animosity

> It sounds like you were working on shovelware for EA or someone like that.

direct hit.

> find a small development shop which does it for fun and enjoyment just as much as for money.

i thought i'd found that at my present company but it's the same crap. i was really naive about this place.

> As for where to - what have you worked on

this is the most worrying part. i used to focus on graphics, but what these operations need is someone competent to deal with a broad range of issues. and that's what i've been shafted into doing.

> You make it sound like its dirty to have C++ experience!

i didn't mean for it to sound like that. i worry that people who make hiring decisions won't see beyond their keyword filters though.

i'm not sure why it sounds like i'll do well to you. it's looking pretty bleak from where i'm looking.

> If you like games, do simple fun indie games (world of goo, bejeweled, uplink, etc). These will make you happier and richer than working in the salt mines.

i agree. deep down i don't think the employee/employer relation will work for me.

> B) Find some semi-programming business to go into. My first love was airplanes. I absolutely adore them. So I combined that with my love of technology. I get a good mix of different disciplines which keeps me sane.

so you write software that keeps planes in the air?

actually, another reason i want to leave the video game industry is so i can work in my free time on my own projects without violating these bullshit non-compete contracts.

so your day job was also programming games? can you point me to some of the indie stuff you've made. and out of curiosity - which country are you in?

edit: "day job was also programming games" - i got that you were programming.

i think it's quite possible that i will never be happy working as a software engineer in any industry.

but i can virtually guarantee i'll never be happy in the video game industry. the vast majority of video games are utter crap. it's astounding what pretty marketing can fool people into paying for.

the entire process suffers from a tremendous lack of formality because it's a "creative" product. the code quality is atrocious because everyone is chasing a moving target, and apparently there just isn't time to document anything.

i also have the sense that i'm not developing any particular skill set beyond dealing with excruciatingly undocumented apis & debugging excruciatingly unstable code (because the industry refuses to adopt developments in abstracting memory management - the vast majority of most games DO NOT need to be written in C++, despite what everyone would have you believe).

there's also this expectation that i'm in it for the love of video-games, because why else would i put up with these shitty hours and pay? fool me once.

i've actually worked at two video game companies (due to immigration issues), at two different extremes in terms of number of employees, etc. AND IT'S THE SAME BULLSHIT EVERYWHERE.

so again, getting out of the video game industry is just a last ditch attempt at staying in the larger software industry. it mystifies me that i spend the majority of my free time enthralled by the latest developments in software/technology (i definitely look forward to google i/o more than christmas), and yet i hate every moment of my professional life - but there you have it.