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Well that was the most stressful 4 hours of my life. Putting together new Android builds of a game. Lost the keystore password. Ffffffff Edit: Goddamn what a stupid system that is. Lose a file or one of two passwords and you're hosed, you can never update your app. Akuma fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Jul 13, 2012 |
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Jul 13, 2012 20:18
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Akuma posted:Well that was the most stressful 4 hours of my life. Putting together new Android builds of a game. Lost the keystore password. Ffffffff AND you goofed locking up the office 
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Jul 13, 2012 21:10
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Akuma posted:Edit: Goddamn what a stupid system that is. Lose a file or one of two passwords and you're hosed, you can never update your app. That's why I always make the passwords the same and they're just a hash of something else so it's not too bad to recreate if something goes wrong. But yeah losing the keystore file is a bad bad thing. There's rarely ever even a point to having more than one key per store so needing more than one password is probably overkill anyhow...
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Jul 13, 2012 21:16
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Diplomaticus posted:Typically not, actually. They're paid on salary. The firm BILLS hourly, but since your average first year associate brings in more than 10x his salary in billables, it has little relation to what the lawyers actually get. They used Hunton & Williams for the suit he was referring to. First page of google hits pulls http://www.huntoncareers.com/files/Uploads/Documents/Careers/NALP2011_NC.pdf which lists their yearly req at 2000 hours. I'm sure your aware, but that is going to average out to at least 50 hours a week assuming no vacation. More likely closer to 55 or 60. Lets stick to the real criticism about the professions he compared: 1. Lawyers at big law firms know what they are getting in to (like you said) and get compensated better than anyone in games (assuming comparable seniority), and are often working on things more important than games. First year associates fresh out of law school who don't know anything about being a lawyer make more than 99.9% of game developers. 2. Doctors also know what they are getting in to, and most are compensated better than anyone in games. Other than maybe some plastic surgeons they are all doing things more important than anyone in games. 3. Firemen and Policement don't blog about being exploited because any legit complaints would be picked up by mainstream news orgs. Also, they are unionized nearly everywhere. Jaytan fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Jul 13, 2012 |
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Jul 13, 2012 21:22
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Jaytan posted:They used Hunton & Williams for the suit he was referring to. First page of google hits pulls http://www.huntoncareers.com/files/Uploads/Documents/Careers/NALP2011_NC.pdf which lists their yearly req at 2000 hours. I'm sure your aware, but that is going to average out to at least 50 hours a week assuming no vacation. More likely closer to 55 or 60. I don't disagree with any of that. It actually was my point (well, that and correcting the rate): comparing crunch in games to other professions that work lots of hours as a matter of course, is silly. At the same time, it does not diminish that crunch is often (but not always) stupid and a sign of poor management, and shouldn't simply be accepted as a matter of course like it is in other jobs.
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Jul 13, 2012 22:08
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octoroon posted:That's why I always make the passwords the same and they're just a hash of something else so it's not too bad to recreate if something goes wrong. But yeah losing the keystore file is a bad bad thing. There's rarely ever even a point to having more than one key per store so needing more than one password is probably overkill anyhow... Aliginge posted:AND you goofed locking up the office Edit: Forgot about this. Today we got told we're essentially being given a games allowance. As in, supplemental funds to buy games with. Which is pretty sweet. I'd been meaning to bring that up for a while, but never got round to it. Akuma fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Jul 13, 2012 |
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Jul 13, 2012 23:41
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Jan posted:In a way, this is why I haven't explicitly mentioned where I even work. When my game comes out, then I'll reconsider, but apart from a few instances where I'd love to say something, it's easier this way. floofyscorp posted:I derailed the Runescape thread for a couple days by semi-accidentally revealing that I worked at Jagex(someone thought our CEO's APV was a tank, man it's not a tank it has no gun!), but it died down once they realised I knew absolutely nothing about Runescape itself. Maybe someday there'll be a Transformers Universe thread... The adulation you get from working on Runescape tends to be from 9 to 14 year olds, so is positively bizarre in social situations. Every time I would meet someone's family I felt like the design version of Justin Beiber. If Transformers finally makes it out of the door I am sure you'll learn to love it in its own bizarre way  MMOs tend to be slightly more frightening than most other genres though, so I feel a bit justified in paranoia in keeping my past swathed in mystery. I'll only mention Runescape because this was close to 5 years ago now and my 'inside info' is less accurate than a fansite guess. It's not every office that has people travelling half way across Europe and camping outside in tents in order to complain that they were banned or nerfed.
