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If game shops operate as movie studios, why don't they simply hire people temporarily. Movie studios cut their staff to marketing, sales, and licensing once the

If game shops operate as movie studios, why don't they simply hire people temporarily. Movie studios cut their staff to marketing, sales, and licensing once their work is completed and released.

corysama 11y ago
Game shop operators have wanted to do that for a long time. The challenge has been that ramping up at a game studio has been a much longer process than ramping up on a movie project. The tools, skills and processes are a lot more consistent between movies than they are between games. It often takes working through a whole game to figure out how to be really effective at a particular studio. In practice, game shops that grow and shrink rapidly have found it to be more expensive than just holding on to the staff. This also has made outsourcing difficult and limited in games. The situation is changing slowly as the industry converges on a small number of standardized game engines. Knowing Unity or Unreal makes you easy to hire at a lot of places. But, if everyone knows Unity or Unreal, it also makes you easy to replace.
- lentil_soup 11y ago
  It's also very bad for employees when there are not many other companies around. It works for the movie industry because they have hubs (ie. Hollywood) where you have loads of studios so you can jump between productions without having to move. It's not the same in the games industry.
- justinhj 11y ago
  Even when using Unity and Unreal the ramp up time is still significant since we all use different source control, bug tracking and project management software. We also build large complicated systems on top of the game engine which come with their own terminology and best practises. Then there's the different back end and external APIs and libraries. I agree the situation is better now and getting better.
thrillgore 11y ago
Already happening. Firms like Compucom and Blindlight specifically handle the outsourcing/temporary hiring of QA and other staff. Some studios like Behavior Interactive exist as consultants/infill for game development. Experience with Unity/Unreal and even Blender are something a lot of creative and technical staffing agencies are hiring for.

If game shops operate as movie studios, why don't they simply hire people temporarily. Movie studios cut their staff to marketing, sales, and licensing once their work is completed and released.

corysama 11y ago

Game shop operators have wanted to do that for a long time. The challenge has been that ramping up at a game studio has been a much longer process than ramping up on a movie project. The tools, skills and processes are a lot more consistent between movies than they are between games. It often takes working through a whole game to figure out how to be really effective at a particular studio. In practice, game shops that grow and shrink rapidly have found it to be more expensive than just holding on to the staff. This also has made outsourcing difficult and limited in games. The situation is changing slowly as the industry converges on a small number of standardized game engines. Knowing Unity or Unreal makes you easy to hire at a lot of places. But, if everyone knows Unity or Unreal, it also makes you easy to replace.

lentil_soup 11y ago
It's also very bad for employees when there are not many other companies around. It works for the movie industry because they have hubs (ie. Hollywood) where you have loads of studios so you can jump between productions without having to move. It's not the same in the games industry.
justinhj 11y ago
Even when using Unity and Unreal the ramp up time is still significant since we all use different source control, bug tracking and project management software. We also build large complicated systems on top of the game engine which come with their own terminology and best practises. Then there's the different back end and external APIs and libraries. I agree the situation is better now and getting better.

thrillgore 11y ago

Already happening. Firms like Compucom and Blindlight specifically handle the outsourcing/temporary hiring of QA and other staff. Some studios like Behavior Interactive exist as consultants/infill for game development. Experience with Unity/Unreal and even Blender are something a lot of creative and technical staffing agencies are hiring for.