Item — HN Reader

I'm a long time lurker, but finally a topic I know a little about.

I can't speak for every company out there, but I worked at 2K / Irrational Games through the Bioshock days. Things may have changed in the last few years. I left several years ago to work twelve hour days, 7 days a week, for no pay at all in my own company.

You have to ask yourself what you want in life. Do you want to spend years working on B grade games nobody has heard about, or do you want to work on a AAA game with a huge budget that everybody is talking about.

Do you want to be the best, or do you want to be some average joe.

If you want to be the best you have to work hard, and you have to fight, and you have to put aside some other things in life. And if you're doing it, you will expect it of the others around you.

If you don't mind being a member of an average team making average games, well you can have a better work life balance.

It sounds a little harsh, but I honestly think it's as simple as that.

4 comments

i think you're extremely WRONG. I am also a developer, and I can tell you for FACT i can write better code and be far more interested in my work, and get more done by working less hours every week. Burnout in anything is real even if you LOVE it with all your heart. The mind needs a rest.

I work for a completely profitable studio now that bootstrapped ourselves working <40hrs a week. We work remotely, we have unlimited flex time, 3+ weeks of vacation a year, every holiday.. AND WE MAKE EVERYONE TAKE ALL OF IT. The more time spent away from the grind, the better we all feel when we get back on it. I get excited to get back to work instead of dreading it. The american mentality of work until you fall down is WRONG. When i was in that situation the last few hours of the day was spent trying to just get to the end of the day. Not doing my best development.

I'm NOT SURE that all the ALLCAPS help support YOUR ARGUMENT.

Working on a AAA game does not make you "the best." And working on a B grade game does not make you "some average joe."

The "best" person is the person who most enjoys their life.

I took "be the best" as meaning, be the best in your chosen field. Some people like to see how far they can push themselves because they are competitive. Working at the high end offers opportunities to do that.

Compare with being a designer working at Apple vs being a designer working at Dell.

> Compare with being a designer working at Apple vs being a designer working at Dell.

I bet they would work similar amount of hours and payments.

I meant industrial design. I would think the (pretty small) industrial design team at Apple work longer hours for more pay than their equivalents at Dell, though that's just a guess.

Could be, my bet was based on the fact that corporations tend to be more employee friendly than game studios, in terms of private life.

The one who works at Apple might experience more smugness.

Do you think anyone who aspires to work at the leading edge of their chosen field is smug?

> Working on a AAA game does not make you "the best."

And neither does having more people talk about you.

> If you want to be the best you have to work hard, and you have to fight, and you have to put aside some other things in life. And if you're doing it, you will expect it of the others around you.

I think this is what it is truly about: being the best in what you are passionate about doing.

To me it is really concerning your using the verb "to do" when dealing with "being." Because in the end, it is not what you do what makes you happy or free...

"The best" sounds like a status and validation thing in this case.

Replace "AAA game" with (made as a) blockbuster and "B" game with "independent one that might work out" and we agree

See: Minecraft

But yeah, today's "Holywood super-production" games demand a lot of work.

Minecraft was one of a million.

Sounds like a classic recipe for burnout.