作者：Koen Deetman

游戏开发是一件非常特殊的事情。它并不适合所有人，热爱游戏并不意味着你就能制作出好游戏。如今大家都可以利用工具更方便地制作游戏。越来越多兴趣爱好者也抓住这个机会一试身手。对于那些认为自己命中注定要将爱好转变成真正职业的人，我想指出你在这段历程中可能会遇到的一些挑战。

持久的开发者“眼镜”

当你考虑成为一名开发者时，你将开发一种特定类型的假设型的“开发者眼镜”。这意味着你将能够识别游戏框架以及它们的构成方法。这乍一起很棒，但它很快就会将你转变成一个极为苛刻的判官，这些眼镜会让你更难以切换回“消费者眼镜”的状态。我并不是说你从此就无法再享受游戏了，只是想说用你曾经的爱好来取悦自己会变得更加困难。

code(from gamecareerguide)

这最好将这与“魔法技巧”做个比较。当你看到魔术师在台上使用障眼法时，你会为结果大吃一惊并困惑于这些魔术究竟是如何形成的。如果魔术师会向你揭露自己的秘密，那么这种“魔术”也就不复存在了。

爱好的阴暗面

你玩游戏时除了可能摧毁享受其中的感觉，还可能发现自己这个爱好的另一个阴暗面。当某事成为你的职业时，它就会是由你并不喜欢的部分所组成的。你可能过去就不太喜欢这些部分，每个开发者遭遇的是不同的“阴暗面”。这个部分将让你在某些时刻讨厌游戏。

对我来说，这个阴暗面意味着我并不总是喜欢特定的游戏开发环节，令人讨厌的漏洞或者因为某个关卡并不可行，就得进行第10次的重新设计。在经历10次设计后这项任务就会变得非常烦人。

dark side(from gamecareerguide)

你是游戏行业荒蛮之地的牛仔

在游戏开发领域找工作时——你能否在此找到工作仍是一个未知数。我认为如今市场上已充斥大量开发者，大家都很找到工作。即使你真的找到了一个空缺职位，但它实际上可能也并未你想要的工作。但，你总是可以通过创办自己的公司来创造一个适合自己的工作机会。

这一切都要取决于通过这项爱好来谋生的不确定性。在游戏开发领域找到自己的出路并不直接意味着你就能得到稳定的收入。它具有不确定性，你也不知道自己的未来究竟何去何从。

走向独立领域

自己包揽一切并不像听起来那样棒。自己来掌控一切的确感觉很妙，但也会带来许多压力。除了游戏开发外，你还要将自己改造成一个商务人士！成为独立开发者就可能要面临这个问题。

鸟儿离开老巢时就必须自己担下一切责任，它无法再靠母鸟哺食，它得自己觅食了。

developer(from gamecareergudie)

游戏时间急剧减少

保持玩游戏的习惯这一点非常重要，尤其是你竞争对手的游戏。问题在于，游戏开发会占用你大量的宝贵时间，你会发现自己不再像以前那样可以长时间玩游戏。这一切仅仅是因为游戏开发工作并不允许。因为制作游戏是你的激情，你可以从开发过程中收获大量“兴奋感”。而玩游戏只是一个通过融入游戏玩法而收获兴奋感的爱好。我发现这是我的游戏时间急剧减少的主要原因之一。

不要忘了，有时候你的确是在“玩”游戏，但主要是出于市场调查而非放松的原因。你很容易发现其中的区别。如果你无法区分这两种玩游戏方式，那么你最终会在游戏过程中迷失方向，或者将一切都成为与工作调查扯上关系。

总结

你将玩电子游戏作为一项爱好就不会有什么损失。你越是了解游戏，你的观点和游戏体验就会重要。做自己所“喜欢”的事情来谋生可以让生活充满更多乐趣。没有人希望一周工作5天做一份不屑的工作。在将自己真正热爱的东西转变成一项职业之前，你必须三思。问题在于你“知道”自己喜欢什么，却并不知道自己讨厌什么。在发现这一点后可能会产生十分奇怪的感觉。

