I just recently finished reading Jason Scherier’s (who is a well-known journalist within the video game industry) book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made and it was just great. I’m looking forward to reading second his second book Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry. Why I loved the first book, well, there are reasons.
I’m a software engineer who loves writing code and as a result of this great asset, we can create great products out of thin air. Publishing a product and seeing users enjoying it while using that product or solving problems with that is pure joy for one creator/crafter. And I think the video game industry is the best place for getting the most out of that kind of feeling. There is a huge fan base waiting for you to finish your project (hopefully) and you get constant feedback from some kind of conventions like E3, Gamescom, PAX, and much more. The whole process of making a game feels more connected with users from beginning to end even though the development process requires a freaking amount of work. It looks like an extreme sport, you have to work very hard in a respectively small time frame, and in the end, a two-edged sword is waiting, either an adrenaline rush or not very pleasing outcomes. Maybe I’m feeling this way because the first book includes mostly success stories, even so, it is a great story for who can achieve triumph. Also, you have to create and publish your game in a certain amount of time and after finishing it, another project is waiting in the line. Maybe this can seem very unpleasing for some, but I can assure you that working on the same project over years and getting a microscopic amount of joy from publishing that tiny feature is not better.
Besides having that kind of extraordinary process as software, like for a lot of people, video games are the reason why I become a software engineer in the first place. As a kid, I first encountered technology thanks to video games even if at that time I didn’t realize I’m experiencing a great portion of tech.
Even though my current career road is not any related to video game industry, I always would like to give it a shot someday just for fun.
