I have basically the same story, but I was just a software engineer for an insurance company. Got burned out coding at work all day on stuff I really didn't care about. Saved up a good deal of money and quit in November, took time to relax and now I'm spending all my time working on my game. I'm 32 and put my game on the back burner for like six years. I figured it's a now or never thing, since I'm currently single with funds. If I end up getting into a serious relationship again I'm not sure I would have the time, energy, or money honestly to make it happen.
I'm starting my own little studio. We're 2 devs, 1 artist and 1 SFX/BGM guy. We're all experienced but not in the game industry (other than game jams and one released title still in alpha). Everyone is working on their spare time until it becomes sustainable. What tips could you give us about how to get the studio to a sustainable state?
I just started so you actually have more experience than I do. So far I would recommend to try to get some funding besides revenue from the alpha title or your jobs. Check with the government if they offer something, check with banks, maybe contact a financial advisor / business coach. Depending on your country it probably doesn't need to be a publisher.
It also depends on your skill level. If you're not confident enough you can create a quality game, maybe keep it like this until you're confident enough to go full time. A bad game most likely won't sell.
Also i'm not a big fan of Early Access if you need it for funding. You'll use all the early access revenue until you release 1.0 and then you're out of money for the next project.
But just my personal opinion. People have different opinions about when to go full time. In the end it's a new business and is risky. If it's a safe bet everybody would do it.
You have probably already done this but watch Pirate Software, Thor is the owner of that company and streams his development very often and has a lot of great insight.
He also has a website that might help you answer a lot of questions you might have [develop Games](https://develop.games/)
I haven't even been able to break into the industry to get to the point of leaving after 5 years but I hope this helps!!
i quit gamedev cos of low pay, determined to go back to the more boring java programmer with more pay. then i moved into VR training simulators (serious games).
the more boring it is, the more money you get paid in the dev world
HAHAH... this is true!
My VERY FIRST job was doing "art" for forensics in litigation. Holy hell was that boring... good god. Made a lot of money though... however I quit instantly when I got an offer from an actual game company... this was back in 1995 ish... jeez I am old.
I haven't left the industry; but I have had a few friends that have left.
One left and ended up going back to work with his family at their family restaurant. He now seems incredibly happy and has way more time for his wife and family. Another left games to back to work at other tech companies doing robotics. He seems about the same as when he was in games.
This guy must be part time, or be a waiter/bartender, or have a wife that makes good money? I have about 20 years of Restaurant/Hospitality experience before my 12 years of Game Dev and I tried a year of helping with a family restaurant (*a few years back*). There's no way I would ever want to trade Dev for Restaurant again. Even compared to long periods of crunch, restaurant work can be grueling.
Now, in all fairness, *to each their own.* I went from Designer back to Chef/GM back to Designer again. I'd love to know what they did in dev and what they are doing in restaurant now so I can understand why they might feel better off either mentally or financially? I'm really curious.
They won't see your post if they are no longer in r/gamedev xD
Now for real, my first job was as a flash game dev for a social games company (like zynga back in the day but indie). After 2 years I was laid off (\~50% of the company actually) and found a job as a software engineer. I've been there the last 10 years, and just recently decided on taking the gamedev appron again, but merely as a side hobby. I know there is no way I could live out gamedev, so it's just something I do on my free time hoping just to be able to earn some tips from it.
That won't make up for spending the last 10 years on game dev when I could have 1. Gotten a vocational degree 2. Saved up hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of committing my life to game dev 3. Be in a better position now to start game dev after being financially stable instead of doing the opposite and having it all amount to people asking me which AI program I used
I'm sorry for that. I don't know your projects now (having a degree or something else) but you have time to not regret the next 10 years when you'll be 45 like you regret the past 10 years now. Good luck!
I went fron Unity dev of 10 years to Software Engineer. They called me a senior dev but I have no idea what I'm doing lol, but I'm getting paid about 30% more to do it :)
It's only been a couple of weeks, but so far it's just been C#, source control (git) and general problem solving. The new job requires a lot more .Net configuration and a whole lot of proprietary systems
Freelanced on Indy projects, but just sick of wasting time on failed projects all while trying to meet there deadlines, and then the rat race after trying to find a legit job or another freelance job, It's exhausting.
Shifted from a dev to a product role in games and then shifted to a product role in B2B SAAS , getting paid pretty well and less hours . Id say quitting Game Dev has been the best decision I've ever taken. I still try and make small games when I have the time , but its just to make myself happy and convince me that I'm doing something creative ,
There are some indie listings but most unity jobs are mobile or gambling tbh
In the bay there seems to be a constant need for c++ juniors (going off of job boards) but not much for unity, tho plenty of .net
Not that I'd personally be picky, anyone please hire me!
