Industry responds to Malcolm King

My son has been studying e-games at RMIT and he says King is right about animators and the long hours. A bit confusing.

King did actually have some good points amongst his grumbles - all of the universities with games degrees are spinning working in the games industry as a glamour job, when there really is a lot of hard work and dedication involved (and sometimes overtime, but it's really a case-by-case basis). Naturally, this means more good recruits for the industry so they're happy to encourage this spin, even if it results in a lot of starry-eyed idealistic graduates who'll never make the cut - same as any other film or arts course. Honestly, most training institutions do this - games are just sparkly and new amongst tertiary education, hence the attention.

I think the issue everyone has with the original article is how King took a small slice of the industry and generalised and reported on facts that were either terribly outdated, out of context, or just blatantly untrue. But then, given the general accuracy of the local press, this shouldn't be a surprise, surely? I don't think any topic I have any first-hand awareness of or have been involved in that's been written about in any newspaper throughout my life hasn't contained misquotes or false information. Makes you wonder about all those topics you don't have first hand information in.

I do agree with one aspect of the debacle that was King's column.

"...THE call has gone out for young people to make a lucrative career designing electronic games. It's fab, it's fun (it's not really work is it?) and you can become mega-rich - but STUDENTS beware....."

The key word there is STUDENTS, while the industry calls out for employees it's the pay for degree schools and government handicapped universities that make money off of the kids passions and naivety, with courses that offer the world yet often sadly deliver very little.

It you look at the industry uptake hardly any of the under qualified, over charged students get full time work nowadays doing what they actually paid to be taught.
Most end up trying there hands at testing and while it's a good job is not what they paid thousands of dollars for is it?

Most curriculum's are so out of date due to slow moving administrative bureaucracy that what is taught is often so far behind current pipelines and skill sets that even the best students are already out of date and all but worthless to an employer when they graduate.

Not to mention many courses rush through the fundamentals which are the most valuable skills for those trying to enter the industry.
Instead they insist on teaching months of vague lesson plans that come down to nothing more than, "you should learn everything at a really low level to better your chances of work."

Yeah that'll work for them when the industry world wide is generally transforming into a playground for highly talented specialists.

I think it's much more likely these trainers are the culprits when it comes to embellishing the truth to our kids.

Where as the people King attacks are of course the evil games developers who actually want and needs real talent, the industry actually has a real skill shortage, not this "limp demand" King assumes.
A bunch of glossy eyed kids with no real usable skills are not an attractive prospect, so why would they waste there time going after them?

To some degree I think King has accidentally stumbled onto something quite truthful about kids being lied too, yet he's going after the wrong group.

Oh and hi five Tom Crago!!

Nicely summarised. As one of the lucky few to have made it into the industry after completing one of these so-called degrees (and again, I'll note that it was mostly due to a combination of sheer determination and lucky timing), I will whole-heartedly agree with everything stated above.

I think that there's still a place for these degrees, but I really think they should treat them more like trade schools, and they DEFINITELY need more tough love on the students. Probably my biggest disappointment after completing my studies was the realisation that I had the same piece of paper as the animation major sitting next to me who couldn't write legible e-mails and who never once produced even one recognisable model, texture or animation that wasn't from a stock library. When over half of the class probably didn't deserve to graduate, it's no wonder that employers put no merit in that piece of paper. So I would hope that for all that King attacks the wrong targets, maybe some aspiring students took something good away from that embarrasingly poor article.

No offense but since your son is studying and not actually working in the industry I might not take his word as gospel.

There are of course those out there which propagate the long hour = passion mythos in there companies however it's not fair to tar everyone with the same brush.

Certain fast food joints give our kids low wages, stupid hours and no flexibility yet never come under the fire of these so called journalists for enslaving our youth.

I personally know of several 21 year olds making over 40K a year in my field and each have done zero hours overtime, does your son mention them?

