I got an offer... what would you do?
Hi guys
Just got an offer from a big company in SA - to help them build/maintain an existing game that they have created. Wont give any names out. :)
Normally this would seem like a fantastic opportunity!! (Get paid to build a game :) ) My only worry (that i found out later) - is that its not actually a "real" game - even though it was created using a very decent gaming development platform. It has no real gaming mechanics.
The pay is very good and the people seem very nice.
Should I take the job and just see what comes of it? (Maybe it does turn into a cool game in the future) - or should I rather hold out and just keep developing games in my own spare time. (Learn in my spare time).
1) Should I focus on my own type of game style/development - OR
2) Go the corporate way - and learn from a application/game that exists in the real world. Who knows if i get this chance again?
What would you do... if you were me..?
Thx
Just got an offer from a big company in SA - to help them build/maintain an existing game that they have created. Wont give any names out. :)
Normally this would seem like a fantastic opportunity!! (Get paid to build a game :) ) My only worry (that i found out later) - is that its not actually a "real" game - even though it was created using a very decent gaming development platform. It has no real gaming mechanics.
The pay is very good and the people seem very nice.
Should I take the job and just see what comes of it? (Maybe it does turn into a cool game in the future) - or should I rather hold out and just keep developing games in my own spare time. (Learn in my spare time).
1) Should I focus on my own type of game style/development - OR
2) Go the corporate way - and learn from a application/game that exists in the real world. Who knows if i get this chance again?
What would you do... if you were me..?
Thx
Comments
I also think you're creating a bit of a false dichotomy there. I don't think the choice needs to be as extreme as being "corporate" vs making your own "style" of games. There are a handful of local studios (24 Bit, RetroEpic and Fuzzy Logic are ones off the top of my head) that make some of their own games, and some outsourced/contract work. Learning from developers there, in my mind, would be a pretty great learning experience on many levels, and is far, far more relevant than working in something that is more marginally related (like general software or app development).
I also think that you don't have to put giant pressure on yourself to have to choose now, for all of time. If you're good enough to get a job offer for something nice now, and you're motivated to continue learning and continue making your own games, I don't see why your continued improvement wouldn't make you just as attractive (if not more) in the future. I don't think it's smart to take a job simply because you might not get the opportunity in the future: there need to be many other positive reasons for taking a job.
I recently started a more "corporate" job at a AAA game studio in the US, leaving a fantastic indie studio that allowed me far more autonomy and more opportunity to explore my own game ideas. But my reasoning was that I'm pretty young, and should try to experience a bit of AAA development too; that being paid more, and in dollars, helps me save more money for investing in my own creative projects; that they have some incredibly skilled artists and programmers that I can learn from; that it's a way to force myself to learn UE4 properly, and from the people who make it, and be able to compare it with my experiences in Unity (and therefore potentially improve my Unity tools in the future); that living overseas, on my own, is a super challenging experience that's probably worth going through for a short period of time; that my health has deteriorated a bit, and the more regular work hours can help me fix some of my bad habits; that being out here makes it significantly easier to travel to various game events; and that I'm welcome to return to South Africa and continue the old job that I loved whenever I want to. I've already seen some of the differences in how things are run that make me miss home, but I've also gained some other skills a bit faster. There's also an internal time limit I've set on how long I'll stay here before I'm willing to re-evaluate and call whether I care anything for working in AAA.
So that's the reasoning and where it took me. If it was something that wasn't strictly game development, then the argument would be far, far weaker, given that I very much want to be making games for my whole career.
[edit] Also, I think pay is important, but only to a point. If it's super important, then there are far smarter things to be doing than making games, and you're probably better off working in a bank, or in some kind of finance-related field. But I think we make games because we want to make games primarily, and not for the money (although I can understand taking other jobs to avoid starvation), so doing something that isn't game development "for the money and because people are nice" isn't good enough. If I was going to work in advertising or gambling "for the money", there are far higher-paying options that are less ethically-dubious, to me. Hence my saying it's pretty personal, depending on your priorities and stuff.
Thank you for taking the time to discuss this topic with me.
Will be giving it much thought.
Cheers.