day to day real world work
polygon
Hi guys, new here so apologies if this isn't the right forum. This is directed at those of you who have worked in this industry professionally.
I'm leaving the architecture world and thinking of trying to get into this one, primarily because I think you get to be much more creative, the only budget you have to worry about is the poly and texture budget, the creations you get to build can be literally out of this world, it's creating something that gives a lot of people joy, and I just love playing games myself.
Is this me being naive? One of the other reasons I'd like to leave architecture is that there are too many awesome talented people being pushed into menial repetitive soul crushing work with no opportunity to actually contribute or use the skills they spent thousands of dollars learning (eg. Copying toilet blocks in condo buildings), and most clients caring not an ounce about the quality of the product only how much money they can make. Is this generally how it feels to work in a game studio? I don't want to end up demoralized and in the same situation after investing so much time into this.
I'm leaving the architecture world and thinking of trying to get into this one, primarily because I think you get to be much more creative, the only budget you have to worry about is the poly and texture budget, the creations you get to build can be literally out of this world, it's creating something that gives a lot of people joy, and I just love playing games myself.
Is this me being naive? One of the other reasons I'd like to leave architecture is that there are too many awesome talented people being pushed into menial repetitive soul crushing work with no opportunity to actually contribute or use the skills they spent thousands of dollars learning (eg. Copying toilet blocks in condo buildings), and most clients caring not an ounce about the quality of the product only how much money they can make. Is this generally how it feels to work in a game studio? I don't want to end up demoralized and in the same situation after investing so much time into this.
Replies
I know a couple of people who moved from architecture to games, and I've rarely heard a complaint of it being more of the same.
However. Those issues are often replaced by a plethora of other, sometimes similar issues.
eg, Not being able to hold down work, not being able to find work, low pay, placing crates all day, having to stop building a cool structure only to have someone else half-ass it during crunch, and so on. Unfortunately, few studios are completely free of the soulless work just to make a quick buck, either.
I do think that there's more time actually spent being creative and working on cool stuff that becomes tangible quickly, though. This thread is a good start, but there's a lot of articles about peoples real experiences in the industry around. I don't think you're being naive, but I'd try and get a handle on what the common negative aspects of the industry are, and if you think that you'd feel the same in a mediocre games studio as you feel in architecture before you make the jump.
Good luck! I hope you get some good answers.
We've been adding lots of info here about what it's really like, working as a game artist.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry#Being_a_Developer
Another question I have is I've heard talk of outsourcing. What exactly is meant by this ( typical outsourcing of work to lower-cost studios in other parts of the world?) and how common is it?
Also how common is it for studios to reuse assets from their libraries or buy pre-made assets instead od designing custom for each game?
Reuse in my experience has mostly been done in the prototyping stage, when you're implementing a new feature and need stuff quick for testing and development. Once the feature is in and running, the temp items are replaced with custom-built assets.
Another use for reuse though is if you make a good basemesh for characters, then you can reuse the bulk of this work, finessing on top to make the next new character.
Similarly for game levels, it's often easier to start from an existing level with all the logic pieces in place, and replace/add what needs to change. Depends on the game style though.
Even big stuff gets outsourced these days - i.e. entire levels. Cost is one advantage, the ability to flexibly ramp up on people and equipment and software licenses and ramp down another. Also you get 24h production, you get back to work and new assets are already done. There are downsides though, communication is an issue, quality too if you don't pick a good company. Speaking from first hand experience here: I work for an outsourcer - see our some of out latest work in Naughty Dog's amazing Uncharted 4
http://www.virtuosgames.com/en/uncharted-4-releases-3d-art-virtuos
Can only speak for a medium sized company so it might be totally different for other companies.
I think the most important part to have a healthy relationship to work is to accept the fact that you are a tool for the company. You might love the project or it might totally be the opposite of what you want to do, in the end of the day you have to get shit done.
In my case i have been lucky i guess because the things i worked on where more or less up my alley.
But I would not really mind if it was not my cup of tea, as i enjoy the creation process as a whole, and there is always this small satisfaction when something is "finished" (and does not look like total crap).
But for every task you enjoy there is one or more that "has to be done" may it be optimisation, bringing things into an engine, fixing bugs, reworking things etc.
As a general artist I've been doing environment, characters and from time to time simple concepts and animations. I can imagine that doing always the same things can become quite frustrating in the long run, at least i want to learn something new once in a while.
There is always the risk of your work being dumped for one or the other reason so being to attached to it does not really help.
I think as long as the "has to be done" tasks don't outweight the creation tasks i think you will have a good time working in this field.
Another big factor if not the biggest, that will determine if you are happy in this field are the people you are working with. The tasks at hand can be so exciting and awesome its all for nothing if you don't really enjoy working with the folks around you. I think thats not really an issue, as long as you are not a total asshole, people are not assholes to you too. I only worked for one company so it might be different somehwere else =P.
For the things you really passionate about, well there is your free time. A lot of coworkers are making some little projects on the side where they can express their creativity to the fullest, without any restrictions (me included).
Lets be real, at the end of the day you work for the money and someone elses dream