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[Terry]

Meh.

Keep doing what interests you, what you care about. The rest will fall into place in time.

Man, I certainly hope that works. That's basically my plan once I've seen out my notice :D

[Akhel]

Wow, lots of interesting advice here. Definitely more than I expected. Thank you guys

So, in a short and sweet sentence: go to art school and make games for the fun of it in your hobby. [...] Perhaps you won't like art, perhaps you'll discover that you like computers. Perhaps you'll realize that you rather be a plumber or an evil yakuza.

Well, I always thought I'd end up doing compsci, but art and evil yazuka do sound like interesting ways. Unfortunately, there are no good schools for either of those areas in my state, so I'd probably have to move if I were to do one (or both. Man, gotta be awesome to be an evil painter).

Starting your own studio is an option, but again I would seriously disuade you from attempting that.

What about starting a small "studio" with a couple of friends or something like that?

Meh.

Keep doing what interests you, what you care about. The rest will fall into place in time.

That sure do sounds great.
I still think Blocksum is overrated. <3

[Alec]

I still think Blocksum is overrated. <3

The upcoming Tim W.'s Ballsum will pwn it.

[Akhel]

Me wants.

[Tr00jg]

Well, I am a newb in the industry myself, but what I really like about game development as a whole and this where I agree with PoV. It is encompasses many forms of creativity. Art, Music, Design, etc. I love being creative and game dev is the pinnacle of that.

Alongside the creative aspect is the juicy logic puzzles you have to overcome while programming.

[avatarkai]

avoid the game industry like the plague.
it will drain all the life, fun and creativity out of you and will leave you an empty shell of an obese man.

i was happy, once.

Ehe, quite a point there, but not exactly. It depends on your luck of finding a good publisher, the efficiency of your marketing strategy etc. It's not so easy, but it could get good, really good. Just have lot of fate in what you're doing and work with dedication. After all, you enjoy this work, why not get paid for it also, right?

[Alex May]

A vanishingly small number of people will be lucky enough to

* land a job on a product that interests them
* not be 'required' to work unpaid overtime
* not get canned by the publisher

Efficiency of marketing strategy is totally out of the developer's hands unfortunately and if they choose not to support your product then that's tough shit and you can say goodbye to any royalty bonuses you might have been looking forward to (you'll probably be cheated out of them anyway by a lying publisher or a greedy studio).

"Have faith in what you are doing and work with dedication" sounds to me like "work hard on shitty products you hate and do the unpaid overtime".

[avatarkai]

Not necessary... You can work outside the publisher's constrains at first, do things your way. Do you work in game development haowan? About the marketing strategy? I for one am not fool enough to let my presumptive publisher do all the publicity for me. What should you do? cross your hands and wait? Don't think so...

Yeah, well, life is not fair, what can I say, but this is what makes it more interesting. If life would be fair, we all had the play same games, we all had our stable place in the universe. Would you really like that? I think you can take more advantage of things when life is unfair...

A vanishingly small number of people will be lucky enough to

* land a job on a product that interests them
* not be 'required' to work unpaid overtime
* not get canned by the publisher

Efficiency of marketing strategy is totally out of the developer's hands unfortunately and if they choose not to support your product then that's tough shit and you can say goodbye to any royalty bonuses you might have been looking forward to (you'll probably be cheated out of them anyway by a lying publisher or a greedy studio).

"Have faith in what you are doing and work with dedication" sounds to me like "work hard on shitty products you hate and do the unpaid overtime".

[Alex May]

I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean. But yes, I have been in the UK games industry for 6 years now. I am pretty certain that us making our own adverts for games we were making would be in breach of our contract with the publisher. "Working outside the constraints of the publisher" doesn't appear in the equation here.

[fish]

fuck, they'd sue us pants-less if we started doing out own promotion for whatever.
they demand, and get, total control over everything.

you cant just go own your own and promote the game any way you want.
they have a plan and we must stick to it.

its just not how its works at all.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I enjoy it. I've been selling games only for four months now (though making them for 10 years before that as a hobby), and on average make 300 a month from it. Not enough to survive, but enough to buy your own food and such if you live with your parents ^_^

Hopefully after a few more years of doing this and putting more games out it'll be enough to live on. Even if it isn't, I'll still make them, I just won't have as much time to do so.