Game developers facing skills shortage

it's the education system's fault. The fact that salaries and working conditions are much worse than any other comparable IT sector, and that experienced people are frequently leaving gamedev after they had enough shurely has nothing to do with it...

Plenty of mathematically and computer skilled peeps have been laid off all over. How about the financial sector for a good target?

Problem? If you want to work in the game industry (as a coder, designer or artist. Not as a "producer") get set to cut your salary in half and work 80 hour weeks for a company that will fire you at the first sniff of a "cost" saving.

Was this a pointlessly negative post? Probably, _but_ my dealings with the games industry (and friends dealings) show that this is an industry run by a bunch of back stabbing monkeys where real talent is rarely rewarded.

Maybe things have improved but this coder will stick to his "average" job at a normal company and not dally with fly-by-night games company operates who'll probably insist I relocate 1/2 way up country for 20 grand a year.

There's some Real Heavy MetAI competition for the Very Best of the Very Best with the Right Stuff from the Public/Military Sector too, Stewart. ...... http://cryptome.info/0001/nsf030209.htm

http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html

Thanks for the link Crenor

I didn't know that. Just joking, but really, it would be nice to see some references.

I've been wondering for the last couple of years if the PC Hardware has become way to difficult to program games for.
Do current programers know how to program/code games to fully take advantage of dual and quad core processors, hyper-threading, directX 10,11, video cards running in SLI, crossfire, triple configs, SSE1, SSE2, MMX and so on and so on?
Maybe the technology is way too much for a programer to grasp and keep up with?
Can anyone verify this?
Thanks and see you out there,
Loki Sunrider

Like with the main so-called shortage, there's no shortage of highly-skilled developers wanting to work in the games industry (even with the massive cut in pay that you take by doing so). The shortage is in the IQ of the people doing the hiring.

The studios are only interested in hiring people who have (several years) games industry experience, and who have worked on a game that has shipped. As a result, there's very little new blood being introduced into the industry. Obviously, the industry can't grow if you restrict your hiring pool to those already working in it.

Of course, it's partially due to recruitment agencies as well, who work very hard to increase staff churn (they get a cut every time). Kill the recruitment agency business, and get some people with common sense in charge of hiring, and the shortage will disappear overnight. Not that it's ever going to happen, though. Too many people making money from the current model.

The pay is not good enough!!!

To be a games programmer you need to know lots and lots of programming+maths.
There are jobs out there that pay twice as much for half the work/skills.

EVEN PLUMBERS MAKE MORE MONEY!!!

game dev wages are grab and they are treated like slaves. Need I say more?

signed
ex-gamedev

Not to mention the Ubber Ego of the management staff !
I remember when I've been applied to a French based company. The Lead told me that I would never have to change a single line of code...
Considering their uggly 3D engine I laught then I moved before the end of the meeting... And today I'm a huge industrial programmer.

The problem in that industry is not only revenue, but once someone has succeded in doing 1000 lines of code in order to display 10 polygon he states that "He is the king of the hill."

From my experience, low pay, long hours and VERY shifty bosses are probably most likely to be the reason for the shortage.

I developed a game for the Commodore Amiga with a friend and the publisher totally screwed us before bankrupting themselves and starting up under another name. We didn't get a penny and we subsequently found out that we were not alone in our experience by a long way.

In the end I chose to work as a programmer in the financial sector and made an absolute fortune compared to what games programmers earn.

Its true the gaming industry pays badly and the hours are very long ... something has to change or they will keep seeing this shortage of people willing to accept these conditions. I do it cause i love games programming its certainly not for the perks or the hours :(

Hah. What they're actually facing is a shortage of stupid geniuses; i.e. excellent programmers who will work under poor conditions for lousy pay.

If they paid more, and significantly improved conditions then I could pretty much guarantee there wouldn't be any "shortage".

where they know how to work 80 hours for less money ;-)

Now if only those Indian programmers would get working on a replacement for Windows, but cheaper.

Gaming companies are notorious for being sweat shops. I doubt even Indian programmers will want to work 80 hour weeks just for the glory of working on a game. Plus they are extra picky about your skills, bad combination for hiring people.

I am a laid off Software developer, and I wouldn't even consider it.

