Why do we do it?
greentooth
If I didn't tell you what I did for a living, I told you I worked long hours, unpaid overtime, sometimes have to work weekends without pay during busy periods. If I told you all this and then said, I could be made redundant at anytime, maybe because of the studio shutting down or say a credit crunch. You'd say: " What a crap job"!! but if I don't tell you what I have to do, but tell you what I do, I'm a games artist...you'd be like: " that's so cool"!
So why do we do it if this is our lot?
So why do we do it if this is our lot?
Replies
- The pay and bonuses, they want people to stick around.
- A well run company, I know all of the higher ups and they are NOT empty headed hack asses out for a quick buck.
- We're our own publisher, no toxic relationship, our profits drive future game development.
- Creative freedom. We're given well thought out designs, but we're left an amazing amount of creative freedom to build on them.
- Regular build reviews & scrums are done and everyone is open to critique and flexible to changes.
- The flexible work hours. Very nice coming in early (or vice versa), dodging traffic and getting a bunch of stuff done before anyone shows up to pester me.
- Great benefits.
- Low crunch periods.
- Access to the gym downstairs.
- The chance to work on things I wouldn't be able to work on if I worked at other places.
- I can work from home, so if I need to work the weekend I can do it at home.
- I build my dept's schedule (all 3 people) and it turns out realistic every time.
- Low turn over as a result of the above.
I'm spoiled and it will take a pretty sweet deal to get me to move on.So yea... I'm totally abused, mistreated and about to hide 50lbs of cow chips in the air vents as soon as they lay me off next week.
if you're working weekends and unpaid overtime, and unhappy...leave.
Because I love working on the stuff I'm working on
On Fridays I can sit at me desk and have a beer (sometimes said beer is provided)
Yeah..we crunched our asses off...then I took almost a month off..paid
If I wanted to come to work dressed in a different costume everyday...no one would mind
I get to work with a team of awesome artists on a daily basis
bennefits are awesome
pay is good..etc
It's not all beer and Costume parties though. Ultimately it is still a job, regaurdless of what fanboy jones thinks it is.
Amen......And you never get..."We think your tattos are scaring the customers."
Hookers and blow.
Because you like being taken advantage of?
Seriously, there's no reason this should be the description of a game artist (or anyone, for that matter). The fact that you think being taken advantage of by sub-par management is part of being a game artist is pretty worrying and only contributes to this being your continued 'lot'.
If we grow up and understand nothing about crunch and overtime is inherent in game development (and as many studios have shown, there isn't), not only will you have an awesome job, but your life will be so much better, because you will not be sacrificing your time and life for a company that, in the end, doesn't really give a shit about you. You should be spending your time on you.
a chav taken away your job ?
If you've ever worked customer service jobs, construction, or cleaned houses, you know that this is fucking cake. Sounds more like an issue of where you're working than the job itself. I never minded overtime if it was what was needed to get the job done, partly because I knew that they'd be hooking me up with dinner and if I ever needed time off I could get it no questions asked. I love what I do, I'm happy doing it and I say all this having just been laid off last week. Go scrub some rich lady's toilet and have her look at you like an infected wound and get back to me. It could always be worse, it's just a matter of perspective.
You'd rather be an accountant?
i love my job, its not without its frustrations and risks, but i'd rather have an unsecure job making games than a secure job in a sawmill
Making games brings enjoyment to other people. Ever stand in line for a game release? There's a very positive feeling around, where everything is talking about the game and such. It's bringing happiness to the masses. But maybe I'm just weird. I like giving gifts more than receiving them.
idk. because it's fun.
I worked in a scaffolding yard for 3 days once, it seemed like 3 years.
I was a glass cutter for 4yrs. Hardest.job.ever. Wearing 15lbs of kevlar, gloves, facemask, metatarsal steeltoe boots, lifting and cutting huge sheets of glass all day, in temps up to 140º (w/relative humidty in summer). Carrying 600lb pieces of 3/8" glass with another guy, holding on for dear life to your 300lb end. Lifting pieces 84"x130" of 1/8th" onto a dolly and rolling them to a rack, while it waves like water two feet about your head. Scary scary shit.
Job security would be cool.
But shit... our jobs is to make cool useless shit. We get to become endeared to people for helping them waste their time, and implant our sense of what the world should be in their heads.
Who wouldn't love that?
I guess in the end though, if you don't like your company for whatever reasons, you can't help but be somewhat miserable at times.
My wife was a chef for YEARS and just decided to switch careers for more or less the same reason...
