I don't really have a dreamstudio, simply because no matter how much it can look awesome from outside, it could be aweful once in. I just wish that when i finish school, i'll be able to be part of a nice family for a long time where i can challenger myself in a great work environment doing something I like. I'm really scare because those days all you heard is that company mass-employ people for 1year then they kicked everyone out, I don't want that :< I want to grow with the studio.
My dream studio to work for epically disappointed me, we are artists and creators and the product is often reflective of the environment it is created in, shit environment, shit management, shit job security, and you get shit games, of course pay IGN off you will still turn a profit but yeah.
until you get what your making published its a struggle, but I realized quite early on I had the programming skills, the markets are out there, and the best way to work on something you are passionate about is to create something you are really into.
with stuff like Unreal engine, Game maker studio, Steam as a distribution platform and the mobile markets, there really couldn't be a better time to start a studio of your own.
There are quite a few stories of indie developers becoming quite successful, Garrys mod, even though its a fairly simple and buggy game, has sold a ton of copies.
The industry definitely seems to be becoming easier for small indie developers to compete in
Realistically? Epic Games. I'd love to be on the forefront of making cutting edge technology in addition to games.
Dream dreams? My own studio.
No layoffs, no crunches, no BS. Everything is about making the most creative and beautiful looking games that goes against the norm.
Pretty much what Neox said.
The place should also have a decent management with some good long term planning skills and vision - i.e. how to keep in business without having to lay off everyone because someone spent the money left and right because "well, it was just there".
Work-life balance that is lead by strong, smart, and agile production scheduling.
Leadership that is brutally open with everyone about what is going on. Leadership who are also smart and willing to prune and cut chaff as necessary to make sure the game succeeds with little to no collateral damage.
Leadership that has access to a community of other leads in the industry, so they're not meeting challenges alone.
More or less flat heirarchy, but understanding there's still a need for empowered leads.
A strong culture of learning for engineers, designers, artists, QA, etc. And active communication outside of immediate tasks between disciplines.
A cafeteria and free snacks, with a public kitchen.
A strong feeling of family, with people loving each other in little ways, like bringing donuts in the morning, or going out of their way to celebrate birthdays. Teams lunch together, and ask other people if they want to join as a matter of habit and intention.
In Los Angeles (for me at this moment).
A place where it's not a matter of political correctness, but more charitable discussion.
A studio that works to see their employees succeed as much as their games do.
A studio that stays together through several projects, instead of a studio that keeps undulating in staffing between projects.
good artists around me, fun projects to work on, solid pay for solid work.
and a good work - life balance
most of it is going well. lets adress the rest
Neox won the thread. What he said but I'd also like to add that I think I'm more fit for smaller studios where I have more say / people value your input. Being a cog is not cool
Funny thing is, free snacks are the least I care about, but whenever you tour a studio many the HR people LOVE to point out their free snacks, while keeping rather quiet on the rest that really matters when you're stuck in a place for 8 hours a day.
A cafeteria and free snacks, with a public kitchen.
public kitchen i agree on, thats great. free snacks tho? what kind of snacks? as a small scale employer (like really small scale) i'd not support you on eating unhealthy shit like chocolate bars or candy or shit. if you want to spend your money on such things it's on you. Same with coke or powerdrinks stuff, you can get water on the companies expenses. The unhealthy stuff that destroys you in the long run is on you and you alone, like it would be on me if i would like to have it.
My dream job? Being able to work on whatever I want while getting paid enough that I never have to think about it. It's on an island that isn't a touristy spot with steady temperatures (but not too hot), I can work from home any time, and there's a fantastic cafe within walking distance where I can sit and sketch. Oh, and full health/dental/vision, including massages, matching retirement fund contributions, and tuition fully covered for anyone who wants to continue their education. There's also low housing costs and great schools, and probably a nice community garden near that cafe. There's never crunch and everyone is encouraged to manage their stress and take a day off whenever needed to recharge.
A dream job is a difficult one. Especially after the way Odow put it, sure it'd be nice to have something akin to Valve's snack bar and just feast on all the delicious food and play some Mario Kart on the lunch break.
