[gameprogrammer] Re: gameprogrammer Digest V4 #5

On Mon, Jan 08, 2007 at 01:59:39PM -0600, Bob Pendleton wrote:

> It could also be that the game industry is a lot younger in Europe than
> in the US. Ten, or fifteen years ago game companies would hire people
> based on skills without requiring them to have done a complete game.

I beg to differ.  If you look it up you'll notice major hits coming from
European studios roughly since the end of 80's.  I'd estimate that
videogame industry is probably 3-5 years younger in Europe than in the
U.S.  That doesn't mean much considering that the industry is +/- 25
years old now and considering the huge rate of adoption of new things in
the industry.

If you meant that the game industry in Europe is *smaller*, then I'd
agree.  I don't think that there ever were as many developers and
devteams in Europe as in the U.S.

> There are other major differences between the US and Europe. As I
> understand it, it is very difficult to fire or layoff people in Europe.
> That means the people doing the hiring are taking a very long view of
> someone when they hire them.

That's absolutely true, it's difficult to layoff people here.  But that
would, as you note, mean that the interview should be more thorough.
Yet, complete games don't seem to be required here.

I think it's probably more a question of culture than pragmatism.  I can
name tens of great game programmers I know who never focused on
finishing small games, and I could argue that in a team of 30
programmers, none of them does anything resembling finishing a clone of
a simple game.

And I'm sure that you can produce numerous examples of great game
programmers that *did* finish their simple games, and show how finishing
simple games made them great.

I guess you can do it both ways.

        latimerius


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