The sheer cost of game development now lends to larger teams, less individualism... (note: I’m not a game developer, if I’m dead wrong on this matter please call me out)
If you're in the UK and you've got fair qualifications in maths, computing and physics then your choices are as follows:
- Finance - 60,000 pounds per year. Insane hours. Very little job satisfaction.
- Consulting - 50,000 pounds per year. Long hours. Moderate job satisfication.
- Film post processing - 40,000 pounds per year. Long hours. See your own work at the cinema.
- Application programmer - 30,000 pounds per year.
- Teacher - One year training course, possibility of 40,000 pounds in five years if you can handle unruly kids. (Many don't make it.)
- Games programmer - Insane hours. Project may require porting code or using a legacy engine. Awful third party libraries licensed to shorten development cycle. Pay depends on previous success. May require beginning as a game tester at minimum wage.
- Startup Programmer - Theorectical average salary of 100,000 pounds per year. Large control of project specification. Good chance of recognition and job satisfaction.
> game development now lends to larger teams, less individualism...
In the summer of 1996, I got some work experience testing a game at Bullfrog. In 1996, Bullfrog games were taking between 20-22 man years to develop. As a lead programmer, the latter phase of the project would consist of 12-15 hour days of bug fixes and build failures. In the subsequent 12 years, I haven't had the inclination to apply for a job in the games industry.