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I've never understood why someone would ever want to work in the game industry, regardless of their age. It's full of people who are willing to make absurd sacr

I've never understood why someone would ever want to work in the game industry, regardless of their age. It's full of people who are willing to make absurd sacrifices just so they can make games. It's a much more rational decision to write code for a "boring" industry. You're still honing your software engineering prowess and gaining experience, but you're getting paid a lot more and not being required to work ridiculous hours - a win-win situation.

jiggy2011 12y ago
Because it seems like a high status career choice when you are 21, other 21 year olds will be jealous. It's also a good place to get a lot of practical experience actually writing code, ex games programmers tend to be pretty good at taking a big messy code soup and turning it into something that actually works.
kabdib 12y ago
I usually tell "kids" (I'm 53 and this describes a lot of you, okay? No offense :-) ) not to get started in the games industry. I lucked out by starting out writing game cartridges, then doing systems programming for the next 25 years. Now I'm back to games (or rather, gaming platforms). Remember who got rich in the California Gold Rush? Not the folks digging the gold, but instead it was the shop-keepers, bankers, real-estate men and similar infrastructure-like people. Be one of them. I don't mean go into things expecting to be rich, but don't be a starry-eyed fool and start at (say) EA just out of college, get burned-out and then expect to have anything out of it. Make sure you can use other things than a shovel. Get a grounding in systems. Do graphics, do networking, do LAMP, basically do as much as you can "wide" and focus on some areas that interest you ("deep"). Then you can work on games (great!) or servers or UX or whatever you chose. You can work at a games company (great!) or you can work some place else (also highly recommended). Don't focus on games because they're cool, do the tech behind them, with games as an incidental. Don't get into games and expect that rewriting the same piece of code in the same soccer game year after year is going to be fulfilling. You'll wish you had the ability to go somewhere else, so ensure that you do. And for God's sake, never think that you're going to get a foot in the door by starting out in Q/A. Just don't do that.
teamonkey 12y ago
For me, it's because I want to make games. When I had a boring job, I found myself braindead when I came home from work and found myself unable to make games on my own time. For all its pros and cons, working in games allows me to make games, and for all its ups and downs I still love the challenge and the work. I seem to be riding the average age wave. When I joined the industry 10 years ago I was the average age. Now I'm still the average age. Working conditions have (for me, at least) got better and I crunch much less. I have to say though, it is worrying. People in the industry above 50 are like unicorns, and most of them are senior managers or execs. I'm in my mid '30s and I feel that I can't stay in the industry for much longer, and then what?

jiggy2011 12y ago

Because it seems like a high status career choice when you are 21, other 21 year olds will be jealous. It's also a good place to get a lot of practical experience actually writing code, ex games programmers tend to be pretty good at taking a big messy code soup and turning it into something that actually works.

kabdib 12y ago

I usually tell "kids" (I'm 53 and this describes a lot of you, okay? No offense :-) ) not to get started in the games industry. I lucked out by starting out writing game cartridges, then doing systems programming for the next 25 years. Now I'm back to games (or rather, gaming platforms). Remember who got rich in the California Gold Rush? Not the folks digging the gold, but instead it was the shop-keepers, bankers, real-estate men and similar infrastructure-like people. Be one of them. I don't mean go into things expecting to be rich, but don't be a starry-eyed fool and start at (say) EA just out of college, get burned-out and then expect to have anything out of it. Make sure you can use other things than a shovel. Get a grounding in systems. Do graphics, do networking, do LAMP, basically do as much as you can "wide" and focus on some areas that interest you ("deep"). Then you can work on games (great!) or servers or UX or whatever you chose. You can work at a games company (great!) or you can work some place else (also highly recommended). Don't focus on games because they're cool, do the tech behind them, with games as an incidental. Don't get into games and expect that rewriting the same piece of code in the same soccer game year after year is going to be fulfilling. You'll wish you had the ability to go somewhere else, so ensure that you do. And for God's sake, never think that you're going to get a foot in the door by starting out in Q/A. Just don't do that.

teamonkey 12y ago

For me, it's because I want to make games. When I had a boring job, I found myself braindead when I came home from work and found myself unable to make games on my own time. For all its pros and cons, working in games allows me to make games, and for all its ups and downs I still love the challenge and the work. I seem to be riding the average age wave. When I joined the industry 10 years ago I was the average age. Now I'm still the average age. Working conditions have (for me, at least) got better and I crunch much less. I have to say though, it is worrying. People in the industry above 50 are like unicorns, and most of them are senior managers or execs. I'm in my mid '30s and I feel that I can't stay in the industry for much longer, and then what?