sam wrote:Anyhow..
Nothing's worse than the US with its shitty healthcare and their cancer people.
Nothing's worse than that....
That's right. +1.
elvman wrote:Amnvex wrote:Then there's no point in going to Latvia because it sounds like there is nothing there other than remote work (which indicates the industry doesn't exist if it has to be outsourced--and I know you guys mentioned this earlier).
At this point, it is hard for me to tell if you are a troll or actually talking seriously, but I will still reply. Nobody said anything about remote work as the only option here in Latvia. I just showed you one example of a successful outsourcer. We have an industry here in Latvia, we just don't brag about the numbers around like others do. We collect the turnover of all the known gamedev companies (around 60 of them) every year and Game Insight (€2.6 million turnover in 2016), Estoty (€1.7 million turnover in 2016) and Brain Games (€1.3 million turnover in 2016) are just a few of them. You could easily apply and work for them if you hate freelancing. But not coming to Latvia is your choice, don't blame us.
No, I wasn't trolling, I was telling the truth of what I thought. The fact that I can find so few companies online that are stationed in Latvia makes me think Latvia has nothing to offer. Not only that, but a lot of what I found was not really serious gameplay. Even though it's home, what good is home if it doesn't have the local need for people like me? I'd be wasting my time. If a company finds me and wants to hire me from there, fine. But I will not put the effort into looking for work specifically there because what I am trying to do is a bit different. I'd like to develop models for a game like this:
http://darkageofcamelot.com/ (If you look at their beta screenshots, you can see that it isn't all that advanced-looking... I love old MMOs like this, or even single player games). I know there's a market for it. Moving on...
Although you didn't say it is the only option, it feels that way because there are very few companies that actually deal with anything other than "nonsense" games (games that do not have a continuous development cycle and games that have very little community engagement is how I define "nonsense"). Let's analyse so I can, hopefully, show you what I am talking about:
1. Estoty. Look at their site. All of their games are mobile. They have a huge one-page site--not even a careers section... just a list. They seem more like experiments rather than a serious product.
2. Brain Games Ltd. Good company, it seems, but they are focused on board games, not video games. At least that's what I found from their LinkedIn profile, so that's not who would be interested in hiring someone like me.
3. Game Insight is actually headquartered in Lithuania, but is a Russian company (or was started as a Russian company that was incorporated in Moscow). Their games are also quite silly and seem more like a "ready-to-market" with no potential "expansions" or anything like that.
Now, before you jump on me and say something, I'd like to add that I would not be against developing a mobile game like this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... uest&hl=en
They have a large community and their forums are active.
Okay, so... this is what Latvia offers. As they say in Spanish: no bueno (not good). Or I should say that it's not good
enough for my purposes.
Let's compare Latvian market with Swedish market. For one, there's a nice list of companies here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_v ... _of_Sweden
Take one of the first on top. Arrowhead Games. What have they developed? Well, their games--while not many--are quite more "mature", and they're not mobile. Look:
http://arrowheadgamestudios.com/#games-2
Another example is Avalanche Studios. They're an independent AAA game developer:
http://avalanchestudios.com/games/
If you see here, they make some real good stuff. Nice models, and rather well-known games. Look at their careers. This is something I'd be interested in applying for:
http://avalanchestudios.com/careers/P_A ... -qeocggUm/
That'd be an awesome job. In fact, it fits me perfectly once I finish school. If I can get a portfolio, I'd apply to this. Latvian companies don't offer such positions like this from what I've seen from the companies you've shown me,
elvman.
Last example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MachineGames
Machine Games has made not much, but some very popular titles.
So, my point is that I was HOPING that Latvia had some serious game development companies that were aiming to capture the market with more AAA-like games even if they are just indie studios. But, again, as I've shown you here, there aren't any companies that seem to be doing this. This is why I said that I've made up my mind to not focus on Latvia anymore.
I hope you understand. You know the industry better than I do, and you've shown me with your knowledge that the companies in Latvia aren't the type that I'd be interested in compared to what is offered in places like Sweden. The whole point--just to clarify--of this topic is to decide if the market is good enough for it by trying to talk to people who are IN the market. With the information at hand, Latvia is a very under-developed market. Therefore, it would not make sense for me to ONLY look for work there and focus all my time on that; I am better off putting my time into other companies in other places. Hope this explains what was on my thoughts.
Sometimes one has to give up his dream of going home and do what's best for his career, eh? Seems to be the ugly truth that I didn't want to face. I could go to Russia, too, but that'd be boring >_> (I lived there with my grandparents, so I know exactly what's going on there).
Oh, and lastly, I'd like to add the issue with freelancing is when companies like Avalanche do this:
http://avalanchestudios.com/careers/P_A ... BMDpUoT4k/
If you look, it says: "Local candidates only. This position will require to work in our Stockholm Studio as an independent contractor. This is a temporary role." -- I hope I *never* have this job opportunity. This is exactly what I want to
avoid.