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, 1 reply)

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