[url]http://www.igda.org/qol/whitepaper.php[/url]
Well, it's 90 pages and I have yet to read them all. But should be an interesting read for those who want to find out more about the quality of life in video games. Here's their preview from their website.
quote:The 90-page ?Quality of Life in the Game Industry: Challenges and Best Practices? white paper was prepared by the IGDA's Quality of Life Committee, representing a wide range of game development professions and companies.
The white paper discusses the problems and consequences developers face when trying to maintain a career in the industry and the solutions for establishing a better work/life balance.
The white paper is partly based on the results of the ?Quality of Life Survey? commissioned by the IGDA in early 2004, which garnered nearly one thousand responses from developers. The survey examined developers' attitude toward work, their internal pressures (salary, long hours, job instability), external pressures (family and relationships), inadequate staffing and work organization problems. Some of the alarming findings from the survey include:
34.3% of developers expect to leave the industry within 5 years, and 51.2% within 10 years.
Only 3.4% said that their coworkers averaged 10 or more years of experience.
Crunch time is omnipresent, during which respondents work 65 to 80 hours a week (35.2%). The average crunch work week exceeds 80 hours (13%). Overtime is often uncompensated (46.8%).
44% of developers claim they could use more people or special skills on their projects.
Spouses are likely to respond that ?You work too much...? (61.5%); ?You are always stressed out.? (43.5%); ?You don't make enough money.? (35.6%).
Contrary to expectations, more people said that games were only one of many career options for them (34%) than said games were their only choice (32%).
The IGDA white paper explains how studios can adopt best practices to help alleviate some of the stress and allow for a more balanced life:Family friendly practices
A conscious effort to minimize overtime
Better communication between management and developers
Better contracts between individuals, studios and publishers
Better planning and budgeting
Better human resource management
Chris
*edit* I can't spell quality :)
Very interesting reading. Some pretty depressing statistics there really. In truth it kind of makes we wonder why I?m trying so hard to get into the industry. I love making games, but with the industry the way it is, I?d almost be better off keeping game development as a hobby, and seek more practical employment. Maybe. (Man it was painful to type that! [:P] )
I wonder if half the reason for such poor working conditions and quality of life is that game developers are willing to abide by such conditions. With so many people desperate to get into the industry, and willing to work long hard hours for low pay, why should the industry change? Why would an employer look after its staff when there are so many people willing to work slave labour just to be in the industry?
Seems to me like maybe things need to change.
Don't let the paper scare you off Palantir, there are always the gems amoungst the sand when it comes to developers. I think the biggest thing is if you're aware of it, then you can do something to stop it.
There is no reason to work the ways that are "standard" in the industry. Papers like this will hopefully raise awareness and hopefully the gung ho "newbies" in the industry will start to learn not to put up with it. This is one reason why I think Game Development courses are a good Idea. New members of the industry can be made aware of various issue like this and can be the front line when it comes to changing it.
Our studio kind of had a revolution a few months back. (at least engineering side, the artists haven't wised up, yet). We had an engineer who has a fairly new family and actually had given his 2 week notice to quit due to teh long hours. In a sign of intelligence, management decided that to lose him, would be a serious blow to the team so now we never have pressure to stay long. Due to the actions of one man, there was a shift in our company's culture. So see, the world doesn't have to follow these rules. You just have to be willing to take a chance :)
I personally wouldn't suggest that going indy is going to result in more sensible hours or better pay, most likely you will be working longer hours for little or no pay, if you want to keep your business afloat.
quote:With so many people desperate to get into the industry, and willing to work long hard hours for low pay, why should the industry change?
Thats pretty much what the bigtops paying the bills think, however...
quote:Why would an employer look after its staff when there are so many people willing to work slave labour just to be in the industry?
As i think is suggested in the paper, you may be able to get plenty of fresh faces willing to work to death, but if you don't keep experience in the company you will be churning out crap and the business is going to suffer. Another way of thinking about it is a bit of a vicious cycle...
1 Experienced employees leave because they are sick of overtime
2 New fresh faces are employed to take up the slack
3 Newbies aren't as competent, so project/s start to fall further behind schedule
4 Employees leave because they are sick of being worked even harder now
5 Goto 1
CYer, Blitz
"I personally wouldn't suggest that going indy is going to result in more sensible hours or better pay, most likely you will be working longer hours for little or no pay, if you want to keep your business afloat."
True enough but i was more thinking along the lines of: I think many people go down the indy path to quench the game-creation desires as a sideline hobby, instead of persueing the straight down the line approach, ie build simple things in your own good time - but thats another story and opens up many a can of worms.
I'm too lazy to sign up for a free IGDA account :P
So no whitepaper for me.
CYer, Blitz