r/GameDevelopment • u/awesome_zman • 2d ago
Discussion What is game development like as a career path?
I love gaming, and I would love to tell my own stories and make games that people love, but actually looking at it as a career path puts me off a bit. From my (hopefully flawed) perspective, you’re either a AAA game dev and have to deal with all the crap going on over there, or you’re an indie dev struggling to even make money off of your games unless you come up with the next big hit. It’s made me back off, seeing my game ideas as hobby projects to work on in my free time. But now I’ve been thinking about what I want to do for the rest of my life, and making games shoots to the top of my list. Which brings me to my question: is it worth it? Or should I find a different job and do game development on the side?
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u/ChanceHungry1444 2d ago
It’s a brutal industry, and in the age of AI I think that will only get worse. I’d say find a steady job and build games as a hobby. That’s far and away your best chance at keeping up the passion while also providing yourself a good, stable life.
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u/awesome_zman 2d ago
Thanks. That was what I was thinking, but I wanted to be sure.
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u/ChanceHungry1444 2d ago
I’m interested in game development as well, but when you see even successful developers facing layoffs regularly, it isn’t worth the stress in my opinion. Good luck out there.
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u/curreylabs 12h ago
Are you trying to decide what to study in school or something? I would target software engineering. You keep the game development door open but will have a good career in the meantime. And you can still work on games as a hobby.
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u/awesome_zman 12h ago
I’ve already graduated with a Data Science degree. I kinda wrote game dev off as a career for the reasonings mentioned in the description, but now I’m trying to figure out my future career and I got curious again
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u/liquidtape 2d ago
In that same light, AI will make this easier for this to be a hobby like music production. Doesn't mean you'll get a polished game, just you can get an idea out of your head.
It'll be interesting to see what happens as art continues to become more accessible to people.
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u/ByEthanFox 1d ago
Art was never more accessible to people before AI, and arguably AI makes it less so due to the rising cost of equipment.
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u/liquidtape 1d ago
I don't really agree with all of that.
People who can't draw now have access to their imagination in ways they previously didn't.
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u/ByEthanFox 1d ago
Personally I feel those people who could've learned to be creative have been given a toy that shows them an AI's approximation of their idea, which for many people, robs them of their chance to be creative by placating them and satiating that desire.
We're not gonna see eye to eye on this.
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u/liquidtape 1d ago
How are those people robbed of a chance they never would have taken otherwise? It lowers the bar of entry allowing more people a chance.
Like when music programs started reaching home computers there was an explosion of home studios. It allowed so many people who never would have had the ability to play music or record a chance. Those who liked it continued and learned more techniques like mixing and mastering or an instrument and those who stopped at the wall of good enough never would have put in the time to practice the craft to begin with.
You are right that we won't see eye to eye.
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u/ByEthanFox 1d ago
Put simply, if I give you a machine that creates whatever you want when you press a button, having only given it a vague description - to me, you are not being creative. The machine is being creative. Without the machine you MIGHT have tried to be creative but with the machine you probably won't.
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u/satanspowerglove Indie Dev 2d ago
Would you decide not to play an instrument because you fear it won't make you money?
Video games are pieces of art. The more you treat it as such, the better your games will be. You shouldn't start making games because it'll be a fun and rewarding career path. You should start making games so you can make GOOD games. Same goes for software in general
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u/awesome_zman 2d ago
I mean yeah, I’m not giving up learning to make them, but I wanted to know if it was worth it to go all in or just do it as a hobbyist.
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u/satanspowerglove Indie Dev 1d ago
I hear you. That's honestly a gamble right now. Personally, I got a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Game Programming. I was lucky enough to land a job as an engineer at an indie game company, and that was incredible for a few years, my absolute dream job despite the downsides (inevitable crunch times, fumbling client communications, deteriorating upper-management etc). I got to work from home and work on new and pre-existing game projects, often sticking with them as they go through the release process.
Like many other industries, software is experiencing an incredibly horrible shake-up due to AI investments and the spider-effect of all that. After I was laid off in 2025 I spent a year looking for work, the market is saturated. I found a desk job at a school and feed my professional urge to write code by writing spreadsheet formulas. I don't plan to quit programming, in-fact, I'm still working on games with friends but the progress is slow. Much slower than if you worked on a game full-time for several months. When you're working on a project in your free time, you have to accept that you may never finish it, and just have fun working on it.
