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Diplomaticus posted:https://twitter.com/!/tfadp/status/185901238477537281 I supported the one guy by buying his iPhone game: Connectrode. sfgate.com posted:...his coding was poor... This is almost universally the excuse for "I have nothing to say so I'll just make something up". The day I find a group if 3 or more programmers who like each other's code is the day the world is going to end. Oh, my god! He took long lunches sometimes!?!?! Heathen! If they really didn't like him they would have told Zynga ahead of time and Zynga wouldn't have even extended an employment offer. Since that didn't happen anything after the fact is just sour grapes. Mega Shark fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Apr 1, 2012 |
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Apr 1, 2012 16:35
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fookolt posted:I like how you've got a small monitor for code, and a large monitor for Steam, forum browsing, and watching movies. That's prioritizing. Diplomaticus posted:https://twitter.com/!/tfadp/status/185901238477537281 Wow. If he hadn't said anything most people would never have heard about the situation. Insulting developers in public really isn't doing Zynga's reputation any favours.
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Apr 1, 2012 16:54
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Category Fun! posted:I like how you've got a small monitor for code, and a large monitor for Steam, forum browsing, and watching movies. That's prioritizing. It's a really bad idea to spend time bad-mouthing former colleagues, even if it's 100% accurate.
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Apr 1, 2012 18:14
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Diplomaticus, is this a situation where Dan Porter can be sued? I and I'm sure others have always heard that if you get a call for a recommendation of a former employee you basically give a yes or no and nothing else because you could be in a legal bind if you say bad things. Seems like this is a perfect example of libel but I'm not a lawyer.
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Apr 1, 2012 18:27
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blastron posted:Cross-posting from the League of Legends thread, because I thought this would be more appropriate here: Paniolo posted:That's just my preference; it's largely a matter of personality. I find open layouts can be distracting and I enjoy the professionalism of having my own office. I know we've moved on from this discussion with the advent of rear end in a top hat tweeting guy, but my 2 cents: I'm the opposite of quoted, I actually find everybody segmented into offices depressing. We started with 5 guys in an open room and are up to 30 in a much larger space. Departments are grouped together so they can turn around in their chairs and have a discussion easily or see something on somebody's monitor. It's critical to our culture and it's hard to imagine going to a cubicle/office-heavy environment without it ruining our workflow or collaborative process. Our desks aren't as tight as the Riot picture (most everyone has a side-desk divider between the next person) though.
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Apr 1, 2012 19:34
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We can combine this cubicle discussion with Dan Porter. I give you, the office layout of OMGPOP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97M5FoZ-SlQ
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Apr 1, 2012 19:40
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Foiltha posted:We can combine this cubicle discussion with Dan Porter. I give you, the office layout of OMGPOP:
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Apr 1, 2012 20:02
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Mega Shark posted:Diplomaticus, is this a situation where Dan Porter can be sued? I and I'm sure others have always heard that if you get a call for a recommendation of a former employee you basically give a yes or no and nothing else because you could be in a legal bind if you say bad things. Possibly, but not likely to succeed. It'd be difficult to prove that his performance was at a certain standard in order to prove the falsity of the statement. I'm not sure what state this is in, so I couldn't say for certain whether the state considers statements about a prior job performance to be per se libel. If not, then he also has to show that he is damaged by the defamatory statement. Depending on his future employment options, that might not ever happen (if he goes with his own studio, for instance) and if it did, it'd be tough for him to get a hiring manager to admit that they rejected him based on what Dan Porter said. That being said, if he had the money and inclination (and depending on the state that he is in having anti-SLAPP laws), he could make the lawsuit significantly expensive enough for Dan Porter and Zynga that he may be able to force a settlement. If it were me, it'd be a toss-up as to whether I'd be willing to throw down on a case that is probably a loser, but likely to settle in your favor anyway. It'd require an analysis of whether Zynga thinks that the dollar loss from the negative PR in the case + costs of litigating the case the entire way out, are greater than the accepted settlement offer. For them, it's a calculation. For Pierce, it's a gamble that may cost him a lot of money. In the end it's probably not worth it.