This is me and the other crew saying goodbye to our old pal, Bob. We had 2 extra rolls of shrinkwrap and were waiting for more glass to be brought in from the trucks.
We left him there for about 2hrs.
That, and cause I can drive to work in a convertible Corvette that the job is paying off... 8)
To be fair most places pay quite well these days, but you have to watch out for the bad
managers who use unpaid overtime as a stick to beat you with
damn its 5 am thats why i do it i life in the darkness. wake up when its getting dark and go sleep when the sunlight comes argh.
I think creative outlet is pursued for similar reasons across the board, except for maybe in movies. Until there is a games Hollywood, I think it's destined to remain that sort of career where you do it because you like it the best and don't (to a realistic degree) want to do anything else. But, I mean, people write books and die before anyone reads or understands them all the time.
I don't really agree. Sure I like the job better, but service jobs were fun in their own ways as well. Pay was better too (fancy restaraunt). Physical effort and mental effort are the same for me. Both jobs require you to try hard.
I do this sort of stuff because I'm competent at it and enjoy the challenge of improving my abilties. I like the room for both personal and professional growth. I like creating things. It pays well enough. In the end though, work is work.
-I love being an artist and getting paid for it
-the people I work with are some of the most open minding, problem solving people I've ever encountered
-seeing my name in the game credits
-seeing my art in the game
-working as part of a team of creative minds
-camaraderie (worth emphasizing)
-being able to write off my toys on tax time
-for the love of the game, baby
-Because the ladies get moist when I tell them what I do.
Really? I need to live where you are...
So, I suppose the "bigger and better direction" to be had out of any experience is self-improvement and expansion of some sort. Artistic use of technology and entertainment is just a cool way to embrace this.
I, for one, have art and music and feeling inside of me that I want to get out; games provide an interesting medium, and I just so happen to also have a thing for task-oriented asset creation, given focus and direction, so... that's why I want to do, or do, anything in the field. The eventual expression of what lives and grows inside my spirit, be it beautiful or grotesque, comical or somber, is a goal I will pursue no matter what; game art provides a modern, highly detailed and effective medium for this, so... if I can make a living doing it? That should be the most awesome thing. Terrible bosses and coworkers be damned, so long as I continue learning and nearing the ultimate goal.
I mean, life rarely works out so ideally as that and everyone's bound to have a miserable job (even in games) at times, but given that it's something we (hopefully) love to do, and are actually interested in, what in this era could be better. Anyway, I'm not really saying anything others haven't already said in a more reasonable manner, am I. Art, creativity, survival, fun, etc.
- I get to travel to alot of interesting countries
- Not having to deal with a boss 90% of my week,no long meetings.
-Working in whatever way i like as long as i finish my work in time.
- Nobody dies if i mess up
-Like being paid to be an artist.
- Making games is all i have ever wanted to do.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I've been doing it for nearly nine years, crunch doesn't really bother me. I've done the whole late night weekend thing. It's all good. I love the team spirit, having my name on the credits and my art in the game. All that good stuff.
In that time though there have been a lot of redundancies, people, good people have been laid off and left by the way side. It appears to me that in the great scheme of things, artists are the most expendible commodity in the games industry. I was just wondering if people in the states have experienced similar. Maybe freelance is the way to go.
People like Gavin and B1ll will probably have more insight in that area.
u know those can shoot smell too!!
Well i see what you are saying. For me one thing that really bothers me is the long term career prospects in this industry. As you mentioned artists always seem to be the first to get the chop and its this aspect of the industry that is the most concern. I am possibly facing looking for work again soon which i am not looking foward to and my concern is being able to place down roots somewhere. Somewhere i can call home or even get married one day and have a family. At the moment it seems like this industry makes it hard to do so. I like the work but i wonder how long will i be able to handle moving around alot,worrying about my job safety and so on. Im single and it concerns me i wonder how stressful it must be to my co workers who are married with children.
Well my experience in working in the states is none i havent worked in a studio in america yet but american labor laws is a big reason i decided to try out europe. Being let go on the spot with no warning is something i dont think i would like. Where i am at now if the company goes bust,the money i pay in taxes(which is more in America) goes towards a fund which will pay me 3 months of full salary and the pay owed to me in vacation which is like 3 weeks. So if i lose my job i have some breathing room to find work before things get dicey. Same for my healthcare,i wont lose that until my visa expires. I have rarely worked crunch since management in my company seems to have their planning all sorted out.
If i have to move around again in the next few years time i might consider other careers to be honost.