But really for me, no matter if the studio building itself is decrepit and worn down, having a team of people who are all on the same page and in synchronous artistic harmony with each other whilst working on projects everyone enjoys and gets paid well for, and not driven to crazy overtime hours to the point of insanity.
To feel that you really are a part of something and shaping the way a game turns out that potentially many people will get their hands on and have genuine fun with sounds like a rewarding enough experience for me.
If I got offered a job from the big boys like Blizzard or whatever, would I take it? Hell yeah I would. But I'm not hands on and a part of the creation of the games that get made.
Neox won the thread. What he said but I'd also like to add that I think I'm more fit for smaller studios where I have more say / people value your input. Being a cog is not cool
Definitely agree. It would be much nicer to have some input over what you are making, instead of being told 'make this concept by the end of this week'.
Iceland looks like a beautiful place to stay and I've been in love with EVE Online's art style ever since I first played the game. Internet spaceships all the way!
Or Digital Extremes
Warframe has the same sci-fi feel which I crave. Most importantly however, it has some of the greatest visual effects I've ever seen. There's no limit to the amount of local vector fields you can use in particles!
+1 this. No one cares about the answer itself, it is the reasoning behind it that is interesting
Ill answer mine then. (eventhough it will be many years before I actually get a job in games)
The thing that seems nice about Facepunch is how they seem to give you the opportunity to have a go with your own ideas, and work on what you like.
On their website they say:
Were not going to tell you what hours to work. You can work that out yourself. If you work best by starting at 2AM then you can work at 2AM. If you work best from home, then work from home.
We arent going to tell you what to do. Youll probably just slip into doing something.
If youre an artist then people might ask for your help on their project. You might see something that you think could be improved, and choose to improve it.
Being scared of failing is what leads people to make safe decisions. We dont want you to make safe decisions. We want you to be bold and different. This is the only way to innovate.
Youre not going to get fired if you start a project and then 3 months in you realise that the whole idea is shit. We applaud you for realising and not wasting any more of your time on it. Salvage whatever you can, learn from your experiences and move on.
It seems like a very appealing place to work and somewhere where you could actually challenge and push yourself to get better at your job.
EDIT: I forgot one important thing. They seem incredibly dedicated to their customers and their creations. They have pretty much entirely remade Rust and now its getting better and better, even after selling millions
If we're on the reason of why, I'd like some thoughts on this from others.
It's only been 10 months since I've graduated uni, and only have several actual professional gigs outside of uni (minus any internships).
I want to assert that I think for a life (a whole life, not just career) to be well lived (just assume it means what it means to you, avoid semantics), and if one wants a good game development career, the last thing you should do is chase fame and try to find the most famous game, or even a game you love with unyielding passion.
One more assertion, I will assert it is more valuable to find a good "family" to work with as one of the highest priorities as one works through their career.
I'm not sure I have a dream studio at this point. Many of the studios I looked up to in the past have crunch as part of their culture and/or generally don't pay well.
Ideally, a smaller team of talented folk, lots of collaboration, ample pre-production, strong art direction in stylized and interesting game worlds, no crunch, and good pay/benefits.
If we're on the reason of why, I'd like some thoughts on this from others.
It's only been 10 months since I've graduated uni, and only have several actual professional gigs outside of uni (minus any internships).
I want to assert that I think for a life (a whole life, not just career) to be well lived (just assume it means what it means to you, avoid semantics), and if one wants a good game development career, the last thing you should do is chase fame and try to find the most famous game, or even a game you love with unyielding passion.
One more assertion, I will assert it is more valuable to find a good "family" to work with as one of the highest priorities as one works through their career.
Any objections, thoughts, etc?
I know people who did stints at well known studios but didn't stay long because they looked for different studio cultures, etc. However having a well known name on the resume helps a lot!
My tip: try the big awesome name studio early in your career, IF you get an offer. And if you're lucky it may even be a good fit. If not, move on. But having a well known name on your resume can be quite useful when searching for that perfect game job.
the guys saying "i want to work at XYZ", could you also say why? i think this would be quite interesting.
