For a player, games can provide a sense of solace, relaxation, and a sense of joy. It’s a world you can escape to, and one that as players, we often take for granted. For those who work in the games industry, it can be an entirely different experience. Harassment, crunch, and instability are just a few of the issues plaguing the games industry. Almost all of us deal with some sort of stress in this ever-exhausting cycle of life, but what happens when gaming is your passion and your career?
I spoke with a few different individuals: Annabel, a project manager in mobile gaming, Xalavier Nelson Jr., the Studio Head at Strange Scaffold, and Ryan Woodard, the co-founder of Subliminal Games. All of them have made gaming their career and to learn how it has impacted their own health and what sort of changes they would like to see made within the industry moving forward.
Related: Ryan Hartman Interview, Acquisitions Incorporated Kickstarter
Q: Can you tell me a little about yourself and how you got into the industry?
Woodard: I’m Ryan Woodard, co-founder of an indie games studio called Subliminal that I started with my wife, Shandiin. We’ve been full time since 2019, we released our first major game for consoles and PC in 2021 called Button City about a cute fox trying to save an arcade. Came from museum work. Smithsonian, natural history museums across the world. While working in museums, we started the Albuquerque Game Developers Guild in New Mexico.
Annabel: When I was in college I had a completely different idea on what I wanted to do. Due to that I spent 3 out of 4 years in collegiate esports where I co-founded the esports league there, and then I interned at an esports organization in the US. I had only worked in esports for 6 months full time due to the recent layoffs. Then I transitioned into games which I love, and applied to many different gaming companies and now I’m at a mobile gaming company full time.
Nelson Jr.: I got into the industry almost 15 years ago as a 12 year old pretending to be an adult on the internet. That’s how I got my first jobs and codes in games journalism! So as much as seeing the industry evolve while I was actively growing up was existentially distressing, it provided really valuable context for both the present and future of the industry.
Q: What do you think are the three most important things happening in gaming right now?
Woodard: Important from an industry perspective. The future of game development, like with Unity, and where that is heading towards. With the ideas of like putting more ownership into tooling and even product. We’ve seen this at the industry at large on the consumer-side, where you don’t technically own it, you license it.
We’re seeing that companies are more and more trying to maintain ownership by creating services. Unreal has this, and Unity is wanting to do this as well. From their licensing fee, to install fee, to even a royalty fee (possibly). They are trying to create more of a percentage that will affect game developers and players as well. Players are even experiencing this as well with PS+ and other services as well.
A second major thing on the business side is the rise of costs to make a thing versus middle man budget. Indies are self-funding, with small budgets versus AAA have several thousands to millions of dollars. In the tech world at large, we’re seeing companies are getting rid of “cheap money”. Money is becoming harder to come by, budgets are harder to get due to various business dealings and this will affect what games come out in the next 10 years.
The third thing? The types of games we are seeing now. We’re seeing those who have been influenced by Minecraft, Roblox, and others coming with professional tools versus my own generation where I was inspired by Legend of Zelda, RPGs and others. The difference between those who grew up creating and those of us who grew up consuming authored content will shape the future of gaming.
Annabel: I think right now, gaming is kind of going through this determination on how to generate revenue. When you have an existing product and you determine that revenue isn’t going to go up but plateau, then companies are pushing for alternative revenue streams, and when those don’t work out, they go through layoffs.
Everybody is at risk, and if you’re let go, it’s a question of when are you going to get a new opportunity. Another thing is how many young people are interested in gaming. Suddenly all these entry level positions have hundreds of people applying. 100-200 minimum. The job market is extremely saturated right now. I’ve only been in the gaming industry (full time) for six months at this point, at least for esports there is still a bright future ahead.
Those who were trying to just generate profit are now leaving, as those with experience and knowledge should be able to grow within the industry and field that they truly care about.
Nelson Jr.: In no particular order, I think the three largest things happening in games right now are the push for active considerations for the process of projects. We as an industry are reckoning with the fact that when you crunch 800 people for 5 years, versus have 2 people make a game over a reasonable time frame, different games will result. I’m so excited to see us build vocabulary for the first time that shows players that when your game gets made differently, it plays differently, too.
