The best advice I got in tough times was "broaden your search". The second-best advice I got was "use your network if you can". There are jobs to be had that are gaming-adjacent and gaming-related that I found I could do. I, like many, ended up working outside of traditional video game development for a brief period of time. That might be casino games, mobile games, simulation, training work, user experience design, or something else entirely.

I worked with former game devs doing work very similar to game dev at the time. I got this job because one of my D&D players had also been let go from his former employer a few months before me, found work at a new company, and then told me to apply at his company since they were hiring. That turned into an offer, which resulted in my employment there for a time while I looked for work back in proper video games. I ended up working with more than one of the developers I worked with at that company at other studios later on in my career.

You are never tied to any one employer and you can always leave. There's nothing wrong with finding work in the interim to pay the bills, especially if you can grow/maintain your industry network, level up your relevant skills, and then take new opportunities when they present themselves. It might not be your favorite job ever, but paying the bills and leveling the skills are absolutely a fair trade - especially during a recession.

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