Excellent point.
I said Frictional Games. Why? I love their projects. Not one specific aspect of them, but the overall, end product. I think they make truly exciting singleplayer games. And I'd love to be a part of that. They're also a small independent developer, which appeals to me.
I want to assert that I think for a life (a whole life, not just career) to be well lived (just assume it means what it means to you, avoid semantics), and if one wants a good game development career, the last thing you should do is chase fame and try to find the most famous game, or even a game you love with unyielding passion.
I don't have a clear argument with premises, but if I had to try.
1) A life well lived is a life lived doing objectively meaningful things.
2) Fame and passion only are not guaranteed to be meaningful things.
>> It is likely that pursuing fame and passion will not lead to a life well lived.
Btw, Ben, congratz on Advanced Warfare! Hope this means auspicious years for you guys at Sledge. I can only imagine it's been quite the effort to be the primary on this CoD.
I don't have a clear argument with premises, but if I had to try.
1) A life well lived is a life lived doing objectively meaningful things.
2) Fame and passion only are not guaranteed to be meaningful things.
>> It is likely that pursuing fame and passion will not lead to a life well lived.
I would have to a disagree, not aiming at fame or passion can lead to living a life of satisfaction and fear. Even an indie developer that runs on pure passion can find fame. Fame for many is a reward as being categorized as the elite few. Any artist or individual that is not striving to be the best at something will be forgotten.
Also there are no rules to living a well lived life.
If I'm gonna spend 8 hours a day with a bunch of people, then the people are probably one of the most important aspects of finding my dream studio. I can work on some silly silly shit if I'm surrounded by good people.
I don't have a clear argument with premises, but if I had to try.
1) A life well lived is a life lived doing objectively meaningful things.
2) Fame and passion only are not guaranteed to be meaningful things.
>> It is likely that pursuing fame and passion will not lead to a life well lived.
you want to do something meaningful? then get the hell out of games, you will work on something entertaining at best, not that entertainment is bad or anything. but if you want to do something meaningful study medicine, go fix ebola, cancer or set up a school somewhere in the 3rd world.
games can be meaningful for some individuals but for the vast majority it is purely entertaining like films, i wonder what game you would define to be objectively meaningful.
maybe i have grown too old to see games as something truly meaningful, i dunno, to me the project the boyfriend of my sister is working in, sounds a lot more meaningful than anything i could ever do on games. He is developing a tire that adapt or can be adapted to the ground it needs to roll on. to supply rural areas in africa without proper roads with a wheel for transportation, a tire that gets thin and wide in radius on hard ground, and wide and narrow in radius when the raintime started and the roads or nothing but mud. He is a 3d artist/designer too, not an engineer, to me this is something really meaningful.
Hmm neox, i think that's a pretty bleak outlook on being meaningful.
Sure games don't have much in the way of impact for making people's lives easier, or solving some unsolved problem, but i think providing entertainment is a super meaningful endeavor.
You are making the experiences people look forward to unwinding with at the end of a long day, or you are making a platform for friends bonding online.
Entertainment is a meaningful, but i can certainly see your points though.
Also fuck the cruise ship, i want a fucking blimp game studio. That or an old nuclear sub.
Iceland looks like a beautiful place to stay and I've been in love with EVE Online's art style ever since I first played the game. Internet spaceships all the way!
I love Iceland. Don't know if I'd want to live there though - Reykjavik is basically a small town, and it's thousands of miles from anywhere
My all time dream job is to become a game designer,but sadly in my country Bulgaria the opportunities to work as one are very very limited (. I also enjoy doing graphic design and currently i'm looking for a job as graphic designer and eventually front-end developer ^^.
Replies
Pretty much what Odow is saying. Actually exactly what he's saying
I like the idea of companies who seem to let you work how you want, like Facepunch
My dream studio to work for epically disappointed me, we are artists and creators and the product is often reflective of the environment it is created in, shit environment, shit management, shit job security, and you get shit games, of course pay IGN off you will still turn a profit but yeah.
until you get what your making published its a struggle, but I realized quite early on I had the programming skills, the markets are out there, and the best way to work on something you are passionate about is to create something you are really into.
with stuff like Unreal engine, Game maker studio, Steam as a distribution platform and the mobile markets, there really couldn't be a better time to start a studio of your own.
