This guy kind of sounds like you:
So if I am a young developer that is stuck in the game industry right now (which is obviously a sinking ship), where should I go? Is there any place in this market that can be considered safe ground? Should I just abandon it all and go find something completely different?
Just looking for good advice. In the place that I’m in, I feel like the walls are slowly closing in on me.
_________________________________________
The Gordon Walton interview is very interesting. The reason why he probably sounds like me is because we grew up and live in the same general area (i.e. same backgrounds). He is also ex-military so he probably has a more down-to-earth perspective than most game developers (none of this “I am a snowflake artist” junk).
.
What should you do? I would take stock of what skills you have (most game developers have technical skills of a sort, even the artists). Those skills put you above most other people since you didn’t major in poetry or basket weaving or something else ridiculous. Much also depends on where you live. If you live in Texas, there are many, many openings for technical abilities.
.
The reason why the game development job is so hard is because it is entertainment and based on consumers’ whims. There are much easier jobs out there where you can make more money. Or at least, the jobs will be stable, and you won’t be removed just because the product ships.Consider the industrial fields. There is a huge demand for technically thinking individuals although you might have to take a few classes. The computer revolution really drained much of the technically thinking youth from these fields as they went to get their computer science degree to work with computers or make video games. Many of these people in these industrial fields are aging and will retire soon. These fields are also all going high tech. Industries like Oil and Gas will have around 50% of their workforce retire in the next ten years. (In some oil engineering classes I’m taking, there are students from Libya to Brazil. They know they will get $100,000 income when graduating. While we hear about unemployment numbers in the United States, Alberta, Canada cannot get enough workers. They have to get Asian workers from overseas to come in and do jobs where you can get six figures within a year. What this tells me is that many Americans find such jobs ‘beneath them’ because they don’t even seem to be considering them. The only ones who are will be those who knew people in the field (say a son of an engineer that works in that industry).
.
My impression is that game developers are limiting their options only to the game industry or to computers in general. They either aren’t aware that there are huge industrial markets looking for technical skills or they think of those fields as Industrial Age while they perceive themselves to be ‘Information Age’. The perception is rubbish because everything uses computers these days especially these industrial markets.If you can translate your technical skills into engineering skills, the world is your oyster. There is huge demand for engineering skills anywhere.Now you might say, “Malstrom, all my life I have been told to do what I love. I love games because I played them in my youth. Therefore, I should be a game developer.”
.
The truth is that you aren’t allowed to do what you want unless you become rich. This goes for any job in any industry. As a game developer, you know you aren’t calling the shots. What goes around is all around. So you might as well go for the money and retire early or do you what you love in your spare time. Life is much more fun when you constantly have money and don’t have to worry about money. I’ve gone the starving artist route before, and it is not fun. I don’t think it should be idealized as it is.
Another truth I’ve realized that you discover you love an industry you didn’t even consider. The more you learn about it, the more you like it. The more you do stuff in it, the more you want to learn about it. I think the reason why is because you enjoy making money and want to make more of it. Also, your job will have more value than entertaining some hardcore gamer kid. If you asked me a year ago, I had no idea that within months, oil companies will be sending me around the world under military guard. But I love this path. My eyesight is deteriorating and my doctor informed me that certain glands of one eye are practically destroyed. My grandparents went blind, is my fate the same? Regardless, I won’t have the same regret that the creator of MULE, Dan Bunton, did on his deathbed: “I wish I didn’t spend so much time at the computer.” A lifetime at the computer will destroy the eyes and make you wish you took more adventures.
Miyamoto didn’t major in computer science or in ‘art’. It was Industrial Design. Iwata has publicly expressed that this might be a secret behind his genius. If Miyamoto didn’t feel that learning about an industrial field was ‘beneath him’, neither should any game maker.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Malstrom's Articles News 