“A friend posted a question on Facebook: are there any game devs who have actually, really retired? And my response: Who can afford to retire? I was only half-joking.”
– Laralyn McWilliams highlights some issues beyond crunch that the game industry needs to address
There’s been a considerable amount of discussion recently about the game industry’s willingness to embrace crunch and if game development unions could make a dent in the harmful habits accepted by many studios.
But, as longtime dev and Microsoft creative director Laralyn McWilliams argues, crunch isn’t the only problem developers should be talking about.
McWilliams shared her thoughts in a Twitter thread on some of the business-end shortcomings she’s picked up on through her own experiences and interactions with other developers, noting that in many cases game developers are in working situations that don’t provide them with retirement options, healthcare, or financial security.
“Don’t get me wrong: mandated crunch sucks. So does peer pressure crunch. So does sympathy crunch. We should be discussing this and working toward change,” McWilliams tweeted. “But retirement planning/funding and insurance (health, disability, life) are the big Indiana Jones rolling boulders of doom behind every game dev, even if you’re not aware of it yet.”
McWilliams notes that she knows developers that spent the bulk of their career bouncing between game development jobs following layoffs or contract work and, as a result, end up spending whatever savings they’ve built up trying to stay afloat between jobs. Her full thread dives deeper into these issues and offers developers an important look at what she describes as the “long-term” issues in the game industry right now.
I’m saying this as a dev over fifty, looking around me at other devs going into and through their forties. You may not be there yet… but you will be. And I very much want you to be able to retire, even if that just means going indie and making your own games.
— Laralyn McWilliams (@Laralyn) May 11, 2018