Game Industry even worth it ?
With how volatile the industry is, can anyone say its worth it to try and get in anymore? Im just curious what peoples opinions are. I recently graduated still trying to get and with the amount of competition getting laid off it feels almost impossible and even if you get a job your guaranteed for what the length of the project?
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For now I'm ok with it.
grew up in fl,
moved to portland for job, stayed 1 year left for better job
moved to virginia for job stayed 5 years was laid off
moved to arizona for job stayed 1 year left for better job.
moved texas for job on my second year
honestly i ask myself this question all the time. But its too late for me to do anything else.
It certainly is possible, you just have to find the right fit for you. I would say it's not likely you'll find that in your first job though. After working there a while you'll lose the starry-eyed amazement and learn the intricacies of how things work, and you'll start to see what is broken. Ideally you'd be in a position where that wouldn't affect you much, but sometimes it's not the case.
Another thing to consider is that if you're getting a Jr. level job, it's possible you won't be needed as much as projects come in and out, so you're not really in a secure position.
The best thing you could do if you want to settle is move to a city that has a lot of options. Don't move to a town in the middle of nowhere with only one studio if your plans are to settle down and buy a house.
Is it worth it? It depends on where you hold your value, but overall I'd say definitely. The pay is good (industry as a whole), and it's products are in high demand. Good people will always be able to find work - all studios always need more talented people who are easy to work with.
3 companies
2 companies in Dallas for 10 years. 9 of those years were at Terminal Reality. I felt my time in Dallas was over and chose to move to Austin.
1 in Austin for almost 10 months now.
Only moved once.
The industry is not without its downfalls though. I have had to live in 3 states away from my family within the past year. There is a lot of pressure for your game to do well, if is doesn't you can pretty much be assured that their will be "restructuring". You never really know what is going on with a project. Directors can tell you everything is going really well and then be out the door the next day (actually happened to me...twice). Finally, you don't see a lot of people retiring from the industry in their 60's. I would say the industry is not a life long career, more like a 10-15 year run then time to find something else to do. Getting laid off and losing your job is not a matter of if but when in this industry. As long as you are prepared with some saving and continue to develop relationships with people that are health you should be able to bounce back pretty quick. Average out of work time for me was about 3 months.
Would I say the game industry is a safe bet when it comes to stability, HELL NO, but what industry is now a days. Might as well be doing something that you enjoy.
I think that's a bit unfair. It's a valid question for someone to ask who is looking to get into the industry. If you're asking this after 5 years in, then you are probably right.
I'd ask the same thing to a group of firefighters or police officers - is the stress and baggage of your job worth doing it every day?
I mean if he's a Veteran, I can understand that, being burned out and all, but a fresh meat-er, I mean mind as the right to ask such questions considering the current state of affairs.
Exactly this for me as well!
Currently people get too tied up trying to get jobs for companies that make the huge AAA games. All the while I talk to small devs that are looking to fill slots but no one is applying for them because they're not 'well known'.
I agree. You have to stay positive and busy working on your portfolio.
That said, as someone who has a steady girlfriend of almost 3 years with no plans to get married soon, I simply can't imagine doing anything else. I would be miserable. If loving my work doesn't make it worth it regardless of how tough it can be, then I don't know what is.
this is so true, and it's applicable to EVERY industry, not just this one. a lot of people say "there are no jobs", but actually they should be saying "there are no jobs that i want to do".
there are some exceptions to that rule, but as a generality it's true.
I agree with the self fulfilling prophecy this, its hard to stay positive sometimes but you just gotta man up and do it and keep working on portfolio
Graphics Programming (my own personal goal) -
Game Development (obviously),
Graphics Technologies (Nvidia and AMD have many technologies teams expanding the amount of graphics technologies that can take advantage of their cards true power. Similarly teams have had investments in amazing looking technologies like the unlimited detail point cloud technology by Euclideon.),
Movie Effects (this is usually in the form of tools and plugins programming for already standard applications, but none the less a good graphics programmer can reduce rendering times (and by extensions costs) and up the visual quality of cinematic effects.)
