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Discussion on: I was a (social) Game Developer for 5 years, Ask Me Anything!

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gmartigny profile image
Guillaume Martigny

What made you want to stop? If tired of your current studio, why don't you want to find a new one?

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bgadrian profile image
Adrian B.G.

Hello!

These are some hard questions, and I want to remind that the reasons are a mix of :

  • my own vision of the life
  • my own history and experience
  • the current events on my family timeline
  • basically very subjective personal opinion
  • I was a DEVELOPER, other departments have very different experiences

The gaming industry is very tough, the effects are that you work a lot (more than a SASS corporate) and earn less. It is comparable with the marketing digital agencies, except I didn't do extra time.

After my 2nd mini avatar was created (we have 2 kids now), my priorities changed. I needed a more stable environment and I had a lot more bills to pay.

The gaming industry in Bucharest is pretty small, I know the other studios and I consider I already was in the coolest one. If I wanted something better I would have to move abroad or work remote (which takes all the fun of working in a gaming studio). Also the social game industry peak was a few years ago, the glory days are pretty over.

I will continue to make games as a hobby, but for now, seeing how commercial games are done pretty much destroyed the fun out of gaming for me. I can look at a game and analyze each element (UI or logical) on why it exists, and most likely because they want to make more money.

Others said to start my own studio, but I know how hard it is and how much money the marketing cost, so there is no way in hell to go on that road.

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bgadrian profile image
Adrian B.G.

Ah and I forgot to add, the change and decision was done in a long period, basically I had a 2 year parental leave, during which I choose a different career path (I learned a ton of stuff, met new people, I will write more on this next month on my blog).

When the leave ended I didn't want to return to my old position. From my view, I pretty much solved all the tech challenges there and I wanted new ones.