Introduction and Thoughts

I recently founded my own independent studio. I also wrote an article for IGDA Perspectives titled "Indie by Default". The gist is that after working and being laid off from 2 different studios, and given the state of the economy, I started my own studio so I could just keep making games.

Even though I worked for pretty small studios in the past, I can tell some harrowing stories about crunch. If fact, crunch really has no meaning for me since, at both studios, I literally worked 7 days a week 12-15 hours a day from the time I walked in until the time I was laid off (to show their appreciation, no doubt, and increse my quality of life!).

I'm not bitter...I enjoyed the work. But I do feel underappreciated, overall. I mean, take your harderst worker and lay him off? Doesn't make sense to me! But I also understand that companies have hard times and layoffs are sometimes inievitable.

At any rate, since this has all spurned me to start my own studio, it's all good!

Anyone else out there that can relate?

Robert Madsen
http://SynapticSwitch.com
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