There are not that many studios to choose from in Florida. There are a couple EA and 3DO affilates in and around the West Palm Beah area.
But being in Florida the pay rate is automatically lower and there is very little incentive for the employee to provide benifits in this state.
On the flip side, my experience is against me. There is absolutely no way EA is going to match what I am being payed now unless I was going for some form of executive officer. I pay for my own benifits right now so by taking a (considerably large) pay cut I would hope the benifits provided would be somewhat comparable.
D.V.
Carpe Diem
switched from other software development?
The only other way I can think of is to produce a game (or at least a huge part of the fundamentals) and get it well known. Then you just have to hope that a large house makes you a (at least the one game) contract for the system to take it all the way commercial.
Catch is it would have to be pretty unique, easier for you to develop the core systems without a graphic artist etc, have a market to go to and be very lucky. In other words the software house would only have to invest a token cost on chrome, packaging, marketing and capture a good return on the investment. Such as if you had developed Civilisation say.
I know some of the houses do this but like I said, the requirements would be pretty demanding.
Good luck.
Regards
BaelWrath
If it is not nailed down it''s mine and if I can prise it loose,
it''s not nailed down!
Catch is it would have to be pretty unique, easier for you to develop the core systems without a graphic artist etc, have a market to go to and be very lucky. In other words the software house would only have to invest a token cost on chrome, packaging, marketing and capture a good return on the investment. Such as if you had developed Civilisation say.
I know some of the houses do this but like I said, the requirements would be pretty demanding.
Good luck.
Regards
BaelWrath
If it is not nailed down it''s mine and if I can prise it loose,
it''s not nailed down!
Let me toss in a couple of things here:
#1: I''ve started seeing "reasonable" salaries in the game biz here in Silicon Valley. A couple of years back you''d be lucky to make enough to share an apartment around here (lol) but the "underpaid by design" thing is pretty much over. That said, it pays nowhere near as good as embedded software engineering, my current day gig.
#2: I''ve been in and out of the biz and I''m currently 43. Age has little to do with it, if you have the right attitude and the mad skillz (lol) you''re in.
#3: Like another poster said, if you''ve never shipped a title then you''ll need hardcore proof, and a completed game will do it. It can be simple, but it has to be DONE - 90% of the people that want to develop games have never completed a project, by doing so you put yourself in the top percentage.
If worse comes to worse, you can always try doing indie game development and shipping a shareware title - THEN use that as a calling card to get in the door at a commercial place (providing you want to do it at that stage of the game, complete control over your final product is addictive!). I use my day gig pay to finance my own dev efforts, and since I have no family and not much of a social life (lol) there''s plenty of time to do so.
Study, work hard, code clean, and ship it!
#1: I''ve started seeing "reasonable" salaries in the game biz here in Silicon Valley. A couple of years back you''d be lucky to make enough to share an apartment around here (lol) but the "underpaid by design" thing is pretty much over. That said, it pays nowhere near as good as embedded software engineering, my current day gig.
#2: I''ve been in and out of the biz and I''m currently 43. Age has little to do with it, if you have the right attitude and the mad skillz (lol) you''re in.
#3: Like another poster said, if you''ve never shipped a title then you''ll need hardcore proof, and a completed game will do it. It can be simple, but it has to be DONE - 90% of the people that want to develop games have never completed a project, by doing so you put yourself in the top percentage.
If worse comes to worse, you can always try doing indie game development and shipping a shareware title - THEN use that as a calling card to get in the door at a commercial place (providing you want to do it at that stage of the game, complete control over your final product is addictive!). I use my day gig pay to finance my own dev efforts, and since I have no family and not much of a social life (lol) there''s plenty of time to do so.
Study, work hard, code clean, and ship it!
Well, I slaved away in the "industry" for a few years before getting into the game industry at what I consider to be a top company. I got a small pay raise (> 80k + bonus). I''m married. I''m 30 years old, and I feel like a kid.
I have to say, the industry is somewhat chaotic from my experience. Some people work long hours, but not everyone. Requirements are ALWAYS changing.
The benefit is this: I work with people who
1. love games/gaming
2. love technology/learning/tinkering with Linux
3. are young and typically well-educated
4. like to eat pizza, tacos, and pizza
5. have as many "toys" as I do (Legos + StarWars)
Additionally, I routinely fire up video games at my desk and no one cares. The last 4 movies that I''ve seen in a theatre, the company has paid for me to see during work hours. And knowing that you contributed to a huge game that your friends play online is rewarding too (and $$ bonuses
Unfortunately, the down-turn in the economy means a LOT of engineers are looking for work. A year or two ago game companies were snatching people up left and right. Now the best bet to get in is to have some kind of experience that companies need. I would say that it is worth it to pursue a career in the game industry. If you get an offer, you can always say no if it''s too low.
I have to say, the industry is somewhat chaotic from my experience. Some people work long hours, but not everyone. Requirements are ALWAYS changing.
