Onegai shimasu (γγγγ γγΎγ) π
We should all have a side project that we love. Something that feeds our passion that is not our main job. To some it may be cooking. Or reading. Or jogging. Mine is photography. I can't get enough of it and I love doing it almost every day. Don't get me wrong, I love making industry art, no doubt. But with my photography I can explore self expression without any preconceived notions and it can hold surprises that I don't expect. I do sometimes make money off of that and my graphic design. However its not my main job. I think I'd be heart broken if photography was my main job. I know plenty pf photographers who's main job is photography. But even they have side passions. One of my good friends is a super talented photographer. His side passion is motorcycles. Sometimes he blends the two.
Everyone needs to blow off steam or have a different outlet in order to stay sane. It's important. One of my students says her side passion is sketching. I'm training her to be an industry artist. I told her that sketching as a side passion does not count. Because its more of that industry art. It should be something that you would not normally do at your job (and non addictive, in the unhealthy way). Something that will expand your mind into different areas. It should be something you can do at the drop of a hat or plan for if you really want to dig deep. It should be something you can get lost in. That will bring you great satisfaction, no matter how it turns out simply because you did it. Something that will bring out the child inside you and simply enjoy being in the moment. Something to release that kid in us all.
That kid is always there, He/She just needs to come out and play once in a while.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Extended Crunch is Bad. Bad, bad, bad π
Onegai shimasu (γγγγ γγΎγ) π
Crunch. This is a controversial subject and I'm still going to talk about it.
I've had my fair share of crunch time. The toughest was a straight 4 months, 7 days a week, 100 hrs or so a week. There are only 168 hours in a week, so you can understand the misery. For years I had a sleeping bag under my desk that I finally used in the outdoors a few years ago. One night I fell asleep at the wheel of my car. Luckily I was at a stoplight and my foot was on the break. It was 2am and they streets were bare. Another lucky break.
Extended crunches does bad things to your health, physically and mentally. I started to gain weight. My blood pressure spiked. I started to drink more to numb myself. I was already an insomniac so my sleep became worse. I got angry easily. I began to shut myself off from my family and friends. I held bitterness and resentment to a lot of people, mostly for no good reason at all. Once I almost threw a punch at a programmer for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. It was 1 o'clock in the morning and we were all tired, getting on each others nerves. I was talked down by a fellow artist. The next day I had lunch with the programmer. I could not, and still can't, remember what he said to piss me off. Neither could he (fortunately). We are still pals. Then our game was canceled a few months later.
Productivity will slow. Mistakes will be made. Tempers will rise.
Why is there crunch? A number of reasons. The main one, IMHO, is poor management and poor scheduling. Other reasons could include people not doing their job to help out or as arbitrary as the person in charge wants to see people working harder. I've seen it all. The IGDA (International Game Developers Association) has done extensive research on crunch time here:
There may be a little crunch here and there, for a couple of weeks, for polish. No big deal.It should not be used as a standard practice for working on ANYTHING. I did the calculation once one what my actual pay would have been had I'd been paid for the amount of overtime that I worked. It was astronomical. And I was certainly not the highest paid artist.
Why am I complaining? There is such a thing as a "life" that I, and many others with this experience, want to have. Down time is essential in this line of work. A balance in our lives is necessary for active creativity and career longevity. What is not right is for companies to take for granted the people who work for them. To be just a number. An asset (which I was told I was once). To be taken for granted. I know several colleagues that have started new Indie studios and do what they can for the employees to have a work/life balance because they don't want their employees to experience the same stress as they did. The change is happening, however its too slow. Does not mean you should stay away from the industry. It is fulfilling in so may ways.
Making games is not as fun as playing them. However it should not feel like a very slow death.
Crunch. This is a controversial subject and I'm still going to talk about it.
I've had my fair share of crunch time. The toughest was a straight 4 months, 7 days a week, 100 hrs or so a week. There are only 168 hours in a week, so you can understand the misery. For years I had a sleeping bag under my desk that I finally used in the outdoors a few years ago. One night I fell asleep at the wheel of my car. Luckily I was at a stoplight and my foot was on the break. It was 2am and they streets were bare. Another lucky break.
