No one wants to know how sausages are made.
Video games are fun, so they should be fun to make, right?
I've been developing video games for 14 years. I had a lot of fun and high moments. But it was a very demanding industry.
Video games have different layers. My expertise was in the AAA video game field. These were big budget games and tent poles for the companies that released them. Think of a summer blockbuster. Those were the kinds of video games I worked on. Advertising and marketing budgets were in the millions of dollars.
This is for people not involved in the video game industry. This is for people who are aiming to become game developers or have a slight interest in game development.
This is the lesson I learned.
As with everything in life, extremes are viewed on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The world of video game developers is no exception. Top developers are depicted driving luxury cars and living in mansions.
People who work in the trenches rarely travel around the world in the rarefied air of a private jet. If the game is good, you may become rich. If you have a decent contract, you have a good chance of getting rich. Most video game companies sell their souls to fund their operations, but it doesn't work out that well.
If you're lucky, you can almost always make enough money to staff your next game.
If you work at a studio in the upper echelons of the video game world, your working hours are typically at least 12 hours per day.
When you're in “crunch,” meaning you're behind on work and have to work longer hours, your day can stretch as long as 16 hours. Crunch can last from 1 to 6 months. However, some major developers spend a year developing video game titles that need to be released. It's demanding work and can lead to burnout.
Your family is suffering. I can't tell you how many divorces I've heard in all the time I've spent playing video games.