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Jul 14, 2012 00:48
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19orFewer posted:MMOs tend to be slightly more frightening than most other genres though, so I feel a bit justified in paranoia in keeping my past swathed in mystery. I'll only mention Runescape because this was close to 5 years ago now and my 'inside info' is less accurate than a fansite guess. It's not every office that has people travelling half way across Europe and camping outside in tents in order to complain that they were banned or nerfed. Whenever people find out I work at EA, as a corporate overhead salary drain InfoSec person, everyone always asks "So you get to play the games right?" They always get so deflated when I tell them that I don't see anything of the games before they do. No one wants to hear of the wizardry and technical hoop jumping we go through to make sure developers can make their games with minimal hassle, and implement all the interesting ideas they can think of to make their work flow better.
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Jul 14, 2012 03:21
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We have two people whose jobs are to make everyone else's lives easier. I totally appreciate it because we're just tinkering around and the printer, internet, drinks fridge, servers just work and continue working without issue. Chairs arrive, as if by magic. Suddenly we get new desks. Hey, there's coconut water in the fridge now!
RoboCicero fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Jul 14, 2012 |
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Jul 14, 2012 06:25
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RoboCicero posted:We have two people whose jobs are to make everyone else's lives easier. I totally appreciate it because we're just tinkering around and the printer, internet, drinks fridge, servers just work and continue working without issue. Chairs arrive, as if by magic. Suddenly we get new desks. Hey, there's coconut water in the fridge now! Also, yes, office managers/moms are some of the most critical employees in a studio. They keep all the little things going that we "artistes" barely realize are there (until they're not).
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Jul 14, 2012 16:46
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Shalinor posted:The 2012 Game Developer Career Guide is out, which includes the yearly salary survey. Let the analysis of how much you're being underpaid, and how ridiculously few women work in the industry, commence! Huh, the average starting salary for a game programmer is higher than I'd expect. I was expecting it to be closer to 45k/yr. I always heard that if I wanted to get into the gaming field, that I should expect to work 40% more hours and take home 30% less money.
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Jul 14, 2012 17:14
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RoboCicero posted:We have two people whose jobs are to make everyone else's lives easier. I totally appreciate it because we're just tinkering around and the printer, internet, drinks fridge, servers just work and continue working without issue. Chairs arrive, as if by magic. Suddenly we get new desks. Hey, there's coconut water in the fridge now! Mysterious, coconut water just showed up at our office last week as well. What does it all mean?!
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Jul 14, 2012 19:02
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Deki posted:Huh, the average starting salary for a game programmer is higher than I'd expect. I was expecting it to be closer to 45k/yr. I always heard that if I wanted to get into the gaming field, that I should expect to work 40% more hours and take home 30% less money. The hours thing though is spot on, again, especially for more senior programmers. A lead at my old studio pulled some staggeringly stupid hours, then left the industry for a cool job with a trendy software place up in Boulder. Dude works regular hours now, sees his family way more, makes half again as much, and gets fancy champagnes and beers at their frequent parties. He actually works in an office right across from the Sphero developers. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Jul 14, 2012 |
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Jul 14, 2012 20:18
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Sigma-X posted:Vicarious Visions? sorry from a couple pages ago. Yeah there's a whole cadre of us that landed at VV, the guys and gals there are pretty great and I'm having a great time with the project we're working on. I've never lived in NY before, but I'm a Northern VA native so I'm used to crappy winters (though not regular snow) so we'll see how it goes, I'm glad I have an AWD Subaru though!
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Jul 14, 2012 20:22
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treeboy posted:I've never lived in NY before, but I'm a Northern VA native so I'm used to crappy winters (though not regular snow) so we'll see how it goes, I'm glad I have an AWD Subaru though! I used to work at 1st Playable in Troy, NY. My one joy of the year is messaging friends still living there on the first day of summer, warning them that winter is coming.
