I see that you went the general software dev career path, but is that pretty common? We always hear about that disillusioned dev who starts their own game that makes it big (or are warned about those who end up destitute), but rarely about what the vast majority do. What is the “safe” way to change course in your former industry? Also, do you still make games for fun?
And sorry this completely unrelated to your comment, but your video was the very first one I saw on Loops yesterday and appreciated your take on their app.
It is sadly far more common than I think many might realize.
I went to school with a bunch of folks who worked all over the industry, and now only a little under half of them remain in the game industry.
They’ve worked at Bungie, BioWare, on Ken Levine projects, DOOM 2016, games for Netflix, etc. and so many like myself dropped out mostly because of the depressingly high rate of studio closure and mass layoffs that so much of the industry engages in.
I know of at least one that has gone off on their own à la indie dev whom originally worked on the Saints Row games while at Volition, but he’s yet to reach the success I imagine he deserves - given that he was probably one of the most talented folks in our cohort at our game dev school.
The “safe” way probably is one involving mass unionization, but I don’t see that happening - same with software. It just popped up post-Reagan - which seems to have been the point where new career fields didn’t adopt a pro-union stance…
As far as “for fun” goes, I sometimes do little visual projects, but no - the last time I worked on game stuff directly outside of just some casual consultation was at my last game job in 2012.
Also, that’s super crazy you saw that and crossed paths here, too. 😅
Glad at least a couple folks liked it.
I’m hopeful for a more federated circle of platforms to revive something more akin to the internet pre-Facebook, but I don’t know if it will ever get there.
Lemmy and Mastodon are great, but they still are nowhere at critical mass… and the platforms have largely remained somewhat stagnant feature-improvement-wise.
Who knows what will happen, but I am hopeful things overall in the Fediverse will continue to improve - even if it is mostly as a side-effect occuring from nefarious leadership among big business continuing to consolidate the major wings of the internet…
I see that you went the general software dev career path, but is that pretty common? We always hear about that disillusioned dev who starts their own game that makes it big (or are warned about those who end up destitute), but rarely about what the vast majority do. What is the “safe” way to change course in your former industry? Also, do you still make games for fun?
And sorry this completely unrelated to your comment, but your video was the very first one I saw on Loops yesterday and appreciated your take on their app.
It is sadly far more common than I think many might realize.
I went to school with a bunch of folks who worked all over the industry, and now only a little under half of them remain in the game industry.
They’ve worked at Bungie, BioWare, on Ken Levine projects, DOOM 2016, games for Netflix, etc. and so many like myself dropped out mostly because of the depressingly high rate of studio closure and mass layoffs that so much of the industry engages in.
I know of at least one that has gone off on their own à la indie dev whom originally worked on the Saints Row games while at Volition, but he’s yet to reach the success I imagine he deserves - given that he was probably one of the most talented folks in our cohort at our game dev school.
The “safe” way probably is one involving mass unionization, but I don’t see that happening - same with software. It just popped up post-Reagan - which seems to have been the point where new career fields didn’t adopt a pro-union stance…
As far as “for fun” goes, I sometimes do little visual projects, but no - the last time I worked on game stuff directly outside of just some casual consultation was at my last game job in 2012.
Also, that’s super crazy you saw that and crossed paths here, too. 😅
Glad at least a couple folks liked it.
I’m hopeful for a more federated circle of platforms to revive something more akin to the internet pre-Facebook, but I don’t know if it will ever get there.
Lemmy and Mastodon are great, but they still are nowhere at critical mass… and the platforms have largely remained somewhat stagnant feature-improvement-wise.
Who knows what will happen, but I am hopeful things overall in the Fediverse will continue to improve - even if it is mostly as a side-effect occuring from nefarious leadership among big business continuing to consolidate the major wings of the internet…