Posts by Jord

  • What's going on with your life?

    Deep thread. DeepCore. Just read the whole thread and it's awesome that a lot of you can post so openly about the problems you've all had and I think it's great to see that there are a lot of people in the same boat who could help or be there to talk to.


    It also makes me think of just how fortunate I am, as I've always had a very supportive family and not suffered any major setbacks. I can relate in a lot of ways to most of you, being the kid who was always shut in his bedroom for 16 hours at a time on the computer, not sleeping enough with grades slipping, bullied at school and being quite introvert I suppose. I don't think that is unusual of the type of person who works in our industry and really that changed when I reached 18/19 and went to Uni.


    Quote from SpronyvanJohnson

    Everything you ever want can be accomplished by sheer determination and help from the people that love you. Because nobody can make it out here alone. Also, never be ashamed for being you or for your past. It has made you the man you are today.


    This is generally how I try to live my life. I'm pretty impulsive and headstrong, if there's something I want bad enough or want to do I'll go after it or have it. I try live my life by the 'life's too short' ethos because I don't want to get to a point in my life where I have regrets.


    I should probably post about my current life. When I first started working at Codemasters I moved to Birmingham and rented a flat in the city centre, 10 minute walk from work which I loved for the convenience and how nice the flat was. After about a year of living here I realised that it was making me unhappy as I was spending every penny I earned on rent and bills and that was no way to live.


    I moved out of the flat in with my girlfriend's mum about half an hour drive from work and I give her mum some money every month but I spend nowhere near as much money as I did in the flat. This meant I bought my dream car, my girlfriend and I get to go out more and do more activities together and I see my friends and family a lot more. They say money can't buy you happiness but not having any to spare can certainly make you miserable.


    I love the projects I'm working on right now and I'm pretty content with where I'm at right now. Slowly saving money for a house and living life as much as I can. A pay rise would be nice though


    It's good to see a thread like this, it's rare that people open up in this way. Good Job Mapcore.

  • Recruiting process vs salary

    Quote from Thrik

    It seems like employees are the only ones who can empower themselves in this area by sharing knowledge. Glassdoor is a solid idea; it'd be great if everyone at every company anonymously put their role/team and salary on there so you can almost always get an idea of what your cohorts are getting paid without knowing exactly who. Probably a good compromise, and if it became as standard as maintaining a LinkedIn profile it could be extremely powerful.


    This. Everyone should do Glassdoor.


    Question, do we think the game industry would have higher salaries if salaries were made more public? Would that raise the average salary if people started to figure out they were being paid less than they were worth?


    Rather than on a company level, how do you think publicly available salaries might affect the industry? A lot of you have been in the industry a lot longer than me so I'm curious to see opinions.

  • Recruiting process vs salary

    Quote from seir

    It can get pretty unhealthy. As I already wrote, some guys are getting, lets say $7000, they are awesome so they earn a lot. Other guy with the same work time (work time is not experience!) can get even $2000 less because he's silent and with no giant success or just bad luck... You know what would happen if the second guy knows that he could get more $ just because showing his work a bit more (or stuff like this)? Madness. If industry would get a better classification for pay there would be no problem. Intern will get $A, Junior $B, Regular $C, Senior/Mentor $D, Team Lead $E and so on. The problem is that a lot of guys would be hurt by such classifications. Anyway, smart guys could get more classes like Senior Environment Artist, Team Leader and Mentor = $A+$B+$C.


    I dunno, just thinking loud...


    You're absolutely right, this will obviously happen. I just feel like more transparency in salary would benefit the industry.

  • Recruiting process vs salary

    What surprises me quite a lot is that people aren't willing to talk about what salary they earn. This rule really only benefits the company. We have to rely on the gamasutra surveys to find out what people are earning and no one ever has any idea what they're worth at their company.

  • Facebook eats at the Occulus Rift, leaves $2b tip

    At first I was annoyed by the news of Facebook buying Oculus. It made me annoyed for everyone who backed the project with the idea that it'd be the future of gaming for it to be turned in to a huge social media and data mining device. I just don't trust Facebook not to ruin it.


    After thinking about it a bit longer, I'm coming around to the idea that this fulfils my dream of the cyberpunk future I've been seeing in films. Where VR is so mainstream and affordable that everyone has one.


    I just really hope that Facebook doesn't ruin this one. I just can't believe they have any motivations besides money and userbase. I know it's a business and that's kinda the point, it just makes me a little sad by that prospect.

  • London

    Quote from marks

    I just don't really like London, it's very expensive for not much reason, pretentious and just a bit crap really...


    Agree. Massively overrated, expensive and too busy. Worth a visit if you've never been though, just visit the standard tourist traps so you can say you did. China town, Picadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace are pretty cool places though.


    Go on trip advisor and just search for the best restaurants as I'd imagine there are some pretty amazing ones.

  • Axis Game Factory - £3.59 @ Bundle Stars

    Thought this would be useful for a lot of people. Bundle Stars currently has Axis Game Factory included in it's latest bundle for £3.59. Seems like a great price for what you get in the bundle or even for Axis alone. £15 on steam usually. After checking I think this is just the standard version, not premium (£60 version).


    http://www.bundlestars.com/all-bundles/adrenaline-bundle/


    Quote

    AGF empowers game designers and developers to rapidly create game maps, sculpt terrain and design levels quickly and easily. With over 500 assets already stocked in the warehouse, along with 28 pre-set themes and 8 sample maps, developers can begin creating levels in minutes. AGF includes all of the necessary plug-ins, scripts and shaders to allow all Unity4 users the ability to import AGF scenes into Unity4. Exporting original asset packages (AGF packages of your original assets and/or models) for use in AGF is supported only with the use of a Unity4 Pro license.


    http://www.axisgamefactory.com/


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  • Dahell is happening in Kiev

    BREAKING NEWSRussia's Black Sea Fleet has given Ukrainian forces in Crimea until 5:00 local time (03:00 GMT) on Tuesday to surrender or face an all-out assault, according to Ukrainian defence ministry sources quoted by Interfax-Ukraine news agency. "If by 5am tomorrow morning they do not surrender a real assault will begin on units and sections of the Ukrainian armed forces all over Crimea," defence ministry officials are quoted as saying. So far there is no further confirmation of the ultimatum from other sources.

    :/

  • What are you playing now?

    Quote from blackdog

    Anyone tried Flappy Bird on mobile? Friggin impossible, even harder than The Impossible Game.

    Just curious, it's being downloaded like 10 million times…


    Yup tried this out for 10 minutes, got frustrated and put it down.


    I'm back playing Planetside 2 and loving my MMO addiction.