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ceebee posted:
Awesome news, I've always liked your work so I'm glad you haven't taken what that guy said to heart. One aspect of management is tact and motivation and I think if you can't do these you probably shouldn't be a manager. I'm a lead of a very small scale but I try to be positive about people and if someone isn't performing or I don't think they are really it's as much my fault as their's. It's really hard to get it all working smoothly, so if it's been a hellish year you did the right thing to leave. Hope the freelance goes well, and you're right; the industry is really small and it's hard to badmouth people but some people shouldn't be in the industry at all.
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Oct 12, 2012 22:10
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Seems like a good time to post this, originated from VIS Dundee I believe:quote:Office TCR (Toilet Checklist Requirements) Other examples of famous Dundee games industry emails include "do not bring samurai swords to work" and "do not attempt to flush items of clothing down the toilet".
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Oct 12, 2012 23:36
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Smegbot posted:"do not attempt to flush items of clothing down the toilet". I vote this for new thread title. Also, backstory?
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Oct 13, 2012 00:02
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Chernabog posted:I vote this for new thread title. "Game Jobs Megathread #3: You had a curry last night and have left the bowl pebbledashed.
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Oct 13, 2012 00:54
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The soda fridge in the office has a post-it note on it that originally read: "Please close me" Now it says: "Can't repro bug Please close me"
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Oct 13, 2012 02:18
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I'm nearing the end of my second QA contract, and my enthusiasm for the job has really hit rock-bottom. This isn't about the long hours or the repetitive work, I knew what I was getting when I first started, it's the fact that the majority of positions are contract, and even if you're lucky enough to get a full-time position there's barely any job security. Every full-time QA person I've ever worked with has been a victim of layoffs. I can deal with making a non-livable wage, for the most part, I just can't stand this scramble period between contracts where I worry if I'm going to have enough money to get by. I don't get the impression that the industry will ever give a poo poo about it, because the large number of contractors working at game developers are never brought up when the subject comes to job troubles in the gaming sector. My friend got a tech support job at the NCSoft branch in the area, and I'm tempted to apply for the same position. They've been putting him on odd hours, but at least he has an 18-month contract with a legitimate chance to be hired on.
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Oct 13, 2012 02:29
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Glassdoor.com for employer reviews people, come on!
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Oct 13, 2012 02:50
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miscellaneous14 posted:I'm nearing the end of my second QA contract, and my enthusiasm for the job has really hit rock-bottom. This isn't about the long hours or the repetitive work, I knew what I was getting when I first started, it's the fact that the majority of positions are contract, and even if you're lucky enough to get a full-time position there's barely any job security. If you're in QA you really need to work your way out of it - it is never going to not be a temporary position for most places because the reality is that the staffing needs for QA are only something that can be evened out and made consistent by bringing on more projects, and more projects is inherently less stable. It is a poo poo job and I don't think there is an easy way to change that that doesn't involve contract work at some level. Probably the best way to mitigate staffing need volatility iand inprove the job for employees to have a third party testing vendor that isn't tied to a publisher so they can draw from an incredibly large project pool - except now you still h e contract chasing, just on a large level instead of an individual level, so you've really just shifted the contract point, ad you've kicked up costs to boot, making it not very viable in the market. Games as an industry is a largely project driven industry. Probably the best model for that is the film industry but they have too many differences to port concepts easily and I don't know that their guild/union system is applicable in a direct fashion.
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Oct 13, 2012 02:54
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concerned mom posted:Awesome news, I've always liked your work so I'm glad you haven't taken what that guy said to heart. One aspect of management is tact and motivation and I think if you can't do these you probably shouldn't be a manager. I'm a lead of a very small scale but I try to be positive about people and if someone isn't performing or I don't think they are really it's as much my fault as their's. It's really hard to get it all working smoothly, so if it's been a hellish year you did the right thing to leave. Hope the freelance goes well, and you're right; the industry is really small and it's hard to badmouth people but some people shouldn't be in the industry at all.
