I've not worked at a game studio, but I have worked at an interactive design studio, and the basic story is the same. The artists, Flash devs, and creative dir

I've not worked at a game studio, but I have worked at an interactive design studio, and the basic story is the same. The artists, Flash devs, and creative directors put up with a mind-boggling amount of mistreatment[1] from management in order to build up a professional portfolio. There was a high level of turnover in the creative department, however, because once a portfolio was built, the designer would attempt to find greener grasses. [1] 12 hour days were pretty normal for a lot of folks, and our poor Flash dev, who was pretty darn good, often worked for days straight.