subscribe to the RSS Feed

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Going Pro: Differences Between Indie/Student Development and Professional Game Development

Almost everyone who is in the game development industry came from the student game development or indie world.  Creating virtual worlds in their spare time, they dream of what it would be like to finally do for a living what they do in free time.  And after months or years of networking, resume submissions, and job interviews, they finally land themselves a job with a game company and are welcomed to the world of electronic entertainment.
While working in the games industry certainly is a dream come true, many talented students and hobbyists become professional game developers only to be surprised that the job wasn’t exactly what they thought it was.  They are used so working solo or at most with teams of two or three; now their teams consist of an entire office building floor.  They are used to understanding every single line of the code in a game; now they specialize in a certain area or module, while no single person knows the entire code base in complete detail.  They are used to doing what they think is fun or right for the game; now they are learning to work as a team and sell other team members on their ideas, or back off as superiors drive the vision.
The differences I’ve listed so far are small, but they are examples of the kind of culture shock that new entrants to the games industry can experience.  Beyond these, there are four more major differences between working on your own project at home and working on someone else’s project at a company.  And if working in the games industry is your ambition, then you should be ready and prepared for the changes that will one day come.
You can’t “quit” the project.
While working on independent projects with other students, you can quit with no major disaster.  You get busy with other things, your exam schedule doesn’t allow you any programming time, or you lose interest in the idea (or the group).  The project is essentially a hobby, meaning that your primary motivation for doing it is your own enjoyment, and so if things start to not work out in your favor for one reason or another, you can stop working on it and move on with other parts of your life.  Other indie developers have a bad habit of not completing games.  Before one indie title is even half way finished, they are already so excited about the next idea in their head that they scrap it.
Some independent game development organizations have fantastic group cohesion to prevent this, but more often than not, an independent project is abandoned without much fanfare.  But when game development is your full time occupation, your nine-to-five, then quitting is not an option (unless you actually want to quit your job and lose your livelihood).  This is true all the way through the project: it is true in the beginning when the design of the game is new and exciting, and it is equally as true eighty percent of the way through the project when you are bored to tears of implementation.  When things get slow, you can’t quit.  When your teammates are being unprofessional or downright unbearable, you can’t quit.  When the tools or the tech isn’t working, you can’t quit.  When management steps in and obliterates your vision for the game’s last chance at artistic integrity, you can’t quit.
I’ve described a lot of unhappy scenarios here that might cause you to want to quit, but realize that not quitting is also encouraging.  Knowing that your team is going to get it done on time, no matter what, can help you through those dark times, help you grow as a person, and give you a sense of determination that will help you on future projects as well as other areas of your life.  And during those late night long hauls, when everyone has banded together under the mission of creating a fantastic game, those are the times when heroes are made, another experience that rarely appears in indie game development.
Most everyone is probably as talented (if not more) than you.
At your local game development club, you may be the top dog.  Everyone wants to have you on their project because you get the job done.  You are a coding genius, a master designer, or a killer artist.  Or perhaps you go solo, doing almost everything yourself, and are used to people being wowed that you could create something as complex as a video game all by yourself.
When you go to work for a game company, especially if it’s a good one, then you will have the experience of feeling very average.  That’s not to say that you aren’t incredibly talented, because you are.  It’s just that everyone else you will be working with is similarly talented.  You were the president of your respective game development group?  So was everyone else.  You finished your first game in middle school and by graduated had worked on over 20 different titles?  So has everyone else.
This doesn’t mean that you should hang up your shoes and retreat back to the indie world.  Instead, take a bite of humble pie and put on your learning cap, because you are in one of the best laboratories on earth for mastering what you love to do.  So when you first start at a game company, be sure to stay confident in yourself, but realize that the people around you are your co-workers and partners in this experience.
Game development is your primary time commitment.
Lots of indie developers are familiar with the hobby approach to game development.  You have your normal job or class in the day, and at nights and on weekends then you work on your own little game project.  It is a labor of love that takes up your free time.  While you may be making great progress on your game over the weeks and months, your primary activity in life is separate from making a game.  This gives your life a certain cadence which is very different from being a professional developer.
It seems obvious, but some people are surprised to find that when they start working at a game company, then game development is no longer a hobby.  It is their primary focus.  This will be a time when you realize how much you really love game development.  If this is really what you want to be doing, deep down inside, then this is great.  You’ll come in to work thrilled to be working on a real video game and the time will fly as you soak up as much knowledge and experience as possible.  However, if it goes above your “equilibrium” for game development (meaning that you really only enjoy it enough to spend 2 hours, not 8 hours a day working on it) then you may find yourself disappointed.
Along with this is the fact that you’ll need to redistribute your passionate energy, per se.  Since you’re working on your game project during the day, what are you doing to do at night?  You could work on the game more (overtime), but most people will likely find that exhausting.  Some developers continue to work on their own side projects in their own time, but this isn’t recommended, because it’s keeping your real energy and passion for yourself and your own project, and giving your teammates at work the leftovers.  It’s better to learn to direct your passion into your job so that you can learn and grow at the highest level, not at a small indie project.
Overall, this change will be an opportunity to learn more about yourself and what you like to do, at your job as well in your spare time.
You are making a game in order to make money.
One final main difference between non-professional games and professional games is the core purpose.  Ask yourself, what is the purpose of making a video game?  If you are working on a project with friends or by yourself, then chances are that your motivation is:
To make a cool game idea that you think would be fun
To learn about game development for career growth
There’s nothing wrong with this, in fact these two reasons are great motivators to give you the skills you need to get into a professional gaming gig one day.  However, when you are doing professional development, then your motivation is:
Make a game that will sell and make the company money
This is the purpose, and it is the only purpose.  If you make a 96 Metacritic game that wins all the Game of the Year Awards, yet it only sells 200,000 copies when the forecast was for 5 million, then you have failed.  No if’s, and’s, or but’s.  The game was a failure.  An inspiring work of art?  Sure.  But for the purpose it was created?  A failure. Your team, your department, maybe your entire company, is now in jeopardy.  You may go out of business, and all of that talk about game mechanics and aesthetics goes right down the drain along with your paycheck.  Go check the job listings and tell your family no more dining out for a while.
This change in purpose will influence decisions made during development that few indie developers are familiar with.  Let’s say that one particular feature of the game, such as the platforming action, doesn’t really feel right.  If your motivation is to make a cool game, then you might sink a couple more weeks into making it work.  If your motivation is to make money for your company, then you might cut the feature, realizing that players will still love (and purchase) the game even without it.  Of course different companies have different strategies to approach this, but even the Valves and Blizzards and Nintendos of the world need to keep the sales coming.  That is priority number one.  Critical acclaim is a distant second.
Let me make a statement to the indie cynics out there: the purpose of making a game in order to make money doesn’t mean that you have sold your soul.  There is still plenty of room to create games that inspire, games that push the envelope, and games that innovate.  Legendary game developers and studios are those who can create something beautiful while still being financially successful.  Just realize that if you want to make a business, not an art project, not a hobby, but a successful business, then your game has to make money; there is just no way around it.
Learning to adjust
Getting used to the professional video game environment takes time.  Be prepared for confusion at your team’s decisions and a bit of bewilderment at processes as you learn the ropes.  Be prepared to work hard and change your priorities as you begin to see the larger picture.  And most of all, be prepared for the ride of your life, because there is nothing better than living the dream with those who have done it for years.

