<story><title>The tragic end of Telltale Games</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/4/17934166/telltale-games-studio-closed-layoffs-end-the-walking-dead</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gambiting</author><text>Just as a counterpoint - I&amp;#x27;ve worked for 4 years now as a programmer at one of the biggest publishers in the industry, and honestly, the work life balance is great, the pay is ok for the region(plus I get decent amount of shares every year), the work is varied, interesting and I like both what I do and people I work with. I think the last time I did overtime was 2 years ago, and even then it was only for a week around launch of the last project(in fact in every studio meeting we are constantly reminded that managers can NOT demand us to work overtime, if they do we need to report it higher up). Normally I get in at 8am, leave by 4pm, never work weekends or anything like that. Plus the usual for EU 25 paid days off(plus the studio is closed christmas to new years), unlimited paid sick leave, private health insurance.....really, it&amp;#x27;s pretty good.&lt;p&gt;But then again, I am aware that most studios are &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; like that.</text></item><item><author>tablethnuser</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t work in the games industry. This is the par story for game companies. Every little detail of this story I saw repeating on loop in a decade of working in games. The artists grabbing assets to stuff into their portfolios before two years of professional work disappears into a black hole, the ppl moving families across country to be laid off months later, the crunch, the over promising, it is all text book.&lt;p&gt;The games industry preys on young ppl who don&amp;#x27;t know what a healthy work&amp;#x2F;life balance looks like. The pay is lower because employees are passionate. Passion doesn&amp;#x27;t pay rent. It doesn&amp;#x27;t provide stability for your partner and children who all will suffer because you chose to work in games.&lt;p&gt;Your passion will be compromised endlessly by marketing and management who can air drop in and change a game&amp;#x27;s entire direction in one meeting. Because they saw a Minecraft commercial and their kid responded to it. They&amp;#x27;ll make you work weekend after weekend to fit their pivot into the original schedule and stop in for an hour to drop off donuts. Oh good, eight hours of work for a donut. Donuts also don&amp;#x27;t pay rent. They don&amp;#x27;t fix your marital problems.&lt;p&gt;Games is an industry stuck in a groundhog day loop of misery. This is my warning to anyone who thinks they like games enough to make them. You won&amp;#x27;t like them after making them. It isn&amp;#x27;t worth it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vvanders</author><text>Congrats, you&amp;#x27;ve found the 2% of the industry that isn&amp;#x27;t insane.&lt;p&gt;For many of us who fell into the other 98% the statistics aren&amp;#x27;t in your favor and some of the bigger publishers(EA, Microsoft) tend to go in ~6 year cycles.&lt;p&gt;Had a friend who worked on Dead Space, which should have been a stable thing. Alas, Visceral isn&amp;#x27;t around either.</text></comment>
<story><title>The tragic end of Telltale Games</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/4/17934166/telltale-games-studio-closed-layoffs-end-the-walking-dead</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gambiting</author><text>Just as a counterpoint - I&amp;#x27;ve worked for 4 years now as a programmer at one of the biggest publishers in the industry, and honestly, the work life balance is great, the pay is ok for the region(plus I get decent amount of shares every year), the work is varied, interesting and I like both what I do and people I work with. I think the last time I did overtime was 2 years ago, and even then it was only for a week around launch of the last project(in fact in every studio meeting we are constantly reminded that managers can NOT demand us to work overtime, if they do we need to report it higher up). Normally I get in at 8am, leave by 4pm, never work weekends or anything like that. Plus the usual for EU 25 paid days off(plus the studio is closed christmas to new years), unlimited paid sick leave, private health insurance.....really, it&amp;#x27;s pretty good.&lt;p&gt;But then again, I am aware that most studios are &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; like that.</text></item><item><author>tablethnuser</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t work in the games industry. This is the par story for game companies. Every little detail of this story I saw repeating on loop in a decade of working in games. The artists grabbing assets to stuff into their portfolios before two years of professional work disappears into a black hole, the ppl moving families across country to be laid off months later, the crunch, the over promising, it is all text book.&lt;p&gt;The games industry preys on young ppl who don&amp;#x27;t know what a healthy work&amp;#x2F;life balance looks like. The pay is lower because employees are passionate. Passion doesn&amp;#x27;t pay rent. It doesn&amp;#x27;t provide stability for your partner and children who all will suffer because you chose to work in games.&lt;p&gt;Your passion will be compromised endlessly by marketing and management who can air drop in and change a game&amp;#x27;s entire direction in one meeting. Because they saw a Minecraft commercial and their kid responded to it. They&amp;#x27;ll make you work weekend after weekend to fit their pivot into the original schedule and stop in for an hour to drop off donuts. Oh good, eight hours of work for a donut. Donuts also don&amp;#x27;t pay rent. They don&amp;#x27;t fix your marital problems.&lt;p&gt;Games is an industry stuck in a groundhog day loop of misery. This is my warning to anyone who thinks they like games enough to make them. You won&amp;#x27;t like them after making them. It isn&amp;#x27;t worth it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>krinchan</author><text>&amp;gt; Plus the usual for EU 25 paid days off&lt;p&gt;Sometimes I really hate living in the US. -_-</text></comment>