Quality of Life Events & Presentations
The IGDA hosts several Quality of Life oriented events, summits and lectures each year. These events serve the purpose of furthering the IGDA's QoL work, providing a forum for developers to converse/connect and to work together to overcome challenges of poor working conditions. The proceedings, notes and materials from these events are catalogued (as much as possible) on this page. Please refer to the IGDA Events calendar for full details on all upcoming events that the IGDA will be at.
2006 Game Developers Conference
The QoL Committee hosted two roundtable discussions during the 2006 Game Developers Conference. Several dozen developers participated over the sessions to learn how they can improve quality of life.
2005 Quality of Life Summit
The Quality if Life Summit, hosted at GDC 2005, provided a rare opportunity for studio heads, producers and HR managers to come together in a neutral forum to find answers and inspiration to improving quality of life. Following is a list of related materials, slides, reports, videos, etc:
- QoL Summit videos
- QoL Summit Report and Proceedings (pdf - 253kb)
- Editorial: No Studio is an Island - Scenes from the Quality of Life Summit by Matthew Sakey
- Attendee Hand-Out (pdf - 129kb)
- Opening Panel: 7 Reasons Why You Should Care About This Stuff by François Dominic Laramée (ppt - 645kb)
- Paper: 7 Reasons Why You Should Care About This Stuff by François Dominic Laramée (pdf - 47kb)
- Opening Panel: Globalization, Labor Shortages and their effects on the Game Industry's Quality of Life by Clarinda Merripen (ppt - 100kb)
- Opening Panel: The US Fair Labor Standards Act and Other Legal Considerations Regarding Overtime and the Work Force by Tom Buscaglia (ppt - 51kb)
- Case: Quality of Life at BreakAway Games by Deborah Tillett (ppt - 380kb)
- Case: Quality-of-Life Lessons from Elsewhere in High-Tech by Kim Pallister (ppt - 278kb)
- Case: Quality of Life through applying Software Quality Management by Tobi Saulnier (ppt - 166kb)
- Lecture: Labor Relations 101 by Gina Neff (ppt - 543kb)
- Keynote: The Business Case for Improved Production Practices by Steve McConnell (pdf - 202kb)
- Media Coverage:
- Postcard From GDC 2005 - Quality of Life Summit: The Business Case for Improved Production Practices
- Postcard From GDC 2005 - Quality of Life Summit: Labor Relations 101
- IGDA on a mission - Jason Della Rocca Spreads the Word on Quality of Life
- Game makers' new project: worker needs - Programmers Boost Quality of Life
- Game makers see workplace change
- Quality of Life Summit GameDev.net coverage
- Quality of Life Summit: Case Studies GameDev.net coverage
2005 Game Developers Conference
The IGDA, along with its QoL Committee, hosted the several QoL/production/HR related sessions at the 2005 Game Developers Conference. Following is a list of related materials, slides, reports, etc:
- Roundtable Report: Quality of Life - Best Practices (pdf - 37kb)
- Lecture Slides: Making Better Games in 40 Hours Per Week (ppt - 674kb)
- Media Coverage:
2004 Game Developers Conference
The QoL Committee hosted two roundtable discussions and a panel presentation during the 2004 Game Developers Conference. Several dozen developers participated over the three sessions to learn of the Committee's work and to discuss ideas for next steps.
- "Quality of Life: The Next Step" roundtable report (pdf - 28kb)
- "IGDA Quality of Life White Paper Unveiling" panel slides (zipped ppt - 54kb)