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Apr 1, 2012 20:41
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Foiltha posted:We can combine this cubicle discussion with Dan Porter. I give you, the office layout of OMGPOP: See now, this, right here, is a sweatshop. Holy poo poo. Robin and I have something like ten times that space per person and we work in an apartment. Why would anyone work in those conditions? Especially when it's a no-name startup like OMGPOP was at the time the video was taken?
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Apr 1, 2012 20:59
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Shalinor posted:The answer is always a foosball table and a pool table. If you are going to waste money on frivolous things, the first and last answer should always be the mobile r2d2 projector: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/22/limited-edition-r2-d2-dvd-projector-up-for-pre-order/ Also, all of you people that look me up on LinkedIn and don't send an invite: don't be shy! Mainly because I don't know who's a goon and who's not so I'm not sure who to add. Comrade Flynn fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Apr 1, 2012 |
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Apr 1, 2012 21:00
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Came to work today and found my 19" monitor replaced with a 30" widescreen 
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Apr 1, 2012 21:13
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:Came to work today and found my 19" monitor replaced with a 30" widescreen That's the best april fools prank ever.
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Apr 1, 2012 21:20
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SpaceDrake posted:See now, this, right here, is a sweatshop. Holy poo poo. Robin and I have something like ten times that space per person and we work in an apartment. I imagine the reason for all those bodies sounded something like "you'll be getting industry experience and be in on the ground floor of something big!".
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Apr 1, 2012 21:24
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I guess games jobs are pretty desirable and there's always constant demand for jobs so they can just pack people away like that. I hope they all got on!
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Apr 1, 2012 21:25
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At some point, you have to be doing that as a joke. I mean, with 55 people, you are presumably paying enough in salary that getting a loft that is larger than 3,000 sgft is a trivial rent increase compared to the payroll you're putting out. At that point, you pretty much have to be intentionally trying to keep it that way. It also seems to me to start heading into OSHA territory. What happens when you have an electrical fire due to overloading the building's power systems with so many electronics, and people can't get out because the pathways between desks and poo poo are like 2 feet wide? This is in NYC right, I can't imagine that there aren't still laws on the books about that dating back to the various 19th century factory fires.
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Apr 1, 2012 21:28
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Foiltha posted:We can combine this cubicle discussion with Dan Porter. I give you, the office layout of OMGPOP:  I take back my previous statements about Riot, they've got it great.
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Apr 1, 2012 21:36
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Sigma-X posted:That's the best april fools prank ever. I bet it'll be gone tomorrow  Just spent half an hour moving my tower to under my desk so I wasn't 6" away from the monitor.
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Apr 1, 2012 21:40
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Man that Dan Porter thing is bizarre. If you signed a deal to transfer all of your employees, and the weakest one left, wouldn't you be happy? Like just do a little quiet fist-pump at your desk and move on? Why would you be pissed off enough to publicly lash out at the guy? I wonder if he had some contract incentive with Zynga where he got a bonus if all the principals of the team came over.
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Apr 1, 2012 21:56
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Diplomaticus posted:Possibly, but not likely to succeed. It'd be difficult to prove that his performance was at a certain standard in order to prove the falsity of the statement. I'm not sure what state this is in, so I couldn't say for certain whether the state considers statements about a prior job performance to be per se libel. If not, then he also has to show that he is damaged by the defamatory statement. Depending on his future employment options, that might not ever happen (if he goes with his own studio, for instance) and if it did, it'd be tough for him to get a hiring manager to admit that they rejected him based on what Dan Porter said. Thanks for the detailed answer. Intriguing how intricate it all is.
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Apr 1, 2012 22:17
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:I bet it'll be gone tomorrow You know, all the talk about monitors in this thread made me wonder if a company that did chocolate monitors (with sugar glass screens) would see any sales around Valentine's Day. Or during a particularly stressful crunch week, when you just really want to put your fist through your monitor without repercussions 
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Apr 1, 2012 22:28
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I worked as a QA tester at a small developer that made (mostly) really lovely, low budget a couple years ago. I obviously wanted to move on up to a designer/producer, and so I worked my rear end off trying to impress the higher ups for the first few months, and actually did wind up getting a lot of adulation from a few of the producers. Unfortunately, this particular company seemed like it was barely scraping by each month, and I got a lot of "oh we would totally promote you if only we had the money" talk. While I was totally willing to understand the limits of finance, after a while, it became apparent that they were just jerking me around. Eventually I (and literally everyone else in the QA team) got laid off. Ever since then I was a little soured on the idea of game development, but for the past few months my interest has been sort of rekindled. So I gots me a question (I made a thread about this a couple years ago but didn't get many responses). I'm interested in level design for side scrolling platformers (my favorite genre). The nice thing about something like say, 3D level design is that you have Unreal Engine that anyone can tinker around with, and it's something a lot of the industry actually uses. Is there a program like that for just side scrolling stuff? I've tinkered around with Lunar Magic, but it's specifically suited for Super Mario World.