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Jul 14, 2012 20:58
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Nystral posted:Whenever people find out I work at EA, as a corporate overhead salary drain InfoSec person, everyone always asks "So you get to play the games right?" They always get so deflated when I tell them that I don't see anything of the games before they do. No one wants to hear of the wizardry and technical hoop jumping we go through to make sure developers can make their games with minimal hassle, and implement all the interesting ideas they can think of to make their work flow better. Same here, as a sysadmin. I tell people I work in the gaming industry, they say "Oh, you make animations or design games?" and I reply "No I, huh, deal with servers and behind the scene technical stuff." and they lose all interest at that moment. Hell, even in the company most people don't know what I do - at least the local IT guys get to repair broken PCs and replace keyboards and what not.
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Jul 16, 2012 05:40
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Senso posted:Same here, as a sysadmin. I tell people I work in the gaming industry, they say "Oh, you make animations or design games?" and I reply "No I, huh, deal with servers and behind the scene technical stuff." and they lose all interest at that moment. Hell, even in the company most people don't know what I do - at least the local IT guys get to repair broken PCs and replace keyboards and what not. It's cool, even for us devs people normally lose interest as soon as they find out you don't work on Angry Birds, Call Of Duty or whatever other high profile game they enjoy that is clearly made by a well known company that you've already stated you didn't work for. Time and time again I've learned that fishing for recognition isn't worth it but it's hard sometimes, I'm proud of my work!
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Jul 16, 2012 06:53
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AntiPseudonym posted:It's cool, even for us devs people normally lose interest as soon as they find out you don't work on Angry Birds, Call Of Duty or whatever other high profile game they enjoy that is clearly made by a well known company that you've already stated you didn't work for. Hell I got that reaction working on Mass Effect. "YOU WORK IN GAMES!?!?!?! THAT'S COOL .... WHAT DO YOU DO?" "I make sure the game is within memory budgets" "...*yawn*"
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Jul 16, 2012 06:55
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Juc66 posted:Hell I got that reaction working on Mass Effect. Boy, that's a fun conversation. Neither conversant has enough information to relate, one feels like any question he could ask wouldn't be smart enough, and you're waiting for him to be impressed by either how you describe your occupation to the tax man or technobabble that requires esoteric knowledge to comprehend. I doubt that the problem is whether what you do is interesting; the problem is how you talk about what you do. Furthermore, asking "what do you do" is a terrible way to make conversation. You might as well be asked, "Are you on my checklist of people who I think I should be talking to?" When you're asked about your occupation so directly, anticipate why they're asking and counter by establishing how your job is relevant to them. You keep a game within memory budgets? How does that benefit players? What's your role in shaping the end-user experience? You're the expert. Explain why laymen should care.
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Jul 16, 2012 08:11
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On the flipside, I've become hesitant to use the word "designer" because if I tell people that's what I do, they want to discuss in detail their poorly thought out "great" game idea.
