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Game devs, what's the worst advice you've ever been given in your field?
- Thread starter makonero
- Start date
I hope to god that you did the exact opposite and gave them even more shit. šš½
I can filter these cause I do it all the time...
Colleagues: I seriously take their advice. As part of a team its important to always listen to what your colleagues have to say in order to improve your own work, career, and product.
Family/Peers/Friends: Somewhat. Many family members can be a little ignorant of the ins and outs of game development so in like the actual work or how to do my job I don't really take their advice all that seriously. That said family/friends CAN tell when you are overworked or not getting proper recognition and can have good advice on how to inform the people above you. Even if its as small as to how you should word something.
Players: Highly highly big variance here. You always wanna keep an ear out for what your players are saying as they are helping pay for your paycheck. That said most players don't understand the realities of game development so in terms of "just work harder/you are lazy devs" I don't take too seriously. People who have never had hands on the game its hard to take credible criticisms of. Now players who HAVE actually played the game I will take seriously and listen to respectful constructive criticism. But tbh it has become easier and easier to weed out the biases of certain players in how they communicate with devs. Earnest criticism to help you is always welcome. Uninformed criticism and tantrums less so.
Journalists: Also depends. Like players they can have their biases and sometimes drum up something for an article. But that is the realities of their job so I respect the hussle. Most are pretty constructive in their criticisms of products so that is always helpful. Sometimes journalists completely miss the point and in its own way that is helpful because it tells us that we need to do better to communicate a point better in the game or the next game.
I wanna focus on this last part because its really important. My first job in the industry was exactly this. Six days a week. 10 hour days. And I had a two hour drive to and from work. And I am pretty sure at the time it was two dollars above minimum. After work I would literally go home and go to sleep and dream about being at work because I would be so stressed after work and about trying to keep my job because it was always on the line.
It was hell for two months. Mercifully when they laid a bunch of us off we got some severance which was just enough to cushion me until my next job.
"You should put this on mobile, it's where the money is at "
(usually given by someone who has no idea about the games scene but he's in "business" so he knows what he's talking about"
That one is less common nowadays, but it's because there's always some other buzzword thing taking its place. Right now it'll be dipshits telling you to do bitcoin/NFT
"Have you tried to just add [incredibly time consuming feature]"
This one mostly from players. And most of the time, just out of ignorance, so I don't really hold it against (some of) them. But yeah, stuff like "oh yeah maybe just add another phase to this boss/just expand the moveset with these more things". And in my head I just see the workload this reperesent and scream.
Those are mostly the big reoccuring two.
From colleagues, it can really depend but there's not much. Although I had a colleague who was pressuring another one to double down on an obviously incredibly bad game design because it was "more original", and after we talked in detail of all the things we tried and how it didn't work out.
(usually given by someone who has no idea about the games scene but he's in "business" so he knows what he's talking about"
That one is less common nowadays, but it's because there's always some other buzzword thing taking its place. Right now it'll be dipshits telling you to do bitcoin/NFT
"Have you tried to just add [incredibly time consuming feature]"
This one mostly from players. And most of the time, just out of ignorance, so I don't really hold it against (some of) them. But yeah, stuff like "oh yeah maybe just add another phase to this boss/just expand the moveset with these more things". And in my head I just see the workload this reperesent and scream.
Those are mostly the big reoccuring two.
From colleagues, it can really depend but there's not much. Although I had a colleague who was pressuring another one to double down on an obviously incredibly bad game design because it was "more original", and after we talked in detail of all the things we tried and how it didn't work out.
I work helping folks forming LLCs and, at least in the state where I work, you can form a standard LLC for like $231 and then you've just got your Registered Agent fee which, in CA you could be your own RA, but in my state it's anywhere from like $50 to $100 annually where you need a third-party to be your RA. There's also an Annual Report in my jurisdiction which is dirt cheap, but that's really about it as far as ongoing maintenance costs. CA has an annual tax it seems to maintain an LLC of like $800, so like most things CA is more expensive.
There's lots of states, like Delaware and Idaho I'd imagine, that are super cheap to start and maintain an LLC. I don't know about other states than the one I work in, but I imagine at least a few are the same, but the LLC is the resident of the actual state and you never even need to set foot there.
Just something to think about if the need arises again. All the big players do this kind of shit, so it's always an option, even for single-member LLCs.
Damn this thread is depressing me.
My main takeaway here is.... devs should get paid more. And need more protection. Not just financially and career-wise, but intellectually too. It's like, from what I am seeing... having to navigate the nuances of game development is an art in itself.
Seems like a world where the stakes are always extremely high, and everyone seems to think they know what's best for everyone else and their voice is the most important. Scary.
My main takeaway here is.... devs should get paid more. And need more protection. Not just financially and career-wise, but intellectually too. It's like, from what I am seeing... having to navigate the nuances of game development is an art in itself.
Seems like a world where the stakes are always extremely high, and everyone seems to think they know what's best for everyone else and their voice is the most important. Scary.
I'll be honest, that last one isn't bad advice, it just wasn't suited for your situation at the time, we shouldn't have to be pushing for OT to put food on the table, means you should be getting paid more.
It was mostly in reference to me sticking to only doing 15 min breaks and one hour lunches and being super focused when working. They would regularly try to get me to stay on break for longer (they would stretch breaks to be half an hour) and take longer lunches. Also during actual work they would be on social media or youtube instead of testing. It had always bothered me and I didn't like the advise was to be more like them. But I will admit I was not in a healthy mindset at the time cause I felt I had to make up the work for them. Looking back they were my direct supervisors so...yeah probably didnt help myself the way I thought I was at the time. Also at that point I was contract and they were perm. So I was in some weird way trying to prove my value so I could be kept on in a more perm way instead of having a contract extended over a long period of time so I could argue for more money.
TLDR; It wasn't the OT that bothered them. I would have never inconvenienced a supervisor or lead like that, unless it was scheduled and I would take every opportunity they gave it. It was how I insisted that I myself returned to work on time and when working actually focused on the work.
Ty, yeah if we ever started it up again I think forming it in another state is something we'd do.