He has worked for a ton of big studios.
He also says part of the problem is that their crunch culture is so bad that no experienced game animator wants to work for them.
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Ex-Naughty Dog animator: "ND's games success is due in large part to Sony's deep pocket funding delays rather than skill alone"
- Thread starter Lant_War
- Start date
He has worked for a ton of big studios.
He also says part of the problem is that their crunch culture is so bad that no experienced game animator wants to work for them.
Doesn't Bioware have notorious issues retaining senior talent? Most of the people responsible for their success are gone, and Andromeda was built by a new team, so they are weird examples to use.
I think I quoted you by mistake - sorry!
Sure, but saying he has an agenda is too much. His whole thread and his bio explain things properly. Unless you mean agenda in the positive way: that he's exposing that to call them out and hopefully improve things - then yes, I'd agree he has an agenda, and one worth pursuing.
He worked at BioWare during Mass Effect peak, he went to Ubisoft and worked on AC3 animations and 5 years at Naughty Dog.
He knows his shit
I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with him in relation to how it works in video game animation since that's not my remit. All I'm saying is that he did call into question the skill level of ND employees, people are blindly trying to refute that and say he didn't. If you want to have the discussion on the basis or was he right or wrong to do that then fine, but we need to at least acknowledge that he did in fact do it.
It terms of my area of expertise as a software developer I've got no problem working and training inexperienced employees as long as they're eager to learn and show they have talent. To me it's not a waste. I've worked with people with supposed experience that have at times required more time and help than juniors.
A week ago Sony fans were blissfully unaware that their world would come crashing down around them.....a lot can happen in a week.
But jokes aside this is such a weak sauce argument to bring up. They gave him everything he needed in order to produce the work that allowed him to win the award and in return ND got a critically acclaimed game thanks in part to his and his team's work. As of that time when he was still employed with ND, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement that suited them both and he had no reason to risk that over internal matters.
I love threads like these so I can block the people who defend horrific crunch and strong arming someone's paycheck out of fear that they'll talk about said horrific crunch
OP
OP
The crunch tweets were being discussed on the Jason thread, I even said in the OP the rest of the tweets were about his experience at ND and crunch. Still, now the other important tweets are in the OP.
Pretty much, I don't get why someone would go through their tweet history and post that one as a "Gotcha!".
But he isn't doing that. He literally says repeatedly that both of those groups are fantastic. What he is saying is that there is a skill gap. Which yes, there is between Senior and Junior staff. He points out how it is a big problem since ND had to hire so much Junior staff the Senior staff was occupied with training them instead of working on the game. He isn't shitting on the people, he shits on the management for creating a bad company culture where the balance between new and experienced people is completely out of whack
That's not how this shit works. He doesn't work there anymore. He's fully within his right to reveal what truly goes on there and it's a good thing he did. This shit is unacceptable and it's damning that the gaming industry has come to see this shit as normal.
But if you read the whole thread and see his experience, you'll see that he means not every game has the chance to have delays and improve (no matter the cost, unfortunately).
Keeping things private is how companies are allowed to perpetuate their exploitation of labor.
What an awful, awful take.
I wonder if it's a similar case at SSM. I don't think fans would mind a year or two sans a ND game, if it meant they could correct course... would they? I know Sony wouldn't be pleased but then they'd save money, so it isn't a complete loss for them.
Why is everyone taking this as if it was a proven fact, tho? I mean, it's the word of an ex employee who seemed to be pretty happy with his job a year ago and now seems pretty bitter about leaving...
what is more likely to happen is that TLoU2 will sell 15 million copies, win some GotY awards and we'll be back doing this same song and dance a month or two before the next big AAA game launches.
they threatened to (illegally) withhold his final paycheck
fuck them
He doesn't work there anymore.
That's very damning. It's quite easy to see why an employee which didn't initially have an issue can turn quickly against it. Been in a similar situation before where management issues was incredibly apparent given my position being closely working and eventually you'll see burn out of employees, staff being trained replacing experienced who have left in huge numbers slows down the production significantly while not fixing the core issues which is the management itself with the demands and expectations with extremely poor planning. While some may be initially comfortable with the work these changes and seeing others being burned out will change perspectives.
There needs to be a dramatic cultural change enforced because at the rate they're going with all this news out now, they're going to have an even harder time with retention of employees and finding skilled workers unless they come out in the open and state otherwise.
