My game studio horror stories #GameWorkersUnite
A new topic started trending in my Twitter bubble, and it awakened something in me that was dormant for years. This #GameWorkersUnite tag urging game developers to speak out about their workplace horror stories triggered some suppressed memories to resurface..
A lot has happened since my gamedev days. I moved back to my country of origin (Belgium), went back to the “regular” private sector to eventually end up in academia. While the PhD wasn’t a walk in the park either, the game studio stories are of another level.
I won’t name names or companies (not that it exists anymore), a simple Google should reveal enough. Disclaimer: I only worked at one company. My experience is limited. I chose not to take any chances and have it happen to me again. This #GameWorkersUnite tag on Twitter does make me realise, again, that this wasn’t an isolated case.
For the record, I’m Belgian. In most Belgian companies (certainly IT) we’re treated very well. Normal working hours, lots of benefits, no overtime, decent pay (HUGE taxes though). This might have made my experience a bit more extreme as the contrast with my game industry experience (in the UK) was .. well.. huge.
This post contains just a few of the “interesting” events that happened during my two years in games.
Your mistakes should be mocked publicly
Only one week in and I broke the build. Look, I wasn’t a great C++ developer when I just started, but that memory leak went unnoticed until they deployed it on the devkit (small memory vs large pc memory right). Who’s check-in? Mine. What do we do? Humiliate the new guy who just moved country and wasn’t feeling confident in the first place.
Asking questions was a no-go. To peers? Sure. Not to your superior. “What, how can you not know that?!” Looks at his neighbour “This guy doesn’t know this, what’s he doing in video games”. Loud enough for everyone on the floor to hear. Thanks team lead. Your social skills rock. I’ll never ask a question again and will spend a week on a problem that you could help me solve in an hour (is that why we end up crunching?)
Hierarchy
This must have been the first time where I really noticed hierarchy. Sure, a manager is boss of you. But in any other IT companies, you are colleagues. You treat each other with respect. Here? Well, we were code monkeys. There for just one thing: code. Input on design? Sorry, a code monkey isn’t going to tell me how to design a game. (guess working on bank software would’ve been as much fun..)
Shut up and work
I’m a social guy (with people I know. Don’t expect me to walk up to strangers). So I talk. Hey we’re spending long days together, I require my social interaction. My first appraisal was up. Three months in.
“We’d like you to put on your headphones and just work”. Suddenly my job looked a whole lot different. I got a degree for this? To sit there and just do as told, keeping my head low so my boss doesn’t go nuts on me?
Ye ol’ crunch
“We’d appreciate if everyone stays late one day a week”. Ok then.. This must be that crunch thing people talk about (not even half way the project). A few weeks later: “Let’s make that two days”. Until ..
“Could you guys come in on Sundays?”
Ok no. Sorry. I draw a line there. I mean, he’s just asking right? This wasn’t mandatory? So no. I’ll spend it with my wife thank you very much.
The next Monday couldn’t be more awkward. Silence. Angry stares. Team lead wasn’t asking, it seems…
Work hour leaderboards
Here’s the amount of hours worked last week! An email, from our team lead, with everyone’s hours clocked. Unsurprisingly the lead himself at the top, 58% more than the person at the bottom (hey that’s me). Didn’t even get to my 40h required that week, by 5 minutes! (another public humiliation). Yes I’m a bit of a digital hoarder, so I still have that mail:
A mail to HR put a stop to it. But it seems the practice wasn’t unusual. “We did this in previous companies too!” Just to motivate everyone a little…
Just run and don’t look back
The trick was to just leave when the team lead left the office for let’s say a toilet break. Don’t EVER ask “is there anything I can still do?” Because there always was. Even if there wasn’t. Why not waste some more hours just testing our game. Right? Because no one home wants you.
Even if there really wasn’t anything left to do, there would be a reason. Classified under “Moral support for the team” . Seeing as some people could not get the work done in time for the next milestone (due to poorly managed projects, NOT because these people weren’t already working their asses off), they needed our support. We need to be there. Remember, I can’t talk to them though. Just my presence will magically help them work better.
(In a way this is understandable. If you’re being abused, you’d like people around you to feel safer)
At some point I even ran off as I had friends visiting from Belgium. They were staying Friday night and Saturday morning. So you could imagine I wanted to go home at some point Friday night. Around 8ish I managed to sneak off.
Made it for dinner.
Got a phone call.
Sorry folks my team lead needs me to be at the office for reasons. I’ll see you again next year…
(oh and that time I wasn’t allowed to leave “early” when our guinea pig was dying. Yep. Great)
Bonus time
Ha. Based on our many hours of overtime, we received our bonuses. Oh, this was also our Christmas bonus. Together with our salary, some of us didn’t even reach minimum wages. Still, no complaining. Could’ve been worse, could’ve gotten nothing! Should be thankful.
We just fired a bunch of people
The company had bought a team somewhere up north. Great people, very skilled. Also, no pushovers, older experienced guys (our team lead was in conflict with them constantly). Sure, a team lead can have an opinion about parts of the team. The team lead should however not be talking shit about them to his other team members.
Anyway, the team had to come in between Christmas and New Year. When bought, their contract stated they’d still keep their Christmas holiday privileges. The team lead thought differently. But they didn’t show up.
This was close to the game’s deadline. They spent the holidays with the family. They had balls and their priorities in order.
They got fired.
Not because of this of course. That’d be some serious legal mess. But the project was ending, money was running out. They had to let people go. They were the first and most logical choice.
But! That’s not what you tell your team. You tell your team they got fired because they didn’t show up during the holidays.
This was insane, using these kind of techniques to scare people into working harder and longer. But it happened. And it worked on quite some people..
Exit
You can imagine these experiences didn’t really want to make me to stay in such a hostile and unfair environment. It was poison. I’d get so angry on a daily basis.
That doesn’t mean I don’t miss it. I loved the work. Of all my jobs (five across 15 years) I had the most fun at this one. I met the most amazing people, worked on cool stuff, put a game out there. We had a foosball table, free crap food, and most importantly a shared love for video games..
But that doesn’t make up for all the crap they put us through. There’s no reason this company couldn’t have just been a nice and fair environment to work. Everyone has deadlines. Everyone has budgets. But us little people did not have any power. We were replaceable (or that’s what they’d let you believe). Cheap expendable labour. Under questionable people and project management.
That’s why this #GameWorkersUnite is important. This industry could change. Become like any other. There’ s no need for crunch. You’re not the only ones putting out projects, meeting deadlines. And when your developers unite, you’ll change. You’ll have no choice.
