First of all, games programming is an obsession or disease, if you ask me.
During production of each game there are "crunch time" periods where the team must finish a specific set of features by a set date. During crunch time, it`s normal to require 6 days per week and 12-16 hrs a day. Sometimes it lasts just 4 weeks, but more common are 3-6 months-long crunch periods.
Of course, it doesn`t happen just once per year, but at least 2-3 times. That`s the reason why some people, who`ve had their share of these stressfull periods, just plain quit, even though they don`t have any other job found yet. They simply can`t go on.
It`s possible, if you`re 25 and stupid. If you live in your parent`s basement. But if you`ve got a wife and kids, kids might not notice they have a father, since you leave early morning while they sleep and come back late evening when they already sleep. Seeing a father 4 days out of 31 (on Sundays) doesn`t really create an emotional tie, at all.
Considering, that these days the games are written by teams of 100-200 people, what are the chances that some junior coder gets a chance to code something big and relevant ? Neagtive. There are lots of non-junior coders lurking by and awaiting for the first senior coder to drop dead and fight for a chance to replace him (only to follow his footsteps few months/years later).
If that sounds like an ideal life to you, by all means, go on and pursue your dream.
But you have been warned...
Oh, and I forgot the added "bonus" of low wages. Realistically, even if they doubled the salary of the average senior games coder, I wouldn`t go there. Compared to the cushy 9-5 job that I have as a lead programmer, I`d start thinking about it, if they tripled the salary. But, to go there work for just a double the salary of a senior games coder, I`d have to be mad. And those, who do it for just the single salary ? Oh, poor guys ... See ? I told ya - it`s a disease and it should be cured...
But since there are always 100:1 CV`s for each advertised position for a games coder, no wonder there is no problem in replacing the dead/fallen-off guys.