Woo go Crago

all hail Tom Crago

King's article is up at Online Opinion.

(Tom Crago)"It is simply outrageous to attempt to discourage young people from entering the video game development industry on the grounds that there is "limp demand" for talent. "

talent is the operative word... not those who can pay course tuition fees, and are riding a pipe dream..

if you are a good programmer or an amazingly amazing artist you have a solid future ahead of you in the gaming industry.

there are alot of rewarding industries out there that would make more sense than the games industry

financially, security, proffesional development...

probably not too many accountants or industrial chemists play cod 4 in there lunch hour... but it doesnt mean that these arent rewarding industries (not that this is the argument here...but these are the kinda jobs that kids arent chasing when they are chasing game industry ones)

to anyone who is considering entering the industry, i would definately at least take on baord a little of Malcom's cynism towards the industry... if even only to keep things in perspective..

one thing that this malcolm guy fails to realise about the tax incentive scheme is that a tax benefit will promote large publishers to invest heavilly into australia, thus helping the economy and giving the government more tax dollars to use.. take for example ubisoft in montreal canada, 40% of each persons wage is subsidised.. amazing you think well the government could really use all that tax money.. but no.. what it meant was that ubisoft could employ 40% more people. They have like 1800 employees at their montreal office, if they didn't have the 40% tax incentive maybe they would have just 900 employees or even still, they might have chosen to have a studio somewhere else in the world. This is what its all about.. the film industry is not the type of industry that goes and employs people full time on the magnitude that the games industry does.

The 40% tax credit is not what you think also, i work in canada so I know about it fully.. here it is called SRED which is a tax benefit for companies that research technology into development, its not a simple 40% reduction of tax, companies have to prove that each employee contributed to the research and development of technology which was used in the development of the game which would in turn make the company more valuable world wide. It is really promoting companies to develop technology and softward which only helps canada.

I have seen some interviews with game developers in australia who are pushing the tax credit, but I haven't seen them really explain how they want to get a tax credit. I feel they are trying to get a straight tax credit without any system like canada's which involves the SRED system to promote research and development.. this is how they make it viable and make sense to the governement.

1. Anonymous Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:23:14 EST

If large international publishers can use these funds in competition with local firms, then you can all but kiss the locally owned industry goodbye. Just like what has happened in Canada. Unfortunately it's very hard to setup these incentive schemes so they cannot be exploited by overseas companies.

A scheme like the 40% tax rebate will mean that local companies will be competing with large international publishers for a limited supply of talent. When the government funds dry up, the publishers move on to soak up tax dollars in another country and there's nothing left behind. That's not how we develop our local industry.

Local industry RIP. Let's hope this doesn't go through.

He comes across as a right royal dork, true, but there is the tenuous issue of tax cuts for funding. It seems a no brainer for some people, especially when you liken it to the film industry, but will a 40% tax rebate spurn exponential growth? Will its value exceed, match or fall short of 40%? Probably the latter.

If I was the decision maker, I'd do all I could to promote growth in the games industry, but I can appreciate an objective view to what seems to be a very one-sided debate.

I read Malcolm King's article and did a bit of research. He was head of the communication programs at the Royal Institute of Technology and was also a former media hit man for Keating. I was a bit worried about the job thing with Auran b4 King's article. I'm very worried now but I'll hang tough (i think)

Another copy of his article is up at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6892 , and the footer has some details on his background:

Malcolm King is director of Republic Media, an educational and public advocacy business. He was a senior media adviser to the ALP and Australian Democrats and was the writing programs leader at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Local Industry eh? hm.. well if you look at the gaming industry these days they are all owned by big publishers.. even australia now is majority owned with THQ heavily invested, EA now with Pandamic, and Take Two with Canberra... to say Australia has much of a local industry? cmon.. the only companies would be Krome and Tantalus who might not be able to compete.. but then these companies would welcome the tax benefit.. I think the influx of the big publishers would be good for australia and would help the talent and the industry grow.. even if the publishers decided to go somewhere else the talent could start their own companies etc.. this has happened in canada where many people have left EA in vancouver and started multiple startup companies. Local industry needs foreign investment to thrive, the fact is that games development is a lot more expensive now than it was before.. small local developers really can't compete, this is not an australian local industry problem , it is a global issue.

