Secret developers of the video game industry
polygon.com
Secret developers of the video game industry
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Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#2Not to derail an otherwise interesting article, but the OP picked a not-great anecdote to lead with. The Red Ash Kickstarter was controversial because it was launched by the studio that was (and is) behind a high-profile Kickstarter: Mighty No. 9, a game billed as the spiritual successor to Mega Man which raised $3.85M. At the time that Red Ash was announced, Comcept claimed that Mighty No. 9 was pretty much done and that they needed to get another game into the pipeline. Midway through the Red Ash campaign, people noticed that Mighty No. 9 was marked by retailers as being delayed. When Comcept was questioned about this, they claimed that it was a mistake...only shortly after the Red Ash Kickstarter failed did Comcept admit that Mighty No. 9 would be delayed [1].
As you can imagine, that led backers to think that Comcept had tried to be hush-hush about the delay so that it wouldn't affect the Red Ash campaign. It hasn't helped matters since then that Mighty No. 9 continues to be delayed, even failing to meet a deadline to produce a demo that was meant to make up for the delay.
So...to use Comcept in the lede of this story, as if it were the use of these "secret developers" that pissed fans off and caused the Kickstarter to fail...That just seems...a bit misguided...The OP couldn't find any other anecdote to lead off with?
[1] http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mighty-no-9s-shady-delay-...
Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#3Crediting is a much larger issue than just what's referred to in the article.
I worked on a title for ~3 years, many of those being 6-8 months of 75-100hr weeks. Saw marriages destroyed on that project, people pushed to the edge.
I left ~4 months before ship because I knew if I didn't it would be the end of me. Twice I blew the stoplight in front of our house because I was so exhausted. Yet it was insinuated that I didn't work hard enough since I came in the office at 8am and left at 10pm(everyone else left 12am-2am).
You want to know what I was credited as?
"Special Thanks"
That and many other reasons is why you'll see the game industry burn through talent. I've never seen a collective of some of the sharpest, creative people I've ever worked with exploited to such a degree under the misplaced reason of "Passion".
The place I worked before then was very much white-label, with very similar issues and working conditions. I think we did get the studio logo on the back of the box but there was a very clear agreement where no logos could be placed in-game.
Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#4Crediting is a much larger issue than just what's referred to in the article. I worked on a title for ~3 years, many of those being 6-8 months of 75-100hr weeks. Saw marriages destroyed on that project, people pushed to the edge. I left ~4 months before ship because I knew if I didn't it would be the end of me. Twice I blew the stoplight in front of our house because I was so exhausted. Yet it was insinuated that I d…
The games industry has a worker abuse problem.
All those companies proudly talking about their 18 months of crunch? Nooooope, shouldn't happen. This shouldn't be a thing you're proud of. You shouldn't be proud of your employees for slaving to death on those projects.
It's very tough. Compared to the "regular" tech industry, people in video games can be so passionate about what they're making. It almost seems comparable to founding a startup, except you're just an employee working on a project.
You, reader, wherever you're working: Imagine if every single member of your team was incredibly passionate about the work they do. They are building their own baby. They have the vision, they have the motherly drive that puts the existence of their baby ahead of their own. You can see how that could be abused by companies?
It's possible to be passionate without driving yourself crazy like that, but in the video games industry it's far too common and it becomes the norm. In fact, I was going to post about this a few minutes ago - and then you yourself described the problem better than I could.
Credit in your story is not the issue. The 8 months of 100 hour weeks is.
Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#5It's not easy for indies, either
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/QuantumPotato/20150928/254690/iOS...
(Disclaimer, I work with for poster's company)
Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#6Related and interesting: the IGDA's guidelines on credits: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/6C...
Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#7How cute. Sometimes you don't appear on credits. I have been working with more than 100 people on 2.9 millions of real-time safety critical code for nearly a decade. It has been unknowingly used by millions of people around the world and there will never be any recognition for any of us. Grow up.
Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#8How cute. Sometimes you don't appear on credits. I have been working with more than 100 people on 2.9 millions of real-time safety critical code for nearly a decade. It has been unknowingly used by millions of people around the world and there will never be any recognition for any of us. Grow up.
But you can put it on your resume if you change jobs or go work as a freelancer, right? That's the problem -- imagine you have a decade of blank space in your resume.
Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#9How cute. Sometimes you don't appear on credits. I have been working with more than 100 people on 2.9 millions of real-time safety critical code for nearly a decade. It has been unknowingly used by millions of people around the world and there will never be any recognition for any of us. Grow up.
In a few industries, for industry-specific reasons, who appears on credits and the exact contents of those credits actually does matter for career advancement purposes. Video games are one of those industries. Film and academia are two others. It is critically important to your future if you're an assistant professor or software developer working on the 3-D engine that your work get recorded in the industry-standard manner. It is difficult to appreciate this if you're not in academia, but getting your name listed first (and not second!) in the paper edition of a magazine that no one reads is actually really important.
Many of the rest of us work in industries without this professional norm. That's wonderful for us, but does not itself fix the problems of this norm for people affected by it.
Re: Secret developers of the video game industry
#10Crediting is a much larger issue than just what's referred to in the article. I worked on a title for ~3 years, many of those being 6-8 months of 75-100hr weeks. Saw marriages destroyed on that project, people pushed to the edge. I left ~4 months before ship because I knew if I didn't it would be the end of me. Twice I blew the stoplight in front of our house because I was so exhausted. Yet it was insinuated that I d…
I spent 2-3 years working with occasional overtime building a major feature of a successful game people love. I wasn't able to stay on the project until the very end due to events out of my control. When the game finally shipped I too had a "Special Thanks."