Extended crunches does bad things to your health, physically and mentally. I started to gain weight. My blood pressure spiked. I started to drink more to numb myself. I was already an insomniac so my sleep became worse. I got angry easily. I began to shut myself off from my family and friends. I held bitterness and resentment to a lot of people, mostly for no good reason at all. Once I almost threw a punch at a programmer for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. It was 1 o'clock in the morning and we were all tired, getting on each others nerves. I was talked down by a fellow artist. The next day I had lunch with the programmer. I could not, and still can't, remember what he said to piss me off. Neither could he (fortunately). We are still pals. Then our game was canceled a few months later.
Productivity will slow. Mistakes will be made. Tempers will rise.
Why is there crunch? A number of reasons. The main one, IMHO, is poor management and poor scheduling. Other reasons could include people not doing their job to help out or as arbitrary as the person in charge wants to see people working harder. I've seen it all. The IGDA (International Game Developers Association) has done extensive research on crunch time here:
https://www.igda.org/page/crunchsixlessons?And if you've not read the "EA Spouse" story, do so:
https://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.htmlCrunch still happens. Sometimes, crunch get built into the schedule (absurd, right?) Some of my colleagues were on a year long crunch, 6 days a week minimum (and were looked down upon, by management, if they were not there Sundays). Brutal π«. Crunch will burn out wonderful talent very fast and they will have to be replaced (which takes time and $$).
There may be a little crunch here and there, for a couple of weeks, for polish. No big deal.It should not be used as a standard practice for working on ANYTHING. I did the calculation once one what my actual pay would have been had I'd been paid for the amount of overtime that I worked. It was astronomical. And I was certainly not the highest paid artist.
Why am I complaining? There is such a thing as a "life" that I, and many others with this experience, want to have. Down time is essential in this line of work. A balance in our lives is necessary for active creativity and career longevity. What is not right is for companies to take for granted the people who work for them. To be just a number. An asset (which I was told I was once). To be taken for granted. I know several colleagues that have started new Indie studios and do what they can for the employees to have a work/life balance because they don't want their employees to experience the same stress as they did. The change is happening, however its too slow. Does not mean you should stay away from the industry. It is fulfilling in so may ways.
Making games is not as fun as playing them. However it should not feel like a very slow death.
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Don't Relax Just Yet π€
Onegai shimasu (γγγγ γγΎγ) π
I covered this topic a little previously, now I want to spend an entire post on it.
When you're on a project, just because you're done with your tasks does not mean you're finished working on the project. Whether it be coding, art, producing, management, whatever. You're not finished until you move onto another project. If you chill and celebrate early, your other teammates (who continue to work) will wonder why, and begin to resent you. They don't want to spend late nights and weekends working to finish the project because you decided to check out early. You're here to bring your best. When you mentally check out early, you are not giving your best. This is your ego talking, telling you that you've done enough. You need to check that ego asap.
In all my years I the industry I see this far too often. One person finished his/her task and chills out for weeks after that. Sometimes months. This makes extra work for everyone else who have to cover for things that could have been taken care of, usually small things that no one wants to do. There's always pickup work that needs to be completed. Even if you're not good at it, don't sit back and ride the rest of the project out. If you're not good at a task volunteer for it anyway because usually you can get help, and it will be appreciated. If not, others will feel the guilt for having things cut or for the final product not being as good as they know it could have been.
Remember: you are here to be a valued member of a team and to support your teammates as you expect them to support you. You're also here to be of value to the company that hired you.
That being said, I don't recommend doing something WAY outside of your expertise.
Example: If you're an artist I don't recommend working on AI code. Stay within your field and help out the rest of the team. Especially if unforeseen circumstances pop up. Like a team member having to leave. There will be things that are out of your control that can't be wrangled with. So help out with things that are in your control. The more you help out within your expertise the faster you can honestly celebrate not only your accomplishments, but that of the entire team.
Remember: you'll take your lumps together and your victory laps together.
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