Big fish in a small pond or being a small fish in a big pond

[Rasmus]

So I have often considered me as rather experienced when it comes to game programming, I often corrected my teachers and there aren't many that I have met that knew more than me in that area.

But yesterday I got an awakening! A REAL awakening!

I met a guy that have worked as a team leader at Massive Entertainment for eight years, and now he is running (or he helped starting, don't remember) The Game Assembly in Sweden. With that said, I started talking to him and showing up my work, and I have never got such a MASSIVE feedback of critique, it was constructive critique, but I must say that I wasn't prepared for it! That guy knew so much that I never heard of, and to be honest, I am not used to that. He also said that I wasn't what big companies like Massive was looking for when hiring people, because I had to unfocused knowledge and that I need to focus and study just one thing like game lightning, particle management, modelling or the game-play. I agree with him that it is impossible for one guy to be all over the place and make an now-days impressive game, one has to focus on one little area and make it stand out in the game.
So my conversation with him was very healthy but at the same time depressing. Now the next day when I have had a little more time to letting it all melt, I really have two directions two go. If I follow his recommendations and keep studying for at least two more years, I may have a chance to get employed at a big game company as Massive but then I will have to put all the personal programming projects on the shelf (To be a happy grunt as a friend of mine use to say). Or alternative number two, keep working on my day job and finish developing Dungeon Dwellers and get a name in to the game industry that way.

I choose alternative number two any day, I love programming my own games and I don't want to be stuck on a big game company perfecting some minor detail on a game I never would have played myself. But there is a lot of big ponds out there, just need to broaden my circle of programming friends

So have anyone else had a similar experience?

[Seriously Unserious]

hahaha, I guess that goes to show, no matter how much you know, there's always someone out there who knows more.

I have seen what you're talking about happen before. One of my favorite game franchises, a freeware game called Chart Wars, was being developed by a student who then got hired by a big game company and his work on the Chars Wars franchise stopped altogether because of it. I remember the big company he got hired at was Sports Interactive, but yeah, that was disappointing when he disappeared and stopped development of his games. I think they made him sign a contract that every line of code he wrote, whether at work, or at home, belonged to SI so he legally couldn't work on his own games any more. He'd got as far as Chart Wars 3, and was working on the next installment when all this went down.

He also had a forum set up for not only his games but also shared it with some other indie game developers, Osiris Games, I remember it because it was the 1st forum I ever joined. I joined this one a couple of years later, and somewhere between Osiris and here I also got involved with another for a free game called Simutrans.

[oh_brother]

Seems a bit disheartening to have to focus on such a minute details, and not what people imagine about when they dream about working in the games industry. Sounds like you know what you want to do.

As for similar experiences, not exactly but like many people my plans became more realistic as I got older and got more rude awakenings. I realised relatively early that I was never going to be a professional footballer for instance, and similar lessons kept on coming as I got older!

[Seriously Unserious]

Personally, I think the big game companies pigeonholing of game development is killing creativity and will eventually be the downfall of the big developers. Especially with new web-driven methods of raising the kind of capital that only the big game developers used to be able to raise so now the indie game developer can actually compete with the big boys through resources like kickstarter and indigogo.

[Gambit37]

Rasmus, I can completely relate to that experience, although in a different industry: web design / development.

For years I have been a generalist and have done everything from site architecture design, conceptual design, visual design, front-end development (HTML,CSS,Javascript) and also some back end work (PHP, ASP, WordPress, etc.). Recently I decided to return to full-time employment and have bene interviewing for roles. However, it is very clear that the industry no longer looks for people with general skillsets; employers want specialists in one or two areas. My main skillset is design and front-end, but even that is still too general for many employers and I would have to choose one or the other.

This bothers me because it feels restrictive and uncreative to be pigeonholed into one area. However, I do recognise that web dev has got very complex these days, and it can be a full time job just to get really good at one part of the process. Like most large game development companies that have hundreds of specialists working on one game, modern website development requires many specialists working together. This is a good thing for the overall end result, but can be unsatsifying for someone like me who likes to be involved in all parts of the process.

