Ship a game,here's your pink slip

JO420 · Aug 2010

Been thinking alot about the alarming trend which seems to be occuring in this industry quite a bit now. That is when you ship a game with a studio,you get canned shortly there after. It feels like for alot of people,they are working as unofficial contractors without the benefits of being a conctractor.

Im close to shipping a game myself and im getting nervous and will begin to update my portfolio this weekend.

Am i paranoid or is it safe to assume your job could be in jeopardy after you finish a game?

Wahlgren · Aug 2010

Always be paranoid in this industry. You might get fucked over on a regular tuseday morning in the middle of the dev cycle without even getting a heads up that something is happening. Company meetings usually go like this. "Hey all, company is doing great. Lots of cash in the banks. Things are good, things are awesome. No worries dudes!"

Then the week after. BANG! "We're cutting out 80 guys. See ya". I had a fulltime ongoing contract and I was just as easily dropped as the interns. Shit sucks.

If you haven't heard anything about a new project by the end phases of the studios current one you should be worried. Especially if you haven't been there long enough. I know i'm being negative (maybe a bit to much) but really. I think we've all seen how the industry is run at this point in time and it doesn't hurt to expect the worst and prepare for it and be happily surprised.

JO420 · Aug 2010

The hard part is doing 3d for 8-10 hours and coming home to do more 3d. I guess ill have to suck it up and work.

Mark Dygert · Aug 2010

It depends on the company, its culture and how they view employees. I think its probably a good idea to plan for the worst and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen.

Jeremy Lindstrom · Aug 2010

One of the con's of the gaming industry. Nobody's safe. Another reason why I'm looking for alternative work as well.

notman · Aug 2010

Never hurts to have your portfolio up to date anyway

Is it possible to use your recent work in your portfolio? Or would that break the NDA, even on a shipped title?

Ott · Aug 2010

Wahlgren wrote: »

Always be paranoid in this industry. You might get fucked over on a regular tuseday morning in the middle of the dev cycle without even getting a heads up that something is happening. Company meetings usually go like this. "Hey all, company is doing great. Lots of cash in the banks. Things are good, things are awesome. No worries dudes!"

Then the week after. BANG! "We're cutting out 80 guys. See ya". I had a fulltime ongoing contract and I was just as easily dropped as the interns. Shit sucks.

If you haven't heard anything about a new project by the end phases of the studios current one you should be worried. Especially if you haven't been there long enough. I know i'm being negative (maybe a bit to much) but really. I think we've all seen how the industry is run at this point in time and it doesn't hurt to expect the worst and prepare for it and be happily surprised.

^^ This. For sure.

I've been pleasantly happy on the last 3 projects I've worked on, but ALWAYS have your stuff ready to go, regardless of what studio or titles you are working on. Don't let the end of the project come around and not have a plan.

Del · Aug 2010

notman wrote: »

Never hurts to have your portfolio up to date anyway

~ Duly noted...

oXYnary · Aug 2010

Heres something though. If you are as stated always preparing for the worse. Going home and spending even more time on 3d to keep portfolio up to date.

When do you live? When do you have time to enjoy yourself if you have this fear? How do you keep your stress level down (other than drinking).

PixelMasher · Aug 2010

you could just pull a fight club and quickly beat the shit outta yourself after walking into the bosses office...either that or frantically run out with your pants around you ankles sobbing

monkeyboy_garth · Aug 2010

Yup...I was given 4 weeks notice yesterday. Our studio will shut down then. About 80 more lose their jobs across Krome's 2 other studios in 4 weeks time also. Sad times. Could see it coming a mile away though...they just weren't getting enough work. We've been working like crazy on stacks of pitches, but things move slow in publisher land (and their budgets are totally unreasonable) and Krome have hung on for as long as they can.

Most guys in my studio are a bit over the games industry. Some of the younger guys are thinking they'll move overseas. We were the only games company left in Adelaide. Whatevs

rooster · Aug 2010

very familiar sounding story these days monkeyboy

monkeyboy_garth · Aug 2010

JO420 wrote: »

Am i paranoid or is it safe to assume your job could be in jeopardy after you finish a game?

Yeah exactly the sentiments from guys that were cut from the studio in November, April and now in August.

