04-21-2006, 08:19 PM
Quote:Chaotic: Have you considered not becoming a game making slave?
If you're well-educated, there's no reason you can't make a pile of money. Why not use that pile of money to follow your dreams and possibly make an even bigger pile of money with which you can make even more of your dreams come true?
Most people will agree that the games industry is massively underpaid, overworked, and forced at every turn to have their designs butchered by marketing. If you self-fund, you can make the game you actually want to make; hire the people you actually want to work on it, and create the experience you actually want to see come to life.
Ideally, that's exactly what I'd do - My ideal situation is to be self employed and make shareware games on my own or with a small team (like Spiderweb Software or Introversion), but that probably won't be possible until I've got some cash to fall back on. Unfortunately, I don't think I could tolerate working in one of those "pile of money" jobs you mentioned for more than a few months. I did an internship as a Risk Analysist last summer, and it almost killed me. I'd come home in the evenings too exausted to make dinner, never mind code.
So I guess it's a straight choice - I'm at a point where I have to decide if this game making thing is going to be a hobby that never goes anywhere, or a profession, and I'd rather it be a profession. I just hope things aren't as bleak as you make out
