Best choice: not going into game development. Bad payment for horrible working conditions.

Worst choice: telling numbers as first party in the interview process for every job I had so far. Made me earn far under my market value.

Yeah, I have heard about game development. Only heard, not seen.

@Cyanide I had an interview at Good Games in Hamburg once. Huge office with what felt like 100 people in one hall. In my memory the individual just had a desk in a row with a "don't let papers slip off" barrier to the left that was like 30-60cm high. Telephoning PM, devs and graphic artists next to each other.

The office situation was way better at Daedalic (~4-6 ppl per office, nice atmo at the time) and Tibia's creator CipSoft in Regensburg (GER) (2-4 if I recall correctly).

But there are a lot stories I heard from first or second hand in person all over the industry...

And the hours and payment in most gaming companies are no secret.

I personally loved game development, but sort of approached it as a finite learning opportunity. Like, "this is going to be the same hours and bullshit as college, but at least my tuition is negative."

It was great, too. The things I learned in that studio made my college education seem like kindergarten art class.

@stisch true, but feeding a family from a game job while actually seeing them can be hard.