Hello,
Want to be in game dev but cant break in?
What does "breaking in mean to you? AA AAA? indie?
With all the recently announced layoffs and such, I'd recommend another approach, something most of us don't want, or fight, and that is finding the “good enough job” there is a book by that title, which I'd recommend, it goes over the history of work, and the history of “the dream job” , and how work has become a western religion of sorts. My goal here in this thread is to not get you to buy books, but to realize what is enough for you.
Are you stuck on a treadmill of game dev, forced to make or break? Forced to pay the bills with the passion you have for games? Doing game dev and praying for the day you hit it big and get a full time job in the industry? OR hit it rich with your years of hard indie toil?
Well, there is something we are so passionate most of us over look, and that is money is money, and we can get it from any job.
This fact is often forgotten in our blinding passion, in our hope to do game dev with our career. There is a reason why “starving artists” is a trope, is a motif for as long as time, they spend all their time to do the art, and try to sell it. But something I've learned from my decade of doing this, is a sad and frustrating truth that not everyone is good enough to be paid for what they do.
I KNOW I KNOW, but really, outrage, at the end of the day, what it really comes down to is TIME. Where do you want or need to spend your time?
What if you were given $86,400 a day?
By the end of the day you need to spend it all, no saving it and every day you got it again.
Well that is our time, and being successful really comes down to where and on whom we spend said time.
The other thing I'd recommend and have come to terms with is STABILITY.
Being stable in your mind body and life is critical, and that is what the good enough job should bring.
If you sell your time to a big organization that is stable, and able to pay you regularly, and get your bills paid, on time, than you should keep it, and do game dev on the side.
Creativity is forged by limitations.
However,
forcing yourself to game dev full time in an unstable situation is like trying to swim by just being thrown in, a life or death situation. But what one forgets is being in a stable point in your life will allow you to build whatever you want. Allow you to create without as much pressure to perform. Too many times I've seen people continue game dev to the end, because it's all they think they know.
figuring out what you want and what is enough is a lesson i learned from Quora, and I'd recommend you do the same. Find and identify those transferable skills. and put them on your resume.
The why will carry you through, but the how will sustain you day to day.
(I didn't expect this to turn out like an article, but it did….hmm.
Thoughts?
Thanks for your time in reading.