The benefit is this: I work with people who
1. love games/gaming
2. love technology/learning/tinkering with Linux
3. are young and typically well-educated
4. like to eat pizza, tacos, and pizza
5. have as many "toys" as I do (Legos + StarWars)
Additionally, I routinely fire up video games at my desk and no one cares. The last 4 movies that I''ve seen in a theatre, the company has paid for me to see during work hours. And knowing that you contributed to a huge game that your friends play online is rewarding too (and $$ bonuses
Unfortunately, the down-turn in the economy means a LOT of engineers are looking for work. A year or two ago game companies were snatching people up left and right. Now the best bet to get in is to have some kind of experience that companies need. I would say that it is worth it to pursue a career in the game industry. If you get an offer, you can always say no if it''s too low.
I wanted to add something to this conversation. During the creation of our business plan, we needed to plug some numbers in for salaries. Being a reader of Game Developer from day one I plopped last years salary survey down on the desk and we filled in the blanks with that data. We have updated that using the 2nd annual salary report – unfortunately this data is only for the USA. We are in the Mid-West/South area and if you look at the average salary in Texas ($54,222)–vs- the salary of one here 56,439 (I averaged the sum of 59,685 for the Midwest and 53,193 for the south and arrived at 56,439) one would expect to be better compensated in this area as opposed to Texas. I’m not sure if the cost of living is higher here than it is in Texas but I would think that the problem with the survey would be the number of studios in our area –vs- the number in Texas. That is something that needs to be factored when deciding where to take a job.
If you live in Miami, Florida and are making $70,000/yr and own your own house and you move to Louisville, KY and buy your own house, you would need to make $61,967/yr to equal your standard of living. By comparison, if you live in San Jose, CA, own your own home and make $70,000/yr moving to Louisville, KY, you would need $31,913/yr to equal your standard of living.
Same status moving from Austin, TX, owning your home and moving to Louisville, KY you would need $61,713/yr to equal your standard of living (the calculator that I used is located here: http://www.homefair.com/homefair/calc/salcalc.html). Conversely, someone in Louisville, KY moving to Austin, TX (owning home, 70K/yr) would need $79,399/yr to equal the same standard of living.
Location can affect the salary that you are going to be offered and you need to take that into consideration before you reject someone for offering you a measly 62K/yr with benes. I only say this because, we are preparing to staff up and I know that we are going to have to explain this difference in yearly salary to almost everyone we interview.
Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser
If you live in Miami, Florida and are making $70,000/yr and own your own house and you move to Louisville, KY and buy your own house, you would need to make $61,967/yr to equal your standard of living. By comparison, if you live in San Jose, CA, own your own home and make $70,000/yr moving to Louisville, KY, you would need $31,913/yr to equal your standard of living.
Same status moving from Austin, TX, owning your home and moving to Louisville, KY you would need $61,713/yr to equal your standard of living (the calculator that I used is located here: http://www.homefair.com/homefair/calc/salcalc.html). Conversely, someone in Louisville, KY moving to Austin, TX (owning home, 70K/yr) would need $79,399/yr to equal the same standard of living.
Location can affect the salary that you are going to be offered and you need to take that into consideration before you reject someone for offering you a measly 62K/yr with benes. I only say this because, we are preparing to staff up and I know that we are going to have to explain this difference in yearly salary to almost everyone we interview.
Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser
Hi all,
I was just wondering how many of you have tried working in the game industry as freelancers.
I know some of you have started your own businesses but I'm interested in testing the water first with some of the online merchants such as RealArcade or XTreme games.
Anyone try this type of approach to breaking into the industry?
[edit] actually, I think I'll post this question as a new thread
[edited by - carrot on July 18, 2002 12:32:16 PM]
I was just wondering how many of you have tried working in the game industry as freelancers.
I know some of you have started your own businesses but I'm interested in testing the water first with some of the online merchants such as RealArcade or XTreme games.
Anyone try this type of approach to breaking into the industry?
[edit] actually, I think I'll post this question as a new thread
[edited by - carrot on July 18, 2002 12:32:16 PM]
I''m a bit like like the original poster, only older. I''ve been in the EDA (chip-support software) industry for the last dozen years, where the pay is decent, but the projects aren''t much good for cocktail-party conversation:-)
I wanted to work on a ''real'' game like a flight-sim or RPG, but had no way (or talent) to create the artwork.
So... I ended up reverse-engineering an existing game. This gave me the chance to write a complete engine, map-editor, and script compiler, and to make lots of mistakes without hurting anyone. And by making it open-source, I''ve been fortunate to get huge contributions from other developers.
But still, I love to code and work on new things, and wish that I could get a job in the game industry...
I wanted to work on a ''real'' game like a flight-sim or RPG, but had no way (or talent) to create the artwork.
So... I ended up reverse-engineering an existing game. This gave me the chance to write a complete engine, map-editor, and script compiler, and to make lots of mistakes without hurting anyone. And by making it open-source, I''ve been fortunate to get huge contributions from other developers.
But still, I love to code and work on new things, and wish that I could get a job in the game industry...
This topic is closed to new replies.
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