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Two and a Half Years in GameDev

smyachenkov.com

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Re: Two and a Half Years in GameDev

#11

Post by thom »

YesBox wrote: post #2

Nice read. Makes me excited to build a video game company/be surrounded by creatively driven people. I've been developing a city builder game "Metropolis 1998" [1] for over 3 years. My life has been constantly pulled in two or more different directions (e.g. creativity/artistic expression vs. logic/software). Most of the time the environments that allow these forces to thrive are incompatible with each other. Since w…

Been following development of this! The game looks great, and the work you've put into the simulation side really seems like it's paying off. If it's not too nosy to ask, how are wishlists etc going?

Re: Two and a Half Years in GameDev

#12

Post by pyjarrett »

YesBox wrote: post #2

Nice read. Makes me excited to build a video game company/be surrounded by creatively driven people. I've been developing a city builder game "Metropolis 1998" [1] for over 3 years. My life has been constantly pulled in two or more different directions (e.g. creativity/artistic expression vs. logic/software). Most of the time the environments that allow these forces to thrive are incompatible with each other. Since w…

I played an incredibly amount of SimCity 2000 and SimCity 3000, and Metropolis 1998 looks *amazing.*

Re: Two and a Half Years in GameDev

#15

Post by dfxm12 »

bob1029 wrote: post #10
fullstackwife wrote: post #8

I feel that a childhood dream of the author came true, and it is a success, but the prose of reality in a large studio is discouraging.

I found the smaller the studio, the more discouraging the experience can be. There are certainly some advantages to being in a smaller company, but there are also gigantic downsides. The biggest one being that you have no budget. You are effectively competing with every other solo indie developer with a Unity install and a Steam AppID. Being in a AAA studio means your impact is substantially reduced, but it also mean…

but the experience as a developer in this context is statistically very, very bad compared to AAA

Which statistics? Almost every article I've read about game development describes AAA game studios as a horror show of workplace exploitation. I seriously doubt this.

Re: Two and a Half Years in GameDev

#16

Post by meheleventyone »

dfxm12 wrote: post #15
bob1029 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the smaller the studio, the more discouraging the experience can be. There are certainly some advantages to being in a smaller company, but there are also gigantic downsides. The biggest one being that you have no budget. You are effectively competing with every other solo indie developer with a Unity install and a Steam AppID. Being in a AAA studio means your impact is substantially reduced, but it also mean…

but the experience as a developer in this context is statistically very, very bad compared to AAA Which statistics? Almost every article I've read about game development describes AAA game studios as a horror show of workplace exploitation. I seriously doubt this.

AAA these days is not nearly as bad as it once was and smaller teams aren’t magically immune from bad management or workplace exploitation. In particular where studios are scaling after success or larger funding can be a pinch point as the leadership. This is common in startups as well where the founders often expect a similar level of commitment from people with much less equity.

Re: Two and a Half Years in GameDev

#18

Post by theshrike79 »

fullstackwife wrote: post #8

I feel that a childhood dream of the author came true, and it is a success, but the prose of reality in a large studio is discouraging.

In a small studio you either need to have someone with deep pockets funding it or always have your next job lined up for when the money runs out.

Large (and/or profitable) studios can afford to try new game ideas and have them fail and nobody will get fired.

Re: Two and a Half Years in GameDev

#20

Post by koakuma-chan »

qiine wrote: post #19
koakuma-chan wrote: post #14

> About 3 years ago, I joined a GameDev company, without any prior experience making games or hands-on exposure to this industry. How is that possible? There was no competition at all?

this is surprisingly not that uncommon

Can you elaborate? Depends on the country I guess, but generally any game dev job posting has hundreds of applicants.
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