Artist Programs (rough examples, Zbrush and Photoshop.)
There is probably more but those come from the top of my head, I suppose with graphics programming being heavily based around Math as opposed to logicm it could be a good skill for me should I choose to swap over to something like physics programming.
Asset creation (as commonly seen on polycount) is the most obvious of wide career paths,
There is an immense amount of things that require artistic design, both virtual and real, the list could be endless.
Network programming... another obvious wide path.
Logical programming (I'm not sure what to call this, but I mean stuff like the boost libraries for C++, its the bare essentials to being a good programmer yet it can be used for so damn much, as long as you have the right mind to.)
Project management / directing (the supervisor of the game dev world) applicable in near enough anything, even if your were in the worst spot possible for employment you could wave this around and get a job in no time, a very widely appreciated skill, to my understanding)
So yeah, long story short, jumping into game development, as long as you aim to specialize even if all your efforts go to crap you'll have a lot to fall back on.
Reason specializing is important is because if you were a jack of all trades, you wont be able to bleed what you have over into other professions, it'll be specific set of skills put together to aim for a specific job.
'Cause for some people it's
"I'm busting my ass 60 hours a week at this for pure pleasure and eventually someone will pay me to do this and I might get to see the world, holy-crap-on-a-cracker - that's awesome!"
And with such mindset you can't possibly compete with that.
Though concerning stability I'd say be awesome enough to choose where you work and choose wisely and you might not need to move for a very long time. Or move to some big industry hub like Montreal, Seattle/Washington or L-A/California etc...
Edit> To at least give more info for what you're looking for: I'm 7+ years in and have never been laid off. I've moved across the country and back, in Canada and America and had a successful run as a true freelancer (i.e. not unemployed and sometimes getting work.) It's not all doom and gloom.
I doubted this industry before I got into it too, I just didn't let that doubt hinder my drive to be succesfull. If I had given up before I even tried it as a career, just because I was worried it wasn't the right course for me, then I wouldn't be in the wonderful spot I am today.
Being cautious is not the same as being set up to fail.
I wanted to get a job in the games industry without a degree after I had a bad experience with a year of a games education, but changed my mind at some point that I'd very much like a back-up degree - and I went to university to study History, while honing my 3D skills in the mean time. It took about a month for that back-up degree to become my main goal and 3D to become a hobby.
That's easy to say, of course, since I'm still in university and have never had a job ever, but I'm just saying that that are worthwhile professions outside of the games industry, maybe if not for you then for other people.
Don't sit around waiting for someone else to give you permission. Download Unity and make your own assets and/or games.
I didn't say that - I said working on something I wasn't passionate about was terrible for me. I worked in IT for about 8 years and almost went down the path of getting certifications but I realized it was making me miserable.
Im at the 12 years mark now, Never layoff, never moved for a job. but then again i moved to freelance 8 years ago atleast.
Each is own i think.
So it all comes down to the personal taste. what you enjoy.
EDIT: I did apply to every company in US.
If you want to make games, yes!
Personally I believe that many people who think games is a hard career have the opinion that the grass is greener on the other side. I know people who work in other industries and while we, obviously, just share the cool parts of our jobs, we all know that no job is just as easy as we make it sound.
Plumbing or being a doctor or a junior lawyer ain't as cool either when you just start out. Games is no different in this respect. But most jobs become much better when you establish yourself, move up the career ladder, move to a better company, when you find your niche and enjoy what you're doing.
The games industry is bigger than just 500 people who might get laid off at EA. But as harsh as this sounds, other industries get hit by layoffs too. There's no industry with just "good news". If those are the stories that make you not work in one field or the other, you'll soon find yourself without any fields where you can comfortably work in.
So I'd say, if games is what you want to do, go for it!
It appears to me that if you have quite a few years logged you keep your job regardless if your skills have fallen behind (to a certain extent).
The hard part is landing the first job and the market is indeed competitive. To get in you need a good portfolio. By good I mean at the very least better than 95% of the student portfolios you see, and (although this may be controversial) probably better than most professional's portfolios. It is definitely hard, but not as hard as it sounds in my opinion.
