Working remotely.

Freelanced for almost the entire last year, didn`t really work out for me either. I had so many distractions at home that it was hard to get some work done. I remember start working at 4pm some days and finishing at 10 pm I'm really bad with managing my own time.

Anyway, now that I'm back to an office I believe my productivity has risen by about 70% or so

Quote from Sentura

this is actually the only pro i see about working from home. i could sit on a beach in thailand and work if i wanted (though my computer would probably overheat )

this only works if your work is the kind that can be done, essentially, alone. and again i think it falls back to the fact that if you can do something good while on your own, then you could make something ten times better if you were surrounded by others.

i guess.

freelancing from home is sad

but if you gotta do it remotely, I'd hang out with your local game dev friends or something, maybe get an office-share

Currently spending most of my time working from home until September, as I'm the only UK guy on the team until then. In some ways it's awesome being in such comfortable surroundings as I can have my music system on full blast, peruse my kitchen, and take breaks without worrying about some director or client strolling round the corner seeing my laid back with my legs gaping wide open and being all .

On the other hand, I often procrastinate like fuck and end up working until 2am some nights to get everything done for deadlines. I also find myself less enthused, creative, and looking forward to work due to the blurrier line between work and leisure, which is probably because I'm just not that great at disciplining myself. Yet in an office environment I'm fantastic at hitting deadlines, managing time/projects, etc.

Quote from Rick_D

this is actually the only pro i see about working from home. i could sit on a beach in thailand and work if i wanted (though my computer would probably overheat )

this only works if your work is the kind that can be done, essentially, alone. and again i think it falls back to the fact that if you can do something good while on your own, then you could make something ten times better if you were surrounded by others.

i guess.

The work I do on NS2 is a lot of prop work, which can easily be done off-site. I work with level designers quite a lot and luckily a lot of them are British so we can keep in touch over Gtalk. Plus I can charge an hourly rate which is much higher than if I worked in an office (At least at my old job anyway!)

Quote from Rick_D

i don't think i could do it, i need to be in an office, need to interact and bounce ideas off people. i'm not sure i would grow as quickly as a person/developer/artist without being surrounded by other like-minded people.not to say it isn't possible but there's a reason studios exist i guess.

Pretty much what I was thinking about it, though I've no experience of working remotely to call upon. Working in a studio environment and having regular meetings and discussions I've learnt far more about design than I would've if I was sat at home doing it, though I can see the perks of that too. I also like the fact I can learn about other aspects of game development that aren't necessarily my field, for example at the moment I'm sat surrounded by the art team and I gain help and inspiration from them most days, even just from watching what they're doing when they don't know I'm stalking them. I also like the fact that walking around the studio you get to see all the different elements of your game (and the other games being worked on) coming together, it's cool to see how things progress through development.

Quote from 3Dnj

I was working as a contractual the last 5 months and, yes working alone at home is very difficult but after two months I found my marks and I really enjoyed living with my closest friends.

the game industry is full of some of the nicest and "like-mindedest" people, and in any onsite job you will find lots of new friends and meet lots of great people. don't stay in one place because you're afraid to lose all social life or contact to old friends. when you come back there, they will still be there and in the mean time you have internet and telephone to keep in touch.

i'm working remotely almost a year now, and i like it very much, but it is very hard, much harder than being in the office, you've got feed back and help on every corner, but when you work alone, the shit may go down

and as rick said i think that improving skills is much faster in the offfice rather than in home, but i still like that kind of working

Quote from Rick_D

i don't think i could do it, i need to be in an office, need to interact and bounce ideas off people. i'm not sure i would grow as quickly as a person/developer/artist without being surrounded by other like-minded people.

That's one of the main reasons I've decided to take a job in an office. I want to see if it helps me grow.

Downside of working in an office: you must wear clothes.

Quote from Steppenwolf

Downside of working in an office: you must wear clothes.

haaaaaaaaaaa yeah we got this gag going

Never did any remote work myself, although i think at some point i will be forced to do it .. I'm still oblivious to one thing : how do you guys manage to find job offers ?

Quote from KoKo5oVaR

Never did any remote work myself, although i think at some point i will be forced to do it .. I'm still oblivious to one thing : how do you guys manage to find job offers ?

I'm on a permanent contract with Unknown Worlds Entertainment. I'm still a contractor but I don't have an end date so it's pretty much the same as any office job really.

Same thing for me until my boss proposed me a full-time contract and I accepted.

Quote from KoKo5oVaR

Never did any remote work myself, although i think at some point i will be forced to do it .. I'm still oblivious to one thing : how do you guys manage to find job offers ?

I'd like to know this too. There doesn't seem to be much going around for entry-level roles, especially nothing freelance. :X

It is luck really and knowing the right people. I got mine with real blind luck, gooseman asked me to do some stuff for tactical intervention but it hit a snag at the time and instead referred me to unknown worlds for ns2.

It's pretty much the same in any freelancing game, really: your success is proportionate to the number and quality of contacts you have. This is why it's much easier to go into it after having already done the rounds a bit in regular full-time work. Also having lots of industry friends like MapCorians can be useful for getting you touch with people.

I'm a little late to the party, but I'll throw my two cents in anyway. I'll try not to repeat anything that anyone else has said.

I worked for eight months remotely doing level design (and other assorted things of course) for an indie startup.

I had the opposite experience of many, the first couple months were great but the last six were a downward spiral into mental exhaustion and isolation.

An important takeaway fromy my experience, is that communication was very inefficient even when it seemed direct.

A shared environment make that easier, physical co-location (hand gestures etc.) make that even easier still.

Even with things like screenshare or video chat, it still is far less efficient than talking to someone directly. You can't even make eye contact, the most basic thing.

I still don't know what my coworkers are really like and I'm sure they don't know what I'm like either.

Quote from Campaignjunkie

freelancing from home is sadbut if you gotta do it remotely, I'd hang out with your local game dev friends or something, maybe get an office-share

I would have imagined most freelancers live in a place where there are no other game dev's. But I guess most used to be in studios or something.

Quote from Mr. Happy

An important takeaway fromy my experience, is that communication was very inefficient even when it seemed direct.A shared environment make that easier, physical co-location...make that even easier still.

You'd be surprised.