Graphical programming is a lot of fun. That might just be personal preference, but objectively it's at least very different from enterprise programming. There a

Graphical programming is a lot of fun. That might just be personal preference, but objectively it's at least very different from enterprise programming. There are lots of interesting problems, and you can see the fruits of your labor pretty literally. Plus, knowing how to create a solid engine opens up the freedom to work on ideas that you are actually passionate about. One problem is that lots of people want to be game developers, so the working conditions and pay can suffer. But the consensus among indie developers who I've talked to is that the pay isn't as bad as people make it out to be, and it's still worth spending a few years 'paying your dues' at a large company, if only to learn about how the development process works in the real world; there's a whole lot more to making a game than writing a good engine. Unfortunately, game development also suffers from Publish or Perish Syndrome, so it's hard to get a foot in the door with large companies unless you've already shipped a game. I'm saying all of that as somebody who thinks that they would enjoy being a game developer, but I've never worked in game development so most of what I'm saying is secondhand information. It's enough to make me happy to stick with learning on my own time for now, though.