All your bases are belong to us!

isnt this just like banks? the big guys take the paper the hard workers get the pennies?, soon we gonna have game companines goin bankrupt, i used 2 make 3d animations, then made them interactive then built a game, i then handed it to a few frends hu enjoyed it. i never got round 2 selling it tho as loadza companies thought it would never catch on. a shame, i really thought. anyways. there goes my chance of gaming fame. lol. at least i gt a bit of exp from it.

I have more than enough intelligence to work in the gaming industry. (I also have 10,000 hours of programming experience, mostly in C and assembler.) The problem - for the gaming industry, at least - is that that the same intelligence that makes me suitable to work for them, also ensures that I will not work for them.

After all, I knew enough to ask this question: Why should I slog it out for some ungrateful gaming company, 80 hours a week, for a measly 32k a year and zero job security - when I can bag 180k a year as a contractor in either banking or telecoms, for only half the hours, take three months off if I wish - and still be quids in?

In the words of Andy McNab, it doesn't take the brains of an archbishop to figure that one out. If they want the best staff, they need to realise that the best staff also cost more - and they will have to pay accordingly. It's supply and demand - and even in a recession such as this one, the demand for talented IT staff is still quite high.

"In the end I chose to work as a programmer in the financial sector and made an absolute fortune compared to what games programmers earn.
posted by : Tim, 03 March 2009"

Tim,

Gaming the financial sector is the new game in town, is it not, for it is totally corrupted and riddled with poxy foxy holes and proxy vulnerabilities, mercilessly used and cynically abused by those ignorantly assumed and arrogantly conceived and perceived to be its guardians? The cancerous plague is within the Perly Gates and Ivory Towers and would sit atop the Pyramid dripping its bile and its poison onto all toiling below for its Destructive Chaotic Artificial Control, now in QuITe Catastrophic China Syndrome Meltdown?

And there is no limit to the number of absolutely fabulous fortunes you can make/earn. Just think of a number and if it doesn't suit just change it to EMPhasise the Point ........ http://amanfrommars.baywords.com/2009/03/04/090304-ides-of-march-minus-eleven/

The tragedy here is that TIGA claims to 'represent the business and commercial interests of games developers', while its spokesman hasn't got half a clue, and probably still won't have even after he's read all the comments on this article.

The games industry is renowned for crap wages and long hours.

The reason the industry is finding it hard to recruit skilled staff is because anyone who's skilled enough has left the industry and got a "propper" job, working half the hours for twice the pay!

How many of these companies surveyed have a trainee/apprentice scheme to train up their own staff? None I'll wager, I've never seen one. The best I've seen is companies taking graduates to work them to death for a pittance. Unsurprisingly, they don't want to continue after their placement.

Considering the wads of cash video games claim to make, I've never seen a developer who was well off.

Hi,

I was wondering if i could just pick the brains of the game designers on here, i am in the process of starting a new gaming company, but not a normal gaming, the plan is to take gaming in a different level to where it is at the moment. However i'm not entirely sure how to go about looking for game designers, or where to advertise.

The pay structure is somewhat different to normal companies as well, as the success of the game will be linked to a percentage take by the developer, hence a multiplier effect would come into play for several games....

The games we are looking at creating are simple based platform games on a 2D level....

any help would be greatly appreciated, or a nudge in the right direction.

Thanks

AJ

Anyone with sense wants to be paid in cold hard cash. Only idiots accept pay in shares, percentage of net revenue or benefits in kind unless it's a dead cert (i.e. multiple prior successes). If you're inexperienced in the area (which you clearly are), no-one is going to believe you can make it.

For a simple platform game art and music will be more important than developers unless there's something truly revolutionary about your product..

Thanks,

Sorry the original post wasn't too clear, they will be paid in cold hard cash as well, the percentage base is a bonus, as a thank you for their work.

To the second point, yes i am very inexperienced in this field, i am a writer and creator, but work in Bus Dev, i have multiple storylines that i think would be perfect for the gaming genre, all i need is someone to make them a reality...

Yep.
I used to work in the games industry and left for finance as well. Less working hours, double the pay.
It is not as interesting, but my quality of life is much better. And in the past year I know of at least 4 people who did the same. The people who stay in the industry are the political savy, not the talented ones.
Not a career I would recomend.

I worked as a programmer in the games industry for 5 years before seeing sense and bailing. It's just not worth it. The pay is terrible compared to other sectors, and the working conditions awful. Ruined what should have been some of the best years of my life, pursuing my "dream".

My advice: if you want to make games, do it in your spare time at home!