[TRENCHES] Thursday, March 14, 2013 - Elysium
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Elysium
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/elysium
I know it’s a good idea, it was a good idea when I gave it to you.
AnonymousBeen working in the industry for a while now in a creative capacity.
Had enough bosses to understand that they come in all shapes and sizes. Producers that feel they’re one man developing machines and everyone else is along for the ride. Producers that delegate everything to everyone else, then just browse the internet all day. Or producers that think they’re the biggest thing to happen to game design since the microchip.
My ‘favourite’ kind of boss I’ve only encountered once; this kind of boss will listen to your ideas, nodding thoughtfully and agreeing with what you say. The outcome is always the same though; by the end of the conversation he’s forgotten what the subject is and is nodding just so you don’t figure that out.
The best part is that, about one to two weeks later he will come back to you and tell you, in a sincere voice, that he’s had a few ideas for the current development, then proceeds to parrot back to you everything you’d discussed with him the week prior, looking proud of these clever ideas he’s plucked out of thin air.
Now when I have ideas I e-mail them to him, and CC myself and at least one other person.
Posts
03/14/2013
As a systems admin, I’ve had to do my share of testing, but nothing compared to when I was first starting in the field.
My cousin ran a QA firm in the west coast and often would call me up for little projects he needed an extra hand with, especially during the crunch. It was good contract work but I always knew it meant no sleep and no soul. The first job was on the website for that awful ‘Yo Mama’ show that MTV used to run. They made this e-card sender where you could upload a picture of your face, enter your friend’s name, pick some details, and a little animated version of you would tell crappy jokes about your soon to be ex-friend.
This was fine, except for the fact that we had a list of hundreds of names, spoken by male and female, and over a hundred jokes in three categories. Picked at random. This led to thousands of tests to check everything off the list. The hours began.
It started fine, It was even a little funny as we IM’d the most awful jokes back and forth, but then my cousin had to shift to another project. I was left alone with a pot of coffee, a million bad jokes, and a buggy flash interface. I finally wrapped up at about 7 AM the next day as the sun came up, I laid down on my bed and dreamed of punching the host repeatedly, but at least the site could launch and I got paid.
The TV show was canceled two weeks later. I still cry.
blowing your budget on fancy snacks instead of hiring competent employees
: )
They're sorta cool and I do tend to sit down/stand up/walk around thinking a lot when I'm working, but I don't know if it's worth $750 for the cheapest smaller one and close to a thousand for the nicer model. The height-changing thing aside, they're still fairly small desks and they're just a plank - nothing in the way of shelving, storage, or other features at all.
I highly recommend the stand/sit desks. The one I've got is roomy enough - it holds two wide-screen monitors, a phone, and two keyboards/mice. You can preset three heights, or manually adjust it up/down with little arrow buttons. No idea what it cost.
I stand most of the day now, and it's been great for my back. It's also perfect for when you want other people to look at something on your monitor. They can just stand next to you and look, as opposed to having to awkwardly bend over or kneel on the hard floor.
I highly recommend the stand/sit desks. The one I've got is roomy enough - it holds two wide-screen monitors, a phone, and two keyboards/mice. You can preset three heights, or manually adjust it up/down with little arrow buttons. No idea what it cost.
I stand most of the day now, and it's been great for my back. It's also perfect for when you want other people to look at something on your monitor. They can just stand next to you and look, as opposed to having to awkwardly bend over or kneel on the hard floor.
But didn't the latter story already kind of happen with the last game?
Which would make it funny again because it reinforces the idea of the QA cycle
Show up - Work - Continue to work - Work even more - Pay gets deferred - Game gets cancelled
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@TaramoorPlays
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If the game didn't have really pretty graphics on top of a subpar gameplay, I probably wouldn't play it at all. So for me, the brand helps to draw me in but there has to be something more to keep me playing.
Except the bat thing. Also everyone works really hard here.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.