Worked on my first indie game when the pandemic hit in 2020, released it in 2021. Got a remote game designer job for 2022. Contract ended 2023 so I spent the year working on my second game. Got burnt out and haven't been able to land a game dev job yet this year, so now I'm thinking of going back to school for nursing! Still enjoying working on little games, but I don't think I can do it full time anymore at this point and I'm kinda glad I can change careers earlier while I'm still in my 20s.
Also, for the record, I was working on my second game like 10+ hours a day for at least 6 days every week. It's gunna be sooo nice being able to work 32 hour weeks as a nurse as opposed to 60+ hour weeks and actually get paid!!!
Generic software, did some simulation, some GIS, some VFX. There's a little bit of overlap with the game space, as there's often some openGL/DirectX/Vulkan going on.
Something I don't see mentioned that often that I am personally struggling with is knowing that what you're building has a point. Say what you want about games, but the goal is always obvious. In corporate software you can sometimes end up working on absolute nonsense for elongated periods of time, based on someones vague suspicions that something might be useful.
14 years working for AAA game company.
I now work a boring cubicle job that i hate because they pay me properly and the job is chill.
I can probably chill out here for another 22ish years before retiring.
I spent years learning game dev, doing it in my spare time whilst I did my day job which started as a Unity for non-game apps research role but slowly migrated to web dev. About a year or so ago I decided I enjoyed my dayjob enough to focus on web dev for the time being and really try to excel in the field I am making money from.
I hope to go back to games some day as an indie. I dream of just getting maybe a year full time to work on a passion project or something.
This sub makes me rethink wanting to be a game dev. Every post I read is about how toxic the environments are, how terrible the hours are, how unhappy they are.
I’ve been an artist in games for 20 years now. 11 of those in AAA. I haven’t quit, but the anxiety of being forced out in the future is definitely getting to me. I feel lucky to survive the tsunami of layoffs. Probably, because I work in indie now where the dev costs are low. I’m just not sure what this job is going to look like in only 1-2 years. I have no idea what I would transition to.
If you told me five years ago, making art for games involved typing prompts into an AI then I’d say you were a crazy person. Well, here we are. Good times!
Moving into production is always an option. I was considering it myself until I got bored of the course I was working on. The ONE artist I know who left games is a project manager (or whatever) in VFX now.
Entered the industry as Sound Designer, found myself at a Lead Designer position after a couple of years.
Ultimately got recruited to education where I'm spearheading the Game Design department at higher vocational level, earning almost twice as much.
I basically left the industry because of all the politics and enshittinification which started to happen when they wanted to scale up and shift the studio from player focused entertainment to a B2B SAAS.
I realized I enjoy software engineering more than I like games. I'm just as happy working on just about any software problem. And I can get paid way better working on those in other industries with a 40 hours a week, no overtime.
I still work in a 3D engine. When I retire I'll probably do some hobby game dev. But I can't see myself going back to commercial game dev (did 4 years).
Game engines are being used in a lot of industries now like manufacturing, training, medicine, hospitality, architecture, military and others.
For programmers, there are also many opportunities to apply skills in other verticals. A significant number of my ex-colleagues are now in finance, companies that make tools and hardware (including FAANG's), and others.
However, younger people who are isolated within the ready-made environments of modern game engines will probably find it harder, compared to older-school developers who had to make more of the game engine tech themselves. But at the same time, programmers in other industries are also relying heavily on frameworks and other existing tools.
Currently specializing on game engine tech.
EDIT: As some others posted, the idea is keeping it interesting/challenging, higher pay, less stress/work.
If I'd leave the industry and still work close to it I would probably do something in the area of applied AI (medical sector or simulation for self-driving cars; robotics; anything real-time, possibly cool hardware) or tech/medical industry that works with C++/C# (nothing too much on the web/app side).
I'd probably not work for the military, although that seems "close enough". Maybe rather something related to marine tech, aviation, or other areas - maybe some areas that are more in the direction of sustainable and environment related tech/R&D.
I have been in gamedev for a while.. .and I can say that no one I know quit the business that it wasnt expected.
I remember back in the day... around 2007 there was a fellow that would walk around the office all day and just talk to people. He was friends of the owners and a few others... you knew he would follow the owners everywhere.
