I've been in games over two decades - everything from AAA to VR startups to running my own indie studio. I feel like I can probably answer your question.

There's definitely a class divide within the industry based on your discipline. If you're a software engineer, you have much greater leverage than artists/designers etc. when it comes to compensation, and you'll likely be treated better in general.

Especially at larger studios, if you're good you will generally be looked after. Sure, you might earn more working for one of the big five in tech, but you'll probably be less interested in the work.

You should expect to move around pretty often - it's rare (but not unheard of) for people to stay at one company for most of their career.

There have been some pretty rough seas over the years too - post-covid layoffs, and a fairly large series of layoffs in the early 2010s.

I'm guessing 30% of my time has been spent on games that never released. The first time was soul-crushing. But after that, I realised I needed to focus on enjoying the journey Instead. The game releasing was just a nice bonus.

I wouldn't change my career for the world. I love working with other creatives (I'm actually friends with many of my colleagues), and I'm genuinely passionate about what I do. I think you just need to be the right personality type for it. If you're someone who can't set boundaries for yourself easily (switching off after hours), it can burn you out, usually by your own hand.

Most burnout I've seen has not come from studio heads demanding people work insane hours (though those rare situations always make the headlines), but instead comes from people's inner drive to be a reliable colleague and do amazing work. I think that's a side effect of being passionate about the work.

Is it a good career? I've certainly loved it and feel like I've been well-compensated, but your mileage may vary. But don't believe the hype of the vocal minority who say it's an industry full of abuse and bad wages. There's some shitty things that happen for sure, and some jerks running studios here and there, but I think that's more to do with late-stage capitalism than games itself.

I have a friend who has worked for 3 companies over 6 years. She has never once released a game as they were all cancelled before release. She found out she lost her job at one company after reading an interview about a bunch of studios being shut down. One of them was the place she worked. Even her boss apparently didn't know.

The studio she works at now initially hired her for completely remote work, but they've since changed their minds and now she has to drive over 100km to work every day. She was going to quit but she's sticking with it for now in the hopes of finishing at least one game.

I work in the industry. You're pretty much right. I wouldn't recommend people to get into the field unless you're SUPER into making games and are okay with working way harder than others. That said, other tech jobs are also suffering right now, layoffs are way more common than they used to be throughout the entire field feels very competitive.

not fully compatible with Godot in the same way that GDScript, C#, or C++ are, but it can be used with Godot

do you think my list is enough?