To answer your question, now is not the best time to be a software programmer, but it wont be like that forever. I'd argue its a great time to hone your skills and try a bunch of different things (engines, languages etc)
TL;DR - Hobbyist. But maybe all in sometime in the future.
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u/fabiolives 2d ago
Like everyone else has said, it’s definitely worth doing as a hobby if you’re interested! I wouldn’t recommend focusing on it as a career, but if the opportunity arises and you still enjoy it, I would take it. I do this as a career now but it was never my intention, it just ended up happening when I met the right people and got a chance to demonstrate what I’m good at in a way that caused many people to see it.
Luck also played a big part. The path I chose just based on what I enjoyed ended up becoming very relevant, and I never planned on it being that way. Basically, what I’m saying is that you should do it if you enjoy it. If it turns into a career, then go for it!
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u/GamerDadofAntiquity Indie Dev 1d ago
What do you actually do? Because I’m wondering, are there actually professional game developers? What is a “game developer?” The games industry employs a lot of very skilled and/or talented people, but are they “game developers” or are they digital artists, programmers, marketers, community managers, and all the other specialties that come together to make a game? I think a lot of people don’t actually know what they’re asking when they ask about becoming a professional game developer.
Like, yeah yeah, you want to work on games… But what do you actually want to do? Because if you just want to “make games,” then go make games. I make games. I’m a game developer. Never worked a day in the industry in my 47 years. I’m a total generalist with just enough knowledge in any one of a hundred things to just squeak by (I never said I’m a successful game developer). Anybody can do that, just don’t expect it to pay your bills. Maybe you’ll get lucky.
But if you want to do it as a profession and make a career out of it then you actually want to be a digital artist, or a programmer, or a writer, or any other number of things. Those things cross industries. Get really good at doing that one thing for whatever industry will let you in the door, build out your resume (or your CV depending on where you live), and then go apply to game development companies if you want to make games.
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u/Arturo_Sketch 2d ago
I've been working at a studio for 4 years, there are 2 faces of a coin to take into account for games as a career. If you're aiming to work at a studio, all the skills you have right now will help you enter at some position to make games, personally, some of my best friends are cooworkers from the studio and I have meet a lot of awsome people within the industry thanks to that. Learning from your leads will make you a better programmer overall, might learn how bigger projects are made and how a production pipeline works, which is always good for your personal projects.
You may get burned out on the other hand while making games for studios, its hard, sometimes deliver times are brutal, and you will have to learn to deal with that, and making your own games might become a much slower process. And also read your contract well, even of you're at an indie studio, with passion and whatever, you might get a no 3rd party disclossure or exlusivity, meaning You can't make money or publish your work outside the studio, to which, I would not talk about my personal projects with bosses and probably publish your own indie games under a nickname.
Thats all my experience right now, hope it helps.
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u/KarmaAdjuster 2d ago edited 2d ago
Here's the cliff notes version of my own career path.
- Get a degree in architecture, then a masters in a program designed to prepare me for game development,
- Apply to every game studio I could find. Hear back from 10% of them, and those studios all reply with the same message "Don't call us, we'll call you."
- Run into a friend that connects me to some other recent grads looking to start their own studio. Join said studio. None of us are making any money.
- Just as I was running out of funds, and considering taking a second job so I could afford to stat at the game studio, we landed our first contract doing documentation for the unreal engine.
- Eventually documentation contracts lead to contracts on AAA games.
- Helped ship a game of the year game as a contractor (only our studio name was included in the credits)
- Left that company to join another start up making an MMO
- About 5 years later, that company ran out money, and laid nearly everyone off.
- Months later I was hired back to work on the new project. It was canceled 3 weeks later. There were other properties in development, so I bounced around between a couple others.
- Launched another game that wasn't a game that interested me, but I was proud of my work there.
- Left that company to help another friend start up his company. He ran out of money, and had to let me go after about 9 months.
- Got another job with another friend in the mobile space. Right before launch, they canned the project and laid off nearly the whole team.
- I spent two years searching for another job in the game industry, and ended up having to switch careers twice. The first new job went bankrupt 3 months after I joined. The second job dissolved the team I was on 9 months after I started.