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Apr 1, 2012 23:08
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Mr Interweb posted:I worked as a QA tester at a small developer that made (mostly) really lovely, low budget a couple years ago. I obviously wanted to move on up to a designer/producer, and so I worked my rear end off trying to impress the higher ups for the first few months, and actually did wind up getting a lot of adulation from a few of the producers. Unfortunately, this particular company seemed like it was barely scraping by each month, and I got a lot of "oh we would totally promote you if only we had the money" talk. While I was totally willing to understand the limits of finance, after a while, it became apparent that they were just jerking me around. Eventually I (and literally everyone else in the QA team) got laid off. Ever since then I was a little soured on the idea of game development, but for the past few months my interest has been sort of rekindled. You would probably enjoy working in Flixel. It is an open source game-making library in ActionScript3 and I've personally seen several amazing side-scrolling platformers created using it.
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Apr 2, 2012 00:29
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Also, if any one here works at a developer/publisher that's in need of testers, I'd appreciate it if you might send a link my way, since I'm in dire need of employment. D:Note Block posted:You would probably enjoy working in Flixel. It is an open source game-making library in ActionScript3 and I've personally seen several amazing side-scrolling platformers created using it. Ooh that seems kinda cool. I'll check it out, thanks!
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Apr 2, 2012 01:06
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Diplomaticus posted:At some point, you have to be doing that as a joke. I mean, with 55 people, you are presumably paying enough in salary that getting a loft that is larger than 3,000 sgft is a trivial rent increase compared to the payroll you're putting out. As far as I can tell, giving people a reasonable amount of room sometimes triggers a managerial "don't rock the boat" response. They know it's a problem, but the sardines are profitable and what if giving them space screws it up... I'll deal with it after I get back from this vegas trade show.
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Apr 2, 2012 01:16
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Mr Interweb posted:So I gots me a question (I made a thread about this a couple years ago but didn't get many responses). I'm interested in level design for side scrolling platformers (my favorite genre). The nice thing about something like say, 3D level design is that you have Unreal Engine that anyone can tinker around with, and it's something a lot of the industry actually uses. Is there a program like that for just side scrolling stuff? I've tinkered around with Lunar Magic, but it's specifically suited for Super Mario World. To that end, you might consider Unity 3D. It does 2D, it does 3D, it does side-scrolling, it does 3rd person over-the-shoulder, it does chest high walls... and it does all of those in about 30 seconds, if you google their community for starter example code. It's also increasingly relevant experience to have, if you're aiming for small mobile developers (the ones most likely to be doing side-scrolling games these days). It's far from the best at 2D or side-scrolling, but, it does them pretty well.
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Apr 2, 2012 01:48
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Shalinor posted:To that end, you might consider Unity 3D. It does 2D, it does 3D, it does side-scrolling, it does 3rd person over-the-shoulder, it does chest high walls... Truly the most versatile and useful engine for today's industry.
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Apr 2, 2012 01:50
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RoboCicero posted:You know, all the talk about monitors in this thread made me wonder if a company that did chocolate monitors (with sugar glass screens) would see any sales around Valentine's Day. My monitor gets pretty hot. I think the chocolate would melt. DancingMachine posted:Man that Dan Porter thing is bizarre. If you signed a deal to transfer all of your employees, and the weakest one left, wouldn't you be happy? Like just do a little quiet fist-pump at your desk and move on? Why would you be pissed off enough to publicly lash out at the guy? Does it even have to be something so reasonable or concrete? In his "apology," I think it's pretty clear the guy was just being overly emotional that the media was paying attention to "some schmuck who dared steal his thunder." Everything else was spewed out because he had to justify the reality of the situation to himself. I mean, if you were a good CEO, wouldn't you hate to lose an employee with integrity that can make his own games? cgeq fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Apr 2, 2012 |
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Apr 2, 2012 05:01
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cgeq posted:My monitor gets pretty hot. I think the chocolate would melt. Definately. I need to change my background from  to something less sun tan inducing.