If i were the australian government , i would give extra incentives to locally owned games developers to help them get started and compete on the global stage, and give maybe a 40% tax break, but the foreign companies get say 25% rebate to help even up the playing field. At the moment their is no incentive whatsoever , the australian dollar is also strong so their is no reason for publishers to invest heavily in australia.

Actually, check out the developers section of Sumea, there's way more independantly owned studios than international. Granted, many of them get their money from overseas publishers to do licensed titles based on the latest movie tie in or game franchise but the business still stays in Australia. Hopefully the tax incentive would allow studios to become more attractive to investors, both local and overseas so the business can grow in Australia and stay in Australia.

Also, I wouldn't be so quick to say that the independant studios we do have are small. Melborne based Torus Games is at least 60 people and growing. Firemint is over 30 people I'm pretty sure, then there's Infinite Interactive that I would imagine would be able to expand with the succes of Puzzle Quest, they must be at least 20 people (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). I don't know the sizes of Big Ant and Red Tribe, but they'd have to be around the 30 mark. Then there's Acheron, who's at least 12 people and I'm sure we'll see them grow over the next year as they secure a little Digital Media Fund funding. And Krome (please no trolling!) employs about 1/5 of all the developers in Australia in 3 states. And pretty much everyone is hiring at the moment, it's never been a better time to be getting into the industry, it's big and it's hungry.

There are many local studios that the staff are prodominetley international people, so maybe thats an issue in itself they should address when they talk about a shortage of local talent. How the hell do they expect to nurture the local industry and growth if they dont want to take on any juniors from there own backyard & school them up??? Oh wait thats right you gotta be a junior with atleast 2 published games & 5 years experience ha ha - so how do you get into this industry again ?????

It's true about the education when it comes to the games industry, they get you in say thanks for the pay cheque on push you out the door without any real knowlege. asking to learn the latest workflow/pipeline methods earns you a disgruntled look but they will take credit when they tell the following year's students oh this person or that person is now working in the industry - yeh no thanks to you!! lol

Anyways just my few bobs worth,

ok so this is going to be a little harsh but is anyone else getting a little tired of the " give me a job because I want it." Emo whining?

/rant

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.....There are many local studios that the staff are predominantly international people, so maybe thats an issue in itself they should address when they talk about a shortage of local talent..."
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Thats just 100% untrue, total crap actually, the vast majority of staff are home grown, you'll find companies only hire senior and above from overseas and even then it would be around 1 in 10. It's actually a nightmare trying to organise visa's, you can't just get them in for an interview, it's all done over a phone....what if the guys an absolute ass or lied his way in etc, there are so many pitfalls to hiring OS staff, we do it because we have to, not because we want too.

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"...How the hell do they expect to nurture the local industry and growth if they don't want to take on any juniors from there own backyard & school them up??? ..."
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The brutal answer: We don't, it's not our job to "school you up" why should we pay you to learn your skills? Thats your job, this isn't a trade and if it was would you take minimum wage or less just for that opportunity? No you wouldn't.

Also as much as it may suck to hear, taking on a really, really raw junior takes a lot of valuable time away from production for Leads and Seniors, so one bad or raw junior is a massive time sink to get up and running, even good ones take a lot of time and effort to get productive.
If a prospective employee doesn't have some obvious level of skill then why the hell would anyone hire them?
I mean seriously, the industry isn't here to further peoples dreams, it's a business, if you are a passionate, driven and talented person you WILL get a job, yes it's a hard slog to get work, it's a competitive industry, what did you expect?
All those in the industry did the hard yards, most got jobs because they worked there asses off to get them.