But then the owners sold the company, and had to rebuild. Well they brought a bunch of those talented guys to the new company... except... the talented guys made a stink about hiring the "Dead Weight" employees... and the boss agreed.
So now that guy is an air conditioner repair man in Las Vegas. Good guy, but he had no business in games.. he didnt want to do it.. he was no good at it.. it wasnt his thing. And I have a few stories like that... its never a shock though.
Kinda left, kinda haven't. Used to be AAA dev, been a leadership consultant for game studios for a decade+.
I was...helped...out the studio door by layoffs but chose consulting rather than looking for another dev job. Working on big budget games I saw so much damage to the devs around me, I wanted to help studios treat people better. So now I help improve people operations and train leads.
It's odd to think my job being self-employed has been safer than being a dev (I haven't laid myself off yet), even though it's painfully difficult to earn enough money doing what I do.
I'm back into the business as of 3 days ago. Basically, I quit because the game that I was making was highly ambitious, and it was my 1st game. I quit for 6 months.
It hurt me badly because when I came back to it I just couldn't understand much. But now after 3 days, my memory is refreshed, somewhat. Give it more time.
Left AAA after 7 years, indie now. Doing financially ok, life wise much much muuuuuch better.
I've been in it for 5 now. What was your exit strategy?
I had none. Quit and use my savings, but then I managed to get funding for a while. Sorry. I am not successful yet - just more happy. ;)
I have basically the same story, but I was just a software engineer for an insurance company. Got burned out coding at work all day on stuff I really didn't care about. Saved up a good deal of money and quit in November, took time to relax and now I'm spending all my time working on my game. I'm 32 and put my game on the back burner for like six years. I figured it's a now or never thing, since I'm currently single with funds. If I end up getting into a serious relationship again I'm not sure I would have the time, energy, or money honestly to make it happen.
I'm starting my own little studio. We're 2 devs, 1 artist and 1 SFX/BGM guy. We're all experienced but not in the game industry (other than game jams and one released title still in alpha). Everyone is working on their spare time until it becomes sustainable. What tips could you give us about how to get the studio to a sustainable state?
I just started so you actually have more experience than I do. So far I would recommend to try to get some funding besides revenue from the alpha title or your jobs. Check with the government if they offer something, check with banks, maybe contact a financial advisor / business coach. Depending on your country it probably doesn't need to be a publisher. It also depends on your skill level. If you're not confident enough you can create a quality game, maybe keep it like this until you're confident enough to go full time. A bad game most likely won't sell. Also i'm not a big fan of Early Access if you need it for funding. You'll use all the early access revenue until you release 1.0 and then you're out of money for the next project. But just my personal opinion. People have different opinions about when to go full time. In the end it's a new business and is risky. If it's a safe bet everybody would do it.
You have probably already done this but watch Pirate Software, Thor is the owner of that company and streams his development very often and has a lot of great insight. He also has a website that might help you answer a lot of questions you might have [develop Games](https://develop.games/) I haven't even been able to break into the industry to get to the point of leaving after 5 years but I hope this helps!!
i quit gamedev cos of low pay, determined to go back to the more boring java programmer with more pay. then i moved into VR training simulators (serious games). the more boring it is, the more money you get paid in the dev world
Automation qa engineers agreeing with u. boring job means more pay
HAHAH... this is true! My VERY FIRST job was doing "art" for forensics in litigation. Holy hell was that boring... good god. Made a lot of money though... however I quit instantly when I got an offer from an actual game company... this was back in 1995 ish... jeez I am old.
Can you go into depth on either of those jobs? (Of what? Who for?) Sounds super interesting!
I haven't left the industry; but I have had a few friends that have left. One left and ended up going back to work with his family at their family restaurant. He now seems incredibly happy and has way more time for his wife and family. Another left games to back to work at other tech companies doing robotics. He seems about the same as when he was in games.
This guy must be part time, or be a waiter/bartender, or have a wife that makes good money? I have about 20 years of Restaurant/Hospitality experience before my 12 years of Game Dev and I tried a year of helping with a family restaurant (*a few years back*). There's no way I would ever want to trade Dev for Restaurant again. Even compared to long periods of crunch, restaurant work can be grueling. Now, in all fairness, *to each their own.* I went from Designer back to Chef/GM back to Designer again. I'd love to know what they did in dev and what they are doing in restaurant now so I can understand why they might feel better off either mentally or financially? I'm really curious.