The industry definitely seems to be becoming easier for small indie developers to compete in
Dream dreams? My own studio.
No layoffs, no crunches, no BS. Everything is about making the most creative and beautiful looking games that goes against the norm.
But I still have a huge passion for my own projects, so going indie would be cool aswell. Stability is the biggest worry there though!
All my dreams of working for specific studios died some time ago.. so much disappointment.
and a good work - life balance
most of it is going well. lets adress the rest
Yup, this is pretty much it for me.
The place should also have a decent management with some good long term planning skills and vision - i.e. how to keep in business without having to lay off everyone because someone spent the money left and right because "well, it was just there".
Well you said dream.
Leadership that is brutally open with everyone about what is going on. Leadership who are also smart and willing to prune and cut chaff as necessary to make sure the game succeeds with little to no collateral damage.
Leadership that has access to a community of other leads in the industry, so they're not meeting challenges alone.
More or less flat heirarchy, but understanding there's still a need for empowered leads.
A strong culture of learning for engineers, designers, artists, QA, etc. And active communication outside of immediate tasks between disciplines.
A cafeteria and free snacks, with a public kitchen.
A strong feeling of family, with people loving each other in little ways, like bringing donuts in the morning, or going out of their way to celebrate birthdays. Teams lunch together, and ask other people if they want to join as a matter of habit and intention.
In Los Angeles (for me at this moment).
A place where it's not a matter of political correctness, but more charitable discussion.
A studio that works to see their employees succeed as much as their games do.
A studio that stays together through several projects, instead of a studio that keeps undulating in staffing between projects.
Neox won the thread. What he said but I'd also like to add that I think I'm more fit for smaller studios where I have more say / people value your input. Being a cog is not cool
great list!
Funny thing is, free snacks are the least I care about, but whenever you tour a studio many the HR people LOVE to point out their free snacks, while keeping rather quiet on the rest that really matters when you're stuck in a place for 8 hours a day.
public kitchen i agree on, thats great. free snacks tho? what kind of snacks? as a small scale employer (like really small scale) i'd not support you on eating unhealthy shit like chocolate bars or candy or shit. if you want to spend your money on such things it's on you. Same with coke or powerdrinks stuff, you can get water on the companies expenses. The unhealthy stuff that destroys you in the long run is on you and you alone, like it would be on me if i would like to have it.
But really for me, no matter if the studio building itself is decrepit and worn down, having a team of people who are all on the same page and in synchronous artistic harmony with each other whilst working on projects everyone enjoys and gets paid well for, and not driven to crazy overtime hours to the point of insanity.
To feel that you really are a part of something and shaping the way a game turns out that potentially many people will get their hands on and have genuine fun with sounds like a rewarding enough experience for me.
If I got offered a job from the big boys like Blizzard or whatever, would I take it? Hell yeah I would. But I'm not hands on and a part of the creation of the games that get made.
I want to set up my own game studio! With blackjack and hookers! You know what? Forget the game studio
Definitely agree. It would be much nicer to have some input over what you are making, instead of being told 'make this concept by the end of this week'.
+1 this. No one cares about the answer itself, it is the reasoning behind it that is interesting
Iceland looks like a beautiful place to stay and I've been in love with EVE Online's art style ever since I first played the game. Internet spaceships all the way!
Or Digital Extremes
Warframe has the same sci-fi feel which I crave. Most importantly however, it has some of the greatest visual effects I've ever seen. There's no limit to the amount of local vector fields you can use in particles!
Ill answer mine then. (eventhough it will be many years before I actually get a job in games)
The thing that seems nice about Facepunch is how they seem to give you the opportunity to have a go with your own ideas, and work on what you like.
