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potato_hamster on 07 October 2016
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GoOnKid said:
potato_hamster said:

They all work their damn asses off. How about you go ask the guys at team meat how many hours they put into Super Meat Boy, or Phil Fish on Fez, or Jonathan Blow on Braid?

I bet you it's more than 80 hours a week, especially in the last 1/4 of their development process.

Just because you're on a smaller team or a smaller project doesn't mean you're not putting in disgusting amounts of time and effort. The only consolation being in those cases, those guys CHOSE to put in those hours, whereas working for any major publisher, they expect you to. In fact, in my experience, I put in more hours developing smaller, lower budget games than I did multi-million selling AAA games.

Again, that's just my experience though. In general, you're right, smaller projects tend to be less demanding.

So, is there any way out? Can anything be done? Who's to blame and what would be the solution? (I know it's not that easy and that multiple factors weigh in differently and after all it comes down to each specific game that is regarded, but I ask you anyway. You as an insider. What could put the pressure off?)

Honestly, probably a game developer's union of some sort. The film industry would be just as bad if it wasn't for unions protecting their workers from profit driven corportations. Otherwise, there's nothing you can do. There's hundreds of people who have never made a game in their life, who haven't gone through the grind of making a video game from start to finish that are willing to do your job, with the same hours, and same pay. It's hard to have a bargaining chip when employers know that.

... but if developers pulling the shit they do led to strikes, or walkouts, or triggered automatic financial compensations to those who are forced into the meat grinder, it would change.