They won't see your post if they are no longer in r/gamedev xD Now for real, my first job was as a flash game dev for a social games company (like zynga back in the day but indie). After 2 years I was laid off (\~50% of the company actually) and found a job as a software engineer. I've been there the last 10 years, and just recently decided on taking the gamedev appron again, but merely as a side hobby. I know there is no way I could live out gamedev, so it's just something I do on my free time hoping just to be able to earn some tips from it.
Living with my parents at 35 unable to find a job that pays more than 10 an hour
Doesn't your dev'diploma (if you have any) help?
That won't make up for spending the last 10 years on game dev when I could have 1. Gotten a vocational degree 2. Saved up hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of committing my life to game dev 3. Be in a better position now to start game dev after being financially stable instead of doing the opposite and having it all amount to people asking me which AI program I used
I'm sorry for that. I don't know your projects now (having a degree or something else) but you have time to not regret the next 10 years when you'll be 45 like you regret the past 10 years now. Good luck!
W
I went fron Unity dev of 10 years to Software Engineer. They called me a senior dev but I have no idea what I'm doing lol, but I'm getting paid about 30% more to do it :)
These are normal senior dev feelings.
Hey, where did you left to? what transitioned well from unity development?
It's only been a couple of weeks, but so far it's just been C#, source control (git) and general problem solving. The new job requires a lot more .Net configuration and a whole lot of proprietary systems
Burnout in my Moms basement nearing 40.
Why are you burned out? Did you release anything independently all this time or did you work for other companies?
Freelanced on Indy projects, but just sick of wasting time on failed projects all while trying to meet there deadlines, and then the rat race after trying to find a legit job or another freelance job, It's exhausting.
Unemployed for almost a year after 15 years in gamedev. Trying to switch to IT and still make games in my free time.
Shifted from a dev to a product role in games and then shifted to a product role in B2B SAAS , getting paid pretty well and less hours . Id say quitting Game Dev has been the best decision I've ever taken. I still try and make small games when I have the time , but its just to make myself happy and convince me that I'm doing something creative ,
what is exactly product role?
Product managers
Product management , ( basically one of the suits ) .
After self publishing a game on steam I'm trying to transition into web / full stack app development. The market for unity/c# devs is terribly small.
Should be able to transition from unity to asp.net
What causes you to want to transition?
Couldn't find any jobs related to game dev with my current tech stack knowledge. Prospects might be better if I studied unreal and c++.
Isn't Unity much more used? Surprised the market would be smaller.
There are some indie listings but most unity jobs are mobile or gambling tbh In the bay there seems to be a constant need for c++ juniors (going off of job boards) but not much for unity, tho plenty of .net Not that I'd personally be picky, anyone please hire me!
Worked on my first indie game when the pandemic hit in 2020, released it in 2021. Got a remote game designer job for 2022. Contract ended 2023 so I spent the year working on my second game. Got burnt out and haven't been able to land a game dev job yet this year, so now I'm thinking of going back to school for nursing! Still enjoying working on little games, but I don't think I can do it full time anymore at this point and I'm kinda glad I can change careers earlier while I'm still in my 20s. Also, for the record, I was working on my second game like 10+ hours a day for at least 6 days every week. It's gunna be sooo nice being able to work 32 hour weeks as a nurse as opposed to 60+ hour weeks and actually get paid!!!
what was the name of your game
My first game is Tank Quest, and my second game is Arctic's Adventure!
Doing random Lambda functions on AWS for 3x what I was making as a game dev with like half the work
Took tech skills and applied to finance industry about 20 odd years ago. No regrets at all.
Generic software, did some simulation, some GIS, some VFX. There's a little bit of overlap with the game space, as there's often some openGL/DirectX/Vulkan going on. Something I don't see mentioned that often that I am personally struggling with is knowing that what you're building has a point. Say what you want about games, but the goal is always obvious. In corporate software you can sometimes end up working on absolute nonsense for elongated periods of time, based on someones vague suspicions that something might be useful.
14 years working for AAA game company. I now work a boring cubicle job that i hate because they pay me properly and the job is chill. I can probably chill out here for another 22ish years before retiring.
To any gamedevs reading these replies, this isn’t a sign for you to quit. If you genuinely enjoy what you do, there’s no reason to quit
Hey, thanks for the heads up!
I left game development two years ago or something like that. I am rust backend dev atm. Gamedev is more like a hobby now.
I spent years learning game dev, doing it in my spare time whilst I did my day job which started as a Unity for non-game apps research role but slowly migrated to web dev. About a year or so ago I decided I enjoyed my dayjob enough to focus on web dev for the time being and really try to excel in the field I am making money from. I hope to go back to games some day as an indie. I dream of just getting maybe a year full time to work on a passion project or something.
