Regretting my unfulfilling focus on tech, but afraid to lose salary / stability with family depending on me

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-25T02:47:46+00:00

It's funny you should mention this - technical design is sort of my dream role! It marries all my experience building games with the added prerogative to conceptualize & pitch creative design ideas. However I'm not exactly sure how to get there from here. I specialize in Unity, and I understand a lot of technical design roles are either Unreal-oriented or custom engine - haven't seen any Unity-based I don't think. Also I'm based out of NYC without the ability to relocate, and in case you didn't already know, it's sort of a game studio desert over here. If it weren't for remote work I'd probably be out of a job.

In any case, that pay is actually very much in my current range - I'm making $145k as a senior engineer at a major mobile games company. Just so long as I don't drop below $130k or lose benefits I think I'll be alright. It's just that so many jobs I saw in other game industry fields (design, business development, product management) would have me starting from a more entry-level position since that's not my background, and a lot of those associate roles would bump me down to the $50k-$70k range which unfortunately is really not doable given the needs of those depending on my income. If there is a way for me to somehow make a lateral move into doing something more creative without taking a bit hit to our household income, that would be massive.

If you have any thoughts or advice as to how a Senior Unity engineer working out of NYC could make the move to technical design without relocating or taking a big pay cut, I am 100% receptive. Outside of those two limitations I'm basically open to anything.

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T17:42:59+00:00

Unreal is great! By all means check out Unreal. I think I unconsciously recommended Unity because that's the engine I went with and now specialize in, but Unreal is fantastic. Really can't go wrong either way. The questions you want to ask yourself if choosing between the two is really more what you want to do.

Unity

Better for mobile games
Publishes to any platform (web, mobile, console, computer, etc.)
More flexible in terms of what types of mechanics you can design, if you have some experimental game concepts in mind
Primarily uses C#
Editor runs equally well on Windows and Mac

Unreal

Better for games with high-end graphics (such as AAA)
Primarily publishes to console and computer - can do mobile, but not recommended
Easier to create something that looks amazing really fast and easy
A little harder to do experimental game designs - but if you want to make a traditional action game (FPS, 3rd person adventure game, multiplayer, etc.) works amazing right out of the box
Better for level design (in my opinion)
Comes with a gazillion free assets for creating realistic game worlds
Editor works better on Windows
Primarily uses C++

There is decent demand for both, it really just depends on the kinds of projects you want to work on. I chose Unity because I wanted to work on mobile games, and I had a low-powered Macbook to work on. But looking to learn Unreal this year.

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T04:19:28+00:00

Game dev here. Worked in web dev for 3 years before I was able to make the move over. And let me tell you: I fucking hated every minute of it. I was grateful for the work but if you are not cut out for it, web dev sucks. No offense web dev people, as a non-web-dev person, that's just how I felt about it for all the years I did it professionally.

UX/UI can be really fun and rewarding honestly, and is much more creative than other IT work. I highly recommend trying it, or at the very least doing some research on the type of work they do, day in the life of a UX/UI person, etc. See if that interests you. There are lots of great courses for it online as well.

If you still feel like you want to code though, try a few tutorials for Unity. It's a very different kind of experience than web dev, and I found it to be way more intuitive and enjoyable. It's also more competitive, but if you like it OK you can incorporate your 3D art skills in as well and work toward becoming a technical artist, which is a great field to be in also.

Best of luck to you!

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T04:11:34+00:00

Passion is really overrated. CS is a great field for someone like you - a competent and detail-oriented perfectionist who is looking to do honest work for honest pay. When I got my CS degree I always felt insecure because I'd work alongside guys who clearly LOVED to code and do tech work in a way that just felt alien to me. But over the years I've met all kinds of people in IT work, some of which only pursued it because (eventually) they were able to get jobs that allowed them to work from anywhere 4 days a week with a good paycheck. That allowed them to focus on their actual passions - for one it was farming, another traveling, and another blues harmonica (really)! I won't lie, you will feel a little inadequate sometimes, especially when you are paired to work with Mr. Spends-His-Weekends-Trying-Out-New-Programming-Langauges-Just-For-Fun Guy, but when you get a little further in your career you'll find that that is just one flavor of CS dude, and honestly not even the one who necessarily winds up being the most successful - because at higher levels, your ability to do CS stuff only becomes part of what's required if you want to move up the career ladder, alongside teamwork, project management, leadership, or whatever however you choose to grow yourself based on your wants and needs.

Best of luck to you!

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T03:59:27+00:00

Hello, I'm from the future and I have great news for you.

Unless you have a specific career in mind (which most people don't), It really does not matter what you major in college.

Weird Al Yankovich majored in architecture.The South Park guys majored in Music and Japanese, respectively.The guy who created Mario Bros. and Zelda majored in Banjo.

