If the manager is a true leader they should be available (there or in contact) to give clarity.
The worst overtime experiences I ever had were caused by ambiguity. Are we done now? How about now? What is the measure of success tonight? Managers who ask you to come in for attendance, but not a goal, have no clarity themselves.
If you know what the goal is (ie. Clicking SUBMIT 10 times will no longer crash the database/app/game) then you can focus and feel good when you've finished. You don't need anyone around if you have clarity, unless it's to support you with food, drinks, or more clarity.
If you didn't go to school, but you are energetic, disciplined and passionate, apply for QA roles and then commit to understanding the mechanics you see when you are testing. I know an Executive Producer of an extremely successful 2006 game that started in QA years before and absorbed the processes he saw around himself. He moved into design years later and applied this knowledge while absorbing process from the new disciplines around him. Then he was a respected Producer for years, mainly because he understood what it took to get things done in each area. Most recently he applied all of this with a talented team and made a great game.
Even young punks who think they know it all can grow up in QA. It is quite an eye-opener for these know-it-alls to be around disciplined, confident CompSci and other graduates who really do know their stuff. They often mature during this process can move onto roles with more responsibility. The ones that don't are easy to spot. If you have the education, the only thing that you need if you are missing experience in the games industry is modesty and passion. Modesty to work on the boring systems, and passion to make those seem exciting.
The industry really needs more candidates. If you see business news about the growing game industry, remember that 85%+ of that growth is people. We routinely hire talent from other countries because we don't get enough local resumes.
Joking aside, I came across an explanation for this when watching a documentary on baboons.
The researchers observed that the competition for alpha male status is fierce and frequent. One of the ways baboons prove their strength and fitness is to bear their teeth. They do this and other more active things frequently around other males all day long. Because the males are 'tested' so often, they developed a defense mechanism for when they were tired and needed to yawn. They would bear their teeth at the same time, in an attempt to hide the fact they were tired. The researchers observed that this triggered a wave of similar yawns amongst baboons who were close by. They believed it was involuntary and directly linked to feeling challenged when tired. They suggested this behavior can be seen in other primates.
I work for a large game development studio. The slave labor approach only works for low innovation products. There are definitely studios that make those sorts of games, but even with aggressive overtime an inexperienced workforce will never return a superior value:cost ratio to warrant such an approach. We just finished managing a team of over a 100 people. We were trying to innovate, but such a large team made us too slow. Every new junior person we added after about 80 people probably lowered the overall quality of the product due to the increased communication overhead. Management in many development studios know this and are trying to make their teams more effective.
As it relates to "what developers want": We want smart people who like video games. We'll pay them well and send them home at 6pm. Slave labor studios will continue to exist, but innovative studios are on the rise and hiring aggressively. Ubisoft and Vivendi are two that come to mind.
If you didn't go to school, but you are energetic, disciplined and passionate, apply for QA roles and then commit to understanding the mechanics you see when you are testing. I know an Executive Producer of an extremely successful 2006 game that started in QA and absorbed the processes he saw around himself. He moved into design years later and applied this knowledge while absorbing process from new disciplines around him. Then he was a respected Producer for years, mainly because he understood what it took to get things done in each area. Most recently he applies all of this with a talented team and makes a great game.
Even young punks who think they know it all can grow up in QA. It is quite an eye-opener for these know-it-alls to be around disciplined, confident CompSci graduates who really do know their stuff. They often mature during this process can move onto more responsibility. The ones that don't are easy to spot.
If you have the education, the only thing that you need if you are missing experience in the games industry is modesty and passion. Modesty to work on the boring systems, and passion to make those seem exciting. The industry really needs more candidates. We routinely hire talent from other countries because we don't get enough local resumes.
What if the author released a version (high level or almost complete) of the book and opened up a forum for comments. Then the author reviews the feedback and decides which contributors are thoughful and grants wiki-style access to the manuscript. The changes can be reviewed and commented on. The contributer group could be changed (bigger and smaller) as the project progresses.
Maybe the incentive for making contributions is access to the final wiki version of the book. The publisher can still make money on the printed copies.