Things are different in the big leagues. (Photo: a4gpa)

Almost everyone who is in the game development industry came from the student game development or indie world.  Creating virtual worlds in their spare time, they dream of what it would be like to finally do for a living what they do in free time.  And after months or years of networking, resume submissions, and job interviews, they finally land themselves a job with a game company and are welcomed to the world of electronic entertainment.

While working in the games industry certainly is a dream come true, many talented students and hobbyists become professional game developers only to be surprised that the job wasn’t exactly what they thought it was.  They are used so working solo or at most with teams of two or three; now their teams consist of an entire office building floor.  They are used to understanding every single line of the code in a game; now they specialize in a certain area or module, while no single person knows the entire code base in complete detail.  They are used to doing what they think is fun or right for the game; now they are learning to work as a team and sell other team members on their ideas, or back off as superiors drive the vision.

The differences I’ve listed so far are small, but they are examples of the kind of culture shock that new entrants to the games industry can experience.  Beyond these, there are four more major differences between working on your own project at home and working on someone else’s project at a company.  And if working in the games industry is your ambition, then you should be ready and prepared for the changes that will one day come.

You can’t “quit” the project.

While working on independent projects with other students, you can quit with no major disaster.  You get busy with other things, your exam schedule doesn’t allow you any programming time, or you lose interest in the idea (or the group).  The project is essentially a hobby, meaning that your primary motivation for doing it is your own enjoyment, and so if things start to not work out in your favor for one reason or another, you can stop working on it and move on with other parts of your life.  Other indie developers have a bad habit of not completing games.  Before one indie title is even half way finished, they are already so excited about the next idea in their head that they scrap it.

Some independent game development organizations have fantastic group cohesion to prevent this, but more often than not, an independent project is abandoned without much fanfare.  But when game development is your full time occupation, your nine-to-five, then quitting is not an option (unless you actually want to quit your job and lose your livelihood).  This is true all the way through the project: it is true in the beginning when the design of the game is new and exciting, and it is equally as true eighty percent of the way through the project when you are bored to tears of implementation.  When things get slow, you can’t quit.  When your teammates are being unprofessional or downright unbearable, you can’t quit.  When the tools or the tech isn’t working, you can’t quit.  When management steps in and obliterates your vision for the game’s last chance at artistic integrity, you can’t quit.

I’ve described a lot of unhappy scenarios here that might cause you to want to quit, but realize that not quitting is also encouraging.  Knowing that your team is going to get it done on time, no matter what, can help you through those dark times, help you grow as a person, and give you a sense of determination that will help you on future projects as well as other areas of your life.  And during those late night long hauls, when everyone has banded together under the mission of creating a fantastic game, those are the times when heroes are made, another experience that rarely appears in indie game development.

