bit of a boring question for industry guys
I'm currently trying my hardest to speed up my work so I'll have a chance of landing a job.
I'm just wondering, outside of crunchtime, how many hours of your typical working day are spent in meetings/discussions etc and how many are actually spent in front of the computer doing your thang?
cheers for any info
I'm just wondering, outside of crunchtime, how many hours of your typical working day are spent in meetings/discussions etc and how many are actually spent in front of the computer doing your thang?
cheers for any info
Replies
1 meeting a week 15min-30min
Meetings? Probably once a day, no longer than an hour no shorter than 20 minutes.
Occasional meetings 33% chance for one each week.
Typical work hours are 10-6/7. Most places have what they call core hours. Core hours would be between 10 and 5. So if you want to do 8-5 you can or if you want to do 10-7 you can. And a good studio never mandates overtime (they might ask politely sometimes). Sometimes you just know it's time work late though.
Crunch time is as needed (usually ends up maybe 2 nights per milestone working 'til 9-11pm, sometimes later, although we've not had any for months).
Maybe one day a month we'll spend an afternoon doing a playthrough to show off what's been added, pick up on what needs improving and keep up to speed on what everyone's working on.
Worthy of note also is Agile development, notably Scrum and that`s a very short meet everyday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28development%29
Also did a longer meeting at a different studio once a week that was an hour or more depending.
Meetings vary. We have a "squad" meeting everyday....which is about 6 of us that work together on the same environment. Company meeting once a week....with beer...MMmmmmMmm. Project meeting once every two weeks. Aaannddd random meetings with design sprinkled throughout the month. Design meetings are usually the longest, and the rest average about 10 to 30 minutes.
Yeah, it's called "working with other humans" and it's how big projects ship.
And, yes, working with humans sucks most of the time, and is usually an exercise in stupifying inefficiency. We need a freaking borg implant, that's what I say. But until then, it's still the only way to make a big, complex game.
Making less big, less complex games seems like it would be more creatively rewarding, but I don't have the experience to back that up.
Oh, and Re: OP:
8-7 for the last six months (about 55 hour weeks). 9-6 for most of the 6 years previous to that.
and go against the grain for kicks?
He doesn't mean it!
The weird thing is that he's the most relaxed laid back artist I've ever met, when he was over
here for a while, Kirsten and I would be out the car, halfway up the steps to the cinema
and he'd still be sitting in the car aimlessly reflecting on what foot he normally
sets down first, 'hmm , now is it normally the left, or is it the right.... this needs some thought'
For me I spend about an hour for lunch and chat with upper management sometimes...occasionally pushing for incentives like DVDs, training to get people motivated as employees...
When I'm in front of the screen which has a tendency to go BSOD once a few days...I usually have to check my email frequently which are sometimes clogged with irrevent shit from the chattier coworkers.
So far it been like that for half a year now.
I chit chat while working sometimes. I smoke too, so that is another couple of breaks in the day and I love coffee that is another excuse for breaks. 2 years I didn't do overtime (nor the artists who were on those 2 projects with me) as well and I am ahead of my schedule most of the time (or just in time when I am not). Now that I am lead, I have no plan to allow any overtime in my team too, I would rather be fired than make my team pay for bad practices / bad planning / irrealistic schedules, especially if I raise flags as soon as something smells fishy.
I would love to remote work tho (that would mean not being lead tho but that would be fine in my book). I am sure I would be even more productive. I would probably work longer, but if I ever want to go fora walk to change my mind and think about my work (happens a lot when i am not at work) noone would frown at me, and I love that idea. I just can,t concentrate long enough to stay 8 hours in front of a computer straight. even with 1 hour lunch in between. I must have some attention deficit disorder. But hey, that never busted me so far.
last few weeks I've been working until I have a certain amount of work done = if I can get x amount done a day I'll be done by tuesday kinda stuff.
oh yeah, I've taken off since Wednesday and I'm feeling antsy, can't wait to get back to work tomorrow.
Meetings are funny things, most projects I've worked on either have far too many or far too few. I think one meeting per week is a good idea, keep them brief and team specific.
I recently got a bunch of contract work at once and i want to complete them on time but it seems impossible to keep up without getting exhausted, is there any tricks you guys have to keep you in the zone and working decent hours, i usually stay up until 4 am working on my stuff? is that a normal time to goto bed for any of you freelancers?