Every time I’ve been tempted (I’ve a few mates working for Ubisoft), I look at the salaries and compare to what I make working for banks and, well, I’m a an mercenary kind of guy.
Yeah I’m currently making about twice what I could find in the game industry… I feel so hollow at my current job though I really need a change and making games is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. At least this time when I go back I’ll know more things to look out for
I kinda feel like this, too, but unlike when I first began working in games, I now have a family to take care of.
Also I like the 2x pay, relatively higher job stability, and overall work-life balance with basically zero crunch… so assuming nothing changes in the games industry, it looks like my stepping away from making games starting 11 years ago is still a permanent move.
I felt like that at my boring engineering job doing turbine/motor design. I made more than my buddies working for Boeing (joke is REALLY on them now) and had much better benefits, but they made planes.
I picked up a bunch of hobbies that work well with WFH and that ended up filling the void.
I mean I already paint minis, read, write, draw, play ukulele, and take care of a colony of rolie polies in the bin of dirt I keep in my living room like a normal person. I don’t think adding more hobbies is the solution for me
You also take care of a colony of rolie polies in the bin of dirt you keep in your living room like a normal person?
And yeah I write by hand initially. Afterwards though everything gets typed up in Obsidian, sent off to source control, and then a build server picks it up to turn it into a website. I’ve tried a few times to get fountain pens to work for me but either I’m doing it wrong or I’m buying garbage because they always seem to jam on me after just a couple days of use
That’s delightful! I want to care for ants too but haven’t gotten around to that one yet
I don’t know what flex writing is but the nibs didn’t seem to have much give to them so I’m guess no? Years ago, the last fountain pen I tried was some plastic Sheaffer pen I had heard was good for beginners. Not sure what model it was
That does sound fun. Work used to have internal game jams but we don’t do that anymore (to hell with morale, or learning the tools we’re building, profits only!). I should look into some, do you have any particular recommendations?
Unfortunately, it’s not something I ever got into myself. I wanna say itch.io has them fairly frequently? But I haven’t looked into it myself.
My first thought would be looking into communities of like-minded people (local if you’re lucky enough). I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the Bloodborne PSX demake or Bloodborne Kart (which was supposed to release a few months ago before it got DMCA’d, RIP), but the lady behind those is a former industry dev who streams her work on Twitch and has a Discord that has multiple channels dedicated to game dev stuff. I feel like that would be the kind of place to hop into. Her name on Twitch is b0tster if you wanna check her out.
Hey that happened to me! And now many years later I’m looking to get back into the industry because I’m a slut for corporate abuse…
Every time I’ve been tempted (I’ve a few mates working for Ubisoft), I look at the salaries and compare to what I make working for banks and, well, I’m a an mercenary kind of guy.
We all have our kinks.
I am currently being pounded by big corporate tech, but they pay me much better than the games industry could.
Yeah I’m currently making about twice what I could find in the game industry… I feel so hollow at my current job though I really need a change and making games is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. At least this time when I go back I’ll know more things to look out for
I halved my pay and never regretted it.
But I’m not working for big studios that would probably not have the same benefit
I kinda feel like this, too, but unlike when I first began working in games, I now have a family to take care of.
Also I like the 2x pay, relatively higher job stability, and overall work-life balance with basically zero crunch… so assuming nothing changes in the games industry, it looks like my stepping away from making games starting 11 years ago is still a permanent move.
It sounds like you need better hobbies, my man.
I felt like that at my boring engineering job doing turbine/motor design. I made more than my buddies working for Boeing (joke is REALLY on them now) and had much better benefits, but they made planes.
I picked up a bunch of hobbies that work well with WFH and that ended up filling the void.
I mean I already paint minis, read, write, draw, play ukulele, and take care of a colony of rolie polies in the bin of dirt I keep in my living room like a normal person. I don’t think adding more hobbies is the solution for me
And…you listed off all the same hobbies I picked up, only substitute guitar.
Do you write by hand? My writing is divergent between fountain pens with journals for my kids and the stories I write on a PC.
You also take care of a colony of rolie polies in the bin of dirt you keep in your living room like a normal person?
And yeah I write by hand initially. Afterwards though everything gets typed up in Obsidian, sent off to source control, and then a build server picks it up to turn it into a website. I’ve tried a few times to get fountain pens to work for me but either I’m doing it wrong or I’m buying garbage because they always seem to jam on me after just a couple days of use
Ants.
And the fountain pen issue is likely bad pens. Are you try to do flex writing?
That’s delightful! I want to care for ants too but haven’t gotten around to that one yet
I don’t know what flex writing is but the nibs didn’t seem to have much give to them so I’m guess no? Years ago, the last fountain pen I tried was some plastic Sheaffer pen I had heard was good for beginners. Not sure what model it was
You could do Game Jams and the like. All the fun of making games without the horrible pay and working conditions!
That does sound fun. Work used to have internal game jams but we don’t do that anymore (to hell with morale, or learning the tools we’re building, profits only!). I should look into some, do you have any particular recommendations?
Unfortunately, it’s not something I ever got into myself. I wanna say itch.io has them fairly frequently? But I haven’t looked into it myself.
My first thought would be looking into communities of like-minded people (local if you’re lucky enough). I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the Bloodborne PSX demake or Bloodborne Kart (which was supposed to release a few months ago before it got DMCA’d, RIP), but the lady behind those is a former industry dev who streams her work on Twitch and has a Discord that has multiple channels dedicated to game dev stuff. I feel like that would be the kind of place to hop into. Her name on Twitch is b0tster if you wanna check her out.