My responses come from an engineering standpoint. The answers would likely be very different for a designer an artist, or a tester.
How is working for a big video game company (EA, Valve) different than working for a small indie game company (or running one by yourself)?
Bigger companies have more processes and management involved and your role tends to be smaller and more focused. This can be good or bad, depending on your personal preferences. You generally have a better salary and a more stable job at a bigger company as an engineer but you have less creative liberty than you would in a small studio.
Overall is the video game industry a good industry to be a part of?
Overall? It's... not for everybody.
I wouldn't trade it for anything, but the industry can be pure hell for many.
I am very interested in having a career in video game development. What would I have to do and know to become a video game developer? Where do I start?
The absolute most important thing you can do is to just make games. Download a free tool like Unity or GameMaker or even the level editor for a favorite game and just start making stuff.
How is your experience in the game development field? Do you recommend people who want to become game developers to follow their dreams?
Game development is nothing like your dreams.
It's a job. Making games is nothing like playing them. At all.
Pros and Cons of being a Video Game developer? How does it pay?
The pros and cons will vary by person. For me, I enjoy working on a creative project that has more cultural relevance than business software. Cons are that it's a hard job with long hours and typically mediocre pay with a high chance of getting laid off frequently and without notice.
Engineers in game development generally get paid less than they would in other industries. And artists get screwed on pay no matter where they work.
Is it fun?
It can be. It's generally not much different than any other software development. Those few cases where it _is_ different can mean the world, though.
A lot of engineers have a strong preference to working on something they can see and interact with.
There's fun times. There are times when your life is a waking nightmare of impossible deadlines, endless bugs, and shifting goal posts.
You get in this industry and stay in it because it's a passion, not because it's fun.
What are the different positions in the development process (ex. Artist, level designer, coder) Is it hard doing all of these jobs if you are an independent developer?
There are tons and tons. Major roles would be things like engineer, designer, artist, tester, producer, businessd, analyst, marketing.
Those can all then be broken down even further. Artists can be concept artists, modelers, animators, texture painters, lighting artists, and further specializations between environment artists, prop artists, and character artists. Engineers can specialize in systems, tools, game play, graphics, physics, networking, build systems, server backends, tests, Web integration, and more. Designers can be systems designers, writers, level designers, balance designers, etc.
Then there's all the usual business stuff. Game companies still have HR, accounting, IT, office management, building operations, various directors, marketing, publishing, market analysts, outsourcing mangers, and so on.
Describe your feelings when you released or finished your first game.
Relief. The last few months (or the last many months if you're unlucky) before shipping a game are typically anything but fun. 16+ hour days, stress through the roof, and scrambling to get everything in order. This is true whether you're a big AAA developer or a small indie studio.
Any schools or online courses you think would fit an aspiring developer?
For engineering, any good school will work. You're not going to go wrong with a degree from the University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Washington, Georgia Tech, or other schools of that caliber. Engineering is the easy track as you have a huge number of fantastic schools to pick from around the world.
Regarding "game schools:" there are good schools and there are bad schools and game schools can - like any other - fall on either end of that spectrum. Some schools are fantastic for one program and terrible for another. The industry is full of graduates at all levels from SMU, Full Sail, DigiPen, and so on. Full disclosure: I am a DigiPen alum.
A traditional computer science school is the safe bet for game engineering. I'm unsure what the best options are for art school. Game designers are rather limited in their choices.
I would hold off on online courses until you have a firm education underway. They can be a great supplement but not a replacement for real schooling.
