7 ms·
I'm a full stack web developer and held 2 positions at game dev studios in the past. The first one was very much a traditional full stack experience, developin
by keraf 4y ago
I'm a full stack web developer and held 2 positions at game dev studios in the past.
The first one was very much a traditional full stack experience, developing front end features for the website and web based apps, as well as back end features for the web and games. We worked very closely with the game development team, so day to day I had to go into dev builds to see if my changes worked properly. I loved the job, it was the games I always wanted to work on, colleagues and management were great. But crunch was hard, ended up burning out which took a while to recover. Looking back at it, I would do it all again, I learned so much and I'm proud of what my team and I achieved.
The second job was as a UI developer, using the Gameface middleware, which basically renderers a web frame on top of the game, allowing you to design and write UIs with web tech. I was doing React there. The job was alright but the management was horrendous, a complete shit show at some points. Ended up leaving after a year and never came back to the games industry.
For both jobs, the salary was lower than other web dev jobs. And at times, it can be quite tough with crunch. But on the bright side, you meet great people and learn lots about game development even if you're not directly in the production pipeline of the game itself. I guess if your focus is to work on the game, you can easily transition within the company.
Your tech stack can be relevant depending on where you apply. Experiences wary greatly between studios, sometimes even within the same company. But I noticed a trend where working conditions and salaries are getting better in the industry, so maybe it's a good time to join. Have a look at career pages of game dev studios, you might find something you like.
Or maybe look at the indie route, working on your own game idea during your spare time. I'd highly recommend starting with Godot[0], the concepts of that engine are quite easy to grasp and you can produce really good results with it.
[0] https://godotengine.org/ https://godotengine.org/