The second thing is labor organization. We’re seeing a push for consideration of how labor is treated, and how this impacts the rest of the world they live in. At a base level, people just want to live comfortable lives with minimal fear, and take care of the people they love while doing their jobs. As exploitation has run rampant and trampled on that right, there’s been an uprising of labor in all industries, and I’m delighted to see it.
The last big thing I am thinking of as a major movement happening in games is a reckoning with how live service philosophies change everything. The concept of game preservation is bonkers right now, when Fortnite changes every couple weeks, and your favorite shooter can be entirely replaced by a fundamentally different vision of the game six years later or more. Live service game development is altering the way we preserve and build games, and while there is immense opportunity there, we also have great consequences for taking it for granted.
Q: Has working in this industry changed your opinion on the ability to enjoy, relax, and play games?
Woodard: I think it depends on the game. I find I don’t like PC games as much since I work from home. I really enjoy console games more, but I have had to step back due to how busy I have been lately.
Annabel: I think it definitely impacted and forced me to reflect on why I play games. Usually it’s for enjoyment, when I was in college and in being an intern, gaming became a coping mechanism. Instead of doing my senior capstone, I would go play Lost Ark and it became negative on my time management. Luckily now, I work on games that I don’t play a lot and it helps in the way that I’m playing. When it comes to my work, I’m able to bring in my own experiences on what I enjoy and there is a cross pollination there as well.
Nelson Jr.: For me, it has radically improved my ability to enjoy a game. When I’m watching a movie, I’m the guy who’s looking up the actors and cast on IMDB, digging into trivia… I adore learning about processes. And when I see names pop up multiple times in a row, I get insight into whatever new thing I’m watching now.
At this point, having worked on over 80 projects in the almost 8 years I’ve been in the industry, and having been behind the curtain on so many scenarios and production scales, I’ve fallen back in love with games all over again. I understand what I’m playing and how it came together, and why it’s impacting me, and it’s a shame most video game fans today have that revelation totally obfuscated from them.
Q: What are you currently enjoying or playing?
Woodard: I’ve been enjoying (playing) soccer, and I just really love that it allows me to disconnect from the screen because of that I’ve found a bunch of other games that I wouldn’t have ever played like FIFA or Inazuma Eleven that I wouldn’t have played from a gaming perspective before.
Annabel: Since my work life balance is much better in this job, I’ve started playing Minecraft, Dead by Daylight, and I enjoy watching fighting games. I’ve been catching up on a lot of anime and TV dramas that have been released and I haven’t had a chance to watch.
Nelson Jr.: Oh, gosh. I juggle a lot of stuff. I’m playing Vanquish. Platinum Games turned their eyes towards the third person genre and produced something MARVELOUS. I’m playing Final Fantasy XIV and just cleared the Shadowbringers expansion. FFXIV creates catharsis that Shakespeare wishes he could reach. It’s one of the great storytelling achievements of the modern era. I’m playing Starfield, and keeping up with Destiny 2 and Fortnite, my live service games of choice.
Q: Games have offered several people an option of escapism and healing, as well as a way to build friendships and community in a world that is seemingly so divided. What are your thoughts on this?
Woodard: Button City is about gaming communities, arcade communities, coming together. We were inspired by the local Splatoon 2 community and I appreciate that games are able to bring people together and bring bonds together. I also appreciate that it can humanize people when things can be divided. That said, I also would call on games to provide tools who are marginalized to better the communities and to set good guidelines to being a good player. It’s fun to play together. It would be great if esports had a coaching legislation similar to how in soccer and other sports there are training, and guidelines.
Annabel: Games taught me how to speak to different people. I grew up in Florida, a state where you don’t meet a lot of different people, and if you do, you break off into insulated groups. Gaming has allowed me to meet all of these different people across the world, and even in college I was in a club that engaged with students who enjoyed games as well. Even now, working in esports and as a fan there is a really cool relationship. You want to create a unique experience as a professional, and as a fan you want to enjoy and show your care about the game and teams.
