"Stop creating problems and start creating solutions"..
..was one of the favourite phrases of my first boss when I started in the games industry. It was his standard response to his employees when we had the audacity to point out gaping problems in, scheduling that would mean inhuman overtime, design that would mean games were shite, or management that would mean both.

The company, in case anyone's curiosity is piqued, was DDI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Design_Interactive), a name that will either not register even the merest hint of recollection or cause some sort of 'nam style flashback twitches. And believe it or not, they are even worse than that wiki article suggests.

The boss, MrG is an interminable idiot, possessing so few scruples that I would posit that he would do pretty much anything for money if he had some sort of written payment guarantee.
He gives micro-managers a bad name, by multi-micro-managing every department, and doing an equally inept job in each case.
Under his unsteady hand, the company's gone bankrupt and opened under a new name more times than I care to mention (it was even suggested to name it %s Ltd. from now on, just to save time; sorry, programmer joke).

At one time it was suspected amongst the employees that the boss either had an evil (good?) twin, or he was schizo. For not a day would go by that the boss would deny reading an email that'd been confirmed read, or deny saying something that was witnessed by multiple people. Well, it's either that, or he's just a twat-badger.

I could go on and on about him, and all the cataclysmically stupid moves he's made over the years, business and personal, but he really doesn't deserve it. The company is still going, he's still the boss (working for his wife the owner, heh), and they're still producing the direst shit. To any current DDI employees, I pity you, and urge you to get out before your soul is black.
(ShiftyBastard won the World Cup on World Soccer Champs 2010!, Thu 18 Jun 2009, 17:32, 3 replies)

Let me count the ways I don't miss the overtime..
I used to work in the games industry and loved it for the great people, cool art work, interesting programming work and massive multiplayer games we played at lunchtimes. That said I wasn't really that bothered when the place went bust. Unemployment was a nice holiday in comparison.. well for a few months anyway!

The pay is often shit because so many people want to work in the industry and the hours i worked were Fricking INSANE! I feared the phrase "Team, We have to produce a polished demo in two weeks!" that got uttered every two months and which really means "you will all work till 10 or 11pm every night and weekends." The problem is that the games studios are at the mercy of publishers for cash and will seemingly say anything like "Sure we'll have the project done in 6 months!" in order to get funding to keep the studio afloat on a new project. I remember once there was a minor scandle because a senior programmer didn't want to work sundays as project neared completion. He got viewed as slacking (by some) for not towing the line and "being a team player." His perfect excuse to management? "I believe sunday is a day of rest and go to church." :-) I was definitely on his side! Just shows how twisted your view of working life can become.

That said all said our bosses / managers were really decent people and definitely got the first round in when out for a pub lunch or after work. I just think the games industry sucks to work for in general. Go into business software instead.. they pay double and you can go home at 5:30 *every* day!!
(OrangeMochaFrappuccino last watched Dexter on, Sat 20 Jun 2009, 13:40, closed)

Bollocks to that.
They tried to make me wear a suit...
( DukeEuphoria Comes highly reccomended, Tue 23 Jun 2009, 18:18, closed)

I second this...
and would also point out that this post also makes him sound like a nice guy compared to how he actually is.

I spent a year there. During that time we shovelled out a riddiculous ammount of low quality rubbish. Of the 12 months I was there 3 I was paid late by around a week or so and 3 I wasn't paid until I left and pointed out the official document vis P45 had the incorrect values on it because of their payment practises.

Apparently the quality of my work was fine he wasn't happy with the speed I worked at. Well you get what you pay for.
(Gutterflower, Wed 24 Jun 2009, 16:05, closed)