Death by a thousand cuts eh? If you're not on a paying project, you're an endangered species.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/08/krome-lays-off-100-employees-shuts-adelaide-studio/

Btw...'you do not have a contractual entitlement to a redundancy payment at Krome Studios'.

rooster · Aug 2010

eh, is that legal??

monkeyboy_garth · Aug 2010

Apparently...there was discussion yesterday about it. HR assured us that they took legal advice and that their bases are covered. Guys are looking into it though, they're hoping the 'fair work australia' ombudsman can help out. Maybe.

nullfed · Aug 2010

Sympathies on the layoff monkeyboy_garth. Are they actually expecting you to come in for the next 4 weeks? i've never had that - either been put on 'garden leave' (bloody stupid term) or its just gone kaput right there and then.

Thegodzero · Aug 2010

Is a redundancy payment basically the same thing as a Severance package?

Cyrael · Aug 2010

Thegodzero wrote: »

Is a redundancy payment basically the same thing as a Severance package?

I actually had to look it up, and yes. that is my assumption. only its more like, well we're downsizing and not gonna fill your position, so here's some money that we may have put towards your position, since we're not gonna fill it anyway.

JO420 · Aug 2010

@Notman I couldnt use my work from my current project,its under NDA and i imagine will be a good time after the game ships. So its portfolio time

@oxynary Sadly sometime will have to be allocated for this,i wouldnt call it living in fear,more like being realistic about the nature of this industry. Ill find time to live but not as much as before. Getting laid off is one thing,getting laid off being unprepared is another altogether worse thing.

@Monkeyboy commiserations,im sory about losing your job. I hope you land on your feet soon.

c0ldhands · Aug 2010

oXYnary wrote: »

Heres something though. If you are as stated always preparing for the worse. Going home and spending even more time on 3d to keep portfolio up to date.

When do you live? When do you have time to enjoy yourself if you have this fear? How do you keep your stress level down (other than drinking).

You are so right about that. Living with fear is not a good thing. I know people enjoy 3D, but just how much can you work with it under a stressfull condition, where does the creativity go? Out of the body thats for sure.

achmedthesnake · Aug 2010

f**k monkeyboy_garth, i'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully they pull their fingers out of their asses and pay you want you're meant to receive -hopefully the new auz government will be more open to supporting this industry and all that (i doubt that but eh.)

p.s. get your portfolio up and running mannnnn.

Snacuum · Aug 2010

I couldnt use my work from my current project,its under NDA and i imagine will be a good time after the game ships.

I would like to see more new employees discussing this when they sign their contracts. Sure I don't expect much to come of it for a long time, but I hope for bright future. After all right now the answer is going to be:

"Sorry but no. So do you want the job or not?

Mark Dygert · Aug 2010

oXYnary wrote: »

Heres something though. If you are as stated always preparing for the worse. Going home and spending even more time on 3d to keep portfolio up to date.

When do you live? When do you have time to enjoy yourself if you have this fear? How do you keep your stress level down (other than drinking).

There also is a peace you can draw from, knowing that you have a plan and that if shit hits the fan you're not caught with your pants around your ankles trying to run a marathon.

You know that part in a movie where everyone is standing around asking what the hell are they going to do to defeat the big evil thing? And that one quite guy walks over to a pike of junk and whips off a tarp and everyone is awed... be that guy.

I think you can have a little of both. Budget and balance your at home time wisely. Work efficiently, unplug while you're working and focus like a cutting torch on the task at hand for the given time. Easier said then done, but that kind of discipline is pretty handy and it can really help to work on those time management skills also. Its not impossible to put in 18hrs a week. 2hrs each day of the week and 4hrs on the weekends. If you're not slacking that can get quite a bit done.

The artist that doesn't want to keep their portfolio up to date starts to fall into the same apathetic mentality some students fall into. They don't want to put in the required work to show they can do the job they want.

Bottom line: Sometimes it requires a little sacrifice to get where we want to go. These are tough times and it might require a little more sacrifice.

monkeyboy_garth · Aug 2010

achmedthesnake wrote: »

p.s. get your portfolio up and running mannnnn.

I know I know...I'm not getting back in to games though. No industry left in Adelaide (apart from indie development) and I've never really entertained the idea of moving. I'm trained as an illustrator and I'd prefer to get back in to that. Who knows what'll happen :O

Ship a game,here's your pink slip

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