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We don't make AAA games though. You know, the big multi-platform releases that have a multimillion dollar PR campaign and takes four (or more) years to develop. We are not even close. We are a small studio with people who like each other (for the most part) play board games together and have a very functional and healthy relationship with our publisher. :D
Most of us work none to very little overtime, women and men alike can go on long parental leaves and have a life outside of the office. I have not worked on a weekend since they sent to me present games in London a couple of months ago, and not for a very long time before that. I didn't mind very much being sent to London btw. ;)

Also, I'm in a union, one for engineers that fits me well enough. It's not that big of a deal in Sweden at least.

Of course there is some truth in the article, but I do believe it is worse in the states than here, and as with all industries, some companies are going to be better/worse.
 
Well I did clock up 250 hours of overtime last year, but to be honest no one put a gun to my head :D Had I really not wanted to work those extra hours I wouldn't have had to (for most part). On the other hand hopefully some of those hours helped make Divine Wind, Sengoku and Crusader Kings II better games, and since we have a bonus system, that overtime not only benefits the company but myself as well :)

And as Kallocain said, we have a nice and friendly atmosphere at work and many of us hang out with each other outisde of work as well.
 
First of all each company, country, publisher and developer is different. Both sides of the coin exist everywhere.

Sweden in particular has very, very, very solid laws in place to protect employees - so I'd say that the Swedish game developers are amongst the most "content" and that Paradox is truly a game development heaven. Not only because of a great team, management but also since we're publishers there are entirely other options and freedoms we enjoy.

Paradox - being privately owned and hugely successful means that we have no fear of going belly up any moment. I say this because it's said fear of meeting deadlines that have companies push their employees to the brink.

I know for a fact that there's a lot of crunch at the bigger game developers in Sweden (not to mention the indies) and cases where it's not game dev heaven.

So Paradox is perhaps not a fair comparison.

The only way to know is to talk to people who've worked and are working at company X to see if it is heaven or hell.

Lastly heaven and hell very much depends on what you value in life - Again Swedish law provides most of us with a 3 month notice before we're let go (if it ever happens) - compared to US which has much less. But US salaries are way, way higher (especially for mid to high positions) while Swedish salaries are lower and the spread is much smaller. US game dev scene is much bigger and it's easier to find new rad projects/companies.

So what's heaven for you?

/s
 
burny26 said:
I didnt know that engineering unions are also able to protect gamedevs... how come ?
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They help all engineers. I have a M.Sc in engineering. It's not more complicated than that. For those who are not engineers, there are other unions too. If there were one specifically for gamedevs, I probably would not join it anyway. The engineering union is very cheap to be part of, since we have so low unemployment rates. I think the average gamedev have a slightly higher risk to be unemployed at times.
 
burny26 said:
I love you and want to have your babies!!!!
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That's... somewhat disturbing. And technically impossible as far as I know.
 
Fishman786 said:
Wish I could be a paradox dev. :( Unfortunately I only know about graphics, not coding...
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Who do you think make our graphics, the coders...?
 
burny26 said:
I see ,but what for example of graphical designers who do textures or concept art?
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I have no idea, I'll leave that up to the graphics people to answer. Most of them are on vacation though. Also, like I said before, we do have unions that take care of you regardless of your line of work.
 
[the] King and I both moved to Sweden for jobs here, and one of our programmers is Polish (although I think he lived here already). Publishing is even more international. Most of us know a little Swedish (very little in my case :p ) but it's not needed in the office except for eavesdropping. Moving countries is a bit of a pain but nothing too bad, I had to spend a couple of mornings in the tax office and bank to get things setup.
 
Gauge said:
What is necessary to work in Sweden while you get citizenship? It would be an incredible honor to work for my favorite game studio. It can't hurt to try :)
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Citizenship is a completely different matter.

If you're serious about work however I'd start off by checking out the US embassy website and then googling to see what other people's experiences were. I'll ask Steven our resident Texan to pop in.

http://sweden.usembassy.gov/


/s
 
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