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[BigLee74]

Sounds like a hack

Dev probably wanted to create some nice interface layers, make everything nice and testable, write the unit tests, engineer test to the moon and back, have a few days of pull request fun, refactor for unforseeable future events, rewrite and reperform the tests, then document accordingly.

But no, boss man can do it in less time than Dev probably spends in the toilet that day!

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

In my last job (at a University) I had a get shit done mindset. Not only get it done quickly, but get it done properly with no errors. I would regularly get a lot of gratitude from coworkers in different departments who were grateful their request was taken care of quickly as the previous people in the role would sit on the email request for days/weeks/months until it was forgotten. I was very much a team player in it to make my working day and their working day as straightforward as possible.

However, my two bosses, my manager and the director would constantly step in and be like nope, these are low priority things (they weren't) you need to do this other more important thing for us instead (it wasn't important, a lot of the time it was superficial or ideological vanity work that would result in NOTHING!). Or they'd waste a lot of time by increasing weekly meetings and other complete nonsense the rest of the team hated. When they pulled me from my core responsibilites like that, the work would pile up, as would the mistakes and number of people following up on their request.

When I handed my notice in they begged me to stay. Then they offered more money, more flexible hours. I was like nope. I'm glad I left that job and it was eye opening to see how much non work occurs in modern workplaces - not always the fault of the employee either, but the emphasis on networking and bullshit pushed by departments like HR or narcissistic loons.

 

[Loomy]

I'm late to this but here goes:

His conclusion, I mostly agree with. Games are made with an overabundance of caution these days, but that's understandable. It's a massive investment, so it makes sense for the risk to be minimized.

As for his stories. I don't think any of them support his conclusion.

Story 1: Does not apply to modern game/software development. Every team has a Jira board with tickets/tasks that are assigned to someone. So someone's name is on every task

Story 2: 4 weeks to do a 45 minute task is bad. But look at it this way. If I'm in the middle of a project, and I assign a 45 minute task to a developer, I'm likely assigning it to a developer with a bunch of other tickets assigned to them(I doubt it was a dev sitting around with nothing to do). Some of those may be tasks that will take multiple weeks to complete. The question then is, what takes a higher priority? The stuff I have assigned to me right now, or this quick 45 minute thing?

If the 45 minute task was a high priority, something would have been sent back to the backlog and the 45 minute task would have been taken up. Project managers coming in and throwing random shit at developers is how things get off track. Stick to the plan, and add extra stuff next sprint. There's so much missing context to this story, and it doesn't speak to overabundance of caution. It speaks to someone not wanting to stick to the process that makes things move along smoothly.

Story 3: It is understandable to be concerned if your bosses are yelling at each other. Especially if you don't know wtf they're yelling about. Get a soundproof room or do it when the staff is not around. Alternatively, find a better way to hash things out.

I think Tim misses the days of small scrappy dev teams. That doesn't work when you have over 150 devs working on the same project. It has to be very strictly managed, otherwise you end up with messes that take longer to fix.

 

[IAmRei]

Is anyone surprised at all? Back then this industry was dominated by geeks/gamers who knew and loved what they did. Now you have diversity hires and political propagandists instead. The industry will implode sooner or later, the signs are obvious.

In my place, mostly gamedev are still geek by nature. I dont know it is gift or curse. But working with geek sometimes easier to manage rather than normal person who doesnt have much interest in video games, in my experience.

 

[Rhazkul]

suddenly you're developing the game by yourself while the team watches.

Where is the problem? Do it yourself then, fire the team, get a nice promotion and paycheck on top.

 

[Topher]

Where is the problem? Do it yourself then, fire the team, get a nice promotion and paycheck on top.

 

[Silver Wattle]

Sounds like a " In my day, to get to school, I used to have to walk 30 miles up a mountain, backwards, in the snow while wearing shorts" kind of rant.

 

[K' Dash]

Sounds like a hack

Dev probably wanted to create some nice interface layers, make everything nice and testable, write the unit tests, engineer test to the moon and back, have a few days of pull request fun, refactor for unforseeable future events, rewrite and reperform the tests, then document accordingly.

But no, boss man can do it in less time than Dev probably spends in the toilet that day!

exactly, I mean, I have worked with dinosaur devs who think they know everything and everything can be done 500% faster if they're involved.

You can do it right... or you can do it in 45 min. Believing this man blindly without proper context is not a smart move, anyone who has worked developing complex applications can tell you that.

 

[Topher]

exactly, I mean, I have worked with dinosaur devs who think they know everything and everything can be done 500% faster if they're involved.

You can do it right... or you can do it in 45 min. Believing this man blindly without proper context is not a smart move, anyone who has worked developing complex applications can tell you that.

He provided context. He explained the task that he wanted done and it wasn't very complex at all. I mean....unless you just don't believe he is telling the whole truth.