Is Game Development a viable career option as a developer?

Gaming has always been the favorite source of entertainment for children and teenagers, and a great escape from reality for adults. As a result, the game industry continues to grow and become larger every year. As per market valuation reports, the video game industry is worth more than the music and movie industries combined. So, the game industry is definitely not going anywhere and is expected to grow even larger in the coming future. But market valuation and size are not the only things we should look at when deciding our careers. In this article, we will look at how is game development as a career, and why you would want to pursue game development as a developer.

What do game developers do?

The term “game developer” is very vague because there is so much that goes into making a game – Art, Animation, VFX, Audio, Design, Coding, QA, and much more. It is important for you to understand and decide which part of the development process you want to be a part of. In this article, I’ll be referring to the technical development side of game development that primarily involves coding. If you wish to know about other aspects of game development in more detail, we can read my article about the skills you need to become a game developer.

Roles available as a game developer

There are several roles available for you when you’re associated with the technical side of game development. Programmers with different roles work in different parts of the development process and are up to you to decide which role you’re most interested in. One thing to note is that these roles are mostly specific to different game studios but most of the roles mentioned should be available in most AAA studios,

• Gameplay Programmer: Associated with the development of core gameplay mechanics like movement, shooting, etc.
• AI Programmer: Associated with the development of Artificial Intelligence powered enemies or NPCs.
• UI Programmer: Associated with developing the User Interfaces of games and connecting them with gameplay. This is a very niche role and is mostly available in very big companies.
• Shader Programmer: These types of programmers work with very low-level graphics languages to create various kinds of visual effects to achieve the desired look of the game.
• Engine Developer: Engine developers work with the underlying engine used to make the game and add or modify features of the engine as per needed.

Now that we understand what game development is all about and the different roles available at your disposal as a developer, let us objectively look at the pros and cons of choosing game development as a career.

Pros of game development as a career

Turn your passion into your career

Game Development is a highly creative industry and the people here are found to be very passionate about game development and video games in general. If you wish to pursue game development, make sure you are passionate about video games because let us be honest, game development is hard. It takes a combined effort of so many different people from different backgrounds for a AAA game to be produced. If a game is not made with passion and the people behind are not driven, it shows in the final product.

So, if you are passionate about video games and this industry, turning it into your career is a choice that you will certainly not regret.

Competitive Salary

Just like software engineering and other fields of computer science, game development is also a well-paid career path with competitive salaries. According to GlassDoor, the average salary of game developers in the US is a little over 70k USD while the game developer salaries in India can range from 4 LPA to 15 LPA depending on the company and role.

Although average salaries are a good base for judgment, I suggest you take these numbers with a pinch of salt. As I said previously, the term “game developer” is very vague so we don’t know which roles these websites are referring to when calculating the average salaries. So I suggest you do a bit of extra research and look for the game developer salaries in your area and also the salaries of the roles that interest you in your companies of choice.

Cons of game development as a career

Crunch is real

As with every other career option, game development is bound to have its cons. As with game development, the most notable frustration faced by most AAA developers is Crunch.

A game’s success is dependent on how well the game will be received by players on launch. The game has to meet the player’s expectations, and that too in time. Crunch is when developers have to work long non-stop hours when there is a tight deadline or when a game is close to launching. This often includes weekends as well.

A good amount of AAA developers have come out publicly and talked about how bad their experience with crunch was and how badly it affected their personal life and mental health. This of course depends on the company, and how well the company handles deadlines. I suggest you do your research before joining a game studio, no matter how popular the game is among gamers.

Going Indie

As an indie game developer myself, I couldn’t help but mention this. Indie game development is when a small group of people (or even just a single person!) come together and create a game. If you don’t want to join a large company and want to create a game of your own, you can do so with the number of tools accessible to everyone. Industry-standard game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity are available to use for free, with countless other tools to go with them.

If you’re planning to develop a game on your own or with a group of friends, just be sure to keep the scope of your project in check. Do not try to create the next Call of Duty for your first game!

Conclusion

In this article, we looked at what game developers do, the different technical roles available for developers, as well as some of the pros and cons of choosing game development as your career. We also discussed briefly indie game development and small groups of people or even a single person can develop and publish their own games. Now it’s time for you to decide whether game development will be the right fit for you.

If you have any questions regarding this article or want to talk about game development, you can find me on Twitter. Thank you for reading!