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Oct 13, 2012 03:45
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So I got to hang out at the house of some random dude and eat breakfast burritos. The burritos were alright, I guess.
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Oct 13, 2012 03:46
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Comrade Flynn posted:So I got to hang out at the house of some random dude and eat breakfast burritos. The burritos were alright, I guess. With the smiles in that picture I have to assume he found how to open the secret door ... to your heart.
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Oct 13, 2012 04:44
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Resource posted:I am a level designer, I worked on the Distillery District Both visits to Dunwall Distillery, Galvani, Art Dealer, Clavering Blvd, Granny Rags, etc. area and the sewer part of the tutorial. You rock. I just finished mission 1 tonight, and I must have spent at least a good 6-8 hours exploring various nooks and crannies of that entire area. Great connectivity and a nice mix of pathing/combat options throughout. 
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Oct 13, 2012 05:37
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Adraeus posted:More often that not, poor managers are people who were promoted from more junior positions, but who a) did not want the responsibilities, b) were not prepared for their new roles, and c) think they need to work twice as hard at the same jobs they were doing prior to their promotions. As a result, they're overwhelmed, unhappy, and, clearly, nobody above is watching out for them. A certain amount of empathy should be afforded to them; however, every new manager needs someone to step in and tell them where their role fits in the organization and what they're doing wrong. Sometimes that feedback can be best provided through an exit interview. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dilbert_principle quote:The Dilbert principle refers to a 1990s satirical observation by Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams stating that companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management (generally middle management), in order to limit the amount of damage they are capable of doing... I wrote The Dilbert Principle around the concept that in many cases the least competent, least smart people are promoted, simply because they’re the ones you don’t want doing actual work. You want them ordering the doughnuts and yelling at people for not doing their assignments—you know, the easy work. Your heart surgeons and your computer programmers—your smart people—aren’t in management. That principle was literally happening everywhere. Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle quote:The principle holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. Peter's Corollary states that "[i]n time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence." One is obvious satire, the other is a little more legitimate, but I can see both holding true.
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Oct 13, 2012 05:39
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There's this one guy who works on our floor, I don't know who it is or even if he's from our studio, but he is unable to use a toilet correctly and will 'soil' the entire 'unit'. Not only this but he appears to use the bathroom about 5 times a day and never uses the same stall twice. He also smells like low tide in the hot sun. 
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Oct 13, 2012 11:59
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Chernabog posted:I vote this for new thread title. Every company in the building got an email saying pretty much that. Can only guess that someone had disgraced themselves, attempted to dispose of their soiled undergarments by flushing them and caused a blockage in the plumbing somewhere.
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Oct 13, 2012 12:43
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miscellaneous14 posted:I'm nearing the end of my second QA contract, and my enthusiasm for the job has really hit rock-bottom. This isn't about the long hours or the repetitive work, I knew what I was getting when I first started, it's the fact that the majority of positions are contract, and even if you're lucky enough to get a full-time position there's barely any job security. I hear ya, dude. I've been relatively lucky in the sense that many of the places I've worked, the contracts lasted at least a year, and worked as long as 2 years in some. Sigma-X pretty much has the right idea. The only thing to do is work your way out of QA if you want a more stable position. Sadly I haven't had much luck doing that either. With one company I worked with, they were impressed enough that I got an "associate's producer" credit, which basically meant I was helping with a little bit of game design and localization, but that was actually in addition to testing. This wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that they weren't giving me any pay bump. Of course, even THAT I could have tolerated, but the higher ups said that they couldn't guarantee me any full time position in the future cause of finances. But it became clear after a while that they were just jerking me around. That experience kinda killed a lot of my drive for a while, but I think I'm ready to take another whack at it.
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Oct 13, 2012 21:24
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Also, has anyone here ever worked at Insomniac?
