I have been thinking of going to work as a graphic designer or similar in a game company, but after hearing some employee stories of that very same job I have experienced a lack of excitement of going to be a graphic designer. Those stories are alarming stories of nowadays typical worklife which is very hectic and usually the main goal of corporations is to make money, and for those companiens making the money is even more important prioritery than the corporation workers health.
Game companies usually works like this: They have a idea for the game or maybe they have done it already. Next thing they have to do is to find a publisher who would publish their game to the whole world. Here comes the problem; those publishers have usually big word power of what kind of game it should be meaning that they can order which things game developers have to remove from their game, so they are censoring the games. Even the more concerning thing is that if that publisher says that you have to make that video game completely done in one month, then those developers must get the game done in time or else they have to pay big amount of cash for every day the game isn't ready until it's finished. Because of this, nowadays it's usual that when a game company releases their game, it's usually not completely finished and there are many bugs and errors in it.
Because of some of those bad publishers, some game developers want to do video games without them telling to you what to do and when to do it, so they decide to be indie game developer. Indie game developer means that developer is making games independently without publishers and usually makes games with couple other guys or completely alone in their own houses. There is a term for that which is "bedroom coder". There are other options besides working with publisher in order to get some visibitily to your game, Steam Greenlight-program is one very good option. Sometimes a whole video game company can be indie. One big advantage being indie game developer is that you can make video games without anyone censoring it, and only your imagination and skills are the limit that you can do. There is no one slowing you down but yourself, and you make the games whenever you like.
You might wonder why I have told all of this, but believe me when I say that all of this relates to the subject. I'd like to remind before we go any further that this is my personal opinion and view of how to be good video game company.
I am seriously planning on setting up a video game company some day, and I have already made clear in my mind that what are the most important prioritys in it. Like I said in the first chapter usually nowadays in video game companys (and others as well) main goal is to make money one way or another without paying attention to the worker. In my own game company my number one priority will be making and keeping the workplace's atmosphere good, and making sure that employees have good time. I think that is very important goal to achieve, because the company's employees are the heart of the company and if they aren't feeling well the company isn't either. I am completely sure that when employees are treated well it surely will show in their motivation towards their work and they will be making their tasks better. That's not the reason though I would like to take care of my companys employees, I just want to offer a job for those positive and great people where they are treated well and their well-being is the number one piority, because nowadays that is a rare phenomenon I believe.
I don't want to set up my own video game company and be the leader in it because I'd like to have power and maybe some day big salary, the reason for it is that as long I myself lead the company nobody can change the companys top priority of employees well-being to an other priority such as making much money as possible and forgetting employees.
When I will recruit employees to my company it plays a very important role that what kind of persons those people are. I have very little help from a employee who, for example, might be quite good at making graphics, but he/she is very negative person who poisons the atmosphere in the company and is trying to make co-workers feel miserable. Because of those people I'd like to build my own company and make sure that at least in my company there will be no employees like that. I would more definitely hire a person who might not be the most best drawer but he/she haves huge motivation and excitement to learn, and is positive person who respects the other employees like the else crew does.That is my ideal employee. I genuinely believe that one can learn anything if he/she wants to, but in order to do so they have to have the excitement and motivation.
Good example of good publisher gone bad after money is EA. They want to launch every game as fast as possible to get the money. They don't seem to care if the game is finished or not. They say that rest of the game can be sold as DLC(Downloadable content) against extra money. This way game's price can go easily over 100€, when few year ago it was standard to have full game when you bought it with 60€, now you can be sure to get half-finished game and be ready to pay extra for rest of the game.
ReplyDeleteOne example of hastily released EA title is SimCity. It didnt work for a week after its release and had so many bugs in it and still has after many months.
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ReplyDeleteThis kind of company must be very popular because it's games are supposedly very carefully done and their quality is the best. If this kind of company has a big lot of the market, it could damage these big companies such as EA and they have to do something, hopefully give more time, better working conditions etc. to release better games. I agree that employees must be listened to and they should be treated well because it is the way to release very good products. I also think that employees happiness is the only way for a small business to survive in such a competitive market as game markets. Big companies don't have to take care of their employees happiness because they can be replaced with other people. I wish you luck with your business and hope that it will succeed.
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