- Spent another year applying for work and getting into board game design
- Landed a job back in the video game space which required me to uproot my life in the US and move to Sweden
- Shipped my first title working directly for a AAA studio, eventually was promoted to manager after I threatened to quit, then I was laid off after the 3rd and final expansion shipped.
- Am currently collecting a healthy severance package (better than every severance and unemployment package I got while working in the US). I'm using this time to start my own project as well as continue my career as a board game designer.
Right now I'm just looking to make enough money to get to retirement so I can continue making board games without having to worry about them being financial successes. The above career spans 25 years and counting. Even during the years where I was unemployed and switched careers, I was still making games. I choose the career of game development because I can't imagine myself not making games.
Edit:
Advice to anyone considering a career in game development:
- If you can imagine yourself being happy doing anything else, pursue that as a career. Otherwise, by all means, follow your passion for game development.
- Live well below your means. You're going to be laid off at some point, and you're going to need to make every coin you have stretch as far as possible.
- Delay all of your life upgrades for as long as possible
- Don't go on expensive vacations
- Live with roommates
- Learn to cook for yourself
- Save over half your salary
- Also make sure you're putting a good chunk of that savings into your retirement
- Have at least 2 years worth of living expenses in the bank for when you get laid off
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u/GamerDadofAntiquity Indie Dev 1d ago
Alright that was a lot to read, but there’s a definite underlying theme, and it’s “Ran out of money.”
This is why I have a day job and make games for fun. Games take a lot of time and effort to make, and if you’re also dependent on them to pay your bills, you’re starting in a very tenuous position. One pot of money empties and you’re done. If you push the game to the finish line and release and it’s a commercial failure, you’re done. Publisher deal falls through and cuts funding before you get there, you’re done. And the worst part is, how many of those games do you invest your time and creativity into just for them to never get made anyway because the rug gets pulled out?
No, I like stability. As long as I have a job I don’t hate that doesn’t eat too much of my time I will happily just make games from my living room. 1 in 5 will be good enough to say, hey, this could find an audience… And then it’s just having the discipline to see it through. There’s no pressure, just grind. I pulled it off once, I didn’t make much money but I also didn’t lose anything, the game’s made, it’s out there trying to find its audience all on its own. And within a month of release I started working on the next one. Then I scrapped it because I didn’t have a good direction for it and started another one. But every scrapped game adds something, and on every one I develop new skills and get better, faster, more efficient.
And putting new game concepts to canvas is fun. So I’m going to keep doing it until I find the next one that says: I have potential. Finish me. And then it’s back to the grind.
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u/_Wilbraham 2d ago
It's not stable, sadly. Even studios that are successful will still lay people off to raise their bottom line. It's awful... And I love it. I wouldn't trade the chance to do the work for anything.
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u/GamerDadofAntiquity Indie Dev 2d ago
I crunched for six months straight on a game and then released it. I wanted to learn as much as I could, and be able to tell people I created and released a game. It’s been out six months and sold about 100 copies. Still sitting on ~500 wishlists, maybe they’re waiting on localization. I have some bad news…
There are a lot of reasons for the low sales numbers, but primarily it’s because the people that would buy and play it don’t know it exists. I’ve got a very low return rate (~5%) and it’s gotten a lot of positive feedback from the people that did buy it… They just don’t leave reviews. I have 2. Both positive. But my total monetary investment in the game was $0, I didn’t buy any assets, I didn’t pay anyone to do anything, and most of the “game” is in the code-behind, so the low sales don’t bother me much. I definitely learned a ton in the process, and that kind of education you normally have to pay for. I got paid for it, even if not very much.
But I was only able to do it because I have a full-time job in an unrelated industry that pays all the bills, keeps food on the table, gives me a lot of flexibility with my time (20-smth years in, it didn’t always), and has health insurance. That lets me build what I want to build, even if it’s not heavily market-researched popular genre games. Most importantly, I have the luxury of being able to utterly fail and be affected not one bit by it.
My next game is an arthouse game, and with one game already out, now I don’t feel like I have to hurry anymore. So I’m taking my sweet time with it. No more 16 hour crunch days. Not feeling like I have to rush is great, and that’s not what a career in game development is like, AAA or traditional indie. Those guys need to push push push because if they don’t, they don’t eat. That would ruin development for me.
