Work Environment for Game Developers Must Change

Christopher Reimer writes "C|Net is reporting from the GDC that the video game industry will have to improve its work environment as the working population gets older and unionization becomes an issue. From the article: 'Numerous studies have shown that developers and other workers putting in 12-hour days routinely make more mistakes as the midnight oil burns, said Francois Dominic Laramee, a freelance game developer and author. That means any extra productivity is eaten up by hits to product quality. "If your company is in crunch mode, drunken zombies may be checking your code right now," he said.'"

Comments

I want to...

[gimpynerd]

I'm not really in the field yet but when I code for long periods of time it is usually of my own volition. If you wait until the next day often you forget some of what you were working on. Reaching a stopping point before you quit accelerates the development process.

The reasons behind crunch time...

[Fitzghon]

...is bad management, plain and simple.
If game development teams had better management and more realistic timelines, the programmers would not have to pull 12-hour shifts and we would be seeing higher quality titles on the market.

Fitzghon

IATSE?

[skyman8081]

Seeing as video-game developement is a creative field in the entertainment industry. Should IATSE(Internation Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employee's) expand to allow video game developers into it, as well as its curret grouping of Theatre and Film Industry workers? The problem might have already been solved.