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Oct 14, 2012 00:23
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Oh man, you guys. We've finally given a gameplay video and screenshots and actual previews to the press and people are talking about the game and they're making wrong assumptions and I want to correct them but  I've never worked on such a potentially high-profile game before, not being able to tell people anything is exhausting! It's nice seeing some of them getting excited though 
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Oct 15, 2012 11:43
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Pretty sure there's a few folks in here working for Riot on LoL. If so... drat. Way to go. 2 million in prizes at the LoL championship 
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Oct 15, 2012 17:15
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Wow. I can only hope this creates a cold war of MOBA championships. The International 3 better beat it, then Riot better come back and make the next LoL championship better and so on.
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Oct 15, 2012 17:49
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I hope this fits in with the thread, but I just wanted to post about last week's G2E (Global Gaming Expo). It's a yearly event held in Las Vegas, and is pretty much the E3 for the casino/slots industry. I'm a sound designer for a casino gaming company and we're finally (mostly) finished the slot versions of three very famous casual games by PopCap. Apparently, our ports (well, re-imaginings) of Plants Vs Zombies, Bejeweled, and Zuma were big hits down there. I'm looking forward to them being finally shipped out to places all over the world. I personally worked on the sound for both Bejeweled and Zuma, and my co-sound designer did the audio for PvZ. Article! http://ggbmagazine.com/issue/vol-11-no-10-october-2012/article/player-tested Pictures!! http://www.ktnv.com/multimedia/photos/PHOTOS-Global-Gaming-Expo-2012-172299021.html#89580481 Video!!! http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/172281771.html
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Oct 15, 2012 18:37
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Shalinor posted:Pretty sure there's a few folks in here working for Riot on LoL. If so... drat. Way to go. I'm really concerned about Riot getting taken down by Valve. I can see a tournament prize money arms race doing some serious damage to them.
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Oct 15, 2012 18:41
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Monster w21 Faces posted:I'm really concerned about Riot getting taken down by Valve. I don't see neither Riot nor Valve caring enough about the other's product to do something like this.
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Oct 15, 2012 19:15
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Riot is too big for Dota to completely take it over. Also, I bet that 2 millions is chump change for them. Well, maybe not chump change, but not an exorbitant amount.
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Oct 15, 2012 20:47
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Monster w21 Faces posted:I'm really concerned about Riot getting taken down by Valve. Tencent paid $400 million for a majority stake in Riot last year. I'm not sure which company has deeper pockets honestly.
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Oct 15, 2012 21:26
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Shalinor posted:Pretty sure there's a few folks in here working for Riot on LoL. If so... drat. Way to go. That infographic is so humbling. It's pretty crazy to imagine that League is almost as big as Xbox live for monthly playerbase.
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Oct 15, 2012 21:34
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Just finished a prelim interview with CCP, I hope it went OK. I was unable to answer a very specific question about shield boosters on account of not having played since last year (oops). Hope it doesn't hurt me too much. CDPRed liked my design test and I did an interview with them last week. Hopefully I will have some good news soon. By the way, CCP interview had a couple of... esoteric questions. I'm reminded of one of the interviews I conducted at Obsidian where I quizzed a potential level designer about Vitruvius. Comte de Saint-Germain fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 16:06
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Which CCP location is this?
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Oct 17, 2012 16:56
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:Just finished a prelim interview with CCP, I hope it went OK. I was unable to answer a very specific question about shield boosters on account of not having played since last year (oops). Hope it doesn't hurt me too much. If CCP hasn't changed much, they are far more concerned as to how well you'd fit in than how well you'd remember shield stats. It's the only place I know of where folks actually play gay chicken. Not everybody could fit in around there, and they seem to be very aware of it.
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Oct 17, 2012 17:15
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I would work for CCP in an instant if it was their Iceland location. Basically, I would just like to live in Iceland.
