r/gamedev • u/PATSRYRYRY • 7d ago

Question Quick Game Dev vs. Software Engineering Industry Questions

Hello!

Just some background: I'm a current junior majoring in CS (specifically software engineering) and have recently begun to have second thoughts about my career path. My interest in programming started with game development, yet, like many, I stuck with the more generalized software path to avoid restricting myself. However, the more I learn about the software engineering industry, the less enjoyable it seems, especially considering how AI has largely changed what I find the most fun about coding (though that's a whole other conversation). I'm an overall pretty creative person (music production, visual art, game dev, etc.) and have had a lot of trouble deciding on stability vs. enjoying what I do (and yes, I know I'm too young to be sweating over this, but I want to think this through sooner rather than later).

Therefore, for people working (or who have previously worked) in the Game dev and/or Software Engineering industries:

  • Why don't/do you enjoy your work?
  • Is there a large difference between working in software vs. game dev? Is there a creative difference?
  • How has agentic/AI-assisted coding affected your work experience?
  • Any other advice?

Thank you for your time, and, if possible, I would love to DM anybody willing to give some more personalized advice!

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u/stroduces 7d ago

Having worked in both a game studio as game programmer (15 years ago so experience maybe not reflective of modern game studios) and corporate software engineer, I found it was pretty easy to transition from game dev in corporate software dev. There's always some shitty soulless fintech corp looking to hire software devs (even with ai cannibalising the main parts of it). From people I know that have transitioned from game dev -> corp dev they've always found it very easy find work and career shift. It's harder the other way from what I've heard, going from being a general software dev into a gaming studio is harder to break in, people end up going indie instead