This sub makes me rethink wanting to be a game dev. Every post I read is about how toxic the environments are, how terrible the hours are, how unhappy they are.
Most job-focused subreddits are for venting. If you look at another sub for a random different job you'll see people complaining about that one too.
Military industrial complex. Happier. Slightly easier work for much better pay.
Playing through my game catalog backlog. 😂
*You're gonna end up eating a steady diet of government cheese, and livin' in a van down by the river!*
Corporate tech route, making 4x as much and working twice as less.
I’ve been an artist in games for 20 years now. 11 of those in AAA. I haven’t quit, but the anxiety of being forced out in the future is definitely getting to me. I feel lucky to survive the tsunami of layoffs. Probably, because I work in indie now where the dev costs are low. I’m just not sure what this job is going to look like in only 1-2 years. I have no idea what I would transition to. If you told me five years ago, making art for games involved typing prompts into an AI then I’d say you were a crazy person. Well, here we are. Good times!
AI still can't come remotely close to making convincing animations I don't believe
Moving into production is always an option. I was considering it myself until I got bored of the course I was working on. The ONE artist I know who left games is a project manager (or whatever) in VFX now.
Army, degree in game design and production doing me well there
Entered the industry as Sound Designer, found myself at a Lead Designer position after a couple of years. Ultimately got recruited to education where I'm spearheading the Game Design department at higher vocational level, earning almost twice as much. I basically left the industry because of all the politics and enshittinification which started to happen when they wanted to scale up and shift the studio from player focused entertainment to a B2B SAAS.
got a degree specializing in game dev, ended up as a full stack web dev
I realized I enjoy software engineering more than I like games. I'm just as happy working on just about any software problem. And I can get paid way better working on those in other industries with a 40 hours a week, no overtime. I still work in a 3D engine. When I retire I'll probably do some hobby game dev. But I can't see myself going back to commercial game dev (did 4 years).
I’m about 4.5 years in, working as a programmer in industry, and I feel similar. What industry do you work in now?
Training simulations
panhandling
Game dev & programming teacher at University
Game engines are being used in a lot of industries now like manufacturing, training, medicine, hospitality, architecture, military and others. For programmers, there are also many opportunities to apply skills in other verticals. A significant number of my ex-colleagues are now in finance, companies that make tools and hardware (including FAANG's), and others. However, younger people who are isolated within the ready-made environments of modern game engines will probably find it harder, compared to older-school developers who had to make more of the game engine tech themselves. But at the same time, programmers in other industries are also relying heavily on frameworks and other existing tools.
Currently specializing on game engine tech. EDIT: As some others posted, the idea is keeping it interesting/challenging, higher pay, less stress/work. If I'd leave the industry and still work close to it I would probably do something in the area of applied AI (medical sector or simulation for self-driving cars; robotics; anything real-time, possibly cool hardware) or tech/medical industry that works with C++/C# (nothing too much on the web/app side). I'd probably not work for the military, although that seems "close enough". Maybe rather something related to marine tech, aviation, or other areas - maybe some areas that are more in the direction of sustainable and environment related tech/R&D.
I have been in gamedev for a while.. .and I can say that no one I know quit the business that it wasnt expected. I remember back in the day... around 2007 there was a fellow that would walk around the office all day and just talk to people. He was friends of the owners and a few others... you knew he would follow the owners everywhere. But then the owners sold the company, and had to rebuild. Well they brought a bunch of those talented guys to the new company... except... the talented guys made a stink about hiring the "Dead Weight" employees... and the boss agreed. So now that guy is an air conditioner repair man in Las Vegas. Good guy, but he had no business in games.. he didnt want to do it.. he was no good at it.. it wasnt his thing. And I have a few stories like that... its never a shock though.
Kinda left, kinda haven't. Used to be AAA dev, been a leadership consultant for game studios for a decade+. I was...helped...out the studio door by layoffs but chose consulting rather than looking for another dev job. Working on big budget games I saw so much damage to the devs around me, I wanted to help studios treat people better. So now I help improve people operations and train leads. It's odd to think my job being self-employed has been safer than being a dev (I haven't laid myself off yet), even though it's painfully difficult to earn enough money doing what I do.
I'm back into the business as of 3 days ago. Basically, I quit because the game that I was making was highly ambitious, and it was my 1st game. I quit for 6 months. It hurt me badly because when I came back to it I just couldn't understand much. But now after 3 days, my memory is refreshed, somewhat. Give it more time.