Irrational Games shuts down

[Skjalg]

I think most people makes this mistake. Its very easy when you're small to think that if you just hire some more people you'll get games done faster. But it is up to us to learn from these mistakes now and always argue against mass hirings. Especially when you finally land a publisher and gets some million dollars to create the game. Just try to hire slowly, and if you have to hire someone fresh out of school then only one at a time.

The mass firing/hiring is happening again and again and it only brings pain and misery to the people you eventually end up firing. I don't think it is possible to name a single big studio anymore that hasn't fired at least a dozen people once or twice. Growing too quickly too fast is just bad practice. Hell, even Blizzard had to let loads of people go at some point because their WoW team just got too bloated (mostly QA/localization/moderators etc). And I bet that the old timer devs at Blizzard are the ones behind Hearthstone. They probably ended up needing to create their own little team within blizzard in order to create Hearthstone. I mean, they didn't even bother involving the engine team and went with Unity3d.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Skjalg

[Taylor]

I think this is a change that we are bound to see happen more in the industry as we shift from large 100+ sized teams into more manageable 15-30 sized teams. There's three reasons why I think this.

A lot of companies strip down to a core team once a game is out. It's why I've not seen another full-time position since I first entered the industry 7 years ago - everyone is on contracts now so you can get rid of them at the end of the project and avoid scary headlines.

Also, here's something fun: https://twitter.com/visteps/status/436100945668096000

 

Edit: Clarity

Edited February 19, 2014 by Taylor

[Thrik]

Also, here's something fun: https://twitter.com/visteps/status/436100945668096000

 

 

christ

 

Read that guy's whole feed for even more fun.

[KoKo5oVaR]

We forgot about,

recruiters

[Sprony]

Perhaps some of the people from the Core that worked there (Vivi that I known of) could post what kind of job they're looking for? We can then all keep an eye out for them. Heck, we could even help with looking.

[Furyo]

We were three, all laid off in the first round of economic layoffs that happened in September last year. Patrick_H is no longer on Mapcore I think, vivi, and myself.  All level designers.

As for talking about what happened, we can't so don't ask

[Sprony]

We were three, all laid off in the first round of economic layoffs that happened in September last year. Patrick_H is no longer on Mapcore I think, vivi, and myself.  All level designers.

As for talking about what happened, we can't so don't ask

 

Any particular country in mind? I'll start looking for you guys.

[Furyo]

I've been interviewing a lot lately, so I'm pretty much set for the time being. Get in touch with vivi over PM to see if he needs some help.

If you're looking to help outside of Mapcore, please go on Twitter and use the hashtag #IrrationalJobs to see all of the great talent recently let go

[marks]

I know we're definitely hiring for a VFX position here if you guys know anyone!

[Skjalg]

 

I think this is a change that we are bound to see happen more in the industry as we shift from large 100+ sized teams into more manageable 15-30 sized teams. There's three reasons why I think this.

A lot of companies strip down to a core team once a game is out. It's why I've not seen another full-time position since I first entered the industry 7 years ago - everyone is on contracts now so you can get rid of them at the end of the project and avoid scary headlines.

Also, here's something fun: https://twitter.com/visteps/status/436100945668096000

 

Edit: Clarity

 

Yeah I know, and I don't think its healthy for the company, workers or the industry as a whole that big studios keep doing this.

 

We need to be smarter and hire less or scope down projects if the current team cant handle the work load.

If you manage to lie your way into a big contract that you cant fulfill with your current work force then you've literally fucked a bunch of employees over in the future because at some point you need to cut back because you probably wont land another big project at the end of your current one. And neither does your work force (probably) want to work on yet another big game that was a grind to finish.

[General Vivi]

That twitter account doesn't belong to anyone who worked at Irrational Games. It's a kid trying to troll everyone. For the sake of less exposure you might want to remove it from your comments. 

[DrywallDreams]

 

Also, here's something fun: https://twitter.com/visteps/status/436100945668096000

 

 

christ

 

Read that guy's whole feed for even more fun.

 

How did I know he's from gaf right away?

[dux]

Because he just has an air of "raging cunt" about him.

[Taylor]

That twitter account doesn't belong to anyone who worked at Irrational Games. It's a kid trying to troll everyone. For the sake of less exposure you might want to remove it from your comments. 

Yeah, I know. I think it's clear from the link it's not someone from Irrational.

[blackdog]

I dont get it.  Wasnt Bioshock infinite both a critical and financial success? WTF?

Shooter of the year if nothing else.

Edited February 20, 2014 by blackdog