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Jul 16, 2012 08:43
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Adraeus posted:Not surprising. You meet someone at a party and he asks, "What do you do?" You respond, "I'm a reactor operator," or, "I adjust controls to regulate flux level, reactor period, coolant temperature, and the rate of power flow." Well to be fair I don't really like talking about my work or hobbies to random folks most of the time anyway. If someone doesn't have an interest in my hobbies, at best I'm going to bore them and at worst I'll irritate the hell out of them with my nerd talk, and most people don't share my hobbies or really care about programming / debugging / game design. I'd just rather talk about almost anything else with random folks. and people high-fiving me out of the blue for working at bioware always weirded me out and I kinda wanted to escape from those people too ... so there's that. ^^^^edit^^^^ DEAR GOD, that too. I've still have friends and family come up and tell me about a new game that they will think will be awesome. They'll exactly describe a game that already exists, or they'll say something that'd take a miracle to be viable ... I had someone suggest I make a pole-dancing game for the wii and/or kinekt for example. but no matter how many times I say their ideas are bad and they should feel bad for having them, they come right back with more bad ideas. Juc66 fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Jul 16, 2012 |
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Jul 16, 2012 08:54
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Final Fantasy Theft Auto 4: Modern Future Soldier Warfighting Bugaloo
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Jul 16, 2012 09:02
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For me, it's usually been some iteration of "Where do you work?" "I'm an artist who makes video games for Disney." "YOU WORK FOR DISNEY?!!?!" "Yeah, making *video games*." "Oh. Disney makes video games too, huh?  "
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Jul 16, 2012 09:06
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icking fudiot posted:On the flipside, I've become hesitant to use the word "designer" because if I tell people that's what I do, they want to discuss in detail their poorly thought out "great" game idea. I was at a photographic exhibition a while ago with an average age of 50+ where lots of amateur photographers were showing off their stuff. There were a lot of nice photos, and some more basic ones. I ended up talking to this guy who asked me what I do, to which I always say "graphic designer" because it's simpler that way. He then goes on about how much he's learnt about graphic design recently and says "what do you think about European graphic design these days?" I was like "um all of it?" "yeah, it's pretty stagnant now isn't it? It's all about Argentinian graphic design these days" To which I had no idea what to say. Then he showed me his business card. It was a sky blue card with clouds on it, then in rainbow comic sans font had his name and job. I said it was pretty cool because what else do you say, and then he said "it's pretty good but I've learnt a lot since making this one." "Oh yeah?" "Yeah now I know you should use yellow." "Yellow? For the text?" "No, just yellow." So the secret to good graphic design is yellow.
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Jul 16, 2012 09:54
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mutata posted:For me, it's usually been some iteration of Shalinor fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Jul 16, 2012 |
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Jul 16, 2012 14:28
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I had a reverse moment of this yesterday at Comic Con. I was talking to an artist I admire at his booth and I've chatted with him before in years past in other places. He then told me he been doing freelance long enough and wants to send me his portfolio to my work for a full-time concept gig. That was an odd moment.
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Jul 16, 2012 15:37
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icking fudiot posted:On the flipside, I've become hesitant to use the word "designer" because if I tell people that's what I do, they want to discuss in detail their poorly thought out "great" game idea. I've found that everyone also has a different idea of what they think a game designer does. You get people thinking artist, programmer, product manager, writer, anything. Even other industry people don't seem to be able to agree on their first impressions. Maybe this is more pronounced in mobile, but it's sort of a fun game seeing what the follow-up question is when meeting new people. "I'm a game designer." "Oh, so you.. do what?"
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Jul 16, 2012 15:52
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concerned mom posted:So the secret to good graphic design is yellow. Way to let the cat out of the bag rear end in a top hat! There goes my job security.
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Jul 16, 2012 16:00
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What I hate is when people ask me "why don't you make the next AAA game?" Maybe because I'm an artist, I don't "make games", just art. Or because I don't have hundreds of millions to fund it. That could probably be it.
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Jul 16, 2012 16:28
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Juc66 posted:Hell I got that reaction working on Mass Effect. "Hey what do you do?" "I work in games, I'm an animator" "Ohhhh wow...so like...Pixar?" "Well...kinda..." "So you just draw stuff all day then right?" "No...not really...I like to draw, but for work I sit in front of a computer" "Oh" At which point if they're actually interested I'll talk about the differences between hand drawn 2d and computer animation. If not they walk away...
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Jul 16, 2012 17:20
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concerned mom posted:I was at a photographic exhibition a while ago with an average age of 50+ where lots of amateur photographers were showing off their stuff. There were a lot of nice photos, and some more basic ones. I ended up talking to this guy who asked me what I do, to which I always say "graphic designer" because it's simpler that way. Graphic Design is a lot like game design in that it's one of those fields where anyone "can" do it... and very, very few people should. Question for you guys - why do you think that gameplay depth is something that not a lot of folks have explored on iOS? I posted recently in the iOS games thread that Magic 2013 is the best game I've played on iOS, and it's really true - by far the best iOS game is a port of a PC game that's a version of a great card game. But as far as original iOS games go, you don't have any really great tactical turn based games, any awesome 4x games, or any even pretty decent RPGs. At best you have some valiant attempts(Starbase: Orion) and those are relatively few and far between. I've been so jazzed for the potential of the platform, but I've been pretty disappointed at how that potential's actually panned out. I'm wondering if it's mostly development costs vs. potential revenue in a lot of cases - the race to the bottom in pricing has really hurt the potential for deep niche games maybe?
