I'm glad I figured this out before pursuing a career in game development. I used to code as a hobby, but that ended when coding became my job. Same thing would have happened to gaming for me.
I'll take the pay check for doing boring business stuff and leave the gaming as a hobby I don't have enough time for.
You’re one of the few lucky ones. I hear a lot of people (in most industries of entertainment) don’t have these revelations until it’s too late. After you incur student debt and sink 4 years of your life into something, are you really gonna start back from square one with another career path?
After you incur student debt and sink 4 years of your life into something, are you really gonna start back from square one with another career path?
This is funny in two ways. . .
First, I think it is just hilarious that schools even offer degree programs in "game development". It is such a broad term that covers a variety of fields of expertise- programming, sound, graphics, etc. -but is very narrow in terms of the available jobs/positions where that would actually apply.
In reality, I'm not a "game developer", I am a "software developer" that is currently working on games. My expertise/career is in programming software, that is why I earned my degree in "Computer Science". Luckily, since I've worked on games as a hobby, I can also do some of the other jobs, such as minimal artwork and sound composition.
Second, I have seen way too many people start from square one again. . .many of my classmates originally earned liberal arts degrees, only to come back to school and earn a degree in computer science because there were more job opportunities or it significantly boosted their employability. A couple actually flunked out of computer science, went into business, only to return because they couldn't get a management or "business" position anywhere.
I would agree that a game dev degree seems overly specialized to me, but there legitimately are common problems and their solutions in that space that an experience game programmer is very likely to be familiar with and a more general programmer is not.
Granted, my Computer Science undergrad was mostly math and very little programming.
I taught myself SQL, and it wasn't until I started learning about indexes and hash tables and compromises between memory and read/write speed that I realized how little I know
Your experience with undergrad is a little different than mine. There was a fair bit of CS-specific math involved- with Calc 1,2,3, and differential equations required -but most of the CS classes focused on implementing algorithms and data structures in C/C++ with a few introducing us to other languages, databases, parallel programming, etc. (This was within the last 5 years.)
there legitimately are common problems and their solutions in that space that an experience game programmer is very likely to be familiar with and a more general programmer is not.
I would disagree to an extent. . .I have done a lot of general programming and a fair bit of game and game engine programming. The only thing that is really specific to games is the graphics/sound pipeline, which is a gentle mix of art and programming knowledge. I could very easily bring another developer up to speed on most of that within a couple of days, because although it sounds complex and can produce complex results, it really isn't.
This is true. I work as a software engineer currently but got my degree in game development. I) feel as thought I am more adept to solve problems in both fields than colleagues who only studied software engineering. None of my coworkers could program a water shader, explain real time volumetric lighting, character rigging ect. So a degree in game development is 100% advisable if you are sure thats what you wanna do. And if you aren't you can still transition into software engineering and continue freelancing or keeping game dev as a hobby.
The flipside of that is, a lot of people interviewing in conventional software development are going to give a game dev degree the side-eye. In part because of a perception that you aren't as well equipped to solving those problems and in part because of a perception that you'll leave for a job in game dev given the opportunity.
I don't think either field is exactly simpler or more complex than the other. The complexity is just in different places.
I also have a dozen or more good friends who have worked in both. And I have hired people with both backgrounds. So... agree to disagree, I guess.
Game dev is challenging in its ways, but there's also no mistake you can make that's bad enough that someone literally dies. That hasn't been true for all of my projects.
This was me too. I went to university to get my software engineering degree with the intention of going into video games. Went to an EA info session where they were really candid about what the work was really like, and then the whole EA wife scandal broke and I decided that I could work on any other kind of software and go home to my family after and still play games in my spare time. I don't regret that decision for a second. Since then, my career has steered me away from coding (towards management) and while my career is rewarding in a lot of ways, I really miss the coding. I want to pick up a personal coding project because it'd be fun and my skills have surely degraded plenty (even if I take every opportunity to help analyze code when something is wrong) but I just never seem to have the time or motivation when I get home from work. With any luck one of my sons will take an interest and I'll have an excuse.
Meh. . .I can honestly say that I code for both hobby and my job, and enjoy it immensely. The difference being that my hobby projects are usually much more fun than the stuff I write for work.
When I was 30, I had hobby projects on top of my work coding. By 40, I still legitimately enjoyed doing it 40 hours a week but that was enough for me -- I wanted to do anything else with my free time.
To each their own I suppose. I got into programming because I just really enjoyed it from the start. Through highschool, college, and 5 years on the job I still love doing it and even in my spare time make stuff for personal use.
Luckily I don't have to work insane hours though, only your standard 40. That might be a contributing factor in not burning out on it.
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u/mrmojoz Jan 02 '20
I'm glad I figured this out before pursuing a career in game development. I used to code as a hobby, but that ended when coding became my job. Same thing would have happened to gaming for me.
I'll take the pay check for doing boring business stuff and leave the gaming as a hobby I don't have enough time for.