Should I get a job in the game development industry?

no, work for a small company, make your own game on the side, sell it and become notch

if you even have to ask, then no, you dont deserve to be in our field. we are passionate about games and choose to make them, nobody told us to do so

-sincerely, a talanted indie developer

Do you want to?

Just do it. Start attempting to build games from day 1.

>>376116792

Can you infect the gaming industry at large with your passion, like some kind of benign virus? We need it desperately.

>>376116330
It's shit.
Work with normies all day who only follow pop culture, below average pay compared to industries outside of games, overtime consistently, shit career trajectory.
Wish I didn't fall for the game design meme degree.

>Valve
>game development
Oh you.

>>376116330
>game development
Why did you post such an unrelated image?

>>376116792
>talented indie developer
uhhh yeahhhh ok

>>376117540
>>376117554
nice meme

>>376116330
You already have a job Valve, and it's not making games.

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265KB, 1600x900px

this is a complicated question that is difficult to answer if i'm being honest. i am a programmer in the aaa industry.

there are positives. for the first few months of your employment the fact that you are "making video games" will be cool. you'll feel like you "made it" and whatnot. then the routine will set in, or you'll have a friend who gets laid off, or they'll start enforcing longer hours, or you'll feel like an idiot because a senior coworker berates you for shitty work.

yes, there will be a crunch. you will find yourself working 80 hours a week and bitching about it all the time. product cycles will come to control your life - i often think to myself that i should quit, but well, maybe after this game? and then this game becomes the next game, etc. you get stuck. especially once you have a family.

it is a neat feeling when something you worked on is sitting there on the shelf in gamestop. or when a little kid somewhere tells you that she liked your game. its a shitty feeling, though, when you read a blog post somewhere trashing the thing you made. so that balances out, i guess.

is it better than a normal job in software? i.e. are the programmers happier at amazon working on AWS or whatever than the ones at ubisoft? can't say. at least video games are creative and you get to help make something that your 12 year old self would have loved.

the truth is i dont play games much anymore. the industry is changing. team sizes are getting larger and larger (even in the indie world). software is only getting more complicated.

would i do it again if i had the chance to start over? no. id major in philosophy and do drugs and try desperately to slide into the cozy academic life.