“Wanted: Young, skinny, wirey fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 per week.†Pony Express advertisement, 1860.
That would be a funny anachronism if it weren’t still so true. OK, so game companies are not asking potential candidates to risk death every day, but they surely are asking them to give up their lives to the company.
This article has been a long time coming. It should be abundantly clear from past articles I’ve written (and from my rants if you know me in person) that I feel very strongly about quality of life issues in the games industry. It pains me to see rampant overtime be commonplace, and the truly ironic part is, I’m convinced it doesn’t help the final game any. As a matter of fact, it probably makes people be less productive and makes the game suffer for it. Ah, but they crunched some impressive hours. They have something they can feel proud of.
Have you read Effective C++ also by Scott Meyers? No? Go buy it right now, read it, reread it, and then come back here. I guarantee that it will make a huge difference in the way you work.
What do Neverwinter Nights, Splinter Cell, and Prince of Persia have in common? They were all developed in Canada. The latter two right in Montréal. Some of the giants of the game industry either originate, or have large studios in Canada as well: Ubi Soft, Electronic Arts, Microïds, Softimage, and ATI among others. People might not realize it, but our friendly cousins in the North are quite influential in the games industry.
No plan survives first contact with the enemy. In game development, detailed milestones, complex schedules, and careful planning often go out the window as soon as the project starts. Agile development provides a set of techniques to steer the project in the right direction and embrace change. Is your game not shaping up to be as fun as you thought? Has a game come out with features that you must match to remain competitive? Has your code degenerated into an unmanageable mess?