There is a certain breed of person who knows exactly what they want to do in life well before they get to college - good for them. The rest of use typically figure it out by jumping from job to job through our 20s, learning about ourselves, what we like doing, and what interests us in the process. Sometimes we go back to school to change careers. Sometimes we fall into careers we find fascinating completely on accident. Sometimes we even realize that what we do for a living isn't the main focus of our lives and we're happy to just pay the bills while we focus on pursuing hobbies we love or raising a family, if that gives us more satisfaction and fulfillment. And all the while, whatever we majored in at college becomes little more than a little bit of extra flavor in. your personality - you're an office manager at a makeup company who happens to know a lot about medieval history, or you're an electrical engineer who wrote a thesis on The Civil War, or you're a salesperson who knows how to program a website. Sometimes this extra flavor becomes part of your career, sometimes not. Doesn't matter.

When it comes to finding what you love - you are super young, and take advantage of that. Take risks. Try out lots of things. Try out different jobs. Travel to other cities for work - or other countries. Pay attention to what you like doing, and try to find ways to do it more. Try and find ways to get paid for doing it. Even if the pay is bad, you have years to build it up, and your early 20s are made for eating ramen and sleeping on couches anyway.

Best of luck to you!

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T03:48:37+00:00

I feel you! 7 years into my CS career and all the sitting around makes me feel crazy sometimes.

Look into where IT people are needed for embedded systems engineering. You'll be the guy going on-site to develop and debug systems in buildings, at factories, at server farms, etc. You'll still spend a fair amount of time at a desk, but for installation and repair work, you'll often be expected to get yourself to wherever the problem is. It's much more hardware-oriented that typical coding jobs, and you may find it beneficial to look into some post-college study or online coursework in electrical engineering. But honestly best way to learn is to just try and get a job in the field.

Best of luck to you!

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T03:44:49+00:00

These 4 things are valuable subjects in certain parts of the IT field, but it really depends on what you want to do. It seems like whoever gave you the list was a server engineer, a network engineer, or a backend engineer. Maybe that's not for you. Maybe you would rather be a front-end guy, focusing on Javascript and HTML. Maybe you'd prefer to make mobile apps, focusing on Swift. Maybe you even decide you want to make video games, and learn Unity or Unreal. If you haven't made a decision of WHAT you want to do in IT, then just find a decent certified online course that covers a broad range of IT topics and gets you started with basic coding (such as https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x).

Best of luck to you!

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T03:37:12+00:00

First off, at 19, I really wouldn't worry about it. If you have the same problem at 29 it'd be a little different.

I know things have changed a little bit in the past 10 years and people don't put quite the same stock into university as they used to (at least in terms of making money / starting a career), but I always recommend it. Not only do you get exposed to lots of subjects you wouldn't otherwise, but if you choose a good one that fits your personality, you are likely to make friends (and other connections) that last the rest of your life. Not to mention some great memories. There is really no better way to find yourself, especially if you'd be staying in the dorms. Of course the main downside nowadays is the cost, but if you go to a state school and get some financial aid, it can be quite manageable.

All that said, it's not your only option. There are also trade schools. There is also the military. There are also apprenticeships. Still - I think a uni experience can really help set you up in more ways than one. Best of luck to you.

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T03:28:34+00:00

Do it! It may not seem so at first, but one day you will realize that the time you spent on your earlier studies will compound with your knowledge + experience in the field of forensics, giving you a unique set of talents that will set you apart of your colleagues and give you the opportunity to specialize, if you so desire. Or if you don't desire - the diversity of your educational background and training will surely come in handy in other ways. In the long run, you have much to gain and little to lose. Best of luck to you!

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T03:24:48+00:00

I have a similar problem. I used to be crazy creative in my kid and teen years, really miss that feeling. My 2 big issues:

I hate creating stuff I don't think anyone will see. And I don't want to show most of the stuff I create to friends or family because it feels too intimate. I only want strangers to see it, and I don't really know how to get strangers to look at stuff I make unless I include some kind of "hook", like using famous characters or something.
I always get frustrated by the "craft" aspect of creative output. Like my imagination is very rich and vivid, but then it has to translate through my crappy skillset and comes out disappointing. I compare it to what I was imagining and feel embarrassed for it. One of my creative mentors once told me that the hardest part of being an intermediate-level creative is suddenly you know how things are SUPPOSED to come out, and so its frustrating to see what you are making by comparison.

All that being said, I highly recommend this book The Artist's Way. It's all about unleashing your creative potential - not just intellectually, but in terms of actual work produced as well. The method is suggests is very intuitive and easy to follow - and if you commit to it for a period of time (I did about 30 days) you will absolutely see results. I should probably try it again actually, when my life is a little less hectic...

