4 ms·

I've shipped two commercial games on Steam and PS4. My advice, don't quit your job just yet. It's extremely, extremely hard to make a living off game making. A

by keyle 6y ago

I've shipped two commercial games on Steam and PS4. My advice, don't quit your job just yet. It's extremely, extremely hard to make a living off game making. At the rate the industry is going, I give you a whopping 1 in 1000 chances of matching your current wage making games.

drchopchop 6y ago
Also, even if you get a job at a AAA game company, you're looking at a 50-75% pay cut from what you'd be making in FAANG. Even salaried game developers are very underpaid, because there are so many people who are willing to take the jobs for the fun/love factor (which eventually goes away). The only people making real money are: a) corporate execs, b) people who get lucky with a big indie hit on Steam/etc, c) people lucky enough to work at a company with profit sharing (very rare)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
grecy 6y ago
> I give you a whopping 1 in 1000 chances of matching your current wage making games. The comment your replied to make it clear they find game programming interesting and they have a passion for it. What on earth does making the same wage have to do with it? If we can make a liveable wage doing what we enjoy, there are scores of people that couldn't care less about a massive wage.
- coldtea 6y ago
  >What on earth does making the same wage have to do with it? The fact that, on Earth, passion only gets you so far. And it can easily wane off, given bad circumstances. And of course, on Earth at least, (a) "passion to create AAA games" is not the same as (b) "passion to be an employee on a AAA game company, with impossible schedules, idiotic management, unpaid overtime, and lower salary that I could get elsewhere". In the end, whatever their passion, the AAA game developer is just a cog in a team (the head / driver of the team would be 1 in 20 or 1 in 50 devs).
- pjmlp 6y ago
  Because passion is the traditional excuse to exploit workers in the industry.

by keyle 6y ago

drchopchop 6y ago

Also, even if you get a job at a AAA game company, you're looking at a 50-75% pay cut from what you'd be making in FAANG. Even salaried game developers are very underpaid, because there are so many people who are willing to take the jobs for the fun/love factor (which eventually goes away). The only people making real money are: a) corporate execs, b) people who get lucky with a big indie hit on Steam/etc, c) people lucky enough to work at a company with profit sharing (very rare)

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

grecy 6y ago

> I give you a whopping 1 in 1000 chances of matching your current wage making games. The comment your replied to make it clear they find game programming interesting and they have a passion for it. What on earth does making the same wage have to do with it? If we can make a liveable wage doing what we enjoy, there are scores of people that couldn't care less about a massive wage.

coldtea 6y ago
>What on earth does making the same wage have to do with it? The fact that, on Earth, passion only gets you so far. And it can easily wane off, given bad circumstances. And of course, on Earth at least, (a) "passion to create AAA games" is not the same as (b) "passion to be an employee on a AAA game company, with impossible schedules, idiotic management, unpaid overtime, and lower salary that I could get elsewhere". In the end, whatever their passion, the AAA game developer is just a cog in a team (the head / driver of the team would be 1 in 20 or 1 in 50 devs).
pjmlp 6y ago
Because passion is the traditional excuse to exploit workers in the industry.