Does a life balance exist in games career?
polycounter lvl 5
Hi.
I've been self-teaching myself a lot of game art, mostly concept art, I've done well enough to have a few freelance work, but the more I know about this industry, the more I start to think a career in games is a bad idea?
Before this I was a graphic designer and even though I had some very busy days with a lot of work, it was nothing compared to games.
From podcasts around the web, I've seen some people actually like not having time for anything else, they like game art work so much to that point.
However, I really really like drawing and painting, but I don't think I'd replace that with girlfriend, good times camping with friends, and spending time with my family.
I'm aware I get what I put into it, and the more I practice the better I get, I'm not even trying to bail on hard work, but I don't want my life to be just waking up>drawing>go to sleep>repeat. I just want to ask to other people that have more experience, if the games industry is really this bad?
A few other bad examples:
I've had freelance clients who hired me to do work just to say they went with another freelancer, after I delivered work, so they aren't paying me anymore.
I've had offers to move overseas and work full time on game companies (some that are well known) just to a couple days later, and after follow up, they tell me they are not interested anymore and went with someone else. After they asked me to move.
Requests of photo-real, well researched gameplay solutions within 1-3 hours or within the same day.
I'm seriously thinking of going back to graphic design just so I can actually live a life after my work day, and maybe even draw for myself instead.
Anyway, thanks for reading, if you can voice your opinion, I'll be happy to hear it
I've been self-teaching myself a lot of game art, mostly concept art, I've done well enough to have a few freelance work, but the more I know about this industry, the more I start to think a career in games is a bad idea?
Before this I was a graphic designer and even though I had some very busy days with a lot of work, it was nothing compared to games.
From podcasts around the web, I've seen some people actually like not having time for anything else, they like game art work so much to that point.
However, I really really like drawing and painting, but I don't think I'd replace that with girlfriend, good times camping with friends, and spending time with my family.
I'm aware I get what I put into it, and the more I practice the better I get, I'm not even trying to bail on hard work, but I don't want my life to be just waking up>drawing>go to sleep>repeat. I just want to ask to other people that have more experience, if the games industry is really this bad?
A few other bad examples:
I've had freelance clients who hired me to do work just to say they went with another freelancer, after I delivered work, so they aren't paying me anymore.
I've had offers to move overseas and work full time on game companies (some that are well known) just to a couple days later, and after follow up, they tell me they are not interested anymore and went with someone else. After they asked me to move.
Requests of photo-real, well researched gameplay solutions within 1-3 hours or within the same day.
I'm seriously thinking of going back to graphic design just so I can actually live a life after my work day, and maybe even draw for myself instead.
Anyway, thanks for reading, if you can voice your opinion, I'll be happy to hear it
Replies
What are "they" balancing against work exactly?
I've worked at a studio (not as an artist, but as a designer/scripter) where I never had to crunch at all, and I worked 7am - 4pm every day. It was plenty of time to get all my work done and on the odd occasion where things went wrong I maybe stayed a couple of hours extra at most. As far as I know the artists that I worked with also worked normal hours. Obviously if there's a deadline coming up, people might need to do some extra work.
I've seen jobs advertised by some studios where they explicitly say that they are anti-crunch so you could look out for that when job hunting.
If you don't need much money at all, and only do contract work, then you can set up your life so work/life balance is whatever you want. I worked as an Outsource Manager for years, and I never tried to get individual contractors to somehow 'work too much'.
Jobs with a good work/life balance absolutely exist, if you value that, and you're in an area with more than a couple of studios. Don't give in to the idea that crunch is inevitable. That's part of why that nonsense is perpetuated.
I guess work-life balance is more or less how you perceive it. Even in those 2-3 months of crunch I missed my free time a bit but not as much as you might think (I liked my coworkers, so it never felt too shitty). I still felt my life was balanced to some degree. But like I said, if I was salary, I'd definitely not feel the same way. Do any devs out there in major studios get overtime? I'd be curious to know that.
Some people keep hustling, they never stop.
Some people end up in studios that have a crunch culture, and you have to love it to fit well.
Some people get a job and ease off.
Some people hustle until they want something else out of life.
I don't think any of them are wrong or right. But I do think that there is no rule that games art is always a crunch. But it does require more hustle than most industries. And if you want to find the balance your looking for, you have to go to the job that offers it because it isn't coming to you.
First, working conditions at studios. So long as you're not aiming to work for some massive corp that treat you as a factory floor assembler and don't give a shit about you as a person, don't worry too hard about being officially worked into the ground on the clock. A regular studio will treat you reasonably well if you work normal hours but fill those hours with endless productivity instead of relaxing in the sofa room all day.
But the second thing to consider is your skills. If you don't yet have a job, or do but want to move up, and are preparing your skills, in order to be great you're going to have to put great hours in. There's no way around the amount of hours you need to spend creating, learning and iterating to be a great artist.
If you go indie, you'll need to obliterate your social life to get a studio of your own off the ground. You'll be doing 5 peoples jobs full time lol, this inevitably means learning on the job and that means you'll be slow which means you'll be doing over time for yourself.
My tip would be if you are a freelancer try also to get jobs which are closely related, but not part of the gaming industry. There is a lot of demand for 3D and real-time 3D in other industries, which do pay good but they are not remotely as glamours as VFX or Gaming.
The industry draws in incredibly talented people that are very passionate and works them like crazy because they feel lucky enough to have a seat at the table to this cool thing. But the worst part is, they just let it happen. It'd be something else if a lead or manager approached you and said "you need to do an extra 2 hours today, but don't report it". Generally though, I saw people that wanted to show their dedication by working 10 hour days (and billing for 8 hours) when the rest of the team was doing just 8, and I think that hurts everyone.
I mean it's one thing to stay late because you messed something up and you want to be caught up. But that should be the exception not the rule. Thankfully, most of the times when my leads saw that behavior, they made them stop. Much of the time though it goes overlooked or unnoticed.
I'll say this, at all of my other jobs, working at a factory overhauling jet engines, stocking shelves at a grocery store, working in an office, nobody ever kept working longer if they weren't getting paid extra for it, I don't know why I see people in this industry doing it so frequently.
So yeah I do a 5/6 hour drive a day for work lol
I wouldn't be able to handle that, myself.
So anyway, yeah there totally are work-life balances. Like fearian said, you gotta hustle to get in - and that is going to mean working your hands to the bone. Once you get in it is a lot, lot easier. The vast majority of artists I know in the games industry do little to no substantial work at home / outside of work hours. Long hours *are* common, but usually only for short amounts of time and apart from those times, working late is very unusual. In my experience at least.