Think you wanna develop games?

[Scotty]

Think long and hard about what you're going to be put up to:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/05/the-death-march-the-problem-of-crunch-time-in-game-development.ars

It's all fun and games until you're working 80 hours a week.  Good luck having any motivation when the day is over!  Oh, and BTW, don't unpack your stuff, once the death march is over, you're outta there!

[Jake]

Sounds like fun :P

[T-Rok]

This is why I left high school wanting to be a counselor and not a programmer. I did my research and I couldn't handle that amount of time away from my future family. However, its a good hobby to have :]

[Chaos]

This is part of the reason I've been second-guessing my decision to become a game developer over the past year.  If I am going to make any games, it would be as a hobby, or starting my own company as an indie developer.  Not really sure what I'd want to do instead, unfortunately.  Lately, been thinking of putting my brain power and love of logic and puzzles to good use and attempting to become a detective.

[Meiun]

This is part of the reason I've been second-guessing my decision to become a game developer over the past year.  If I am going to make any games, it would be as a hobby, or starting my own company as an indie developer.  Not really sure what I'd want to do instead, unfortunately.  Lately, been thinking of putting my brain power and love of logic and puzzles to good use and attempting to become a detective.

Been thinking the same thing for years :P Did a summer camp/program at NYU when I was in high school for game development, that pretty much informed me of much of the crap Scott just mentioned. I'm sure there are at least a few exceptions out there, in which case I would definitely consider it. But otherwise, indie/hobby is likely the way for me as well.

[Scotty]

And don't be mistaken into thinking indie development as a sole source of income is any better.  At that point your entire income is dependent not only upon you not sucking at being creative, but also that you can stay motivated all the time.  If you can't, you're gonna be losing money, and I guarantee the death march will look like a stroll down the yellow brick road by comparison. 
"But Scott!  Look at the success of minecraft!". Yep, already did, now tell me how many indie game developers have gotten that lucky compared to how many there are or want to be.  Don't think too hard, I'll just estimate for you and guess it's no more than one percent that made it as far as notch has.
Not saying don't go for it, more over that if you decide to go this route, good luck having any motivation or energy to do anything in what little free time you'll have, that I can speak from experience on.  I preach the age old saying, "do what you're good at doing, not what you love to do.". You'll understand what I mean when you've made similar mistakes as I have.

[venuse]

i feel bad for these guys.

[ARTgames]

You really have it in for game developers don't you. :P It dose not look like so much as a profession problem but as a business one.

But the simple fact is that game developers have to pay a heavy price to work in this business. Why should they?

Not saying I'm going to take the profession of a game developer myself. Not really interested in that being a career for me because of this and other things. Still a fun hobby like how the others said.

This is why I left high school wanting to be a counselor and not a programmer. I did my research and I couldn't handle that amount of time away from my future family. However, its a good hobby to have :]

You can program more things than just games you know.  ;)

[CherryPie]

I am an application developer, working 40h/week and gettin' a nice income at the 4th largest software company world wide.
I'd never trade my job with a game developer, period.

[venuse]

congrats cherry, sounds like you got a nice place too work.

[ARTgames]

Likewise with venuse. Sounds like something I wish I was.