Jul 4th 2014, 1:44:09
I'm a Game Programmer.
Pros: I write the code that runs games. I give major emphasis on correctness of any code, followed by the efficiency and speed of the code. I get to Youtube games, play games, chat about games, and really hammer out what goes into a game. While my role is not a game designer, I pick up a lot of knowledge about game balance as well as where the market is headed. It can be very fun, but...
Cons: When the deadline looms, be prepared to work 18 hours a day.
Why are there deadlines? The reason is 90% of the time due to advertising. If you buy ads or banner space on a website, or a TV commercial slot, etc, or put out word that your game is going to be released on a certain date, trying to push back that date is costly. Websites/etc will penalize you for moving the dates (for eg, you want your game banners showing up on the same week as the game launched), and pushing back a date generally reduces any hype that may already have been generated. Popular websites like TouchArcane or PennyArcade, you have to buy banner ad slots some 3-6 months in advance, it is that competitive.
In some countries like USA, some people view jobs in the game industry as being unstable, because as game studios finish up a project and start on a next one, there is some period of downtime between projects where people are laid off, and rehired back 6 months later after production has restarted. Reference: http://kotaku.com/...tting-laid-off-1583192249 (There is a part 2 followup, feel free to google for it.)
I've also learned that writing code for iOS is 10 times easier than writing the same code for Android. So for anyone that cares, this is basically the reason why all the top titles come out on iOS months or years before Android (Hearthstone, Plant vs Zombies 2, Clash of Clans, Heroes Academy, etc). Not only that, piracy is a very big issue for the Android ecosystem, and much much less on iOS, and piracy is one of the reasons why games are headed towards the micro-transactions direction (since the game can always check with the servers if an IAP is purchased, unless that itself is also cracked).
Pros: I write the code that runs games. I give major emphasis on correctness of any code, followed by the efficiency and speed of the code. I get to Youtube games, play games, chat about games, and really hammer out what goes into a game. While my role is not a game designer, I pick up a lot of knowledge about game balance as well as where the market is headed. It can be very fun, but...
Cons: When the deadline looms, be prepared to work 18 hours a day.
Why are there deadlines? The reason is 90% of the time due to advertising. If you buy ads or banner space on a website, or a TV commercial slot, etc, or put out word that your game is going to be released on a certain date, trying to push back that date is costly. Websites/etc will penalize you for moving the dates (for eg, you want your game banners showing up on the same week as the game launched), and pushing back a date generally reduces any hype that may already have been generated. Popular websites like TouchArcane or PennyArcade, you have to buy banner ad slots some 3-6 months in advance, it is that competitive.
In some countries like USA, some people view jobs in the game industry as being unstable, because as game studios finish up a project and start on a next one, there is some period of downtime between projects where people are laid off, and rehired back 6 months later after production has restarted. Reference: http://kotaku.com/...tting-laid-off-1583192249 (There is a part 2 followup, feel free to google for it.)
I've also learned that writing code for iOS is 10 times easier than writing the same code for Android. So for anyone that cares, this is basically the reason why all the top titles come out on iOS months or years before Android (Hearthstone, Plant vs Zombies 2, Clash of Clans, Heroes Academy, etc). Not only that, piracy is a very big issue for the Android ecosystem, and much much less on iOS, and piracy is one of the reasons why games are headed towards the micro-transactions direction (since the game can always check with the servers if an IAP is purchased, unless that itself is also cracked).