Nelson Jr.: What art does is connect us to the artist and to each other. I’m really excited to see the boundaries for that connection continue to get pushed as games explore asynchronous play, intersections with tabletop, and in general give us more opportunities to connect with each other and heal.
Q: If there was one thing you would like someone who wanted to enter the field to know, what would it be?
Woodard: To do it professionally, it’s great to have passion but it’s also great to have boundaries so you can do it healthy, safely, and respectfully so that you don’t get taken advantage of.
Annabel: The gaming industry is very hard to get into. I’m lucky that I had some transferable experience, and even with only 6 months experience, it was so difficult as a recruiter needed to give you a chance and help find you a match. I’m in a few Discord channels that help with networking and interpersonal communication. You can study degrees related to your desired job field in games, but it’s important to reach out to people, to find mentors, to find sponsors. I’ve even offered introductory calls to college students who feel lost on this subject.
Nelson Jr.: If I was to give someone one piece of advice, it’s to survive. You will often be saved by a person you met for five minutes six years ago. You will be told a crucial piece of information by someone else who you’ve only known online, and they come into your DMs and provide you with support in a critical time of need.
Studios and individual careers are often positioned such that the first game has to be successful or the ship goes down. And when we approach everything through this very specific prism, it means you never receive the opportunity of rescue. My number one recommendation to anyone coming into the field is to focus on survival and sustainability versus Hail Mary bets, because when the Hail Mary fails… You never hear the names of the people who sink beneath the waves.
Q: What are your thoughts and opinions on crunch/hustle culture that seem to be extremely prevalent not just in AAA but across multiple industries?
Annabel: I came from a crunch culture focused company that was under a big corporation for my first job. When work begins to bleed out into your personal life, it affects you. At the time, you have on rose-tinted glasses about your experience. Moving into a company that focuses on work-life culture, it changed me. I personally don’t like the crunch, in college, that’s how it was, in my first job, that’s how it was. I think it’s okay to look at crunch culture and say “That’s not for me”, and to want something else. It doesn’t mean that you can’t produce stellar work.
Nelson Jr.: The dirty secret of crunch and hustle culture is that it’s not simply the fault of individual studios or corporations or production managers: it is a systemic problem that is often reinforced systemically. If you have two weeks to produce a massive trailer for a showcase, one that could determine the future of the game and your studio, you’re going to crunch to meet that deadline.
When you extend that perspective to all kinds of certification needs, deadlines, and processes, it’s frankly easy to see that the problem of crunch/hustle culture is one that is partially created by the environment. The only way for that ecosystem to change and address the issue is through holistic methods. If we still have the arbitrary conditions in place that create crunch, then crunch is going to happen. When you force a team to make a five year game in three years, crunch is going to happen.
Q: This summer alone we saw not just one, but multiple industries go on strike in entertainment and beyond (including automotive). Do you think this is reflective of the past few years (pandemic, recession to depression, other systemic problems)?
Woodard: Yeah, I do wish there was a game workers union. 2016-2017 there has been some movement in QA across a few studios, but nothing as widespread as writers guild, IATSE, or SAG-AFTRA.
Annabel: Unions are great in terms of protecting your job. When inflation is happening and your wages are not rising as much as the prices are rising, and CEO’s are making hundreds of times more than their employees. It’s a worthwhile question to ask why.
In esports, professional League of Legends teams had a walk out actually with their league. The players association, not a union, had to work to negotiate and pause the league because of this. All of these strikes are on the news, and in the public it’s an encouragement to others to see if their compensation is fair.
Nelson Jr.: The exploitation of laborers in all industries has been rampant and gone on for far longer than the past eight years, but I think a significant, under-discussed factor of what we’re seeing now is that it’s a failure of business, too. If these people had simply been given a fair deal, they wouldn’t have had to organize. Unionization is hard, consistent work that laborers do not undertake lightly.
