I got the BIG CALL..

[FNX]

Hello everybody,
a couple of nights ago I was called by a professional game developer
owning a studio in Italy to join their team working on upcoming GBA and
DS titles (but also PC and PSP in the next future).

Of course my reaction was a WOOOOOOOW, REEEEAAALLYYYY??? MEEE??

But soon happynes left its space to brainstorming... Yes because the studio
is 300+ km far from my town and i have lots of things here, patienlty built
in a nearly 28 years life. (Friends, Girlfriend, Martial Arts, Apartment, Job,
and everything).

After making a couple of subraction from what i'll earn and what i'll pay
to stay there and get back is not really really convenient... But, it's my
dream job so i can manage it.
Then comes the girlfriend problem... She, of course, doesn't want me to
go, or better, she says ok but with tears coming.. well you know women
are all the same ;)

It's 2 nights i don't sleep thinking and thinking what would be the right
choice, a life based on my private, or a life based on my dream job?

Also why this kind of things come always in the wrong moment?

I'm sorry for the long, useless post but please tell me what you all think.
I don't want you to decide for me, but i'd like to hear your guy's point of
view :)

Thanx in advance

[Firlefanz]

Hi!

I would think about how good is the jobs payment and how stable is the job?

If they tell you to go after finishing a project then this is not stable and not even worth thinking of.

This seems to be a hard decision, choose wisely :)

If you have a good job where you live now, I would consider to stay, most times dreamjobs are dust in the wind, maybe you realize it when you start it...I still think developers are underpaid and working too hard, and I heard for game developers this is even worse...just a thought.

Firle

[cairnswm]

When I was 30 I was contacted by a Company in Italy (Waywardxs) to help create a game with them. I did it remotely and they paid for a 4 week trip to Italy for doing the game integration testing.

If they had offered me a job I would probably have moved to Italy with my wife and Kids to do it for a few years.

To me dreams are important. They are worth taking when they come.

I dont say just take the opportunity, but dont give up on it just because its inconvenient right now. In the long term it might be worth it anyway.

[savage]

Congratulation FNX this is great news!!! Though there is much to think about. Is it a game company that we have heard of?

If you want to make money, work for a financial company like an investment bank ( at least in London ). The wages are above average, they pay yearly bonuses ( about A£3-10K ), but they do expect you put in the hours and they have quarterly culls of lowest performers.

Game developers are certainly underpaid, but this is by design because companies know that most game developers would do their jobs almost for free, because they love the whole thing about it. Pay is low and hours are long

Also unless the company is ID or Epic or similar, very few of the game companies are totally financially stable. Publishers are notoriusly known to delay payments whenever possible. I have first hand experience of this so if you want to know more PM, cause I'm sure others on here are sick of hearing my tales of whoa.

If you can work for a bigger game development house, though of course the bigger the game development house, the less likely they are to be innovative as they have investors, and investors don't like risks. Innovation come from smaller companies that are willing to take risks, in most cases. Katamari Damacy probably being an exception.

Of course you could always continue creating your own games and little by little build up your own company.

It's a tough decision, comfort or dream! PS, why can't your girlfriend go with you?

[FNX]

Thanx guys, i liked your answers even if they're completely different each
other, they made me think a lot :)

More infos:

-The company is small but financially solid. It is Frame Studios from
Belluno, born from the dust of Prograph. Of course is up to me to be
confirmed there project after project, but i like challenges, no prob! 8)

-The pay is exactly the same of the actual i earn, even if i'm working in
the financial field (brokers, banks and so on). The problem is that there
i would pay for an apartment, here not, so it's lot of money less at the
end of the month... but as i said before, it's my dreamjob and i can wait
for better payments...

-The fact is that i'm a good programmer in my field but i have no
interest at all about financial, that's why you can find me online at 3am
conding games... But, my actual job is veeeery solid and just in case of
World War 3 i could have some problems in productivity in that field...

-My girlfriend is a web designer and have a stable occupation here so
i can't ask her to leave job and family only to follow me, it's just not fair

-Surely i'll continue on FNX Games in both cases

-Still dunno what to do :cry:

[jdarling]

Take this for what its worth (little to nothing). Dream jobs don't come every day, and for most people they don't even come. Money doesn't add up to a pot of piss in the end. If you can make your dues on what they are willing to pay, then its worth it, that is if its truely your dream job. If your GF's a WebDesigner then she can work from anywhere, and she is simply scared to leave home.

I got offered the job of my lifetime just before my wife and I got married. Took it, and don't regret anything. Not even when I had to leave, and in the end wound up back at the state I started in :). My wife was a bit leary of moving, but now, she is overjoied at the time we spent away from home. It actually brought us closer together, there was no mommy and daddy to run home to when we got into fights, we had to work it out :).

Seariously, if you can make due on the pay, then go for it. If your that good at what you do, then you can always go back if it doesn't work out.

- Jeremy

[Traveler]

An interesting topic. :)

I'm not so sure though, these offers only come once or twice. I'm pretty sure that if you wanted to, you could have these offers on a daily basis. All it takes is a solid demo and a text, 'I'm looking for work'. There are people around, that do nothing else, but looking for you. If you advertise properly, they will eventually find you.

A few years ago I received an email from http://www.digitalartistmanagement.com/ with a job offer. I was of course quite happy that, but at the time, all I really knew was DelphiX, next to the fact that I had just accepted a job, I did not think it would work. So I declined. Basically they made the call based only on the things they saw on my website, not the technology behind it.

So make sure you know what they're going to ask from you. What is it exactly that you're going to do.

Anyway, that's just my two cents...

[technomage]

Well done FNX, as most people have said these thing dont come up very often.

That said a few years back I had an opportunity to move to Canada and work for a company developing commercial Delphi DirectX components. The offer was tempting, but in the end i decided not to and for me it was the right choice, the company fell through, and I managed to get my currnet company to give me a year of to travle the world which made it worth staying where I was :D

The comments made about pay are valid, if you can live of what you earn doing a job you love then it's OK, if you can live of what you earn doing a job you hate, that's another matter :wink:

Like jdarling said, you can always go back if it doesn't work out.

[jasonf]

Just to add an opposite viewpoint to Technomage's valid point.

I would say, Don't give up on your dreams because you're not sure if the company will fail or not.

Although unlikely, Perhaps one of the contributing reasons the Canadian company failed was because they couldn't get a really good Delphi DirectX developer.

At the end of the day, a company is made from people. If the people are of one mind and the business case is good, there's a very good chance that it will succeed.

If you're in a position where you can take a risk and not be too badly knocked if the company fails, the experience you'd gain alone should justify it. Even if it fails, that's experience too. Maybe valuable lessons for when you attempt to start your own firm in the future ;-)


He who dares.... ;)