On becoming a game dev vs. joining game dev companies | Gamedev Dairy #64
Hacks for learning, productivity, having work-life-passion balance and finally game development!
TL;DR
Intro
Why it's not worth it to be a full-time game developer?
So I chose to do it for 1h daily... Now what?
Intro
To write this issue I was inspired by a friend's conclusion that I want to go full-time game developer. And to be honest... I kinda don't ;-) I spend some time thinking about it before, and although I have my reasons, it's not about them. It's about of consequences of both choices.
Why it's not worth it to be a full-time game developer?
Sure, you'll have much more time for your passion project. You might even develop a great company! And make more and more complicated games! I guess all those possibilities are true. But...
That's not my pragmatic answer. In the end, money won't be as satisfying as it is in a normal job. Not only less, but it also might not be even regular. After all, this is a creative job! Not the thing you want to consider with a wife and child ;-)
What I would be worried about is that at some point companies that are not doing great with their ingenious ideas (because, srsly, every artist is ingenious, but that doesn't mean they're communicative enough to sell their genius ;-)) are doing regrettable stuff. They search for solutions that will allow them to thrive long enough to at least meet ends and not go mad. How tempting for them would be to follow trends, just because they bring profits (I wanted to add NFT as an example, but I don't think they brought profits to any game developers so far), or allow themselves to be swallowed by the market pathologies just because they work for big companies.
What's wrong with that, you ask? Well, call me a naive romantic, but I want this initiative of mine to remain a passion, where I have total decisiveness over creative choices. Being independent of publishers and hunger alike. But that means it will not become my full-time job. Not for a long time!
So I chose to do it for 1h daily... Now what?
Congratulations, I said to myself, you are a passionate man! You sure are screwed now...
No chance of thinking about developing a studio. #foreverAlone I can drop the dreams about becoming a charismatic leader or the artist in lead or whatever. Seems sad, but frankly, it's about time to stop ;-) I'm sure I'll still have a chance to work with some contractors ;-)
Instead, I think of the time I have left in life (I'm turning 38 this year) and I realized I might not be able to give form to all of my ideas. Not only that - there will be a limit to the complexity of the games I will create. Unless I want to create Dwarf Fortress. With all due respect to the creators, I do have too many ideas to focus on just one ;-)
I will have to investigate something. Gather information for further learning. How complex of a game can one person do, and how much time it can take? Why? To learn the limits of one person. And since I love "making of" docs, so I might enjoy that next to learning Godot ;-)
So, I guess, I won't be making the Witcher 3...
But, in the end, it's all about self-organizing. And cutting off other passions, I suppose.
Recommendations
I started following a fellow game developer - Michał Chwistek. His also into newsletters, and Twitter, he's also far ahead of me in making games, as he already creates one :-)
He shares thoughts on the game design of recently played games and interesting links. I encourage you to give him a following! (he writes in Polish, though).
He shares a lot of interesting links, so I might "borrow" some from him :-)
Like the messy story of the first "A Plague Tale":
The Story of A Plague Tale - a Making Of
Or how Roadwarden divides choices! Very interesting read. Will have to come back to this one, once I'll be making my own dialogue-driven game ;-)
Deep Dive: How to design for impact and narrative variance with Roadwarden
This RPG's class, dialogue, and reputation systems were essential to creating meaningful events.
Are you still waiting for a Godot update? (pun intended)
Godot for AA/AAA game development - What's missing?
Free and open source 2D and 3D game engine