“There’s only one good reason to get in [video game development] and that’s because you can’t imagine yourself doing anything else.”

This was what game development guru Chris Natsuume told hackenslash the first time he was asked what would be the primary reason for anyone to get into game development.

Natsuume, co-founder of casual game development firm Boomzap (www.boomzap.com), was in the Philippines to speak to game developers about the game development industry.

During his talk, Natsuume touched on some misconceptions about game development.

“A lot of people have this image that they’re going to be famous because they get to play their games everyday.”

But sooner or later, as Natsuume stressed, game developers would get too tired playing what they created.

Natsuume admitted that he got over playing FarCry, one of the games that he was part of developing while working with Crytek.

“I’ve played it a billion times and it sort of got boring,” he said.

He also warned that the gaming business, no matter how illustrious and fun it sounds, might not be something that others expect it to be.

“It may not even like you as much as you like it,” he said.

He stressed a college education is necessary to ensure that a game programmer, designer, and producer would still have jobs outside the gaming industry if things do not turn out as planned.

Nevertheless, Natsuume said there are good reasons for joining the game development industry and it’s not always about the pay.

He said it’s about the need to continuously build something.

He said many of the better game developers and programmers have a passion for building and innovating without having to think of financial gains.

He cited a game developer from Myanmar who had nothing to start with but was able to build simple yet compelling games.

“He wasn’t getting paid to build games but he was doing it simply because he wanted to do it. People like that have to be hired,” he said.

Still, Natsuume said that no one should be too caught up with labels, especially when it comes to nationalities.

He said that any developer is branded according to the level of work they have done on a specific game and not from where they come from.

“It’s all becoming a global industry so you can’t be identified for being from the Philippines or any other country. People from anywhere who are really dedicated to what they’re doing can do it,” he said.

In Crytek, which is a German company, Natsuume said it had developers from 17 different countries. They all worked to achieve one goal and that is to finish a game. None of them compared each other for being one nationality or another. “I brought that ideal also with Boomzap because I’ve hired people from different countries because I think they’re capable people. I even pay them the same level of salaries,” he said.

Natsuume said game development is just like any other industry, where successful people are often driven by passion. Nationalities don’t matter.