我对自己选择并不后悔，只是觉得我现在得再找一个新爱好了。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Consider Changing Your Hobby Into Your Job

- Koen Deetman

Game Development is something very specific. It’s not reserved for everyone. Loving games doesn’t directly mean you’ll be good at making them. With today’s tools it’s much easier to make games. More and more hobbyists are taking this opportunity for a spin. For those of you who feel destined to turn your hobby into a real job; I would like to point out some challenges you might come across on your journey.

Persistent Developers ‘Glasses’

When you consider becoming a developer, you are going to develop a certain type of hypothetical ‘developers glasses’. This means you’ll be able to recognize the structure of games and how they are constructed. This sounds great at first, but it will soon transform you in an extremely critical judge, and these glasses will make it harder to swap back to your ‘consumer glasses’. I won’t say you will not enjoy games anymore, but pleasing yourself with what once was your hobby gets harder.

Maybe this is best compared to a ‘magic trick’. When you see the magician perform the illusion on stage, you are astonished about the outcome and confused by how this magic is possible. If a magician would reveal his secrets to you and show you how it’s done, the ‘magic’ will be gone.

The Dark Side Of Your Hobby

Not only will you ruin your enjoyment when you play games, you will also discover a whole other side of your hobby; the side I like to refer to as The Dark Side. When something becomes your job, it will consist of parts you don’t like. Most likely you do not know these parts yet, the dark side is different for every developer. This is the part that will make you hate games at certain moments.

For me, the dark side means that I don’t always enjoy certain parts of development, annoying bug parts or doing redesigns, because the level didn’t work out for the 10th time. After the 10th time it will become annoying.

You Are A Cowboy Of The Game Industry Wasteland

When hunting for a job in the game developing field – it’s still pretty much a guess if you will be able to get a job. At this moment I think a lot of developers are flooding the market and job offers are hard to find. Even if you would find a job opening, it will most likely not be  what you are looking for. But; you can always create a job opportunity that suits your tastes by starting a company yourself.

It all comes down on the uncertainty that comes with making a living out of this hobby. Finding your way in game development doesn’t pair directly with an established income. It’s not yet stable, uncertain and you do not know exactly what the future holds in store for you.

Let’s Go Indie!

Doing everything yourself isn’t as great as it sounds. It feels great to have matters in your own hands, but it also brings a lot of stress. Besides game development you will need to transform yourself into a business minded guy! It doesn’t automatically come with the ‘job’; It comes with becoming independent.

When a bird leaves the nest, it has to take all responsibilities for himself. Food isn’t brought to him by the mother any longer, he has to find food himself now.

Total Playtime Drastically Drops

It’s very important to keep playing games. Especially the games you compete with. The problem is that game development will consume a lot of your precious time, and you will notice you won’t play as much than before. Simply because development does not always allow you to do so. Because making games is your great passion, a lot of ‘excitement’ is harvested from development. Whereas playing games as a hobby was generating this excitement from engaging gameplay. I found this was one of the main reasons that my playtime dropped.

Not to forget that sometimes you do ‘play’ games, but in a sense of research rather than relaxation. You can clearly notice a difference. If you cannot distinguish these two ways of play anymore, you’ll eventually end up confused when gaming, or everything will become part of job related research.

Conclusion

You will not lose playing video games as a hobby. The more you know about games, the more critical your opinion and experience with games will be. Doing something you ‘like’ for a living can make life so much more fun. No one wants to feel miserable working 5 days a week doing a shitty job. You have to think twice about creating a job from something you really love to do. The problem is that you ‘know’ what you love, you just don’t know what you hate about it yet. Discovering this could feel very strange.

I don’t have any regrets, however I only need to find a new hobby now.(source：gamecareerguide）