Most everyone is probably as talented (if not more) than you.

At your local game development club, you may be the top dog.  Everyone wants to have you on their project because you get the job done.  You are a coding genius, a master designer, or a killer artist.  Or perhaps you go solo, doing almost everything yourself, and are used to people being wowed that you could create something as complex as a video game all by yourself.

When you go to work for a game company, especially if it’s a good one, then you will have the experience of feeling very average.  That’s not to say that you aren’t incredibly talented, because you are.  It’s just that everyone else you will be working with is similarly talented.  You were the president of your respective game development group?  So was everyone else.  You finished your first game in middle school and by graduated had worked on over 20 different titles?  So has everyone else.

This doesn’t mean that you should hang up your shoes and retreat back to the indie world.  Instead, take a bite of humble pie and put on your learning cap, because you are in one of the best laboratories on earth for mastering what you love to do.  So when you first start at a game company, be sure to stay confident in yourself, but realize that the people around you are your co-workers and partners in this experience.

Game development is your primary time commitment.

Lots of indie developers are familiar with the hobby approach to game development.  You have your normal job or class in the day, and at nights and on weekends then you work on your own little game project.  It is a labor of love that takes up your free time.  While you may be making great progress on your game over the weeks and months, your primary activity in life is separate from making a game.  This gives your life a certain cadence which is very different from being a professional developer.

It seems obvious, but some people are surprised to find that when they start working at a game company, then game development is no longer a hobby.  It is their primary focus.  This will be a time when you realize how much you really love game development.  If this is really what you want to be doing, deep down inside, then this is great.  You’ll come in to work thrilled to be working on a real video game and the time will fly as you soak up as much knowledge and experience as possible.  However, if it goes above your “equilibrium” for game development (meaning that you really only enjoy it enough to spend 2 hours, not 8 hours a day working on it) then you may find yourself disappointed.

Along with this is the fact that you’ll need to redistribute your passionate energy, per se.  Since you’re working on your game project during the day, what are you doing to do at night?  You could work on the game more (overtime), but most people will likely find that exhausting.  Some developers continue to work on their own side projects in their own time, but this isn’t recommended, because it’s keeping your real energy and passion for yourself and your own project, and giving your teammates at work the leftovers.  It’s better to learn to direct your passion into your job so that you can learn and grow at the highest level, not at a small indie project.

Overall, this change will be an opportunity to learn more about yourself and what you like to do, at your job as well in your spare time.

You are making a game in order to make money.

One final main difference between non-professional games and professional games is the core purpose.  Ask yourself, what is the purpose of making a video game?  If you are working on a project with friends or by yourself, then chances are that your motivation is:

  1. To make a cool game idea that you think would be fun
  2. To learn about game development for career growth

There’s nothing wrong with this, in fact these two reasons are great motivators to give you the skills you need to get into a professional gaming gig one day.  However, when you are doing professional development, then your motivation is:

  1. Make a game that will sell and make the company money

This is the purpose, and it is the only purpose.  If you make a 96 Metacritic game that wins all the Game of the Year Awards, yet it only sells 200,000 copies when the forecast was for 5 million, then you have failed.  No if’s, and’s, or but’s.  The game was a failure.  An inspiring work of art?  Sure.  But for the purpose it was created?  A failure. Your team, your department, maybe your entire company, is now in jeopardy.  You may go out of business, and all of that talk about game mechanics and aesthetics goes right down the drain along with your paycheck.  Go check the job listings and tell your family no more dining out for a while.

This change in purpose will influence decisions made during development that few indie developers are familiar with.  Let’s say that one particular feature of the game, such as the platforming action, doesn’t really feel right.  If your motivation is to make a cool game, then you might sink a couple more weeks into making it work.  If your motivation is to make money for your company, then you might cut the feature, realizing that players will still love (and purchase) the game even without it.  Of course different companies have different strategies to approach this, but even the Valves and Blizzards and Nintendos of the world need to keep the sales coming.  That is priority number one.  Critical acclaim is a distant second.

Let me make a statement to the indie cynics out there: the purpose of making a game in order to make money doesn’t mean that you have sold your soul.  There is still plenty of room to create games that inspire, games that push the envelope, and games that innovate.  Legendary game developers and studios are those who can create something beautiful while still being financially successful.  Just realize that if you want to make a business, not an art project, not a hobby, but a successful business, then your game has to make money; there is just no way around it.

Learning to Adjust

Getting used to the professional video game environment takes time.  Be prepared for confusion at your team’s decisions and a bit of bewilderment at processes as you learn the ropes.  Be prepared to work hard and change your priorities as you begin to see the larger picture.  And most of all, be prepared for the ride of your life, because there is nothing better than living the dream with those who have done it for years.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print this article!
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Filed Under: Development Processes, Game Industry

Leave a comment, and if you'd like your own picture to show up next to your comments, go get a gravatar!

home | top