Ethics of starting career as a lower spiral act to eventually move up?

[Shadowraix]

Hey, I'm a software programmer, mainly interested in game dev. I main on a platform with 100M concurrent users/mo and am currently making a game. This will be my first actual game. Its nothing ambitious and largely appeals to meme culture which I know will appeal to the majority of the user base which are kids. I mostly see it as an opportunity to add something to my portfolio and as a cashgrab. (Although I still have my own ethics in how I monetize due to my own distaste for modern video game monetization) To me this intent seems to be very orange stage, but being concerned with my own survival it seems to be the quickest option for me to become on my own. It has a high chance of success as developers with games of lower effort easily earn thousands of dollars.

But this kind of revenue and securing my survival would pave way for me to have the time and security to push myself into a more green or yellow way of creating value.

What do you think about such a path? I know its not the most conscious way, but it justifies in my head as aiding my survival so that I can have more room to produce more conscious value. Is there value in such a progression or should one try and jump straight up to more conscious avenues?

I tend to embrace more green values which over-shadow a lot of orange in me I think.

[Cocolove]

I would go for it. There's no point in forcing something higher consciousness, work on getting survival in check first.

[Natasha]

@Shadowraix If the game you're developing is something you'd let your own kids play, then I'd say go for it. 

You can also subtly mix in Green elements, like meditation background music or wisdom quotes, or make some character look/speak like a guru. Like Yoda in Star Wars, for example. Or there is a settlement of people/creatures that have characteristics of a happy hippy commune, etc.

[Shadowraix]

Late reply but thanks for the advice guys.

On 8/16/2019 at 10:45 AM, see_on_see said:

Doing something not necessarily aligned to your LP to create a financial foundation to then work on your LP, when there's no other option, is fine. 

But you have to consider how this project will affect your time in the future. Will you have to maintain it for as long as it exists? Will you have to work on future updates? Will you have to monitor servers and so on? 

Ask yourself, once I have made the money I need, and I'm able to dedicate my life and all my time to my LP, will I want to ever have anything to do with this project anymore?

You gotta plan it strategically. Think years ahead, especially if it's a big project like a game. 

Thanks to the platform it costs me $0 to maintain and I only have to maintain it for as long as I want, so basically as long as its making me money and I can move on. 

On 8/15/2019 at 6:56 PM, Natasha said:

@Shadowraix If the game you're developing is something you'd let your own kids play, then I'd say go for it. 

You can also subtly mix in Green elements, like meditation background music or wisdom quotes, or make some character look/speak like a guru. Like Yoda in Star Wars, for example. Or there is a settlement of people/creatures that have characteristics of a happy hippy commune, etc.

Good idea! I can definitely add in some green elements.