If they had simply been treated fairly in the first place, none of this would have happened. So, what comes to my mind as a business person and studio head, is that if the right thing had been done for workers long ago, it would have been cheaper, it would have been better for the bottom line, and it would have produced better work. So for those striking, I hope they get everything they demand and they deserve, because the corporate interests they now face had a chance to achieve this deeply profitable middle ground and blew it in favor of hollow, short term gains.
Q: As many other industries are unionizing, what do you think of a games industry union?
Woodard: I do think it’s important for the games industry for royalties for work, and other opportunities. At our studio we added health benefits this past year, and we cover full health benefits, but it would be great to also work alongside a union so that the benefits aren’t tied to an individual employer.
Annabel: I watch the news all the time, including political streamers. If I were to give my personal answer, I would not be against it. I don’t know how it would take shape, but I do think it would help when certain decisions are made. (Look at Unity.) When a majority of workers are unhappy with leadership, then they can come together. We’re told to work in tech or software, and not to work in games because “games don’t pay as much”. Same with esports pay. So that’s worth questioning.
Nelson Jr.: I think that a union is a specific tool to achieve specific goals. The unionization solution for games will not be one-size-fits-all, but I do think it is both essential and inevitable. As exploitation continues to rise, labor will inevitably respond, and I think the amount of change and solidarity we’ve seen happen this year alone is going to go some major way towards facilitating that.
Q: Players often don’t know the work that goes into making a game, what do you think would help a player become interested in the overall process of game development?
Woodard: Game development is still shrouded in mystery. I remember something that got me interested in games was the behind-the-scenes processes of Lord of the Rings development. If Game Developers could include a behind-the-scenes or developer commentary, it could help. I do think we’re seeing it with Minecraft and Roblox.
Annabel: Being in marketing, we are the last people who make something before it goes to the public. From a marketing perspective, we have to communicate with a variety of departments from software, product, and customer service. Many people don’t consider these other departments. At MoPOP, there was an exhibit that even focused on game development. The general public doesn’t know how a surgery works, they’ll complain whether or not it went well. It’s the same for games and other products. People are just extremely outspoken online about it.
Nelson Jr.: If you want to be a real consumer advocate, the number one place to start is to understand game development. When you understand the complicated root causes that result in everything from exploitative microtransactions to your favorite storylines, you’ll be able to find the next game you’ll love more easily, find it in more places, and speak against factors that are eroding game experiences that are meaningful to you.
The more you learn and understand, the more you have the personal opportunity to effect change and attempt to uplift and create that change alongside others. That’s what I’d share to get players more interested in the process of game development–because a lot of that is what got me interested in it!
Q: If there was one thing you could change about the industry today, what would it be (and why?)
Woodard: Start with unions.
Annabel: I would want people to stop making the gaming industry, especially in esports, so that we can’t be held to the same standards of labor in these industries. Whether it’s behavioral, wages, or something else. It always goes back to this immaturity within games, I see examples of it on Twitter every day. Are we a legitimate industry, or are we going to continue to stay the same? I think part of it stems from leadership who don’t want to change and put systems in place that would allow for the necessary changes to make this a legitimate industry.
Nelson Jr.: I think if there was one thing that I could wave my magic wand and change in the games industry tomorrow, it would be providing funding, support, and visibility to games at multiple scales with multiple audiences in mind. The industry constantly decides that players don’t want [insert game type here] anymore, and when [insert game type here] starts selling again years after being proclaimed dead, expresses deep surprise.
It happened with boomer shooters. It happened with classic survival horror games. Games move so fast, and arbitrarily decide that there’s only one course in a given genre, throwing aside every other game in its wake. The audiences may have become smaller, but for every player that wanted an FPS like Call of Duty, there were still players that wanted a lower fidelity shooter experience, and got left behind.
What I am doing in my small way is pushing for a video games industry that makes games reasonably. When we made games reasonably, we had outsized success. We don’t make games reasonably now, we don’t make films reasonably; and frankly the workforce and our players deserve better.
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