There needs to be a dramatic cultural change enforced because at the rate they're going with all this news out now, they're going to have an even harder time with retention of employees and finding skilled workers unless they come out in the open and state otherwise.
Yeah this.
User Warned: Drive-by posting, trolling, and console warring
Well, thinking about Crackdown 3...
Mmmmh...
Nevermind.
Mmmmh...
Nevermind.
The point he's making is:
1. The culture at ND is so bad they can't retain senior talent...
2. Word has gotten around that it sucks to work there, and thus no senior level games people want the job, so...
3. They've hired a ton of people at junior level from outside the industry, making the game take longer to come out because so many talented people are playing catch up because they don't have experience with this specific job.
His entire point is about management treating employees like garbage and not a dig at his coworkers at all.
Thing is, delaying games leads to even more crunch, at least according to Jason.
This needs to be solved at a culture/management level in studios.
He probably can afford to let some truth out. He seems like a very successful guy.
I never said he was "blaming" them, just that he implied their lack of skill was delaying games and also leading to ND no longer being "the best". So he clearly is questioning their skill levels. Is he right or wrong to do that? I don't know. I don't work in video game animation. I look at TLoU2 and animation wise it looks incredible so these juniors and film animators must be doing something right from my perspective. But again that's just my perspective which doesn't matter a whole lot.
You complain about your ex-employee like that don't expect a phone call inviting you back for work in future.
lol the fucking irony. He already claimed they tried to withhold his final paycheck by making him sign an NDA.
Did you put yourself in his shoes before you posted this? Don't be a defeatist about how companies should treat you, he and nobody deserves this.
Because this is the same day an expose by one of the best gaming journalists with a proven track of insider sources and knowledge dropped about the same issues at the studio?
You think so? Read what he is posting and tell me there isn't a long list of people with similar grievances against ND that would come forward with their stories.
While the guy is brave for speaking out like this, the tweets come across as little salty no matter the industry, especially for a guy who should understand the nature of large scale production.
I totally get the sentiment, I have worked for very large companies and have felt on the talent retention side of things but the thing is the bigger the scale the messier it gets and you just cannot avoid it. You have a spectrum of personalities, skillsets, motivations even - among trainees and seniors but even among managers if the set up is so large it requires a team of those as well.
What I am saying is that it is super easy to accuse someone to mismanage but there are a lot of nuances to take into consideration especially in creative fields. I do not have experience in video game production and I am not going to speak for any of that but the larger the company the less productive each worker is and it is imo a systematic problem. Just to be very clear, I am not being apologetic for crunch culture in any way.
This is another insight how video games industry sit uncomfortably in the workforce paradigm - the nature of the product can be likened to a huge film production (which is usually highly mobile) but it needs a solid set up in a fixed place in a way, say, fashion manufacturing requires (there's specific machinery needed; a lot of creative decisions do happen in board rooms, etc.). Either way I think game industry needs to unionise in America or video game companies need to account for the in-between production periods and work like a corporate entity at this scale.
I totally get the sentiment, I have worked for very large companies and have felt on the talent retention side of things but the thing is the bigger the scale the messier it gets and you just cannot avoid it. You have a spectrum of personalities, skillsets, motivations even - among trainees and seniors but even among managers if the set up is so large it requires a team of those as well.
What I am saying is that it is super easy to accuse someone to mismanage but there are a lot of nuances to take into consideration especially in creative fields. I do not have experience in video game production and I am not going to speak for any of that but the larger the company the less productive each worker is and it is imo a systematic problem. Just to be very clear, I am not being apologetic for crunch culture in any way.
This is another insight how video games industry sit uncomfortably in the workforce paradigm - the nature of the product can be likened to a huge film production (which is usually highly mobile) but it needs a solid set up in a fixed place in a way, say, fashion manufacturing requires (there's specific machinery needed; a lot of creative decisions do happen in board rooms, etc.). Either way I think game industry needs to unionise in America or video game companies need to account for the in-between production periods and work like a corporate entity at this scale.
Pretty sure we've had a few articles at this point showing it's not all sunshine and rainbows at ND.
Where there's smoke.
Lmafao
He has enough talent and a rich portfolio to join any other LA studio, he does not need ND to survive
Why are you trying to downplay damaging business practices that cost the health of employees? Why are you insinuating that a long term industry veteran would be lying? Why are you ignoring a history of similar reports?