[vkk8]

Coming from theoretical physics background, I find the mathematics and physics side of game development quite easy. Is this considered a real advantage if I wanted to pursue a career or something in game development? Is there some way to leverage my physics/math skills to do this stuff as a serious hobby, perhaps even making small amounts of money from it?

Like probably many people, I've wanted to make games since I was a kid, but somehow there is never enough time or energy to start doing indie development seriously and I always imagined there's no way I could get hired in a game company without a good developer or arts background.

[sudosysgen]

To be fair, the math is actually quite easy - if you took any LinAlg at the university level you're basically golden. It's just difficult to learn by yourself especially since there is no curriculum.

Yes, it can be an advantage if you want to apply to a rendering or engine dev position, but obviously being a good developer is just as important. You don't necessarily need to develop an indie game either, a few renderers should be good.

Really what you need is being a good general programmer, being good at algorithmics, and being good in linear algebra. For many programmers the later is most difficult, but the first two are about as difficult to an outsider imo. You need to be able to write good C++ and understand performance characteristics of GPUs and CPUs well. It's not easy on the programming side - game engines and their renderers are some of the finest achievements in software engineering.

Alternatively, you could go for a research position in a game company or GPU company.