These last two weeks I have been doing some contract front-end development work as part of an extended "test", which is effectively my second interview for a full time role as a front-end developer. It's been fine, but it's certainly opened my eyes to how restrictive a role like that would be. I just don't think I would be happy there long term, especially if I can't do any design work as that would quickly frustrate me.

There are many of us who have broad talents, skillsets and interests and enjoy the combination of creating something using all those skills. If you want to maintain that level of design control over your projects, you would have to question why you would want to work at a large company like Massive who only want you to specialise in one thing.

Of course, it is very good experience to work at a large company honing a few core skills; but you're not that kind of person from what I can tell. I get the impression you want to be able to be involved in all aspects of game development, so would a specialist role bore and frustrate you? Only you can know the answer, but do weigh up the pros and cons of each. You could learn a lot working in a large place like that, but make sure the benefits of doing so would outweigh the expense of no longer being in control of your own creative destiny...

[Seriously Unserious]

@Gambit: have you ever considered training for project management? if you prefer a more holistic approach to web design that my be one way you can do that and still get the experience of working in a big company. Even the big companies recognize that their PM's need to have a broad skill set in order to manage the work of all those specialists.

Other options to consider would be working in a smaller company, working as a freelancer, or starting up your own web development company.

[Rasmus]

@Gambit: I agree, it would be good for me to expand my horizon and get some more skills. And I can feel that the longer I wait the older I get, so maybe this is my 30 year old crisis
I know what I want, it is just that I can feel uncertain on what road I should take to get there.
Anyway, I felt somewhat depressed after my little discussion with Niklas (that was his name), but it only took a day or two to get into my former happy/ignorant self
So now, lets say that I would have worked in his team, I would have learned a lot, but I think I would have been so bored just polishing details.

This is a video of the game he and his team of eight people are creating, and they have been doing it for three years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7I2K08ChQM
I think it looks really nice, but I have the feeling that they have created something that looks very good at the outside but have no creative game play. Like taking the game Frogger and bring the graphics up to today's standard.
Enough ranting I would have been very happy if I would be able to create graphics like that

So what am I looking for? If I spend 2 more years studying and then get hired by a big game company that owns all my code, it would take at least 6 - 7 years before I can compete with any of the big game development companies today. It is not that I am looking for a quick fix, but I wouldn't look forward too 6 - 7 years of restrictive programming just for learning, and if that was my only choice, there is a big chance that I would change profession all together.

So I am set on continue developing Indie-Games and doing what I love, even if I have to work at a crappy job on the side until I somehow succeed

[Seriously Unserious]

you can also continue to study while developing indie games and develop your skills by using your indie games to push your skills to the limits, and use resources like indiegogo to raise the funds you need for any pricey tools or specialists you may need along they way. IMO these online fundraiser sites are the great equalizer that will once again level the playing field between the small company/indie developers and the big developers. You'll probably see some big dinosaur developers go down, and some small companies/indie developers grow into big companies over the next decade or so.

I think the recent debacle with EA's botched release of Sim City is a sign of major changes about to come in the gaming industry. As the big companies get more and more concerned with mindless fluff and sizzle with no steak, with endless trivial minutiae and less with substantially creative development, you'll see a shift in the gaming industry as gamers eventually get bored with what the big companies keep putting out, year after year, which to me seems to be just different variations around the same theme. Most games today seem to be either another variant of a similar theme, a remake of 20-30 year old game, or a sequel to a franchise that first started 20-30 years ago. The most creative new games, the ones that don't fit into those 3 categories mostly seem to be coming from indie game developers like you. I think your planet exploration game looks like it will have a ton of originality when you get on to that game. In the meanwhile, Dungeon Dwellers will definitely give you a great way of getting exposure and developing skills you will need for that project.