Stress Is Driving Developers From the Video Game Industry

Nerval's Lobster writes: For video game developers, life can be tough. The working hours are long, with vicious bursts of so-called "crunch time," in which developers may pull consecutive all-nighters in order to finish a project—all without overtime pay. According to the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Developer Satisfaction Survey (PDF), many developers aren't enduring those work conditions for the money: Nearly 50 percent of respondents earned less than $50,000 annually. Faced with what many perceive as draconian working conditions, many developers are taking their skills and leaving video games for another technology sector. The hard and soft skills that go into producing video games—from knowledge of programming languages to aptitude for handling irate managers—will work just as well in many aspects of conventional software-building. Fortunately, leaving the video-game industry doesn't have to be a permanent exile; many developers find themselves pulled back in at some point, out of simple passion for the craft.

Comments

That's not all

[Anonymous Coward]

Women and minority developers are also being driven out of this industry because it is an inherently racist, sexist, misogynist boy's club.

Re:That's not all

[SirSlud]

No, the problem is that we're talking about the game industry, and it's more pervasive in game studios than it is in many other engineering environments. If you want to counter that argument, go for it. Nobody gets anywhere by trying to solve the issue of humans robbing each other by just going, "Well, it's a persuasive problem, so we should just ignore places where it happens more often than others. We'll just solve robberies by somehow making it never happen again."

Re:That's not all

[Shadow of Eternity]

Shush woman, can't you see a man is trying to tell you how offended and hurt your pure and virginal senses are and how badly oppressed you are? Don't you see this man knows your life better than you? Be oppressed!