Comments on: Having a life while working on games Thanks for posting this, Chris. I appreciate it for two main reasons. First, it's great to hear from someone who's aware of Quality of Life issues in the industry and has reason to believe things are turning around. Second, you're encouraging people to re-evaluate their own situation and consider alternatives if their own work/life balance is out of whack. From my own experience as recently as the summer of 2010 I can tell you that QoL issues are still very much a problem. The closer you get to some of the biggest cash cows in the industry, the more pressure is applied by publishers to stick to unrealistic schedules. They just aren't interested in excuses. Which may be a fair point if your studio already has a contract in place...publishers aren't necessarily in the wrong when expecting studios to fulfill contractual obligations. But studio management perpetuates the problem by either kowtowing to publisher demands or ignoring blatant project mismanagement. Either way, the result can be vast amounts of unpaid overtime and the looming threat of losing your job if you aren't putting in 80+ hours a week.And when the result of all of the mismanagement and unpaid overtime is a game that brings in over a billion dollars, how can you get any of the decision-makers to change their ways? You've just proven to them that what they're doing works.I hope this wasn't too much of a downer, but you did ask to hear from industry veterans regarding their experience with QoL issues. Hope is not lost, though, and there are agents of change out there. I'm very happy to discuss what can be done to fix the problem. Thanks for posting this, Chris. I appreciate it for two main reasons. First, it’s great to hear from someone who’s aware of Quality of Life issues in the industry and has reason to believe things are turning around. Second, you’re encouraging people to re-evaluate their own situation and consider alternatives if their own work/life balance is out of whack. From my own experience as recently as the summer of 2010 I can tell you that QoL issues are still very much a problem. The closer you get to some of the biggest cash cows in the industry, the more pressure is applied by publishers to stick to unrealistic schedules. They just aren’t interested in excuses. Which may be a fair point if your studio already has a contract in place…publishers aren’t necessarily in the wrong when expecting studios to fulfill contractual obligations. But studio management perpetuates the problem by either kowtowing to publisher demands or ignoring blatant project mismanagement. Either way, the result can be vast amounts of unpaid overtime and the looming threat of losing your job if you aren’t putting in 80+ hours a week.And when the result of all of the mismanagement and unpaid overtime is a game that brings in over a billion dollars, how can you get any of the decision-makers to change their ways? You’ve just proven to them that what they’re doing works.I hope this wasn’t too much of a downer, but you did ask to hear from industry veterans regarding their experience with QoL issues. Hope is not lost, though, and there are agents of change out there. I’m very happy to discuss what can be done to fix the problem.

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By: Paul Richardson/2011/02/02/having-a-life-while-working-on-games/#comment-442 Paul Richardson Sat, 05 Feb 2011 02:22:49 +0000 Chris - great post! This is always such a tricky subject, and as I write this comment with the latest build of our game in the background I can say that a lot of it comes down to company culture. Luckily enough, we self publish so granted there is a lot more freedom there but our culture leads to development driving deadlines. So if a deadline is set it's because every person on the team has been accounted for and have been asked to give their estimate and then pad it. Once the goals have been set (by the dev team) they feel it's their responsibility to complete them. Whether that means crunching or not crunching is up to them. Additionally, we also allow the freedom to work from home if the dev feels it's a lot more suitable for certain days. If you're stuck in a place where there's horrible culture know this, there are other options out there and you should explore them and be proactive about it. Hell, seek out others whom are displeased and bootstrap your own studio for a couple of months on a mobile title! Chris – great post! This is always such a tricky subject, and as I write this comment with the latest build of our game in the background I can say that a lot of it comes down to company culture. Luckily enough, we self publish so granted there is a lot more freedom there but our culture leads to development driving deadlines. So if a deadline is set it’s because every person on the team has been accounted for and have been asked to give their estimate and then pad it. Once the goals have been set (by the dev team) they feel it’s their responsibility to complete them. Whether that means crunching or not crunching is up to them. Additionally, we also allow the freedom to work from home if the dev feels it’s a lot more suitable for certain days. If you’re stuck in a place where there’s horrible culture know this, there are other options out there and you should explore them and be proactive about it. Hell, seek out others whom are displeased and bootstrap your own studio for a couple of months on a mobile title!

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By: James Podesta/2011/02/02/having-a-life-while-working-on-games/#comment-440 James Podesta Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:02:29 +0000 @PaulI agree, and my wife, who is a project manager, would agree even more heartily. And the responsibility for making sure your time is reported falls on the employee. I stayed late because I really wanted to track down and fix a DMA bug that had been haunting me for a while. I didn't tell my boss that I was staying late that night, but I indirectly told him in the morning since I knew he would read my post. However if I was finding that my work load was causing me to stay late for more than a couple days I would make sure he knew that, there may not be anything that can be done for the current deadline but we could make sure to take it into account for the next milestone. I am by no means advocating working long hours without extra pay and without telling anyone. @PaulI agree, and my wife, who is a project manager, would agree even more heartily. And the responsibility for making sure your time is reported falls on the employee. I stayed late because I really wanted to track down and fix a DMA bug that had been haunting me for a while. I didn’t tell my boss that I was staying late that night, but I indirectly told him in the morning since I knew he would read my post. However if I was finding that my work load was causing me to stay late for more than a couple days I would make sure he knew that, there may not be anything that can be done for the current deadline but we could make sure to take it into account for the next milestone. I am by no means advocating working long hours without extra pay and without telling anyone.

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By: James Podesta/2011/02/02/having-a-life-while-working-on-games/#comment-438 James Podesta Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:50:20 +0000 One of the problems I see is that by doing work that is unrecorded in the schedule it means you/the company have no way of knowing how long it took to make the game. So even if you're happy doing extra work and staying late without telling people, you really shouldn't as the long term implications for it are still pretty bad. From a managerial point of view you need to know how long things take. One of the problems I see is that by doing work that is unrecorded in the schedule it means you/the company have no way of knowing how long it took to make the game. So even if you’re happy doing extra work and staying late without telling people, you really shouldn’t as the long term implications for it are still pretty bad. From a managerial point of view you need to know how long things take.

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By: Chris Kosanovich/2011/02/02/having-a-life-while-working-on-games/#comment-436 Chris Kosanovich Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:45:06 +0000 Thanks for your post, you restored my faith in this industry a bit. But don't you think "crunches" and any overtime (especially unpaid) is more often in gamedev than in other industries where programmers work? Thanks for your post, you restored my faith in this industry a bit. But don’t you think “crunches” and any overtime (especially unpaid) is more often in gamedev than in other industries where programmers work?

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By: gyakoo/2011/02/02/having-a-life-while-working-on-games/#comment-434 gyakoo Thu, 03 Feb 2011 08:13:08 +0000 > My boss probably didn’t even know that I had stayed substantially later yesterday > than normal, though he does now that he has read thisYes. Now he does. Hmmmm. > My boss probably didn’t even know that I had stayed substantially later yesterday > than normal, though he does now that he has read thisYes. Now he does. Hmmmm.

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