[Articles] Games Programming Job vs Software Development Job

[yaustar]

This one is a little interesting,

Quitting the Games Industry:
http://lostgarden.com/2006/04/joyful...developer.html

Entering the Games Industry:
http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...ply_id=2460549

[Captain Clordio]

Another great set. I'm quickly becoming a fan of yours yaustar.

[Moocowssj4]

thanks for the articles, they were very good IMO

[slicer4ever]

nice but i disagree completly with the first article and somewhat agree with the second

[LMelior]

Originally Posted by slicer4ever

nice but i disagree completly with the first article and somewhat agree with the second

So you don't agree with switching jobs if you're unhappy?

I enjoy these articles, keep 'em coming. You might want to space them out a little more though, you'll run out sooner or later.

[TacticalPenguin]

Yea lol only one every like 3 days. Although they ARE pretty interesting.

[yaustar]

Originally Posted by slicer4ever

nice but i disagree completly with the first article and somewhat agree with the second

The first article is actually very close to the truth, the games industry has a rep for burning programmers out and many do leave when they are 30-40 years old.

Read up on EA spouse:
http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/

[slicer4ever]

i don't mean leave if your unhappy but he keeps calling people that r in the game programming company fools thats what i mostly disagree with if you like to game program go homebrew maybe you don't get a nice pay but you don't gatta worry about your game being cancelled even then it speculates y was the game canceleed? was it money issues or the programmers were not up to their schedule? either way i don't want to get into a huge argument so i'll leave this as my final comment on this article

[yaustar]

Originally Posted by slicer4ever

i don't mean leave if your unhappy but he keeps calling people that r in the game programming company fools thats what i mostly disagree with if you like to game program go homebrew maybe you don't get a nice pay but you don't gatta worry about your game being cancelled even then it speculates y was the game canceleed? was it money issues or the programmers were not up to their schedule? either way i don't want to get into a huge argument so i'll leave this as my final comment on this article

In truth, the Games Industry software development practices can be behind the 'times' with normal software development companies. The main problem is because the 'software design specification' of a game is a game design document combined with software design specification based on it. The game design is heavily prone to change unlike an application specification.

What is said in the first article is true. The hours are longer for less pay and can knock onto quality of life for the programmer especially during crunch periods (reference EA spouse again). The only thing that is keep us here is because the passion to work in games which is where the second article comes in.