Video games have been big business for a while now, but today’s gaming environment is a wholly different entity to that pre-internet. To reiterate: video game development is huge. Funding figures prove even higher hopes for the future of the market, too, with “virtual reality” the two fevered words on everyone’s lips within the business since last year’s expansion into the area (a year that generated $30.4 billion in revenue, up 6% from 2015). Video gaming today is extremely lucrative, and it’s also PC-, Mac-, and Linux-based, Mobile enabled, still console enthusiastic (whether portable or digital or good old fashioned plug-in retro), subscription available, and only set to broaden further. So it is that keen gamers begin to consider a slice of the action themselves.

A Reality, Not So Virtual
Getting hired by video game companies is perhaps, however, not the best route to achieving this (especially when pay is less than half that of a first-year NYC Associate lawyer). What needs to be avoided is the trend for the “crunch”, a mind-numbing slog period that affected 65% of mainstream employed game designers last year – whether it was when a new game was reaching its peak development period or had only just begun. It’s a tough business, due in no small part to the more than sizeable investment received by the companies each year, but who really wants to spend 20 hours at their desk each day and suffer physically for their art? Video games may be your passion, but is any job worth your health? Indeed, 80- to 100-hour weeks are common in the industry.

Online Competition
In short, gaming is not an easy-money career choice, be you a programmer, artist, or storyteller. Nonetheless, as a sideline, game development can be exhilarating. To this end, online platforms have proliferated, no doubt having seen the need for such off the back of the ardent fandom for Steam, for example, and even the social media near-behemoth Facebook getting in on video game live streaming over its platform. However, before you start knuckling down to your own creation, eagerly taking to a Twitch banner maker and storyboarding instead of sleeping at night, pre-counting the dollars far in advance of your finished product and any actual players, make sure you truly know what you’re doing – and what you’re up against. Similar to the self-publishing industry, you aren’t alone: this market is hyper-competitive.

Video Streaming for Tomorrow
If you’re sure you have what it takes, know your extensions from your drops and understand platform-specific API, then Amazon-owned Twitch is ameliorating its services at the moment with better analytics streamers and a dashboard of critical statistics (not to mention the inclusion of “Raids” and “Rituals”). This will enable its users to more easily be aware of when they’re reaching Affiliate status (smaller streamers, of which there are now around 110,000) or even Partner status (and can actually earn more serious money from their creative endeavors). As an interactive platform, where you can be watched by thousands while you play, live streaming holds untold promise for tomorrow’s developers.