Should i try to get remote work as game developer?

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

Hello,

Recently i have been thinking much about my future. Let’s start from current situation.

I’m 32, from Poland, working as C# programmer in company which writes business apps. I’m married and have one kid. After work i’m writing games for android. It takes time, unfortunately time, which i could spend with my wife & kid. On the other side it helps to build some passive income. I hope that in future i could move entirely to making my own games and drop my job. But to do that i need to make some successful game(s). Writing game is not hard. Making it successful is. So it needs time, probably even couple of years. It’s not easy to work 8 hours and than 2-3 at home. Also i’m feeling guilty i’m sacrificing my family time.

You may ask why i want to quit my job - there are couple of reasons:

  1. In my area salaries are not that good. It’s getting better, but still too low IMHO. Average net salary for programmer in my area is 1000 - 1300$ monthly. Some jobs offers even 2000$ but those are minority.
  2. I’m little tired of writing business apps. I’ve been doing it for 9 years already.
  3. I like writing games more :wink:

Another option is to work in some company which writes games. But you can’t find such company in my area. So i would have to relocate (and my wife would need to quit her job) or try to find something remotely - ideally for foreign company.

What do you think i should do?

  1. Maybe it’s best to stay at stable job and only write games at midnight / night?
  2. Quit my job now, devote myself to writing my own games and hope they will be successful enough to reach income of my daily job?
  3. Look for remote job? Do you think 20 - 30$ per hour (gross) would possible rate?
#2

I’ve been writing business apps for 19 years now :wink:
I have a game under development as side project for a long time.
And my conclusion is, that I would never ever do it again this way.
It takes such a huge amount of time to finish a polished game. Even if you finish it is very questionable to get an appropriate payback.

#3

Exactly, that’s why i even don’t start writing medium game. I’m focusing on simple, small games. Can’t afford to loose 6 months of work. And don’t have money on promotion.

#4

For simple / casual games the competition is very high. App stores are crowded with thousands of games.
So, how to stand out ?

#5

I’m trying to make original / unique games. Unfortunately it’s annoying when you’re overwhelmed by hundreds of clones of flappy birds, 2048 etc

Basically markets now are not 100% about creativity, but about cloning as fast as you can :frowning: If there happens to be some new popular game, couple of cloners may be lucky to get popularity.

Still thinking that making unique games will lead to some success. But my hopes are getting lower with every released game. Recently i’ve released game which have got nice opinions on market / reddit. People really enjoyed it. I’ve contacted many sites writing about android / android games. Every single site ignored me - even didn’t care to respond. So it’s harsh world.

#6

Without family I would propose to come to Hamburg and give it a try (work a lot for little money ;D ).
There are lots of game companies here.

#7

Hehe, what about average rates? How much they pay?

#8

I have no idea, only that it’s less than for the average business dev job is for sure.
Which is no suprise in a time where people think more than 1$ per game is a rip off…