Moving into UI/UX and away from Development

Typically, you'll hear of someone leaving their job as a teacher or lawyer and becoming a developer. I'm the opposite. For years, I struggled trying to write web apps, websites, etc. I though, "well, maybe web development isn't for me, I'll try game dev." Sure, game dev turned out a bit better for me. I learned about vectors and components. I could produce little games. But did I see myself working for an AAA studio witing code? Nah. My code is good enough to produce results for an indie team of 1-5. That's my extent of game dev.

But aha! I have found a place for me after all. It's called user interface and user experience. You see, when I worked at Aliquid meeting with clients, designing layouts, and creating websites using Elementor in WordPress, that was part of the UI/UX designer role. Granted, I worked several roles, but UI/UX is where I always ended up.

Even now, when I'm working with my indie team to build games, I code the mechanics and consider the feel of the game. I'm not only the dev team, but also part of the design time. When my indie partner designs the looks, story, and content, I'm designing the way the player will interact, both in the UI and in the playable areas.

This is actually a lot harder than it sounds. First, I have to make sure we can fit nice and snug in a genre that players understand, while also placing focus on two types of players. We tend to focus on gamers that have some nostalgic memories of old games, while catering to newer players and older players (think input controls and navigation).

Who knows though, maybe I won't code for an AAA studio, but maybe I'll eventually become a designer for one. 😉

(I worked on a cross team for a game community before. They placed me as a designer when most of the code, focused on networking, was way over my head. So I had the label "dev" when in reality most of my job was based on designing combat mechanics and estimating how quickly it would take the dev team to build it if we decided to add the suggest in.)