Disney

World-class developers and artists.

Artists are so fun to work with.

We made amazing games every year.

Good pay, benefits, vacation, and sick leave.

Intense collaboration and ownership.

Getting to work on amazing stories and IP.

Bringing your kids to work and letting them try to break your game.

The entire studio was always in survival mode. If one game flopped for any reason, we'd be forced to find new jobs. Such is the nature of game development studios, generally.

Breakneck schedule, year after year. It was difficult to take time off.

Yearly three to four months of non-stop crunch. Dinner in the office, then back to work. Saturdays too.

Always the promise that next year will be better, but it wasn't.

Trust us. Don't micro-manage; you've definitely improved on this. Don't monitor everything we do electronically; that shuts down passion and creativity. Recognize that 60-80 hours a week can be a valuable tool in short bursts, but for months at a time makes people less effective, causes mistakes, isn't sustainable, and the people and the product suffer.