Let's talk about the German games industry, especially the German game developers, today...
Working as a game developer is fun. Game developers have fun. All the time. Nearly everyone who becomes a developer became it because he wanted to make games. Cool games.
Imagine you worked as a developer for several years. Also in the gaming industry. What are you looking at? You can see a lot of developers, a lot of enthusiastic developers who want to change the world. Do they? Kind of!
Have you ever wondered why EVERY game is buggy?
Well look at these guys. They have fun - and I'm really sure they do so - I know it. I also developed games, and I had a lot of fun. By the way: Thanks to the guys! They love their job. And their employer loves them, too. You know why? Guys who are having fun at work don't need too much money. Simple but true.
The best about it: They studied Computer Science because they love games and ever wanted to create games. You know what? That makes them even cheaper.
Now you have some more or less well educated, enthusiastic guys who love their job, do extra hours, every day, because they really love what they do. And they have fun. That's great. They will create high quality games... ummmm... even without... ummmm... experience. BUT we have our Seniors! They've got experience.
How many Senior Developers did you see who stayed in the industry without becoming a manager? Have you ever noticed that nearly every gaming company is always looking for "Senior Principal Lead God Programmers"? And have you ever asked yourself: "What happens to all that (junior) developers who swarm into the industry every year? When do they become a Senior?"
Don't worry - they do. Either while, shortly before or shortly after leaving the games industry. But why does this happen? Because they grow up! Even game developers start to have a life (some of them earlier, some later). You can't feed your children with all that fun you have at work. And I claim that the gaming industry is one of the best teachers for creative, self-contained developers - just because there are so many Juniors you have to be clever and educate yourself. So everyone loves to hire a developer that was trained in the gaming industry. Don't they? They do!
Game programmers might not be the ones that write the cleanest and nicest code, but many of them are clever - some of them are brilliant. And they're willing to learn. And they learn quick. So if you're brilliant, at least clever, and have experience you want to be payed at least good - latest when you realize that all of your friends are payed better.
But there must be some Seniors in the industry. Somewhere. Well. There are! We forgot about two kinds of guys:
The first group are the guys, I honestly respect for what they do and how they do. They are the gods of the industry. But there are very few of them. And most of them usually leave their employer to build up their "own thing" - to make everything better. By the way - by then they become managers, too.
Now let's come to the darkside. The second group are the leftovers. What about the guys who are good, maybe only good enough not to get layed off? Well what would you do, as a manager who has no idea of programming? You have the choice between that guy who managed to survive the last five, maybe ten, years in the industry and the guy who arrived from university - months ago. What do you think, who will become the Senior, the Lead, the boss of the development team?
If you look at the very young browser games creating companies, that popped up out there over the last few years, you can see their very, very young staff. There are Lead Developers with only a few years of experience. They often don't know anything about scalability or performance, or platforms, or professional software development techniques and methodologies, not to speak of leadership and all that unnecessary "soft skill crap". What options do you have, if you have a bunch of Leads who aren't Leads and you hire the real Leads (if you manage to convince one of them)? There is no other chance than lifting up the real Lead to the management level, to not immediately lose him after he arrived. So your structure is getting even worse. Because now you have Lead Developers that are no Lead Developers and you have managers who are no managers. Got it?
Now please ask yourself again why games are so buggy!
At the moment some companies, especially in the online gaming business, try to handle that big issue. And they seem to be successful. Also big players have recognized that you can't grow successfully over the next years or decades if you lose your best staff. Maybe this is THE chance for the German games industry to make a change, to attract the real good developers from outside Germany. But most of all this is a chance to keep their own talents - in the company, in Germany. I know a lot of very good guys that turned their back towards Germany and headed to England, the US or Canada. The Big Players are located there and the talents will follow them.
So let's cheer all the German game development companies and publishers who realized, that there is only one chance to become mature, senior companies by fascinating their Senior Developers and manage to keep them in the company. There is only one way to achieve this goal: Pay fair, treat them fair, value them and their work, teach and educate them.
Never forget: "Human capital" is all you have. It makes your company successful. You will be treated by them, as you treat them!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen