[spitfire]

Sounds like you have an excellent understanding of the industry! I was in that culture in my early 20's. The games industry relies on a continuous flow of starry eyed fresh meet coming out of school to feed the gaping maw. Management is almost always the "older" guy in his mid-25's who's completely incompetent and out of his league.[1]

I have two pieces of advice for you. A) If you like games, do simple fun indie games (world of goo, bejeweled, uplink, etc). These will make you happier and richer than working in the salt mines.

B) Find some semi-programming business to go into. My first love was airplanes. I absolutely adore them. So I combined that with my love of technology. I get a good mix of different disciplines which keeps me sane.

Good luck in your future endeavours, it sounds like you'll do well.

1. And remember, if you aren't working 12 hours a day you're not hardcore/part of the team/committed!

[Sirocco]

Going indie can work, but there's a ton of competition, and you have to work your arse off to make yourself a known commodity. Branding is important, and with so many platforms open to small developers, it's tough to know which ones to target. Aim too big, and you get swamped with other titles (iPhone). Aim too small, and no one will have a gadget that runs your title (PSP Go).

Getting coverage via engagements such as IGF and Indiecade helps a lot, but it's no guarantee of success. It's not impossible by any means, but I want to stress how much work it is, and what sort of timetable you'll be looking at to actually turn a profit from your first few titles. Expect your first games to break even at best, unless you have a truly imaginative idea and happen to hit the right platform at the right time.

[animosity]

i'm not sure why it sounds like i'll do well to you. it's looking pretty bleak from where i'm looking.

> If you like games, do simple fun indie games (world of goo, bejeweled, uplink, etc). These will make you happier and richer than working in the salt mines.

i agree. deep down i don't think the employee/employer relation will work for me.

> B) Find some semi-programming business to go into. My first love was airplanes. I absolutely adore them. So I combined that with my love of technology. I get a good mix of different disciplines which keeps me sane.

so you write software that keeps planes in the air?

[spitfire]

Yes. Actually I'm designing the entire airplane.

One point to keep in mind about indie games is they're usually not about the technology. Whereas AAA titles have to have the latest whiz-bang, indie titles just have to be fun. They can even have 8bit graphics (look at introversion games!). You can have a much longer shelf life with a game that sells on gameplay than with one that sells on graphics.

So if it appeals to you it is possible to feed yourself with simple, fun long shelf-life indie games. You might also start looking at places like thailand to spend some time.

A cabin in ao nang is $100/month with cleaning lady. You can tan during the day, work in the afternoon/early evening and party at night while spending about $10-20/day[1]. At least until you get traction.

Anyways good luck. I've seen that industry and understand how soul sucking it is.

EDIT: Edit: I think you'll do well because I've seen others come to the same realization - the AAA games industry is soul sucking. The young kids come in and get ground up to feed the machine. Some grow balls and decide to work on their own terms. You're at this stage now. You'll be much happier once you get out of the AAA industry and start setting the terms.

[1] This is rockstar type living of course. You can easily live off $5/day (cabin excluded) if you don't want to party that much, don't need a daily massage and don't eat in the formal restaurants each night. Myself I was happiest when I had a great sunset and some food off the back of a truck.