I met this guy who became a game dev later in life, as in his 30s. He has quite the non-traditional resume as far as devs go, with no formal CS education.
In any case, he went on to work on a game, and kept doing so for years. He hired artists etc. but did the core development himself. Released the game, which has now sold over 150k copies since the release last year. Obviously not crazy numbers up in the millions or tens of millions, but impressive for a first release, and from a dev basically learning as he's moving along, with a regular 9-5 job and family - doing it purely for the love of the game.
Makes me wonder if he'd ever have gotten the chance, had he first tried to join some small indie studio, rather than the DIY route.
The thing is - would he have prospered within a small indie studio?
My experience is that a lot of the traits highlighted above make for brilliant innovators and creators, but actually end up being stifled/stopped by leads within a company. Having this kind of vision and passion is brilliant until it collides within what the founders vision is.
This is what I experience too. I'm a lot like that person and I clash with this side of me towards upper management when they feel that things ought to be done a certain way.
I'm happy that I'm working for a marketing department nowadays and when they need someone technical or someone on business insights, they come to me.
This is really worth mentioning. I hate programming with a passion if I HAVE to work on something. I love it when I am free on chosing what to work on.
Having to work on other peoples ideas, or in regards to constraints other people have set for me completely kills the joy of doing the work.
Let me explore stuff and Ill be a happy little worker bee, give me deadlines on features I consider bs ill procrastinate forever.
Wow, I didn't buy this because it seemed a bit grim for my tastes, but it looked very impressive when I came across it a few months ago. Wild that it's one person's passion project.
In any case, he went on to work on a game, and kept doing so for years. He hired artists etc. but did the core development himself. Released the game, which has now sold over 150k copies since the release last year. Obviously not crazy numbers up in the millions or tens of millions, but impressive for a first release, and from a dev basically learning as he's moving along, with a regular 9-5 job and family - doing it purely for the love of the game.
Makes me wonder if he'd ever have gotten the chance, had he first tried to join some small indie studio, rather than the DIY route.