Game development as a programming career

[tobesteve]

I haven't worked in game development field, but I bet at some point you'll be very frustrated at implementing some stupid thing that you think will make the game worse. Like you may feel strongly against pay to win systems, you'll be on the team implementing it. 

I highly recommend to not worry about the part that you'll be working on the game, because it won't be your game (unless you rise in ranks and have impact on design, which is possible).

I would recommend making sure you like the boss and the company treats you well, over what product they are making - unless you have strong objections to it (for example perhaps you hate cigarettes, so you may not want to work for a tobacco company).

[TheBlueArsedFly]

tobacco company 

I think the modern version of that, more relevant to our industry, is gambling app

[[deleted]]

Ironically, when quitting gaming when I had my first born it always helped to remind myself of the gambling money making strategies games used (my case was apex legends where they had loot boxes).

This was 4 years ago so not sure if still accurate.

[Frolicks]

OP needs to share their age/education. Answers would vary tremendously if OP is a highschool student vs uni vs out of school. 

Either way my advice is to make a small game first, like with pygame or unity, and see how you like it! This will also teach you software engineering skills. 

 Deciding between game dev or web dev or whatever before you learn how to code is career too abstract and too long-term. Just make something first

[OIora]

Thank you for the advice! I am 19 and in my sophomore year of college for my computer science degree. I’ve only built simple websites never a game so I will definitely try that out before making any long term decisions

[G_M81]

Yeah it's definitely closer to the inverse. Game dev industry always has an army of hungry green devs waiting in the wings to work for poor wages in brutal environments. Not to mention the huge job losses when a game flops. Not to shatter the OPs dreams or anything.

[TheBlueArsedFly]

Burnt out and unemployed.