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Jul 16, 2012 19:32
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I'd imagine a lot of it is looking at the analytics and seeing, generally, the pretty short session times.
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Jul 16, 2012 20:04
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Plus, there is only so much you can do with a tactile display.
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Jul 16, 2012 20:14
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Yeah. Everyone who I've talked to about mobile games has emphasized that you probably won't have a lot of success until you realize that people are going to be playing your game for just a handful of minutes at a time.
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Jul 16, 2012 20:15
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I think I've mentioned I've been working in the real world the last month or so, living with my parents for a bit to deal with the debt I got from previous low paying jobs and lengthy unemployment. Liking the job I'm in now even if I don't know if it can go anywhere. Anyway, a company I quite admire has been in touch about a Senior QA role after I applied for something out. Figured I'd pass on it and said I'm working, and with nothing to loose said that I'd need to know the pay would be worth it. They said to state my expectations, so I gave what I'm paid now plus a rough cost for rent for a year, thinking it was unrealistic, but they want me in for an assessment. So on the pro side it's games, for decent money and a leadership role. On the con it's been made clear that QA is where they would want me to stay, and I expect lots of overtime will prevent me pursuing my own projects and ambitions in design. If I wasn't working I would absolutely go, of course. I'm unsure about asking for a day off having been in my job for a month, even if I'm sure they would be cool about it (so long as I'm not saying it's an interview, of course) Someone I have a bit of "a thing" with is near there which might be what's making this difficult, I would be happy for at least the reason to visit. I know it isn't the basis for a career move like this though.
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Jul 16, 2012 21:06
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BizarroAzrael posted:So on the pro side it's games, for decent money and a leadership role. On the con it's been made clear that QA is where they would want me to stay, and I expect lots of overtime will prevent me pursuing my own projects and ambitions in design. If you want to be doing things in your own time, make sure you take a good look at the non competition portions of the contract, some times they can be a little rear end-backward. VVVeditVVV Depends on where you apply, and what the job is for exactly. When I was interviewing or assessing people, the ones that would stand out were personable, knowledgeable, and able to explain what they think about something clearly and concisely. Juc66 fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Jul 16, 2012 |
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Jul 16, 2012 21:25
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Is there any trick to standing out when applying for QA with entry level experience?
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Jul 16, 2012 21:30
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Juc66 posted:If you want to be doing things in your own time, make sure you take a good look at the non competition portions of the contract, some times they can be a little rear end-backward. For sure, been there, even with publisher-side QA and non-development roles in studios. Allowances can probably be made. It's really mostly the time aspect. Maybe I wouldn't be considering if I didn't spend so long grabbing at whatever I could. It's nice to be wanted, to feel "employable".
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Jul 16, 2012 21:36
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I don't know about you, man, but being gainfully employed in the field of your choosing sounds like it far outweighs any potential loss of free time or whatever, unless your personal projects are something that you can feasibly bring to market and use to quit living with your parents in the very near future. e: VVVVVVVVVVV sorry, I was assuming that QA was actually a field of choice for you. If you're just getting back into QA with the hopes being "promoted up," then definitely don't do that. You will likely be disappointed and build up resentment when it doesn't happen. Anyhow, good luck with whatever you choose. Just don't get too caught up in the idea of "loyalty" to your current employer -- you are expected to better yourself and then move on. Do what's best for you, because noone else is gonna! speng31b fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Jul 16, 2012 |
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Jul 16, 2012 21:41
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Sure, but where do I go from there? I'm not going to want to be involved in QA my whole life, and I don't see a clear way out of it from there. The nature of the place and project means there shouldn't be periodic layoffs of QA though. I'm also grateful to my current employers, I feel I should give them more time even if it's also not something I can see myself doing forever, though new opportunities may present themselves there.
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Jul 16, 2012 22:08
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