11–20 of 37 posts
It was also one of the best experiences I've ever had posting a job online. They took my GitHub gist, formatted it, found our logos and pictures of students online, and put together a beautiful page to spotlight the job.
I couldn't believe it. One of the best experiences on the internet ever.
Nate is amazing and I can't say anything but good things about Work With Indies. Hack Club posted a job with them and we've gotten so many great applicants. It was also one of the best experiences I've ever had posting a job online. They took my GitHub gist, formatted it, found our logos and pictures of students online, and put together a beautiful page to spotlight the job. I couldn't believe it. One of the best exp…
Overall very nice (and useful for someone like myself), but if I may bitch for just one second :) (I was browsing in incognito mode, if that's relevant) Navigation seems really broken. I can select a job listing to get details, but the back button on my mouse doesn't work as expected. It takes me back to the page before the home page, not the home page itself. Clicking on the scroll bar while viewing a listing makes…
Interesting. What’s it like working for an indie studio? What is the pay and work life balance like? Any advice for recognizing good companies?
Apparently it tries to pre-load every job listing, including YouTube videos for everything? I appreciate what you're trying to do here but the site is pretty painful on a slow connection. Maybe don't load the listings until you click on one..?
Opening this site for me made 905 HTTP requests. Apparently it tries to pre-load every job listing, including YouTube videos for everything? I appreciate what you're trying to do here but the site is pretty painful on a slow connection. Maybe don't load the listings until you click on one..?
Interesting. What’s it like working for an indie studio? What is the pay and work life balance like? Any advice for recognizing good companies?
In general, I would anticipate pay and benefits to be less than you would receive in your well-funded tech company or startup. There is upside in joining a studio that has a hit game where you not only receive a salary but a % of revenue.
Work life balance is generally favorable as many developers escape to indie games in order to get away from the crunch and routine layoffs that you often see at larger publishers and developers. And indie games on the whole appears to be a more inclusive and diverse part of the game development community. (Of course, there are exceptions.)
There are some fantastic indie studios out there that really care about their people and pride themselves on creating a safe haven for game developers.
A couple of things that I would look for when evaluating a potential indie game employer (if pay and work life balance are of concern):
- A job description or about us page that speaks to these issues, that includes a benefits/perks section, that puts in the extra effort to recruit you into the job/studio. Those are likely the studios that are going to understand that you have value and choice. They are the studios that are thinking about their people, job satisfaction, and retention. Not all indies, particularly those that are just starting up, have taken the time to think through how to be a company/employer and may simply be focused on shipping their first game (again, there are exceptions).
- A studio that has shipped a few successful games, which signals that they might have the financial stability to both offer a healthy compensation package and have had to grow/retain employees through multiple projects. If a studio is brand new, you then might want to look at who is on the team and if they have shipped successful games in the past.
- Of course, I would then look to reach out to current and former employees to gather first-hand insight into what it is like to work at those studios. You might be able to find those people on LinkedIn or in Team/About Us pages. For actual communication, instead of a LinkedIn DM, most everyone in indie games is on twitter.
Another thing of note is that there is a decent amount of contract work in indie games, which would allow you to have greater control over your own compensation and work life balance requirements.