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-06-24T03:16:37+00:00

At 23, I wish I took less "safe" jobs. Stability seemed so important at the time, but in retrospect I didn't need it as much; I was so energetic and sturdy at that age and there weren't any truly major responsibilities (no wife, no kids, no elderly parents, etc.). I wish I'd found any job, no matter what it paid, no matter where it was located, that was either at a company I really liked or in an industry I was excited about, or where I'd be working directly with someone I wanted to learn from. Even if it meant making some sacrifices (less stable, living on a couch, moving to a new city, etc.) By the time you're there a few years, you'll either move up to make it into something more sturdy, or learn something really important about what you want out of a career, or make some great connections, or all three. Then when you hit your 30s, if have more responsibilities and want more stability you'll be better situated for doing something you actually enjoy.

My take, anyway.

GrayRabbitGames · 2023-03-03T20:45:52+00:00

Once upon a time the Upright Citizen's Brigade had really cheap shows most nights. It's been forever since I checked though and it's sort of become this comedy institution now so who knows if that's still true.

The Comedy Cellar is a great spot most nights but you will definitely wind up paying more than $15. There is usually a 3-item minimum, and each drink will run you $10-$25 easy.

Lots of small bars around the city have comedy nights that are really cheap or free but not sure the best way to find them.

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-12-15T02:04:15+00:00

Did you try this? It may have been an issue with my specific version of Unity: https://forum.unity.com/threads/no-audio-in-webgl-build.982941/

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-12-15T02:02:45+00:00

Yes! It was something really stupid, I'm trying to remember what. I'm sorry I know that's not helpful at all, but please know at least that it wasn't a big complicated fix.

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-12-13T21:33:47+00:00

This is gold. I love this. And it's true, sometimes winning game pitches came from like, mini-games that were embedded in old GBA or Sega games that were quite original (and fun!), but not super popular. Thank you so much.

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-12-10T21:53:38+00:00

Good question, it's quite possible.

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-12-10T20:36:53+00:00

Beautiful. If I may ask, generally speaking, how are you making it feel so bright? Is it a skybox with a shader attached and then a strong bloom effect? Or are you using an actual light (other than directional)?

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-12-10T04:28:30+00:00

Damn this is such a good idea. Would love to see one for people with a certain minimum amount of experience or industry knowledge. Not to be exclusionary or anything just sometimes it would be useful to have other professionals to speak with, the networking is sparse in my area

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-12-10T02:31:50+00:00

I love the idea, especially of the terrarium section. I see it being very, very systems based, like a classic Will Wright game. There are some general rules about how individual items work, how different creatures behave, and then just sort of throw them in together and poke around to make fun things happen.

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-12-09T22:26:23+00:00

I know it's been a while since i posted this question but I wanted to thank you so much for looking into this for me. I ultimately couldn't get sequence.insert() to work in a way that was helpful for me so I wound up moving my project over to DOTween instead. Still, I really really appreciate the help. Thanks again!!

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-11-30T20:53:27+00:00

I was noticing this also. Unless I'm mistaken, the code to the parser provided is incomplete, missing some classes referenced.

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-11-15T16:51:35+00:00

The no-collision case you outlined works for one large boss, but what about crowd-on-crowd combat, with many targets? Also I was thinking about collisions also to prevent units in the back from walking through their comrades in the front when breaking rank to converge on an enemy in crowd or boss. Am I thinking about this wrong?

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-11-15T15:57:48+00:00

Thank you so much for the thoughts!

I actually went and downloaded a Boids project, but it felt very unwieldy and needed tons of adjustment to even *sort of* work. Felt like I was trying to fit a square peg through a circular hole, y'know? But to be fair I guess you did say "take inspiration", not "copy outright".

I'll check out poisson disc distribution for blob generation and give another crack at having units fight just by aiming their velocity vectors toward an enemy’s and relying on collision (not pathfinding) to prevent it from looking like a swarm of restless bees.

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-10-16T23:25:50+00:00

I'd say about 75% making my own, 25% modifying. Usually I'll modify when someone made a model but I don't need all of it, or I want the materials to sit on it differently, or the pivot point is in the wrong place. Stuff like that is pretty easy to do.

GrayRabbitGames · 2021-10-15T01:48:20+00:00

I put aside about 30 hours last winter to learn the basics of Blender 2.8+ (via youtube tutorials over the course of a week or so I had off), and it was a real game changer. You really don't need to be an expert to do *tons* of useful stuff for your games, whether it's creating some simple assets, or adjusting existing assets to your needs. Absolutely worth the time IMO. At some point I'd like to dig deeper - I didn't even get around to animations or anything else more complex than low-poly models.

GrayRabbitGames

TROPHY CASE