Any Game Devs willing to talk to my son?

[Formix]

So my son (11) has a school project where he has to investigate his dream job, which would be to work making games. We've had a few talks about all the different positions it takes to make a game, and he's decided that coding is what appeals the most to him. Would anyone who is in the games industry be willing to answer a few e-mailed questions from him this week?

[Lordnine]

Are you sure he wouldn't rather be a board game developer instead?

[GreenGoo]

This is like having a kid who's dream job is working in a blood diamond mine.

I kid. Sorta.

[NickAragua]

While I'm not in the games industry, I work on a game as a hobby and write software as complex as games (and have been doing so for almost twenty years now), and have a pretty good idea of what's involved, so I'd be happy to answer any questions.

[coopasonic]

Are you sure he wouldn't rather be a board game developer instead?

I think he wants to be able to support himself.

Based on what I know from friends in the industry, unless you happen to go by Notch, you can do a lot better as a developer outside of the entertainment industry in terms of pay, hours and stability. I don't get to say "I made that!" to people (I mean I can, but they would be pretty confused about what I was saying I made) and my name doesn't show up in any credits outside out internal company website, but on all the other dimensions I like it.

[Lordnine]

My college had a game design program. It opened the year I started college and quite a few of my friends switched into the major…for most of them this was not a good call. I will say that of the few that did find jobs in the industry, 99% of them were on the programming side of things instead of the art side.

Some of them are a bit bitter with me though that I stayed in Graphic Design and DO have a game published with my name, albeit a board game, while most of them have long since given up on game design in general.

[Pyperkub]

You could reach out to Bill Harris of dubiousquality, or cross-post at Qt3.

I haven't worked in the industry for almost 20 years.

I will recommend gamasutra as a good resource, however. Lots of great articles up there on the art and business of making games.

[GreenGoo]

There is at least one former game developer on the forum, but I don't think it's my place to bring him up. If he wants to respond, he can. He worked on a couple of games that I played with my daughter which were fun.

[LordMortis]

There is at least one former game developer on the forum, but I don't think it's my place to bring him up. If he wants to respond, he can. He worked on a couple of games that I played with my daughter which were fun.

Of the two who were frequent posters still active in the industry that I am aware of, one hasn't posted since June 2018 and the other, May 2012.

Mostly of the publicly talking about it people in the industry mainly post in their own product threads. I don't know if they are approachable or not.

[GreenGoo]

One is a regular in R&P.

edit: At least I think so. Now I'm questioning my memory.

edit: damn it, I think I've confused the background of 2 people. Oh well.

[Sepiche]

Yeah, I think most of us developers here are boring business developers of different stripes. I would still pick that over game developer personally, but I understand game development is much flashier than what we do.

As mentioned, Qt3 has a much larger game developer population last time I was there and might be a good place to try.

[Kraken]

I haven't worked in the industry for almost 20 years.

Same here (closer to 15 years). I could tell him about the good/bad old days, but who cares?

One thing that hasn't changed is that a good coder can make more money doing almost anything else. But he's writing about his dream job, not the job he will have.

[Butterknife]

I'd be happy to talk to him too, but I haven't worked in the industry in 8 years. I worked in the games industry for 10 years though so I guess I still have more experience there than with my current job.

Beware though -- I'll try to talk him out of it! Still, if it gets him to pursue a degree in coding, it is worth it. After all, making games was my "dream job" when I was that age too, and I got a degree out of it and everything. Turns out the actual work was more a nightmare than a dream though.

[GreenGoo]

I'd be happy to talk to him too, but I haven't worked in the industry in 8 years. I worked in the games industry for 10 years though so I guess I still have more experience there than with my current job.

Beware though -- I'll try to talk him out of it! Still, if it gets him to pursue a degree in coding, it is worth it. After all, making games was my "dream job" when I was that age too, and I got a degree out of it and everything. Turns out the actual work was more a nightmare than a dream though.

Coding is a skill that is transferable to all sorts of industries, so learning to code because games are cool will still result in a marketable skill when the bloom is off the rose so to speak.

The gaming industry seems to be one of the few white collar industries where they can work you to death while complaining you're not working hard enough.

[Pyperkub]

I'd be happy to talk to him too, but I haven't worked in the industry in 8 years. I worked in the games industry for 10 years though so I guess I still have more experience there than with my current job.

Beware though -- I'll try to talk him out of it! Still, if it gets him to pursue a degree in coding, it is worth it. After all, making games was my "dream job" when I was that age too, and I got a degree out of it and everything. Turns out the actual work was more a nightmare than a dream though.

It doesn't just have to be coding. Computer graphics/Animation can take one a lot of places as well. Heck, I still look at the Pixar SysAdmin jobs fondly fantasizing, but with almost 20 years into my pension, I'm sticking it out for awhile more.

[Anonymous Bosch]

So my son (11) has a school project where he has to investigate his dream job, which would be to work making games. We've had a few talks about all the different positions it takes to make a game, and he's decided that coding is what appeals the most to him. Would anyone who is in the games industry be willing to answer a few e-mailed questions from him this week?

I dunno that we have (m)any active posters here that still work actively within the gaming industry. I think Island Dog is/was associated with Stardock, so perhaps he could help.

I suspect you'd have better results if you try contacting the developers of some of your son's favourite games directly.

[hitbyambulance]

ex-game industry here. my experience working at game studios were either they were fairly fun places to be, but they didn't pay enough, or they really weren't fun at all and *still* didn't pay enough - and they all made me work too many damn hours. everything bad you've heard about the industry is true, and i bailed before the 00's were through. (i did work on the SteamVR hardware platform at my last job, which was enjoyable.) still, the skills learned were applicable to other areas of the tech industry.

i do game design on my own time now, and *not* for any sort of income. it's strictly for my own enjoyment.

[Formix]

Thanks guys. I was thinking of IslandDog and Bill, but thought I'd throw it out to the general public, because as a lurker myself, I wasn't sure who else might be on here and willing (thanks NickAragua, and Butterknife he'll be contacting you)! I've been very gentle in the whole "talking him out of it" area. I've told him some statistics, and the general sense I get from the devs on here, (and everywhere else), and he still wants to pursue it. As Goo mentioned, if it gets him further in the coding vein, then he decides to not do games, well, that's still a win. I do understand where you're coming from, I used to do the same thing whenever anyone mentioned wanting to go into TV news.

[LordMortis]

So my son (11) has a school project where he has to investigate his dream job, which would be to work making games. We've had a few talks about all the different positions it takes to make a game, and he's decided that coding is what appeals the most to him. Would anyone who is in the games industry be willing to answer a few e-mailed questions from him this week?

I dunno that we have (m)any active posters here that still work actively within the gaming industry. I think Island Dog is/was associated with Stardock, so perhaps he could help.

I suspect you'd have better results if you try contacting the developers of some of your son's favourite games directly.

He's one of the ones I was thinking about who mostly sticks to Stardock threads.

[Kasey Chang]

Not a current game developer, I worked closely with some as game tester. So I can answer some questions, perhaps not all of them.