When you're new to the industry you always have less of an understanding of how healthy the industry is your trying to get into. If you graduated and saw quite a few of them lay off threads like the wave of them about a month ago its only going to put doubts in your head. You only truly know how it is when your already in and your 7 years plus.
There are just certain allowances you have to make for inexperience, everyone has to start somewhere and become informed over time.
That I can plug my headphones in, draw pictures all day and find work all over the world, pretty damn awesome. The odd three month severance funded adventure? could be worse.
In saying that I live in a country with reasonable free medical, and at some point putting down roots overshadows much of the above. i guess
Let me put my cock hat on for just a second.
*has now become a dickhead*
imo n00bs that I have worked with, talked with, hung out with *think* and say they want to be in the games industry, but tbh they only *kind of* want it.
They want all the cool shit, without the slog through the mud for the first 3 - 5 years to get there. They want instant rockstar status, to tell their friends, to be cool nerds etc.
My lecturer at Qantm, stood up in an auditorium and told the entire room of 70 odd brand new students that at the end of this diploma, there would only be about 20 people left, of which 10 or so would pass, and only 2 or 3 may get a job, of which 1 or maybe 2 will be in the games industry for any great length of time.
That stuck with me big time, and what he said turned out to be pretty damned accurate. From the 70 or so students that were in my intake, only 4 that I know of went on to work in games for any length of time, and only myself and 2 others are still working!
Most of the 'passionate' n00bs that I was with at the time, swore up and down that they would be in the games industry - absolutely no doubt. But throughout the course, it became pretty clear who actually wanted it and who was there just fucking about.
I liken this to anyone who wants anything tbh.
So my question to you OP is
Do you really want it ? or do you just kinda want it?
Because if you really want it, the state of the industry shouldnt be your concern, getting good enough in your chosen area to even be considered is.
There is a tonne of studios hiring people right now, lots of firing too no doubt, but just look recently what happened here when vigil layed off some folks, at how many studios came forth saying hey we are hiring - it was like an avalanche!
Now if you think you might fall into the 'only kinda want it' category then hey, its your time - make of it what you will - but chances are you will more than likely not get very far, and there are no winners in that case.
And if the answer is you dont know, then I agree conpletely with what Gav said.
Theres no winning to be found in squandered time.
Don't get me wrong, there are TONS of people who WANT those jobs but a limited number who can actually do them. Some companies hire and fire warm bodies for each project and I think that's where the industry can get a bad rep. Places like Epic (and others, of course - I only have experience with Epic so I use us as my example) hire people for the long haul BUT you have to have the skills to be able to get in. That's where the stability is.
My wife is pregnant and I would never resign myself to staying in the same job and location for the rest of my life. The world is out there to experience and explore. Each to their own I suppose.
Honestly you would have what industry folks envy x10 if you say out of the industry and work on it in your spare time.
If you get a job in the industry you will more than likely be subject to poor pay, long hours, next to zero creative freedom and probably no stability. This will make it impossible for you to find the time or the motivation to create anything that is even remotely interesting to you.
Because of the soul crushing hours and constant time wasted looking for your next job, you will have a hard time finding someone to spend the rest of your life with. So then what do you have when the tiny flame that brought you here burns out? You have years of regret and a life wasted...
Go do a stupid pointless desk job and have everything people in the industry truly want. Go, be what they can't and don't look back.
If you're still interested, welcome. Lets work on getting you the skills you need to make this worthwhile.
fantastic outlook, me and my wife want to travel everywhere.
I know jobs are out there, I'm not skilled enough yet, im going to continue to work on my skills till i am. When im modeling and listening to music i love it, truly an awesome experience. I don't want to do it cause i love game w00t i want to do it cause i love creating environments and assets. There is a feeling i get when i finish something that makes me feel great when i step back and go yea i made that. Every time i learn a new technique i feel the same way.
This is my desire and i will make it happen. Thanks Guys