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Oct 17, 2012 17:50
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:I'm reminded of one of the interviews I conducted at Obsidian where I quizzed a potential level designer about Vitruvius. What happens if you cock your head and admit you know nothing about it? Alternatively what happens if you rip your shirt off in a rage bellowing  VITROOOOOVIOUSSSS and sit down as if nothing happened.EDIT: Wiki'd. "Him", not "It" GeeCee fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 18:32
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I need feedback on something. http://operationganesha.webs.com/ I'm looking to write a portfolio piece for my writing portfolio and I started this little text game with twine. I know this needs a lot of work for it to be considered good portfolio material, but I got no references here. I can see all the cliches from sci-fi movies because I wrote it, but I want an opinion from someone in this thread. Is it total shite or if I work on it could it be considered a good first step towards narrative design? It's not yet finished, I was just wondering if I was in the right direction or if it would be wise to delete everything and start from scratch. I got 2.5 years of school left to practice, so I can take criticism. Do your worst!
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Oct 17, 2012 18:55
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Very high-level feedback from clicking through on your link: Seeing sci-fi (or fantasy, for that matter) as a writing sample makes the same impression on me as seeing a spaceship or weapon as the primary piece in an artist's portfolio. You immediately fall into an ocean of sameness and have to struggle to stand out before you've even begun. Sci-fi/fantasy can be done well, but you're starting from a weaker position. In a world where I'm going through resumes, if you're lucky, I'll read a page of text. Most likely I'll read a paragraph. Make that count, open up strong, and draw me in to your text. Making me roll my eyes at the outset is not a place you want to be. More targeted feedback: A second-person narrative is hard to pull off and it immediately sets the reader on edge with its unfamiliarity. Please don't make up too many words and introduce them too quickly. Only two clicks in and I'm already swamped with a bunch of race names with multiple consecutive vowels. You have some suspect grammar going on and it doesn't seem like it's intentional and that's a huge strike against a writer. Then I stopped and replied with this!
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Oct 17, 2012 20:36
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Is there some sort of game developer networking hub where people talented in one area can meet people talented in another area? A Google search has turned up things sort of like that, but not really anything obviously with that as its dedicated purpose. Secondly, is there a site that allows people only talented at some parts of game developing to sell their ideas or labor piecemeal to other small game developers, like artistic backdrops, 3D meshes, bits of code, et cetera? This seems to me like it would be really useful to small developers who couldn't afford to hire someone to work full time.
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Oct 17, 2012 22:12
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MiltonSlavemasta posted:Is there some sort of game developer networking hub where people talented in one area can meet people talented in another area? MiltonSlavemasta posted:Secondly, is there a site that allows people only talented at some parts of game developing to sell their ideas or labor piecemeal to other small game developers, like artistic backdrops, 3D meshes, bits of code, et cetera? This seems to me like it would be really useful to small developers who couldn't afford to hire someone to work full time.
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Oct 17, 2012 22:44
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Aliginge posted:What happens if you cock your head and admit you know nothing about it? I only asked the question after I already knew I was going to recommend hiring the guy, so there was no wrong answer. I just had a bug up my rear end about it because I had just had a long discussion about him the day before.
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Oct 17, 2012 22:47
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I always liked the "tell me how you'd make a peanutbutter sandwich" question, as a means of discussing process and documentation/understanding thereof. I mostly avoided the really obscure ones, unless the interviewee was clearly on the ball. No reason to curveball the poor guy when he's already white as a sheet. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 22:59
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During a recent QA interview, I was asked how I'd assess a faulty ballistic missile launch. There was a whiteboard. It was actually a ton of fun. We briefly--and very seriously--discussed the danger of birds in the launch tube. Birds. All up in your launch tubes.
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Oct 17, 2012 23:23
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Diaghilev posted:During a recent QA interview, I was asked how I'd assess a faulty ballistic missile launch. There was a whiteboard. It was actually a ton of fun. We briefly--and very seriously--discussed the danger of birds in the launch tube. My interviews never ended up sounding as fun.  Speaking of which, I find out today that it turns out Insomniac just filled up.
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Oct 18, 2012 12:07
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Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Jan 16, 2017 |
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Oct 18, 2012 12:21
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