Get rid of the fascinating aura of the gaming industry and you need to know the entry code

As a member of the gaming industry, we can sometimes see innocent teenagers around us and learn how to get into this interactive entertainment area and find out how to get a job. There are many, many men, but the number of girls is growing. They were childish, and all behaved to us, pretending to listen carefully to our long working hours and the uncertainty of pay, and from their inexperienced eyes, they seemed to think that making games was extremely exciting every day.

Those who hold this idea will end up with tragedy-they are really in the line.

Work overtime and other relative tragedies

First, let's get rid of those assumptions about the fascinating aura of the gaming industry--making games and playing games, for example, are basically different expressions of the same concept. Believe me, there is not much relationship between the two.

Think of it as a typical success game that now typically offers 40 hours of fun to players. 40 hours, this is the equivalent of a week. It takes an average of 2 years to develop the game.

Unless you're a tester, or you're just playing chess or Civilization 3, you'll be 100 times times more likely to play your game than your users.

Imagine, every day to play the same game, play for two consecutive years, this is what the taste. Yes, it's no fun at all. After one months of repetition, you will be bored with your life. After two months, you don't even want to mention the game. By the time you're ready to release the game, you've even wanted to kill everyone else on the team. So you never release the game.

Developing games also has its own rewards, but it's a tough job and it's not just about playing games. Wake Up!

The causal relationship of wishful thinking

Now that we have made it clear that developing a game is a real job, then another interesting question arises: is the final product of the game so playful that the development process is just as wonderful? Although it is possible to have fun in the studio, this is only a small part of it.

Is it that we are creating entertainment products so that our work will be easier and more fun than other industries? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Any film crew members know this, and we are no exception.

The game industry is the case, a common industry, there is no particular profitable place. Unfortunately, in order to make ends meet, a game usually has to sell a lot of money for a very low profit--most PC games sell between 15,000 and 40,000, and in fact there will be no less than 150,000 games sold to make a profit. There are many reasons for this, including:

* Gaming is usually less revenue than other areas of the software industry.

* The working week in the gaming field is quite long.

* Job security is very limited.

I will discuss these issues in detail later in the article. Also keep in mind that most of us experience constant pressure from distributors or bosses, who are often worried that they cannot be in the industry, or that the profits they create for their parent companies are not up to par (or beyond last year's level) to be the target of the next round of layoffs.

So if you want to get into this business, don't expect to have a party 24 hours a day, because you don't know the industry and you can't live here forever.

Game Heartless Workaholic

When you pick up a fortune, Forbes, or other business newspaper or magazine in front of a newsstand, you first notice that every article on the software industry uses the words "fast-paced environment" and "competitive professionalism". These words mean that the people who work here are more diligent than the Roman slaves. The authors of these articles seem to think that this kind of working state is the coolest thing in the world.

But in fact, in addition to the example of the overtime boss often asked his subordinates to follow him, the media reported that the main reasons for this line of work are as follows:

* Most business people believe (rightly or not) that the average person can work 60 hours more efficiently than 40 hours, and that if he can't keep up with it, he'll be replaced by someone else.

* Since the 20 hours of work are not paid, there is no human cost to create additional products.

* This free job just makes the rich richer.

* The media is controlled by the rich, who want their employees, whether they belong to their own holding media or not, to realise: "It seems that all computer workers devote their spare time to their work, rather than enjoying their family or being potted, why don't I look up to them?"

Potential risks

Worse, because the channels leading to the market are very narrow, the low royalties that development companies receive from game sales and the cost of production are rising, and few games can really make a profit. The life cycle of a general game studio is as follows:

* When you are working in a start-up, there is always a shortage of money, so the salary is low and the work time is long, otherwise you will never be able to release the product. After the real release of the game, and basically can not achieve the balance of payments, the studio is not forced to fail or be acquired (ideally, of course, is to make enough money, so that the studio can remain independent until the rise.) This may indeed happen, but it is an exception. If you belong to a type that doesn't like to change jobs and is a safe person, suggest you find another way out. )

* Now, the best thing is that studios are being bought by Big game distributors. But big publishers have huge costs and games, and not every one is flat, so even if your product makes a lot of money, there won't be much money flowing into the production staff's pockets.

* The bad news is that studios are not being bought by game publishers, but are being replaced by traditional media companies that are fashionable to enter the gaming industry. Unfortunately, traditional media companies have always had the idea that people under the age of 40 have to live on wages, so everyone's situation is actually worse, and no matter how much money the game earns, everyone's wages are fixed.

Compared with the gaming field, the outstanding programmers with a college diploma earn 20%-50% more than other peers in the software industry. In my own experience, I earn more than I do as a game studio manager when I work as an AI researcher.

Most importantly, when you are in a business that is surrounded by many young people, such as gaming, you will always have the pressure to pay and work. This is the law of capitalism.

The game industry is not special

It has to be said that entering the gaming industry does not mean that you are different from other companies.

I have worked in a variety of companies, including games and non-games, as small as one-person studios, large to billions of U.S. dollars worth of multinational companies, there are listed and unlisted companies. I can tell you that no matter where you are, you will inevitably encounter a control freak, workaholic or hateful boss/boss, and this is not because we are making fun products or PS 3D platform games.

In fact, I think this industry is like a magnet, because it has the potential to make people fast, and there is no real entry threshold. If you want to set up your own company like a doctor or an engineer, you have to get a certain qualification, but anyone can claim to be very talented in interactive software. I have seen large media companies buy successful gaming studios and have some 42-year-old bowling alley executives run, just because the CEO thinks that handing over the company to older people at the next general meeting is more "insurance" than a 27-year-old artist. The results are predictable.

Even if the bosses of such companies are open-minded, there is no guarantee that their colleagues will do the same. Even if everyone is good, when the money is depleted, still will rats.

Gaming companies are companies, and their fortunes are no different from those of other companies.

Also note: Corporate culture rarely changes, and if a company looks bad today, don't expect it to change itself one day. I mean, I used to be in charge of a game studio, so theoretically I'm more likely than others to influence the entire team's working environment. But the result is still useless. Unless you are on your own and shape your corporate culture according to your own ideas, you will not be able to make much difference if you stay in a position for 300 years. If a company is right for you, it's good, and if it doesn't, it's going to come out quickly.