And it will happen like this: The first real use will be determined by our graphics programmers who will manage to eat up every new cycle on dynamic lights and high dynamic range textures. Then our physics guys and AI people will ask why there's not much left. Finally the game programmers will show up and have only enough power left to make the sweetest looking version of pong you ever saw. Wait for it, we'll have it ready for 2006.
In related news, that is what happened last time we got next gen hardware. Games didn't get that much more fun, but they got pretty. A bit sad really.
There is also the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) may have the right name to sound official, but I recall the history of the OSCAR's and the Academy on the motion picture side was not about its name alone. There were politics galore to get them to where they are now.
Just like the OSCAR's, the AIAS sent out requests to the people (members) registered in each discipline to vote on games in those categories. I'm in the technical category so I was evaluating things from that perspective, and my artist friends (members) were doing the same on art direction questions in games. Seemed fair to me.
Day 1 at Valve: Hmmm, how do we spend a few years making whatever game we feel like with absolutely no risk? I got it! We get a publisher like Vivendi to give us tons of money to pay for the entire development effort, up front.
Day 2 at Valve: Thanks Vivendi, for giving us a literal truckload of money up front. We'll call you in a few years when our next game is ready.
Day 3 at Valve: Hey team, lets sell our game online. This may piss off our publisher, so maybe we should tell them. (Maybe they actually had a dialogue?)
...
Day 801 at Slashdot: The big evil company won't let us play our game.
Why would Vivendi finance some or all of the development and not deserve some of the money?
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my EA buddy who got me in. He got me and a friend (we're from a competing company) tickets and shared the LOTR love.
I think many photographic concepts like composition and focus can be taught on a digital camera without ever having to "print" anything. This is assuming you can view the photos on a PC, TV or whatever. For that reason I think it is very conducive to experimentation.
But, the exposure and film speed issues might get lost on a digital photography student. If they never want to understand film grain and the reactive processes that go on, this may be an insignificant downside.
I think you've got this right.
The packets being sent on the internet are originating at the "PUSHER" and being requested by the "PULLER". These packets weave their way from A to B and could contain good, bad or ugly bits.
Are the railways, trucking, airfreight, buses and taxi's in Canada held liable for illegal copies of Celine Dion CDs in their freight? Even when it is unreasonable for them to know the contents?
This recording industry greed is just waiting to be blind-sided by some disruptive technology that cuts out the middlemen once and for all.
Slashdot Mirror
If the manager is a true leader they should be available (there or in contact) to give clarity. The worst overtime experiences I ever had were caused by ambiguity. Are we done now? How about now? What is the measure of success tonight? Managers who ask you to come in for attendance, but not a goal, have no clarity themselves. If you know what the goal is (ie. Clicking SUBMIT 10 times will no longer crash the database/app/game) then you can focus and feel good when you've finished. You don't need anyone around if you have clarity, unless it's to support you with food, drinks, or more clarity.
I work for a large game development studio.
If you didn't go to school, but you are energetic, disciplined and passionate, apply for QA roles and then commit to understanding the mechanics you see when you are testing. I know an Executive Producer of an extremely successful 2006 game that started in QA years before and absorbed the processes he saw around himself. He moved into design years later and applied this knowledge while absorbing process from the new disciplines around him. Then he was a respected Producer for years, mainly because he understood what it took to get things done in each area. Most recently he applied all of this with a talented team and made a great game.
Even young punks who think they know it all can grow up in QA. It is quite an eye-opener for these know-it-alls to be around disciplined, confident CompSci and other graduates who really do know their stuff. They often mature during this process can move onto roles with more responsibility. The ones that don't are easy to spot. If you have the education, the only thing that you need if you are missing experience in the games industry is modesty and passion. Modesty to work on the boring systems, and passion to make those seem exciting.
The industry really needs more candidates. If you see business news about the growing game industry, remember that 85%+ of that growth is people. We routinely hire talent from other countries because we don't get enough local resumes.
The researchers observed that the competition for alpha male status is fierce and frequent. One of the ways baboons prove their strength and fitness is to bear their teeth. They do this and other more active things frequently around other males all day long. Because the males are 'tested' so often, they developed a defense mechanism for when they were tired and needed to yawn. They would bear their teeth at the same time, in an attempt to hide the fact they were tired. The researchers observed that this triggered a wave of similar yawns amongst baboons who were close by. They believed it was involuntary and directly linked to feeling challenged when tired. They suggested this behavior can be seen in other primates.
