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If I were a mid-level manager at Epic, I wonder how I would handle internal politics at this time. So many competing objectives... 1. Focus on producing novel

If I were a mid-level manager at Epic, I wonder how I would handle internal politics at this time. So many competing objectives... 1. Focus on producing novel content to keep the game interesting, mixing things up enough over weeks/months, but without killing the core mechanics. 2. Hire lots of new employees, all while knowing that the popularity bubble may burst and they may need to be laid off in the near future. 3. Give bonuses to my employees, who are working their tails off, to prevent resentment. Especially in the over-worked video game industry. 4. Acknowledge that this lucky streak is unrepeatable, and that if the game falls out of popularity, there is likely no one to blame. But when it happens, the demoralization will hit hard and the layoffs are inevitable. 5. All this, while the company reaps huge profits.

cheez 7y ago
Sounds better than the usual coding job. Meetings. Sprint plannings. Meetings. Why aren't you done your work? Are you sure this is a 3 and not 1?
- thegabez 7y ago
  Should be a 2 hour task, right? Two weeks later, why wasn't this documented?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - heptathorp 7y ago
    Please, I come on HN to escape all of this.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
GuiA 7y ago
4a. Acknowledge that some companies have too many "lucky streaks" for them to be "lucky streaks" (e.g. Pixar, Valve, Nintendo, etc.). Attempt to build a work environment conducive to great creative work such that if there's any way to make this kind of success repeatable, at least we're putting the chances on our side.
- zelon88 7y ago
  Valve does not belong in that list. They got their lucky streak and used it to buy themselves a work environment where nobody has to be accountable to anyone in order to stay profitable. Productivity is optional at Valve. Take Steam or leave it, they don't need to make titles anymore. At least Nintendo and Pixar create new content.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - icecreammatt 7y ago
    What about all the work they have done with VR, Linux, and supporting like any common game controller with most steam games?
vvanders 7y ago
> Give bonuses to my employees, who are working their tails off, to prevent resentment. Especially in the over-worked video game industry. Hah. I've know a few people on break-away titles(on the level of fortnight for an era) in my time in that industry. In most of those cases the employer or publisher had slipped in some sort of cap in royalties on a per-employee basis. So while their % cut of royalties was in the 7-figures they never saw anything above 6-figures. Kudos on you for thinking this way but I'd be surprised if most of the people working on Fortnight are seeing more than mid FAANG compensation.
- Impossible 7y ago
  Mid FAANG level compensation goes a lot further in Cary, NC than it does in the Bay Area though. If bonuses are 3-4x salary like mentioned in the article, then most employees are making more than they would for an equivalent role at FAANG (baring stock anomalies). According to glass door senior software engineers at Epic make around ~$150K. Three to four times that is $450K-$600K, which is higher than the equivalent at FAANG according to level.fyi (L5 at Google and E5 at FB make ~$350K). This isn't justifying crunch so much as it's pointing out that Epic games seems to be paying out bonuses that are on another level. I've worked on break-away game titles and currently work at FAANG so I generally agree with you and have points of reference.
- MuffinFlavored 7y ago
  > more than mid FAANG compensation. Do FAANG do remote? If so... what's that compensation like?
  - nscalf 7y ago
    levels.fyi
    - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
      so... in Miami, I make $150k working for a non-FAANG company as a senior software engineer. If I worked for a FAANG company, I'd make $300k?
JohnFen 7y ago
> Give bonuses to my employees, who are working their tails off, to prevent resentment. While bonuses can help, expecting them to prevent resentment is, in my opinion, misguided.

cheez 7y ago

Sounds better than the usual coding job. Meetings. Sprint plannings. Meetings. Why aren't you done your work? Are you sure this is a 3 and not 1?

thegabez 7y ago
Should be a 2 hour task, right? Two weeks later, why wasn't this documented?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- heptathorp 7y ago
  Please, I come on HN to escape all of this.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

GuiA 7y ago

4a. Acknowledge that some companies have too many "lucky streaks" for them to be "lucky streaks" (e.g. Pixar, Valve, Nintendo, etc.). Attempt to build a work environment conducive to great creative work such that if there's any way to make this kind of success repeatable, at least we're putting the chances on our side.

zelon88 7y ago
Valve does not belong in that list. They got their lucky streak and used it to buy themselves a work environment where nobody has to be accountable to anyone in order to stay profitable. Productivity is optional at Valve. Take Steam or leave it, they don't need to make titles anymore. At least Nintendo and Pixar create new content.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- icecreammatt 7y ago
  What about all the work they have done with VR, Linux, and supporting like any common game controller with most steam games?

vvanders 7y ago

> Give bonuses to my employees, who are working their tails off, to prevent resentment. Especially in the over-worked video game industry. Hah. I've know a few people on break-away titles(on the level of fortnight for an era) in my time in that industry. In most of those cases the employer or publisher had slipped in some sort of cap in royalties on a per-employee basis. So while their % cut of royalties was in the 7-figures they never saw anything above 6-figures. Kudos on you for thinking this way but I'd be surprised if most of the people working on Fortnight are seeing more than mid FAANG compensation.

Impossible 7y ago
Mid FAANG level compensation goes a lot further in Cary, NC than it does in the Bay Area though. If bonuses are 3-4x salary like mentioned in the article, then most employees are making more than they would for an equivalent role at FAANG (baring stock anomalies). According to glass door senior software engineers at Epic make around ~$150K. Three to four times that is $450K-$600K, which is higher than the equivalent at FAANG according to level.fyi (L5 at Google and E5 at FB make ~$350K). This isn't justifying crunch so much as it's pointing out that Epic games seems to be paying out bonuses that are on another level. I've worked on break-away game titles and currently work at FAANG so I generally agree with you and have points of reference.
MuffinFlavored 7y ago
> more than mid FAANG compensation. Do FAANG do remote? If so... what's that compensation like?
- nscalf 7y ago
  levels.fyi
  - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
    so... in Miami, I make $150k working for a non-FAANG company as a senior software engineer. If I worked for a FAANG company, I'd make $300k?

JohnFen 7y ago

> Give bonuses to my employees, who are working their tails off, to prevent resentment. While bonuses can help, expecting them to prevent resentment is, in my opinion, misguided.