In it for the money?

[Desktop Gaming]

Hello. Sort of new around here so I thought I'd try to get a handle on what makes some of you 'tick'. (sorry, this turned into a bit of a life story as well)

What would you say is your main motivation for doing what you do? Do you enjoy writing games, or are you doing it purely for financial reasons? Or are you somewhere between the two?

For me, I started programming in 1986 but only got serious about it in the early 1990s when I first started coding Amiga licenceware/shareware/public domain stuff.

Had my first game published in 1994 and got stung a bit, and self-published another game in 1997, just as Commodore/Amiga went belly-up.

In 2000, two years after moving to PCs, I took up coding again. I was working as a games tester for Gremlin Interactive at the time and loved anything to do with games.

I wrote a little game that was to become the first of ten published games between 2000 and 2005. I was doing games programming full time for about 18 months and this is when cracks began to appear. The games testing job had all but killed my enthusiasm for playing games, but now I found that I was beginning to hate writing them as well - the low point being when I was stuck in a London hotel room for an entire week with only my laptop and game code for company.

It wasn't so much the games-writing part I was beginning to detest, rather, the "couldn't care less" attitude of other people involved - and this was everybody from project managers right down to the people responsible for game assets and testers. I used to send them new builds pretty much weekly, or whenever I did something 'cool' that I wanted people to see. Hardly ever got a reply, and when I did, it was all negativity and things I *could* have been told about four weeks ago. That aside, I often found that testers would request that I change features, then in the next build, they'd request that I put it back to how it was in the first place! I felt my time was being wasted and I 'snapped' on numerous occasions.

I sold the rights to all ten of my games. I don't own one line of code, or one single pixel, and it feels like I've got not very much to show for five years of graft. I did make money out of it but it was very little for the work I put in.

Which brings me to why I'm here. After vowing never to write another game as long as I live, I've decided to continue doing it but for myself, relying on nobody else to get it done.

I have grown to hate the whole thing over time - the way the industry works, the way people in the industry are - but as soon as I've had a couple of months break, I realise there's still a lot of love there and I can't help going back to it. Its part love, part money that keeps me going back to it. I'd probably still do this if I won the lottery.

[joe]

I think most of the people on this forum are developing game because it's there passion. I can't believe that anybody is in here only because of the money because most of us would agree that you can't get richt by developing indie games. Of course there are always exceptions to this.

I've always loved to write games and since I made my first contact with games as a child many years ago I always wanted to create my own games. I think in the early days, game developing was real fun because you always had to deal with small teams, so you really can turn your OWN ideas into YOUR game.

But the thing's have changed over the years, game developing has become an expensive business. You need huge teams to develop a game. I don't like the idea of beeing a programmer who only has to execute the commands of a project manager who has probably no experiences with programming. I was never in a big team, but Emmanuel, our graphican, has worked for a PC game company for a few years, and he told me that he felt similar to this.

I also don't like most of the new AAA-Games (here and there I like one) - instead I like new indepantant or "old (retro) games" (Neo Geo, Amiga, Megadrive, Nintendo...) really much, because they we're easy to play and great fun. So rather than to get a job in the games industry (which I first had planned when I was a child) we decided to build up an indepantant games studio, where we can write OUR games.

So, to answer your question, I really do it only because of my passion for games and it's nice that I already earn enough money to do it full time. This had always been my dream - it never has been my dream to become a millionaire.

[papillon]

I just want to make enough money to keep people off my back so I can keep working on games and arty stuff instead of slaving away at a boring old job.

(Of course, I continue trying to get a writing gig with Bioware. Call me a masochist.)

[Fry Crayola]

I do it because it's the way I see myself being happy. Essentially, you've got two choices in life when it comes to making your way. You get a 9-5 job, become part of a machine and pick up your pay at the end of the month, each day beginning with you morphing into "Work Fry" (which ironically is kinda like Home Fry, but with less work) and finishing with you morphing back into who you actually are.

Or you take control and go your own way, spending as much time as possible as yourself.

Frankly, I don't think I'm cut out to be told what to do, even if it does mean a little security in knowing I'll be paid at the end of the month. So that's why I'm writing games in my spare time, eager to get the ball rolling at such a rate that I can break free from the machine and enjoy life on my terms. Money only comes into it in defining the bare minimum I need in order to do this. If I was to be earning half of what I do now (and I don't earn a lot) then I'd be off like a shot.

[alfie]

For me it's about creative expression. I havent found anything more satisfying and challenging than coming up with an idea and then making a finished product out of it

[Escapee]

What you have experienced applies to other sectors as well. the care less and clueless attitude by "non-technical" manager in techinical field & sales exec who do nothing but talk trash. At the end of the year , it's them to get the fat bonus while the rest who truly contribute get penny.

I would say the best management i have come across is Japanese Management team. They are committed, extremely technical, dedicated and talk less trash. The only thing i cant stand is they are workaholic and they expect you to be as crazy as them (eg: working 24 hours without taking bath ).

For me , this indie stuff is about 60% of passion , 30% of charity , 10% for finance .
If i've wanted 100% finance, i wouldnt go into indie as there are better business opportunities out there in Mal (eg : street hawker ).

[ChrisLabombard]

Coding games is like shooting heroin.

I don't know what it is about coding them that I'm so addicted to, but I just can't seem to stop myself.

I make no money, have no social life, yet still do it day after day after day and love every second of it.

[Anlino]

I am definatley not in for the money, since i am not making any. I came in for the fun, and that is still my reason. I love what i do, so who needs money

[mahlzeit]

I have grown to hate the whole thing over time - the way the industry works, the way people in the industry are - but as soon as I've had a couple of months break, I realise there's still a lot of love there and I can't help going back to it.

That's what indie is about (if you want it to be): to not be part of the industry. You don't have to work with assholes if you don't want to.