I truly am sorry if you can't find a job, we all know what it's like, we were there once but the reality is it's on your own head, it's not our cross to bare for you. Harden up and get better, we all had too.

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"....Oh wait thats right you gotta be a junior with atleast 2 published games & 5 years experience ha ha - so how do you get into this industry again ?????....."
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Who asks for that from a junior?
The experience you see on job listing is for the ideal candidate, if you are a ball of raw skill then someone will notice, we get tonnes of portfolios everyday, it takes time to go through them all and they range from stick figure bad all the way up to Da Vinci.
In the end it's the best person who gets the job, so how do you get the job? Become the best person.

I wouldn't expect a junior to have any experience past going to somewhere like AIE, QANTM, Uni or being self taught, if they did have experience it would be in there favour but it's so unlikely.
Skill and personality get juniors jobs.

/rant

In all fairness it would be great if companies could do internships etc but I just don't see it happening until a studio really breaks the bigtime with something akin to Half Life or GoW.
They'd need to be bloody comfortable to do something that effectively doesn't pay them back for a few years.

1. Michael Dobele Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:48:27 EST

Slightly off-topic but a response about internships to the above post.

The company I work for, Halfbrick Studios offers paid internships and currently has a couple of artists working on a project hired under an Internship scheme. We have had great success in the past with having staff work / train on a three month internship period before re-assessing them and hiring them on full time and will continue to do this in the future.

Of course the internships aren't given out like candy and every one we have had was an extremely talented person who was stringently interviewed and tested for the spot. They have generally been students who have just finished a UNI course and whilst having the raw talent lacked the experience to mold that talent into something that is productive for the company. They are generally someone who just falls short of a junior job but shows that potential. By offering them an internship we are able to lower the risk and offset the cost we face training them up and make sure that both themselves and us are happy working with each other.

We have gotten some fantastic returns doing internships and generally see this return within the first three months rather then a few years. Yes it does take a little more patience and effort on the part of your seniors to take them under their wing but if everyone works together, management and staff then the company as a whole prospers from it. I hope more companies offer internships in the future if they aren't doing so already.

Good for Halfbrick. I'm glad to see some companies still doing things like internships.

All the drawbacks to juniors that GimmeGimme listed are true, but honestly, a lot of these skills can only really be acquired by actually working for a games company - even doing mods and making games on your own or with your friends won't totally cut it. Things like internships and a willingness to take of people with potential - not experienced staff ready to hit the ground running at full speed - is necessary if we're ever going to solve this skills shortage that everyone keeps complaining about.

Even for the autodidacts, there is a limit for what self-teaching and sheer unbridled enthusiasm can do. How many young self-taught whiz kids that can program in their sleep know what a standard production pipeline is? The games industry can't rely on poaching from other industries or overseas for skills. We need things like internships - not just half-baked degrees - to do it.

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".....a lot of these skills can only really be acquired by actually working for a games company ...."
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I disagree, you hire junior artists almost totally on their potential and most of the basic fundamentals as an artist are well within reach of a driven and focused individual.
The rest is gained with on the job training during their time as a junior.

What skills do people expect of a junior artist?

Personally, I mainly focus on the below:

- Drive:
the ability to push yourself to always reach for your best, whether asked for or not.

- Maturity:
An understanding of your responsibility to your team, project and employer. This is after all meant to be a professional industry.

- Focus:
The ability to rise to a challenge under periods of extreme stress and sometimes absolute boredom, some titles you work on may not be GoW. :)

- Potential:
The elusive spark of skill for your seniors and leads to nurture, it doesn't need to be much more than a noticeable understanding of the basics but it has to be something, why would anyone take on someone that has no potential?

- And as equally important as potential, personality:
No one wants to work with a horrible person, no matter how good they are. I've seen a few talented people fail for this reason alone.

