After decades of regret. I no longer regret NOT going into game design / development.
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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On the bright side, it's never been easier for extremely small teams to put out something relatively high quality on the side.
I never had any regrets about going into game design / development. Gaming industry has been ass for decades and big studios have been built on the exploitation of passion where devs get treated like shit because their passion for working on games keeps them there.
When that became apparent to me along with the understanding that game development is significantly harder than standard software development I had no problems not choosing game development. Ontop of doing harder work I get less pay and I get treated like shit? No thanks, I'd rather have a comfy job that I still find fulfilling and I can take game projects on the side.
Though I'd probably have a different opinion if I had to make a career choice today due to the tools becoming so good you can be a one-man studio (and contracting out work you might not be good at, like art assets or such) making the game you want to make. For example the person I'm really envious about is the Road to Vostok dev who is just one Finnish guy making a pretty huge game.
I remember watching one of the early gameplay trailers for the first Division and thinking it looked like the coolest game ever. Wonder if third time is the charm for the series.
EDIT: trailer I was thinking about for those who haven't seen it, E3 2013 trailer.. 13 years ago, fuck me.
I know exactly the trailer you're talking about. Obviously the game didn't turn out that way but in my opinion The Division is an under-appreciated gem. It was absolutely awful at launch though and I think it took over a year to fix and adjust the gameplay.
Eh I remember it looking a lot better, it does look very bland in that trailer now I have watched it back. I suppose your mind fills in what you actually want from the game, but then after it releases you realise you get exactly what you were shown, a mediocre and boring game.
I mean, I don't know. You have to watch it with 2013 eyes. Sure, if you only look at it like "oh, cover-based shooting" then sure. But what's suggested by the trailer (seamless world, PvE and PvP simultaneously in the open world, proximity-based voice, some kind of mobile-app integration for drone support, faithfully rendered New York environment, extraction shooter gameplay YEARS before it was cool or even a thing...) still kind of looks like an appealing package imo and back then it truly did look mind blowing.
Of course I'm well aware of how it turned out, but I even watching it back I get why I was so hyped for it once.
Well yeah that's the thing though, you are filling in the blanks. I can't remember all the marketing material, I think they did cut a lot of the map though.
Even if they did manage to make it expansive and interesting enough, the third person would ruin it for me. It was clearly made with slow camera movement of controllers in mind.
Ah, now I remember your username from a Deadlock thread the other day. Yeah if you vehemently hate third-person perspective in a shooter then there is no saving it, I guess.
Yeah, I mean I still give them a go, but ultimately I think first person is better suited to shooters.
If Division 3 has a beta or whatever, I will probably try it too regardless. If the game is good enough even with TPS, then that would be great. I doubt it will be anything remarkable though, given Ubisoft's implosion.
Not sure how to feel about all of this. I loved the first Division game, the winter atmosphere and snow was amazing.
But then Division 2 happened and the charm just fell off for me. Not to mention the continued crashing issues on PC are horrendous. Regret purchasing the Division 2 on PC.
Now hearing they are developing a third Division making me hope for another winter style but worried about the crash issues on PC and them not even fixing the crash issues in the first place.
Now them announcing layoffs isn’t another good development.
Too many games every year to play anything from Ubisoft
Make it first-person and maybe I'd be more interested.