And for those who missed it:
YouTube Summary of Events: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP_3WnJ42kw
I work for a large game development studio. The slave labor approach only works for low innovation products. There are definitely studios that make those sorts of games, but even with aggressive overtime an inexperienced workforce will never return a superior value:cost ratio to warrant such an approach. We just finished managing a team of over a 100 people. We were trying to innovate, but such a large team made us too slow. Every new junior person we added after about 80 people probably lowered the overall quality of the product due to the increased communication overhead. Management in many development studios know this and are trying to make their teams more effective.
As it relates to "what developers want": We want smart people who like video games. We'll pay them well and send them home at 6pm. Slave labor studios will continue to exist, but innovative studios are on the rise and hiring aggressively. Ubisoft and Vivendi are two that come to mind.
If you didn't go to school, but you are energetic, disciplined and passionate, apply for QA roles and then commit to understanding the mechanics you see when you are testing. I know an Executive Producer of an extremely successful 2006 game that started in QA and absorbed the processes he saw around himself. He moved into design years later and applied this knowledge while absorbing process from new disciplines around him. Then he was a respected Producer for years, mainly because he understood what it took to get things done in each area. Most recently he applies all of this with a talented team and makes a great game.
Even young punks who think they know it all can grow up in QA. It is quite an eye-opener for these know-it-alls to be around disciplined, confident CompSci graduates who really do know their stuff. They often mature during this process can move onto more responsibility. The ones that don't are easy to spot.
If you have the education, the only thing that you need if you are missing experience in the games industry is modesty and passion. Modesty to work on the boring systems, and passion to make those seem exciting. The industry really needs more candidates. We routinely hire talent from other countries because we don't get enough local resumes.
Maybe the incentive for making contributions is access to the final wiki version of the book. The publisher can still make money on the printed copies.
And it will happen like this: The first real use will be determined by our graphics programmers who will manage to eat up every new cycle on dynamic lights and high dynamic range textures. Then our physics guys and AI people will ask why there's not much left. Finally the game programmers will show up and have only enough power left to make the sweetest looking version of pong you ever saw. Wait for it, we'll have it ready for 2006.
In related news, that is what happened last time we got next gen hardware. Games didn't get that much more fun, but they got pretty. A bit sad really.
Just like the OSCAR's, the AIAS sent out requests to the people (members) registered in each discipline to vote on games in those categories. I'm in the technical category so I was evaluating things from that perspective, and my artist friends (members) were doing the same on art direction questions in games. Seemed fair to me.
Fair enough if true. I'm as happy as the next guy to pay the developer directly.
Day 1 at Valve: Hmmm, how do we spend a few years making whatever game we feel like with absolutely no risk? I got it! We get a publisher like Vivendi to give us tons of money to pay for the entire development effort, up front.
Day 2 at Valve: Thanks Vivendi, for giving us a literal truckload of money up front. We'll call you in a few years when our next game is ready.
Day 3 at Valve: Hey team, lets sell our game online. This may piss off our publisher, so maybe we should tell them. (Maybe they actually had a dialogue?)
...
Day 801 at Slashdot: The big evil company won't let us play our game.
Why would Vivendi finance some or all of the development and not deserve some of the money?
I'll "turn down" the gay next time.
"...hit her with a cinderblock"
Fair game.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my EA buddy who got me in. He got me and a friend (we're from a competing company) tickets and shared the LOTR love.
I think many photographic concepts like composition and focus can be taught on a digital camera without ever having to "print" anything. This is assuming you can view the photos on a PC, TV or whatever. For that reason I think it is very conducive to experimentation.
But, the exposure and film speed issues might get lost on a digital photography student. If they never want to understand film grain and the reactive processes that go on, this may be an insignificant downside.
I think you've got this right. The packets being sent on the internet are originating at the "PUSHER" and being requested by the "PULLER". These packets weave their way from A to B and could contain good, bad or ugly bits. Are the railways, trucking, airfreight, buses and taxi's in Canada held liable for illegal copies of Celine Dion CDs in their freight? Even when it is unreasonable for them to know the contents? This recording industry greed is just waiting to be blind-sided by some disruptive technology that cuts out the middlemen once and for all.