   My life..
  I, like many of my generation, dreamed of working in games. My entire life has been dedicated to this pursuit. I finally achieve my dreams, I'm doing exactly what I wanted to do my entire life.I've been in the business for a year and I've done a fair few 11 hour shifts. I've had the 20-hour milestone shifts. They want me to work weekends. I don't get paid overtime.Is this what the industry's like?[Edited by - TheOddMan on April 30, 2008 4:25:45 PM]
  Depends on how well the planning goes, but I expect that it's like that in a lot of places, especially if a deadline needs to be met.Besides you said it yourself, the money's great.And since you barely have any experience that means a lot since in other functions you wouldn't earn as much due to your lack of experience.Besides view it as a learning exercise.But do try to eat healthier. It isn't because you lack time that you need to eat unhealthy. Something with fresh fruit/vegetables doesn't take to long to make or atleast grab some fruit that you can eat at work.   ;Quote:Original post by TheOddManI've had the 20-hour milestone shifts.There has to be some laws against that...Atleast we have laws against this were I'm from (Norway).   ;  Maybe it's just me, but it sounds like the place you are working at needs to learn a hard lesson on how to properly treat employees.  If I were you I'd start sending out resumes to other places and find a better place to work at.I do realize that these sorts of things happen in the industry, and it's sad when they do.  Crunch time is understandable, but being in the position of EA Spouse's spouse isn't.  Crunch time shouldn't be 4 months long (or longer).   ;  We do, but there is an opt-out clause in this country.[Edited by - TheOddMan on April 30, 2008 4:03:49 PM];  I hear you.  Good luck. [smile][Edited by - Rydinare on May 1, 2008 3:42:06 PM];Quote:Or is it just the place that I'm in at the moment? It can't be this bad everywhere, can it?Yes, it isn't the same everywhere. For example Relentless make a huge point on their page that they don't work overtime. (Whether it is true or not, I have no idea).How much of the project time is left? If it isn't that long, you can probably tough it a little longer to finish so at least you have a project under your belt and then consider moving to a different company since it is clear you are not enjoying your time there.   ;Quote:Original post by TheOddManI, like many of my generation, dreamed of working in games.  My entire life has been dedicated to this pursuit.  I finally achieve my dreams, I'm doing exactly what I wanted to do my entire life.  I'm in Heaven.And it's Hell...Oh my God.I'm not the only one.I'm thousands of kilometres away from you, but I'm going through exactly the same thing.Exactly.To the word.I'll be keeping a very close eye on this thread.   ;  I understand what you're going through - a very similar thing happened to me in my short stint in the game industry. Thankfully the crunch period only went for 2 to 3 months, but it completely sapped my positive energy for my dream job. First I was working Saturdays, then seven days a week - the hours went up to 70 hrs a week, then 80, then 90, then 100. I hardly saw the sun in a month. My health levels plummeted too: you can't really help it in that situation. Even though your contract says you only need to work 40 hours a week, you feel like you can't complain because you'll be letting down the team.From what I hear, it isn't that way everywhere, but it's distressingly common. A lot of people get into management roles wthout having the ability to manage time and people effectively, and with the publishers hard deadlines they feel they need to crack the whip. The really stupid thing that got me was it was painfully obvious that we weren't productive: we could get more work done working a slight amount of overtime (say 50 hours) rather than burning out the entire team with 100 hour weeks. One week of über-crunch time for a surprise deadline is acceptable, but anything more than that does more damage than good.In my case, I met with management half-way into crunch time to tell them how I felt (pretty scary at the time, but I was severely depressed and needed to do something). When nothing changed a month or so later I started considering other  jobs, and eventually went to grad school. I realised that this situation was unlikely to change, and there was a fair chance each one of those crunch times was during irreparable damage to my health - while I thought game development was my life, I didn't want it to cause my death.   ;  As a counter point, last year my producer actively forced myself and several coworkers to book more time off as we weren't using our holidays, so no not all companies are like yours. If you don't like it there's hope, so get looking :)   