

Ask YC: Has anyone else here worked in the video game industry? - gabrielleydon

Just curious...
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uuilly
I graduate from college way into CG. Oddly I'm not into video games. After
some exploration though I found that people in that industry are over worked
and underpaid. I found other uses for CG instead. Not really an answer to your
question but there ya go...

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icculus
I've been in the game industry as a programmer since 2000. I read this site
everyday, but I'm not submitting an application to ycombinator, so maybe I'm
not the audience for your question.

I wanted to reply to the overworked/underpaid thing, because you read it a lot
on non-gaming hacking sites...it's like parents tell their baby hackers to
behave, or they'll have to go work in the game industry.

If you're talented and not willing to accept shitty working conditions, you
won't end up in a sweatshop. Lots of good companies treat their employees very
well, both in terms of work conditions and compensation. Game houses on the
West Coast are abundant, but there are some very good ones in the East (Epic
being one of the brighter lights there), and middle (Raven and Human Head in
Wisconsin, id in Texas, many many others), so don't feel like you have to
readjust to a Californian way of life or living expenses.

The rough equivalent of sweatshops _do_ exist, but these aren't as rampant as
you would think, even at places that have been (in)famous for them, like
Electronic Arts.

Aim for smaller, privately-held game companies. They tend to be most
satisfying to work for. If they get bought by EA or Microsoft (or Activision,
or 2K, or, or, or...), jump ship when your options vest. Very few people seem
to be as happy after the acquisition, but there are always exceptions.

If you are a generic coder with no identity within your company or project,
jump ship immediately. Before the interview, if you can. :) Most places won't
have you in the spotlight at all, but are very good about making everyone feel
like an important contributor to a team. If you don't feel like that, you
should get out, because the work is always challenging, but it doesn't suck
unless you feel like a cog in a machine.

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shawndrost
Just to add another data point -- I was interested in the games industry, and
interviewed around a bit. I turned away because it looked like
overworked/underpaid was the norm. Some people (like icculus) said that wasn't
necessarily the case, but even they acknowledged it was the norm, and it's
hard to be sure of what you're getting into when you're interviewing.

This agrees with the obvious economics at work: games are sexy, so programmers
are in greater supply, so their value goes down.

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shiro
Yes. I was in R&D of a game company, worked on console game titles (PS, PS2)
and CG film productions. Also did some technology demos at siggraph.

Overworking---well, you can't avoid occasional crunch time, and because of the
nature of game development, you sometimes have to face the design being
overturned and have to rework development. But how far it goes largely depends
on the team and/or the culture of the company. I know some who were deep in
crunch time for over 9 months to meet the deadlines of monthly milestones; but
also I know some who were able to leave office 6-7pm most of the time.

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palish
Yeah, I work on HeroEngine (<http://www.heroengine.net>), a MMO platform. The
guys behind it are really smart, and I'm lucky to be able to learn from them.

If you're interested in game development, the single best thing you could do
is hang out in the IRC channel #gamedev on the server irc.afternet.org and
learn from them. There are a surprising number of excellent developers in that
channel, so even if you're not interested in game development you'd probably
find it worthwhile anyway. Just wait for an interesting conversation.

~~~
derefr
Interesting. My slant is more to game design, though, and I've never been able
to find a web community specifically for it. Something like The Forge
(<http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/>), but with video games in mind instead of
the Pen and Paper sort. Heard of anything?

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mxh
Yes, I spent about 3.5yrs in it. I can't really agree with the
underpaid/overworked thing; the pay was fair, and the hours not unreasonable.

I left the industry because the idea of spending 2+ years on something that
may-or-may-not pan out, with no way to tell before release, was beginning to
get me down.

I realize startups are sort of the same thing, but I think they actually offer
earlier feedback and greater opportunities for recovery than games.

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coffeeaddicted
Yeah, I have worked for several game companies, started an own and currently
I'm working as freelancer on a video game.

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Tichy
Just mobile games for a while. And of course my erotic puzzle game ;-)