I think a junior should be given every opportunity to succeed and more importantly fail.
No one should expect a junior to hit the ground running but they do need to know how to stand up at least.

My gripe was solely with the huge amount of winging you hear about not being able to get a job, you hear the common cop out mantras all the time and the reality there lack of employment is never from what they complain about.

The brutal fact is Australia is in a skills shortage and is already scrapping the barrel, if you haven't been fortunate enough to land a job it's going to be one of a few things that caused it:

- You're reel was terrible, not even good enough for an internship.
- You came across badly at the interview.
- They aren't hiring.
- There was someone better. DING DING <----- normally this.
- They missed your reel, it happens, it's shit, submit it again.

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"...Things like internships and a willingness to take of people with potential - not experienced staff ready to hit the ground running at full speed..."
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I 100% agree, however this doesn't mean anyone should expect the industry to train the basic fundamentals to people.
If they can't gain those skills on their own then there isn't any potential to nurture in the first place, they have to come part of the way, it's only fair.

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"...Even for the autodidacts, there is a limit for what self-teaching and sheer unbridled enthusiasm can do...."
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Yes there is a limit and that limit is quite reachable for someone with drive. Said person will, if persistent, gain employment.
I mean, the argument of the industry's expectations being unreasonable are so fundamentally wrong. Try getting a job overseas!!
If they were unrealistic then no one would get employed. The fact is a lot of juniors gain employment in the games industry everyday.....what did they do that was different?

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"......How many young self-taught whiz kids that can program in their sleep know what a standard production pipeline is?..."
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No idea, I'm an artist. :)

Seriously if a whiz kid programmer applied for a job they wouldn't get a chance to scratch their arse before a developer grabbed him/her.
And while on the topic of programmers, one would expect that programming is a skill set you should get some basic training for before you apply for a job, an internship would not be given to you if you had no previous knowledge.

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"....The games industry can't rely on poaching from other industries or overseas for skills. We need things like internships - not just half-baked degrees - to do it...."
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Yup, I agree, we can't afford to solely hire imports, in fact I believe the government stops us from doing it unless a certain percentage of locals are hired also, correct me if I'm wrong.

You hit the mail on the head concerning degrees.

The courses on offer are less than adequate.
-This is not really a fault of the local developers but they do need to give more input if they want it to improve, so there is some responsibility there.
In fact I'd go so far as to say its the equivalent of the pointless whinge of the those who want a job yet haven't tried to improve there odds.. :)

Lack of Internships:
- Great idea on paper, however it doesn't help those who don't want to help themselves.
- It's also potentially risky for an employer.

To be there are many juniors gaining work right now that 3 - 4 months ago would not have got a look in.
The skills shortage has meant everyone has a much better chance, if you haven't suceeded then I'd suggest taking a realistic look at your work or how you approach gaining work.

Thanks for mentioning that Michael.

I suppose it's also safe for me to mention that Tantalus employed several AIE students for a few days a week last year, and also a student from Swinburne. Every one of these students worked out well and nearly all started there when they finished their degree. Given that recruiting good talent can be very difficult and expensive this worked out very well. Some developers may think they are wasting their time hiring juniors and training them up but this couldn't be further from the truth. Juniors bring enthusiasm and fresh ideas to a company that you might not get from more experienced guys. Obviously if they don't work out they'll be let go, but not all experienced guys work out in a company either. My personal opinion is that it's important to get a balance of experienced guys and juniors to keep the company up to date and moving forward.

does anyone now how many ex-auran staff got jobs with tantalus or is that just crap?

i find it funny that these small companies like halfbrick are picky when it comes to employees.. you see this is the problem with the australian games industry.. you have these small companies doing budget crappy games expecting to get talented people.. anywhere else in the world and they would be lucky to get a junior that was even half decent.

haha thats funny.. not much choices of employment in aus so you have to work at small companies trying to make it.