes what he's doing although he and his wife are
sick of the hours. The people can be wierd but in his case have been
generally nice (although there are definitely arrogant primodonnas and
loose cannons; i visited a local shop where i am now - Activision
Value? - and the lead guy was screaming at his developers; again). For
some reason the workforce is often younger (some of the senior guys
can be gray but most don't appear to be). The environments are nice -
i wish i had free twinkies at my work. And laser tag

Had i been single i would have taken the job. If it didn't pan out i
could always have taken a job in industry and have some cool stories
to tell. Even now i toy with it although i've gotten spoiled by large
pay checks and short work hours

Oh yeah, one other risk. Another friend of mine wrote Extreme
Paintbrawl. Although i never played it, i'm told it was one of the
worst games ever. Sold 400,000 copies so it made money (budget titles
often do; lots of parents will buy a $10-$15 title but few want to
spend $50 on a game, especially if it turns out to suck; me
personally, when i pay > $40 for a game, it quite often turns out to
majorly blow). i asked my buddy for a copy of the game but he refused
to let me see it. He doesn't like to talk about it

-baylor