Introduction + Game Developer vs Software Developer

Hello everyone!

My name is Dhevie, and I am a student at SNHU. I am pursuing my degree in Computer Science to become a Software Developer/Engineer, but I am also interested in game development. I am a creative person and enjoy making things, as well as playing games. (World of Warcraft and Call of Duty were my favorite games to play!). Writing codes and seeing the results that it visually outputs fascinates me! I just don’t know which profession would better suit me.

Could any game or software developers describe the differences between the two? Thank you!

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They are very different :slight_smile:

Once you get your degree, you can start applying for jobs in computing. Sometimes it can be a little tough to get the first job, but it gets much easier when you have experience under your belt. Often, experience can be part of the degree, later on. You will probably get a regular paycheck, and eventually, promotion to organize other developers etc.

With gamedev, although you can get degrees in it, most dev companies are much more interested in what you’ve done already. Do you have a portfolio, or previous experience with gaming companies? Have you already written a game or parts of a game? Unless you’re quite high up in the developer world, paychecks can be very unpredictable, and it’s quite a ‘turbulent’ working environment.

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