It's hard out there, but it can help to know how and why hiring is happening if you'd like some insight into what goes on behind the curtain. Multiple hiring managers are sharing their experiences this morning.
Sharing perspectives across adversarial lines today. Much more discussion today.
Reasons you aren't advancing, as discussed by several Director+ level game devs.
🎮 Jim Lee Reflects on 15 Years of DCUO!
DC's President, Publisher & Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee sat down with us to share his memories of helping bring DCUO to life! 💪
🔗 https://dcuniverseonline.com/news/jim-lee-anniversary
#DCUO #Steam #PlayStation #Xbox #Switch
It's not actually all about the passion...or at least it shouldn't be.
Everything is reference.
Congrats! Enjoy it! Now the real work begins...
The best leaders in this industry aren’t those who have a hyper-detailed, one-man-show vision of their project. They don’t minimise or claim the work that their teammates do. They are the ones who are excited about what others can bring to the dynamic. Who hold the vision, rather than own it.
Come for the stories, stay for the strats...
"We were convinced we could not fail!"
An idea is not a story, and a story is not a game.
I have no words. Other than I am honored and humbled to be nominated alongside such meaningful stories. So proud of the team and the work we did 😭.
The industry has changed and so has parenting. Bring your stories this morning.
We've been talking around this subject for some time, but today dove in headfirst.
We have...opinions.
There ain't nothing easy about this. I guess the real thing to remember is it doesn't matter ultimately where you live as much as who you live there with.
In all seriousness, it's a really tough decision we've gone back and forth on several times. When we did move to Seattle for a couple years, we found ourselves missing home much more than we thought we would. The real surprise was we weren't thinking of MN as home anymore - but California.
But a cabin up north that you visit once or twice a year like everyone else in the state. ;)
Likely is. I know that it's pretty common in tech, especially at the FAANG level.
PlayStation, Riot, and Roblox all have staff level.
And let's get away from the idea of shitting on our AAA (or even Triple-I) comrades. They're absolutely doing the same work, just at different scale with different challenges.
But whether you're working with a mega budget or no budget at all, if you're trying to make games, you've got my love.
Find your place wherever you can, hold on by your fingernails when you find it, scramble and clamber and scrape your way up, but don't fall into the trap of thinking Indies are here to save us all.
They simply can't. Not as individuals. Not at scale.
And it is love. A dysfunctional love, but love all the same.
You have to love working in this industry, but you realize it will never love you back. Not in any way you deserve.
I have nothing but respect for the Indie devs out there grinding it out. I've been there more than once. It ain't easy. Joining this industry in any way means you're in it for the love of the Game more than the paycheck, but that's never truer than for Indies.
It's not a real solution. And even if it was the skill set between "make game features" and "build successful business" are not even close to being the same.
Asking out of work game devs in 2026 to just go found a studio and get to work shipping a game is like telling laid off restaurant workers in 2020 that maybe they should just go start their own restaurant.
If you happen to work in a field that doesn't pivot very easily, it's even worse. And the competition tends to be much higher for the fewer roles that exist.
The passion tax is incredibly real. If you happen to belong to a competitive discipline, one that can relatively easily pivot outside of games, then maybe you only see a 30 to 50% reduction in the pay you could make by working in games.
Even when it does work, and something truly unique or beautiful or novel finally ships, it barely works enough to cover the basic living expenses of everyone involved.
Devs working their ass off for rev share that never happens, who get cut from their team right before a vesting cut off, to deal with HR nightmares in a world with zero HR, or who do everything right and the game just lands with a thud without making enough money to cover the submission costs.
So of course we're back to "Indies will save us" while completely ignoring how generally toxic that take actually is. I've talked to literally hundreds of Indie devs over the past few years who are going through it just as badly, if not worse than AAA devs.
Humans are geared to absolutely love underdogs. No one wants Goliath to win, and we can't wait to see the turn in the story when our scrappy upstart actually topples the evil empire.