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Building games and being over worked can’t possibly be worse than a soul sucking 40 hours as an equally underpaid enterprise dev. I’d rather be over worked but

Building games and being over worked can’t possibly be worse than a soul sucking 40 hours as an equally underpaid enterprise dev. I’d rather be over worked but making something interesting rather than sitting in meetings all day barely writing any code and going home with no mental energy left and nothing to show for it.

gordaco 8y ago
In my experience, enterprise devs are not really underpaid (this could vary a lot depending on your geographical area, of course). I also don't find corporate jobs to be exhausting at all, but YMMV and it probably varies from person to person. I don't care sitting in meeting if I know that they will end in time; I'd rather be coding but I'm getting paid anyway. Some years ago I had a hip, theoretically non-soul sucking, job (not video games, but still, a hip software company from my country). The hours were horrible and the pay wasn't that awesome. I now have a 8-to-4 corporate job and I love it. There is little stress; the technical side is a little outdated but still acceptable, and comfortable to work with; the pay is nice; the hours are sane; the managers are reasonable and planning works; and so on. Sleeping as much as I want every day, and not being overworked or stressed over my job, are awesome, underrated things. The projects might not be super-awesome, but I learned a lot of time ago that if you want something fun to work on, your best bet is to look for it outside your job. That way, you stay in control: you work at your pace, you decide when to start or stop a new project, and in the case of software, you can spend time gold-plating projects to your liking.
nottorp 8y ago
Why do you think game development is interesting? It is when you're in a 3 person team where you do everything, but in the AAA teams you may be assigned arrow behaviour as your sole mind numbing task... 60-80 hours per week... :) And don't think you're going to write engine code, no one writes engines if they can avoid it.
seba_dos1 8y ago
Of course it can. For starters, during so-called "crunch time", 40 hours isn't that much. Social pressure to take overtime is so high it actually takes some courage to take a strong anti-crunch stance in this industry.
s73v3r_ 8y ago
"Building games and being over worked can’t possibly be worse than a soul sucking 40 hours as an equally underpaid enterprise dev." Yes, it is. Mainly because, as an enterprise dev, you get to go home at the end of the day and see your family. You get to go home and work on something you care about. You get to go home and have hobbies and do other fun things in your off time.

gordaco 8y ago

In my experience, enterprise devs are not really underpaid (this could vary a lot depending on your geographical area, of course). I also don't find corporate jobs to be exhausting at all, but YMMV and it probably varies from person to person. I don't care sitting in meeting if I know that they will end in time; I'd rather be coding but I'm getting paid anyway. Some years ago I had a hip, theoretically non-soul sucking, job (not video games, but still, a hip software company from my country). The hours were horrible and the pay wasn't that awesome. I now have a 8-to-4 corporate job and I love it. There is little stress; the technical side is a little outdated but still acceptable, and comfortable to work with; the pay is nice; the hours are sane; the managers are reasonable and planning works; and so on. Sleeping as much as I want every day, and not being overworked or stressed over my job, are awesome, underrated things. The projects might not be super-awesome, but I learned a lot of time ago that if you want something fun to work on, your best bet is to look for it outside your job. That way, you stay in control: you work at your pace, you decide when to start or stop a new project, and in the case of software, you can spend time gold-plating projects to your liking.

nottorp 8y ago

Why do you think game development is interesting? It is when you're in a 3 person team where you do everything, but in the AAA teams you may be assigned arrow behaviour as your sole mind numbing task... 60-80 hours per week... :) And don't think you're going to write engine code, no one writes engines if they can avoid it.

seba_dos1 8y ago

Of course it can. For starters, during so-called "crunch time", 40 hours isn't that much. Social pressure to take overtime is so high it actually takes some courage to take a strong anti-crunch stance in this industry.

s73v3r_ 8y ago

"Building games and being over worked can’t possibly be worse than a soul sucking 40 hours as an equally underpaid enterprise dev." Yes, it is. Mainly because, as an enterprise dev, you get to go home at the end of the day and see your family. You get to go home and work on something you care about. You get to go home and have hobbies and do other fun things in your off time.