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The great video game exodus

gamasutra.com

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Re: The great video game exodus

#11

Post by rocky1138 »

bdefore wrote: post #8

The article dabbles, but ultimately misses an opportunity to present the piece I want to read: that the ideal shape of a game development team is not unlike an early stage software startup. Remain small, take your time, stay healthy, and put some love into it. Recent years have birthed some real gems from teams of one, three, or single digits. In this category I'd vouch for Hollow Knight, Celeste, Ghost of a Tale, an…

For me, the ideal shape of a game development team is to just make games for yourselves. If you find that people love your games, too, then great! If not, then that's great too. Once you start chasing and building on success, the work stops being about scratching your own itch, and moves away from building stuff for yourselves.

Re: The great video game exodus

#12

Post by georgeecollins »

bdefore wrote: post #8

The article dabbles, but ultimately misses an opportunity to present the piece I want to read: that the ideal shape of a game development team is not unlike an early stage software startup. Remain small, take your time, stay healthy, and put some love into it. Recent years have birthed some real gems from teams of one, three, or single digits. In this category I'd vouch for Hollow Knight, Celeste, Ghost of a Tale, an…

Gamasutra could write an article about the ideal shape of a game development team so that all those people out in the industry could learn what they are doing wrong. It sounds like the bdefore is the person who should write that article.

Re: The great video game exodus

#13

Post by justinhj »

My first job was bagging groceries in Safeway, and I remember vividly watching the minute hand on a big clock slowly tick around to the end of my shift. I was thinking, when I graduate university I don't want a job where I am always so bored I'm just wishing my life away so I can go home. I can honestly say after 25 years working on video games I have never once been bored. There is a vibrant industry out there which has never had so many different platforms and delivery mechanisms. In the next 10 years we will only see more. My advice for those that want to make games is try it out; don't be shy to move around different companies and work on different types of technology until you find something you enjoy and team you like to work with. Do the same every few years and you'll have a long career ahead of you. And most importantly, do not crunch. A few extra hours of work here and there is fine, but any extended death march is bad for your health, bad for the product and ultimately bad for the company.

Re: The great video game exodus

#14

Post by georgeecollins »

I grew up in a time when no one thought there was a chance to have a job making video games. I remember before I finished college, someone from EA called me about a shareware game I made (distributed on a floppy! imagine). In those days EA was a small company. The guy was trying to see if I wanted a job and I didn't even think to ask. Later, in grad school, another small company, Activision put a poster advertising jobs. I'm glad I replied.

What I have learned after twenty plus years in games is that you can make enough money to retire, but nothing guarantees a chance to keep working. At the top level the pressure is intense and new talent is always cycling in. No one writes an article about how uncertain a career is in film, or music, or theater, because everyone knows it is nothing you bet on. I was super lucky to be in the write place at the right time, like someone who got a job at a record label in the 70's or a movie studio in the 80's. I got to do something exciting that I didn't know could be a career. There is probably something else I have never heard of happening right now which is what a young person ought to be doing.

Re: The great video game exodus

#15

Post by debacle »

> Only seventeen percent of the 30,000 attendees to this year’s Game Developers Conference worked in the industry for seven to ten years, and just thirteen percent for between eleven and fifteen years.

So 30% of attendees have 7+ years experience? Strange way to slice statistics.

Re: The great video game exodus

#16

Post by segmondy »

oppositelock wrote: post #3

Sadly, most of the video game industry is a crappy place to work. I speak from experience here, having been the lead game engine developer in a studio owned by one of the largest publishers. I don't want to out them, so I'm being vague on purpose. There is little work life balance. No matter what happens, no matter how many people you destroy, you will do whatever it takes to ship in time for the Christmas season. If…

I got into computers because I wanted to dev games. I got the homebrew gameboy & psx dev kits and wrote code for those platform. Then some of my friends got into the industry and seeing what they went through in one year killed that idea for me. I told myself I would do it as a side hobby and that might have been the best career move I ever made! I never thought I would do enterprise, but I now love enterprise. :D

Re: The great video game exodus

#17

Post by jayd16 »

bdefore wrote: post #8

The article dabbles, but ultimately misses an opportunity to present the piece I want to read: that the ideal shape of a game development team is not unlike an early stage software startup. Remain small, take your time, stay healthy, and put some love into it. Recent years have birthed some real gems from teams of one, three, or single digits. In this category I'd vouch for Hollow Knight, Celeste, Ghost of a Tale, an…

>Put another way, there's an exodus from unwieldy large teams that lack responsibility and a sense of craft and ownership.

Is there data for this? EA, Activision, Blizzard, Ubisoft etc seem to be doing fine with massive teams.

The game industry seems to be moving with the rest of the entertainment industry. As technology progresses, the barrier to entry lowers and its easier for small teams to make things.

Sure there are some great independent films but we continue to see Disney behemoth blockbusters breaking records every year or so. I assume there will continue to be room for all types.

Re: The great video game exodus

#18

Post by crazybit »

Supply and demand.

Game developers: very sexy, easy to show off, has a (very) large supply of talent. Pay not bad, not good, work schedule very demanding.

COBOL developer: extremely unsexy, almost don't want to admit it publicly. Tiny supply, relatively much larger demand. Pay very good. Work schedule very predictable, not demanding. Almost a vacation.

Supply and demand. Ignore at your own peril.

Re: The great video game exodus

#19

Post by Fej »

I believe that part of the problem is the attitude of major publishers towards game development. There is absolutely no consideration for the artistic value of their works - they will manipulate the end product, and the developers, in any way to maximize short-term profit at the cost of everything else.

Take as an example - the current loot box (gambling) controversy. Publishers have pushed this mechanic to an extreme. They are only relenting now (somewhat) due to the scrutiny of various governments. That's how far they'll go to earn an extra buck, even if it compromises the rest of the work.

Of the point of the article: publishers will continue to hire almost exclusively temp workers, since it is more profitable in the short term. They will do this until they cannot; they know that day will come eventually, but not in the short term, so they are unconcerned with the problem, and will continue milking their various resources for every last dollar.

Sony, Paramount, Disney, etc. all respect the motion picture as an art form, despite being for-profit, since they know that defiling their products will end poorly in the long term. EA, Activision, Bethesda, and the like have no such respect for the art of video games.

Perhaps it is because the medium is in such an early stage of its life.

Re: The great video game exodus

#20

Post by backpropaganda »

crazybit wrote: post #18

Supply and demand. Game developers: very sexy, easy to show off, has a (very) large supply of talent. Pay not bad, not good, work schedule very demanding. COBOL developer: extremely unsexy, almost don't want to admit it publicly. Tiny supply, relatively much larger demand. Pay very good. Work schedule very predictable, not demanding. Almost a vacation. Supply and demand. Ignore at your own peril.

Which areas do you think have large demand and low supply at the moment?
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