Creating Indie Games while working on AAA Studio

Iqualizierer

Hello,

So i was asking myself a Question wich is really interesting for me.. Heres the Question:

Is it allowed or possible to create Indie Games while you are working at a AAA Studio lets say for example as a Environment Artist?

I have never worked at a AAA Studio but i want to work at one in the future i also would try to make Indie Games and look how popular my Game Ideas gonna get and how i create them but there are a lot of disadvantages being a Indie Game Dev i think the biggest one is no fixed salary.. So why not doing both ? Working at AAA and getting a fixed salary and if you finished with work going home and working at your own game.

What do you think?

poopipe

It will depend on your employment contract with the studio. 

A lot of contracts either outright forbid it since you'd be directly competing with your employer or give your employer the rights to what you create. 

Others are more discretionary and will allow you to do it in theory - in practice though it's often refused on the grounds that it'd interfere with your work for your employer (which it would if you weren't resting in your free time) 

neilberard

I worked in a studio where a guy was trying to juggle a freelance contract on top of work. It definitely showed. He was always coming in super late and one day the boss flat out fired him after catching him sleeping on the couch in the break room. I wouldn't advise doing that.