Gameloft's Apparently A Terrible Place To Work

[TheAmazingHobo]

You are not developing prosthetic limps or teaching mentally-handicapped children how to read, you are programming a fucking game. If your boss wants to work you to death, you tell him to go ride a flag-pole.
And trust me, they don´t have to do this, there are other jobs out there for programmers.
Yes, they might not be as prestigious as programming a crappy iOS port of a crappy Windows game, but they pay well and are much less likely to cause you to jump from a bridge.

I´m sorry, this just makes me seriously angry.
How little do you have to value yourself, to put up with this bs? How little do you have to think of your family, your friends, your mental and physical health to do this kind of shit for more than a month before you walk out ?
You are not living the dream of being a game-dev, you are participating in a shitty reimagining of a fucking Dickens novel.

 

[K V MAN]

and that boys and girls is way valve takes so long to get the game ready to launch,

 

[RvLeshrac]

That was my point. Too many morons growing up with the idea that the only way to earn any money is to bend over for everyone above them.

I'm not sure I'd phrase it exactly that way. It's the idea that this is their dream, and by the time they get to the place where they learn their dream was a pile of shit to begin with, they've nowhere else to go.

No, they simply blind themselves to all other alternatives. Hence: Morons.

These stories have been readily available for nearly 20 years now, and yet morons still think that these jobs are some amazing techno-dreamscape where everyone has cocktails all day long and drives home a Porsche to a million-dollar mansion.

Just look at the people who will happily take 100-hour weeks in QA positions, despite that being a dead-end for 90% of them - with most of the 10% not moving much further.

I've got nothing against those who know what they want and use the job as a jumping-off point, but they're neither the ones accepting the ridiculous work overloads, nor the ones saying that that others should sit down and shut up about it.

 

[tharglet]

It's stuff like this that made me go into business programming and avoid game programming like the plague.

I remember people finding it weird I wasn't wanting to do game programming, seeing as I play games a fair bit, but it's not hard to find stuff like this that show the conditions can be not so good.

Done OK so far on the path I've chosen ^^

 

[Monsterfurby]

To be honest, those working times are pretty standard in the industry, at least for small studios. When we tried to save one of our project, I actually put up a camp bed in the office. It's funny (or, actually, sad) how everyone thinks that these are rare occurances.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Said it before, I'll say it again: Valve games take longer, they're critical darlings and commercial successes, and they don't treat their employees like cunts.

Your project lead/manager should not be so incompetent in scheduling that they have to introduce 120-hour-week crunch periods. Its no excuse.

Valve has the unique position where they do not rely on anyone else, not even their game sales, they can take their sweet time or even shelve games they were developing (Episode3).

The average game developer however doesn't have that luxury, they get the publishers cash and a deadline that was set under the assumption everything will go smoothly (and it never really does).
So there will always be crunch time(some worse then others), but with good management that is not a problem, people just need to know their extra work is appreciated and that it will be rewarded with extra down time and/or a fatter paycheck.

 

[Woodsey]

Said it before, I'll say it again: Valve games take longer, they're critical darlings and commercial successes, and they don't treat their employees like cunts.

Your project lead/manager should not be so incompetent in scheduling that they have to introduce 120-hour-week crunch periods. Its no excuse.

Valve has the unique position where they do not rely on anyone else, not even their game sales, they can take their sweet time or even shelve games they were developing (Episode3).

The average game developer however doesn't have that luxury, they get the publishers cash and a deadline that was set under the assumption everything will go smoothly (and it never really does).
So there will always be crunch time(some worse then others), but with good management that is not a problem, people just need to know their extra work is appreciated and that it will be rewarded with extra down time and/or a fatter paycheck.

True, and I'm not saying crunch time is unacceptable in and of itself, but they are treated like shit and told its "expected of them".

Just because you have a deadline to launch your product does not mean you can fuck around with your employees constantly. They'd probably work more efficiently if they didn't have to put up with shit conditions anyway.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

she is fucking 68 years old and she works 9 hours a day, 7 days a week (

My father works more than that and he's 75

He's also 9 stone/6ft1, so I stick with my "not good for you".

And yet people do. You think they make this stuff up? Many others have confirmed, even the Team Bondi guy confirmed that people worked some 100+ hour work weeks and he was trying to defend the company against the allegations.

I think they exaggerate to prove a point, like when they talk about coming in at 9:30 and then starting at 8:30 the next day.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

she is fucking 68 years old and she works 9 hours a day, 7 days a week (

My father works more than that and he's 75

He's also 9 stone/6ft1, so I stick with my "not good for you".

And yet people do. You think they make this stuff up? Many others have confirmed, even the Team Bondi guy confirmed that people worked some 100+ hour work weeks and he was trying to defend the company against the allegations.

I think they exaggerate to prove a point, like when they talk about coming in at 9:30 and then starting at 8:30 the next day.

well your father is a boss, i'll give him that then for sure

and im curious as i have never seen "stone" used as a unit, where are you from exactly that that is common?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

well your father is a boss, i'll give him that then for sure

Patently insane, I'm telling you.

and im curious as i have never seen "stone" used as a unit, where are you from exactly that that is common?

Jolly Old England. We do still love our Imperial measurements.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

well your father is a boss, i'll give him that then for sure

Patently insane, I'm telling you.

and im curious as i have never seen "stone" used as a unit, where are you from exactly that that is common?

Jolly Old England. We do still love our Imperial measurements.

Ha I thought it might England, but wasn't sure, I have done near all my physics and maths in college and not seen "stone" as a unit so I was curious lol