2 ms·

For a game designer there are no better opportunities that I am aware (I am not a designer though). For an artist - there is the VFX industry, which is much wo

For a game designer there are no better opportunities that I am aware (I am not a designer though). For an artist - there is the VFX industry, which is much worse from what I've heard (at least game artists don't go on protests). A concept artist could probably do some illustration freelance, not quite as same as a FTE with benefits and salary. For a programmer, and I am one, I don't see anything that could be as fun. Besides, programmers in the games are paid pretty well. For a QA - beats me, QA are treated pretty badly, I guess they are there for the chance to break into the industry. Producers - it seems there is oversupply of middle management, they could probably do the same job of sitting on meetings in a Fortune 500 company for a much better salary but nobody is offering them such a position.

KaiserPro 12y ago
VFX here. For programmers its quite sweet, unless you insist on working long hours. unless there is a real crisis (as in data missing, lack of power or stuff on fire) I'm out the door at clocking off time. We are not curing cancer, no one will die if I leave at the contracted time. But then perhaps being, Helpful, talkative, friendly and having no qualms about telling people that seeing my family is infinity more important than dealing with their lack of planning may be why. I really do feel pity for the people (normally artists) that feel like they have to stay late. for example, people at the Moving Picture company were having dailies at 10PM (a review of the work with crit and dishing out new shots) They start at 9/10AM. There are laws against this sort of thing, unions and other mechanisms to stop employers taking the piss. However people just leave (the industry) without actually doing anything (Apparently here in the UK middle class people don't do unions.) Seriously, everyone grumbles (http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/ http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/) but little to nobody actually does anything. All it takes is 20-30% of the work force saying "actually no, we're not going to work more than 40 hours, deal with it or fire us" No employer can replace 20-30% of a workforce and keep a project schedule.
- pandaman 12y ago
  It's pretty similar in the games. Some companies forbid crunching, many are just encouraging it and very few are actually forcing crunch. E.g. one big publisher offered the studio were I worked at the time a contract that demanded working on weekends. The studio walked away from the deal but other studios had signed up with them and, I figure, they might had similar contracts. Most of the crunch, though, is voluntary.

KaiserPro 12y ago

VFX here. For programmers its quite sweet, unless you insist on working long hours. unless there is a real crisis (as in data missing, lack of power or stuff on fire) I'm out the door at clocking off time. We are not curing cancer, no one will die if I leave at the contracted time. But then perhaps being, Helpful, talkative, friendly and having no qualms about telling people that seeing my family is infinity more important than dealing with their lack of planning may be why. I really do feel pity for the people (normally artists) that feel like they have to stay late. for example, people at the Moving Picture company were having dailies at 10PM (a review of the work with crit and dishing out new shots) They start at 9/10AM. There are laws against this sort of thing, unions and other mechanisms to stop employers taking the piss. However people just leave (the industry) without actually doing anything (Apparently here in the UK middle class people don't do unions.) Seriously, everyone grumbles (http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/ http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/) but little to nobody actually does anything. All it takes is 20-30% of the work force saying "actually no, we're not going to work more than 40 hours, deal with it or fire us" No employer can replace 20-30% of a workforce and keep a project schedule.

pandaman 12y ago
It's pretty similar in the games. Some companies forbid crunching, many are just encouraging it and very few are actually forcing crunch. E.g. one big publisher offered the studio were I worked at the time a contract that demanded working on weekends. The studio walked away from the deal but other studios had signed up with them and, I figure, they might had similar contracts. Most of the crunch, though, is voluntary.