Quality of Life White Paper
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Download White Paper • Survey Source Data
The 90-page “Quality of Life in the Game Industry: Challenges and Best Practices” white paper was prepared by the IGDA's Quality of Life Committee, representing a wide range of game development professions and companies
The white paper discusses the problems and consequences developers face when trying to maintain a career in the industry and the solutions for establishing a better work/life balance.
The white paper is partly based on the results of the “Quality of Life Survey” commissioned by the IGDA in early 2004, which garnered nearly one thousand responses from developers. The survey examined developers' attitude toward work, their internal pressures (salary, long hours, job instability), external pressures (family and relationships), inadequate staffing and work organization problems. Some of the alarming findings from the survey include:
- 34.3% of developers expect to leave the industry within 5 years, and 51.2% within 10 years.
- Only 3.4% said that their coworkers averaged 10 or more years of experience.
- Crunch time is omnipresent, during which respondents work 65 to 80 hours a week (35.2%). The average crunch work week exceeds 80 hours (13%). Overtime is often uncompensated (46.8%).
- 44% of developers claim they could use more people or special skills on their projects.
- Spouses are likely to respond that “You work too much...” (61.5%); “You are always stressed out.” (43.5%); “You don't make enough money.” (35.6%).
- Contrary to expectations, more people said that games were only one of many career options for them (34%) than said games were their only choice (32%).
The IGDA white paper explains how studios can adopt best practices to help alleviate some of the stress and allow for a more balanced life:
- Family friendly practices
- A conscious effort to minimize overtime
- Better communication between management and developers
- Better contracts between individuals, studios and publishers
- Better planning and budgeting
- Better human resource management
Quality of Life White Paper - Download
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QoL Survey Source Data
The IGDA Quality of Life Survey was held in January and February of 2004, on the IGDA’s web site. It was advertised through the IGDA’s newsletter and web site, and also through messages posted on several popular development web sites, including Gamasutra.com, Gignews.com and Gamedev.net All of the questions were multiple-choice. A total of 994 replies were received.
The raw results, split into various categories, are available as a set of separate set Excel spreadsheets:
- Quality of Life Survey raw data (zipped xls files - 210kb)