a game developer's life

They will keep doing it as long as enough people put up with it and surrender what SHOULD BE for granted.

Let's say you are an artist or animator in a big company and you want to negotiate your raise... Well the company doesn't have to give you shit because they can just hire an other noob student off the street and pay him a shit salary for the same job. Sure the guy might not be as good as you but in the end the game is still gonna sell and the company will have saved a few dollars. Sooo many people want to work in the industry just so they can say "I WORK IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY" or because they think "it's a cool job", and they will put up with whatever abusive behaviour is being thrown their way, they will accept below average salaries and crap working conditions. This signals to the company that they can keep doing what they are doing, all the while saving money in the process. So yeah, as long as people give this power to game studios, they will keep abusing it for their own good so that maybe in a year or two some high up executive can buy himself a new Ferrari. And let's be honest... if you were that high up executive, ... wouldn't you?

There is a large difference between studios that burn through talent, and studios that try to cultivate talent. Yeah, both places you're going to have to crunch, but at the good studios, you are appreciated, becasue they know as long as you stay happy, they don't have to bother hiring, moving, and training somebody new. Whereas other studios (many in the EA family), are more happy to burn you out like a match because they have no interest in seeing you progress. They can hire a lot of new blood to make the next Harry Potter game and nobody will be the wiser.

Quote from sensee

I guess the best way is to become someone whose imput can't be replaced by a noob that easily. Maybe aim for leading design position?Of course that takes a lot of perseverance & talent and also hoping that the producer or director isn't just some dickhead who got his position by a stupid business school degree, but someone who really acknowledges your skills.

That would work but you cant become that lead guy as a student so youd still have to survive all those other jobs.

In general youre better off when youre specialized in something imo, while it may be a little harder to find work companies will need you more.

I agree with klein about people who give in too much but on the other hand you cant blame them. They just want to make their dream come true, I was like that too when I started but after a while you do change. Its not about having a gamejob anymore, its about having a good one. Just as companies can find a lot of new artists to hire if youre too demanding you as an artist can also find lots of new work if the company is too crappy, it goes in two ways.

Gameindustry is really frustrating tho. Since people put in so many time and effort it often becomes very passionate stuff. Whatever goes wrong will hit you twice as hard if youre passionate about something.

I think a lot of it rings true, however it does vary depending on the kind of company you are a part of. Everyone starts out wanting to work on games for the love of it (well, everyone here at least) but eventually you come to realize that it does not mesh well (in the majority of cases) when you have to make games as a bussiness.

Find work at a soul-less globo-corp to get into the biz, then find a small shop with nice people and you will appreciate it much better. Sure you might have to find a new job every few years as each one closes down but it's worth it to me

Quote from Zaphod

ISure you might have to find a new job every few years as each one closes down but it's worth it to me

Oh just move to Plano already.

i'd be moving to plano...but prob have to get the gf-->soon fiance-->to go along with it. meanwhile....life of industry consultant goes on...

Quote from Fletch

Oh just move to Plano already.

someone has to stay here and keep tabs on the growing gbx zombie army.

Hi guys, I just joined and stumbled across this thread and I've heard alot of good opinions here. I'd want to add my 2 cents to the discussion:

The turnover of creatives in our industry I think is a big issue, as we have so many talented people leave the industry that could have otherwise cultivated a good culture and helped it mature. This hits art as well as management as you’ve described. Ideally you’d only want to have people from the games industry in administrative positions, but unfortunately our young industry still sees a lot of people leave after 2 to 5 years and it opens up those that stay for inexperienced managers brought in from other industries. Not the way to go, but I think a sign of an industry that’s simply understaffed globally and suffering from that.

It's not suprizing though, considering some of the current conditions and expecations for next gen projects in the industry. In my experience there are alot of developers right now that dont fully know what "next gen" truly means. Some people aim sky-high, while others dont see Xbo360 it much different than the previous console. The problem with this is that it makes big budget games even less predictable and schedules tend to become tense.

In some sense, the games industry still has a long while to go to stabilize and mature. The Games business has been around in a solid form for, maybe 20 years. Whereas the movie industry has been around for, say 75 years. The problem seems to be that overall, the games industry does not think long term enough yet.

In other industries like IT or software technology, big companies regularly invest into their current project as well as invest substantial amounts into backend infratructure and backend research. In games, this is very hard to pull off as there is a bit of a "we pay for what we see" attitude that lacks thinking of longerm partnerships. As such, a publisher may invest into a title with a developer and then moves on, but rarely invests into the relationship with the developer and form a longterm partnership (unless they want to buy them) As such, investing into future titles and research while developing their current game is normally relatively limited and most developers no longer develop their own “middleware” but become increasingly depdendent on external software.

This keeps the developer from building substantial independent systems and research and relies heavily on relative short turnaround times for their AAA titles to keep them alive. This puts tremendous pressure on studios and developers and in many cases as you’ve described turns sour for the teams. So unlike many established, say Film FX companies, Game developers have become excessively dependant on external technologies and big bulk investments from publishers for their 2-or so- year game titles. This means publishers can continue to pressure the smaller studios and thus the work situation in some places (which propably got a lopsided deal) are as dire as described here.

EDIT: So to sum it up in my opinion: the industry has a lot of challenges to face, but alot of them are the immaturities of such a young business altogether. As such, I am hopeful to see the industry become more stable and mature as we move on into the future

Interesting way to look at it from a bigger perspective!

Welcome to MapCore by the way, were you the German level-designer who worked on Gundamn? I vaguely remember a long interview in the Gamestar magazine on game development..

Ah hi FrieChamp ,

Yea that was me before I founded Streamline Ah the good old Gunman days (nostalgia)

Just a quick comment as it's milestone Friday...

After five years working for two independent developers I was ready to quit the industry. Overworked and underpaid by a thankless set of managers and marketing vampires... I was about to give up the career I had always wanted, burnt out n pissed off...

... then out of the blue I got offered my current job, working for one of, if not the largest console Developers, and it's a different world now.

More perks, encouragement, all the facilities you need and more. I now work less hours but achieve more in the time I spend working, and love making games once again.

So yeah, as other folks in this thread have already said, who you work for is everything, and if you are pissed off and burnt out, rather than just jacking it in, try somewhere else. All Developers are not alike.