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Apr 2, 2012 05:08
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Mr Interweb posted:Also, if any one here works at a developer/publisher that's in need of testers, I'd appreciate it if you might send a link my way, since I'm in dire need of employment. D: Where are you from?
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Apr 2, 2012 07:23
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Shalinor posted:I can't tell if you're coming at this from a hobbyist or employment angle, but if employment - note that you need to be capable of more than side-scrolling level design to get a job. You'd need to have a more varied portfolio than just 2D. Yeah, it was mainly employment. I'll check that engine out too, since I'm also interested in 3D platformers too. Thanks! concerned mom posted:Where are you from? Oh whoops, didn't realize I didn't mention it above. Los Angeles, specifically in Northridge, but I can commute all over the county.
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Apr 2, 2012 07:42
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SpaceDrake posted:Why would anyone work in those conditions? Especially when it's a no-name startup like OMGPOP was at the time the video was taken? Moving is expensive and time consuming. It affects every employee and there lots of things to consider - price, lunch/dinner options nearby, how does it affect long range commuters, etc. After you find a place, there's lead time to you moving in as the office has to be restructured so it fits your needs and not the previous tenants. When I worked for a start up in an incubator center, it was a similar situation. We were waiting for our new office to be built out so that we could move, and it was cramped near the end. If omgpop was like that for a short while, that would not be unheard of. If it was like that for longer, it would be a problem.
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Apr 2, 2012 08:17
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Play my game you intensely hip and handsome people, it's now out on android as well as apple for free! Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gludist.warheads Apple: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/warheads-medieval-tales/id498523387?mt=8
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Apr 2, 2012 09:51
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Mr Interweb posted:Also, if any one here works at a developer/publisher that's in need of testers, I'd appreciate it if you might send a link my way, since I'm in dire need of employment. D: Just figure I'd chime in here to mention I'm also looking... and also in the Los Angeles area. Also somewhat in dire need haha.
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Apr 2, 2012 10:25
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This year's salary survey was released, and those are definitely some numbers. Some of them have commas and everything. The drop in producer salaries is most interesting. I'm going to guess that's due to the shift toward mobile/smaller teams. That environment has less need for producers, and what producers they do have are likely to have less swollen salaries. Also, Aliginge posted:Play my game you intensely hip and handsome people, it's now out on android as well as apple for free! Especially funny is how that prices those health potions. I... think?... they were higher than 10 gold, closer to 20, which would make them nearly a dollar apiece. For what amounts to a disposable one-use item that is far from a guaranteed win in even one challenge. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Apr 2, 2012 |
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Apr 2, 2012 15:55
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Shalinor posted:This year's salary survey was released, and those are definitely some numbers. Some of them have commas and everything. Artist and Animators average is $75k (£46k)? drat 
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Apr 2, 2012 16:10
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concerned mom posted:Artist and Animators average is $75k (£46k)? drat That's a respectable salary for most parts of the US. Maybe not so much in the major hubs like LA, I guess, but it's not bad.
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Apr 2, 2012 16:14
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concerned mom posted:Artist and Animators average is $75k (£46k)? drat might want to look at this years UK salary breakdown that was posted a while back. Everything is significantly less here compared to our US brethren
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Apr 2, 2012 16:14
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Isn't the cost of living in the USA cheaper or similar to the UK? Ummm any jobs going guys?
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Apr 2, 2012 16:15
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concerned mom posted:Isn't the cost of living in the USA cheaper or similar to the UK? Sure, just don't break your leg.
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Apr 2, 2012 16:37
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Aliginge posted:Play my game you intensely hip and handsome people, it's now out on android as well as apple for free! I do not believe I have the font your game uses, as all text is rectangles. I have an Android HTC Vision phone (Desire Z / G2) for reference.
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Apr 2, 2012 17:20
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