On their website they say:
Were not going to tell you what hours to work. You can work that out yourself. If you work best by starting at 2AM then you can work at 2AM. If you work best from home, then work from home.
We arent going to tell you what to do. Youll probably just slip into doing something.
If youre an artist then people might ask for your help on their project. You might see something that you think could be improved, and choose to improve it.
Being scared of failing is what leads people to make safe decisions. We dont want you to make safe decisions. We want you to be bold and different. This is the only way to innovate.
Youre not going to get fired if you start a project and then 3 months in you realise that the whole idea is shit. We applaud you for realising and not wasting any more of your time on it. Salvage whatever you can, learn from your experiences and move on.
It seems like a very appealing place to work and somewhere where you could actually challenge and push yourself to get better at your job.
EDIT: I forgot one important thing. They seem incredibly dedicated to their customers and their creations. They have pretty much entirely remade Rust and now its getting better and better, even after selling millions
It's only been 10 months since I've graduated uni, and only have several actual professional gigs outside of uni (minus any internships).
I want to assert that I think for a life (a whole life, not just career) to be well lived (just assume it means what it means to you, avoid semantics), and if one wants a good game development career, the last thing you should do is chase fame and try to find the most famous game, or even a game you love with unyielding passion.
One more assertion, I will assert it is more valuable to find a good "family" to work with as one of the highest priorities as one works through their career.
Any objections, thoughts, etc?
Ideally, a smaller team of talented folk, lots of collaboration, ample pre-production, strong art direction in stylized and interesting game worlds, no crunch, and good pay/benefits.
I know people who did stints at well known studios but didn't stay long because they looked for different studio cultures, etc. However having a well known name on the resume helps a lot!
My tip: try the big awesome name studio early in your career, IF you get an offer. And if you're lucky it may even be a good fit. If not, move on. But having a well known name on your resume can be quite useful when searching for that perfect game job.
I said Frictional Games. Why? I love their projects. Not one specific aspect of them, but the overall, end product. I think they make truly exciting singleplayer games. And I'd love to be a part of that. They're also a small independent developer, which appeals to me.
1) A life well lived is a life lived doing objectively meaningful things.
2) Fame and passion only are not guaranteed to be meaningful things.
>> It is likely that pursuing fame and passion will not lead to a life well lived.
Btw, Ben, congratz on Advanced Warfare! Hope this means auspicious years for you guys at Sledge. I can only imagine it's been quite the effort to be the primary on this CoD.
They should just put a studio on a cruise ship
I would have to a disagree, not aiming at fame or passion can lead to living a life of satisfaction and fear. Even an indie developer that runs on pure passion can find fame. Fame for many is a reward as being categorized as the elite few. Any artist or individual that is not striving to be the best at something will be forgotten.
Also there are no rules to living a well lived life.
objectively....meaningful
:icon_question:
games can be meaningful for some individuals but for the vast majority it is purely entertaining like films, i wonder what game you would define to be objectively meaningful.
maybe i have grown too old to see games as something truly meaningful, i dunno, to me the project the boyfriend of my sister is working in, sounds a lot more meaningful than anything i could ever do on games. He is developing a tire that adapt or can be adapted to the ground it needs to roll on. to supply rural areas in africa without proper roads with a wheel for transportation, a tire that gets thin and wide in radius on hard ground, and wide and narrow in radius when the raintime started and the roads or nothing but mud. He is a 3d artist/designer too, not an engineer, to me this is something really meaningful.
Sure games don't have much in the way of impact for making people's lives easier, or solving some unsolved problem, but i think providing entertainment is a super meaningful endeavor.
You are making the experiences people look forward to unwinding with at the end of a long day, or you are making a platform for friends bonding online.
Entertainment is a meaningful, but i can certainly see your points though.
Also fuck the cruise ship, i want a fucking blimp game studio. That or an old nuclear sub.
cramped, crazy work environment, with many blinking lights, in a basement like environment? yup. game studio!
I love Iceland. Don't know if I'd want to live there though - Reykjavik is basically a small town, and it's thousands of miles from anywhere
And with the imminent threat of radiation poisoning!