What You Love/Hate About Your Job

Indeed...because the money is shit...it really is compared to other industries doing similar things. Web monkey junior artists getting $60 hr etc...makes me weep, but I love my job rather than despise the work I do.

 

1. Programming. (Except, as of yesterday, outside the games industry... please don't kick me off the forum! I still make games for fun).

2. Creating something that people enjoy, not just use. Solving problems and doing things in ways no-one has ever thought of before.

3. All the bullshit. Politics, crunch, nepotism, lack of planning, absence of professionalism, lower pay, marketing cock-ups, management getting all the cash for the grunts' hard work. I'm about to find out if things are any better outside of games. (The money is, at least). If not, I'll be back one day, but I'll have to approach it from another angle as all that crap just got to me in the end.

 

Oh... I also hated never working with anyone from a different gender. (Not necessarily because I'd be trying to sleep with them, simply that the constant male geekiness and bad hygiene just wears me down).

It turns out that's not any better in any computing job, in fact, at least in games there are somewhat more female artists, whereas in non-games you only ever deal with programmers.

 

1) Programming
2) That the job never gets boring.. I think apart from music the game industry is the most widely creative industry around (with films it is mostly down to a good cast and great direction, not always down to a great crew)
3) The current way schedules are allocated, managed and maintained. "Hey Bob.. How long will it take to create a AAA top-selling game? (and your publisher is not EA).. Well you and your team have 12-14 months. No bonus, no overtime, and the sack if you slip too far. Get on it!". Yeah Right.. That's really going to get a team motivated to push the boat out.

 

1. Game design, concepting
2. The freedom you're given, feeling of success when your concept goes through, seeing people play your game and have fun
3. F**king schedules

 

1. Programmer/Designer
2. Being able to design and implement a game and enjoy playing it, working with people who also love games and are passionate about what they do. Being blessed with the occasional prescence of Graeme Kelly to inspire me
3. Office Politics

 

Hate:

1) Our new Agile stuff - daily meetings/grillings
2) Agile meetings again - agile this agile that agile shite..
3) 100% blokes in the office

Love:

1) Wear what you want
2) We're next to the pubs
3) The actual coding is bloody good fun - beats coding databases (which I've done briefly)

 

Love

1) Modelling and texturing environments and doing concept art, it's one hell of a great way to make a living
2) Cluttering my workspace with a selection of figurines, spaceship models, robots etc.
3) The pub

Hate

1) Losing work and having to do the whole thing all over again
2) Tyrannical Managers
3) EA

 

1. Level Designer
2. Being creative, having input into a game, seeing your ideas and efforts come to life, cool people, office 'banter' and general japery.
3. Dodgy schedules, external producers and their weird demands, not getting my own way all the time , crunching.

 

1. Games Programmer
2. Doing things I love to do at home in my spare time only on a larger scale.. & getting paid for it..
3. Lack of diversity in the workforce & probably the commute..

 

Love:
Working with a team of talented individuals; I respect them, they respect me. We get things done and done well.

Hate:
- management that does not want to change i.e. - their current ways are better
- having lots of responsibility without authority
- bad scheduling; "crunch is unavoidable"
- no one is at the wheel of the ship and when are we hitting the coastline?

 

1. Programmer.
2. Always being presented with new problems to solve.
3.

 

1. Artist.
2. Many of the people I've met. Good comraderie.
3. Oh dear god the bland repetitiveness in commercial titles these days. Space Marine VS Aliens/Mutants/Demons Vol. 39537636363.

 

1. Artist/Tech Guy
2. Facing new challenges every day/ helping people out with a problem they are having.
3. Politics and not a huge amount of creative control.

 

1. Game Design
2. I design game mechanics and features that (hopefully) a lot of people will enjoy. That alone gives me such a sense of accomplishment that it sometimes becomes overwhelming. Besides this, a lot of my co-workers are the most talented and dedicated people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Brilliance is an understatement for some of these guys. And lastly; someone pays me to experience this rollercoaster ride and lets me have influence on all of it. I can't think of many other jobs that would make me say that!
3. The current average development time our projects have these days; 3+ years. It is hard to stay motivated and focussed on a project when you've played it inside out for more than 2 years.

 

1 - Production / Design
2- The people I work with, the creativity that comes out of the studio, the camaraderie that comes out of crunch and the excitement of finishing a game. Spinning
3 - External producers, design decisions based on knee-jerk reactions.

 

1. Art/Production
2. People are fantabulous and understand my insanity...most of the time. Thats a first for me. Get to be creative and see my stuff in an /ACTUAL/ game! Am new to the industry and feel like I've struck gold.
3. Being new and not understanding stuff...can be frustrating at times.

 

1. Design
2. I tend to only like my vacation time recently.
3. Editorial Genius who basically knew how to make games. Management who are using big words for small things. Designer who don't have any technical understandings.

 

1. Composer

2. I love bringing a new dimension to a game. Whether I'm giving a scene more atmosphere, a character more depth, or even suggesting something about the game that hasn't been brought up in the art or the writing yet, I love painting with music.

3. I have to agree with those who hate the crunch. It's not that I do bad work during crunch, but every project I take on, I want to be better than my last and rushing and crunching it threatens my work with sameness/mediocrity.

 

1.Gameplay programmer and Design

2.Being creative

3.Lack of funding