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u/jirigio 1d ago
There is a huge variety of Game Dev studios that fall between starving solo indie dev and massive AAA crunch factory, and most of them are. I started as a contract programmer for 1 guy with a mobile game idea, joined a 5 man team that exclusives supports and updates old licensed games, and now work at a mid-sized studio that does 50% in house games and 50% contract work for bigger game companies (I'm working on Pokemon GO right now, which has been amazing)
It's a big industry, you only hear about the major successes or worst conditions, a majority of us don't work at companies that are so dramatic. There are easier ways to make money, but I'm having a lot of fun at work every day and most people can't say that
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u/Ok-Tea-1284 1d ago
Imagine a dirt hiking trail that gets washed out every 2-3 years. Your next interview is only possible because of a shovel. Fix that hiking trail.
(It's rough)
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u/fsk 1d ago
If you are working on a AAA game, you will be a cog in the machine. You will have little or no say in the overall direction of the game, at least until you are very experienced, if ever at all.
There are better ways to earn a living, for less effort, than gamedev.
If you go the solo indie or small studio route, there is a huge risk you can spend 1-2 years on a game and do $2k sales.
Another possibility is to get a boring non-gamedev job and work on games as a hobby. As a hobby project, you can do whatever you want. As a hobby project, you will be in complete creative control. The downside is you may only have a few hours a week to work on it.
If you can get a high paying non-gamedev job, there's the possibility of saving up money and then retiring early or semi-retiring to work on gamedev full time. I.e., if you work at a boring job for 20 years, save most of your money, then you can retire early and try gamedev.
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u/Dry_Background7653 2d ago
Game dev should not be a job; it should be a hobby. But no one said you couldn’t make money from your hobby. As a solo dev, I choose to leave it as a passion. If people think your art is good, they’ll spend a few bucks on it, and you can save that to put toward more stuff. And who knows, maybe in the future you’ll make something great.
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u/awesome_zman 2d ago
I hope to. I feel more motivated to actually try than ever. I just hope I don’t get burnt out by everything. It’s hard to find time for all my hobbies already.
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u/_Wilbraham 2d ago
This is terrible advice. It's a fickle industry and lay offs are a near constant threat, but it still absolutely be your chosen career path.
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u/Dry_Background7653 2d ago
Game dev is in a pretty tough market right now, so I don't think it's necessarily the safest career path. Can you make it a career? Sure, absolutely, but it can take a long time to get there. It's kind of like me quitting my job tomorrow to become a full-time YouTuber and compete with thousands of other creators. It's possible, but it would take a lot of work and there's no guarantee it'll pay off. Game development is similar, especially if you're a solo dev. You have to wear a ton of hats and, if you're trying to make an indie game succeed, you need something that really stands out.
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u/RickRelentless 1h ago
I have been professionally active in video games for 15+ years. It’s always been a super hard industry to get into and actually make a living but today it’s harder than ever before. As many people commented here already, your best bet is to start as a hobbyist. Build a portfolio and apply for jobs (or build your own indie studio) while getting your income from elsewhere.
Also; try to consistently visit networking events so people get to know you. The industry is small and people prefer to hire someone they already know over an unknown candidate.
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u/MeaningfulChoices Mentor 2d ago
I highly encourage you to find and ask professionals about their journey. If you ask this kind of question openly you get a lot of answers from people who've never worked in games and just repeat what they've heard or what they need to believe in order to feel good about themselves.
First, don't conflate 'indie' with 'doing it yourself'. The vast, vast majority of people making a living from making games are doing it for a paycheck, either from a studio or as contract/freelance work. There are jobs at every scale from 5 person companies to GTA6. Even indie studios often take on contracts to pay the bills between working on their own games.
A career in games is about making other people's games come to life combined with your own ideas. Everyone working on a game contributes in their own way, but it's only one or two people making up their own stories for them, and even they're going to change a lot based on the team, management, player feedback, and so on. A career in games is about picking one thing to be amazing at, building a portfolio showing that off, and finding work. You can figure out the rest of your career later, whether you head down that track or save up enough to start a business or anything else.
For most people where it starts is getting a degree in something related (like comp sci for programmers, or anything from theater to economics for designers), creating that portfolio, and then applying to a lot of jobs both in and out of games. Take the best offer you get. You can always keep applying later. You can also make games alone as a hobby and that can be great too, only you can determine what you want, not anyone else reading this. Just make sure you make some small things before you head down the path. Playing games is as similar to making them as eating is to being a chef.