The myth of the perfect company just fell | Gamedev Dairy #65
Hacks for learning, productivity, having work-life-passion balance and finally game development!
The myth of the perfect company just fell
I want to share a movie with you:
It really breaks my heart, because, at some point when daydreaming about becoming a game developer, I found inspiration in many places, one of them being Valve's Handbook for new Employees.
Psssst! You can click to get the PDF 😉
You know, when you're young and naive (I'm still young, I'm almost 40 😉) and think everything is possible you look at the gaming market, see how things and organized, and think: it can be done better (because everything can, according to the critics) and of course wonder, how would I do it better. I'm not saying I would, I'm saying I'm thinking about it.
Documents like these can inspire a lot. It makes you think, that it's possible to create a company better!
At this point, I confess, I did not remember much of the document. What I did remember was a flat company hierarchy, and desks on wheels with the encouragement to move them. And that you can work whatever you want on (I never believed that to work, because... seriously! No one worked on Half-Life 3!?).
And then, after some years, you learn it isn't as good as it sounds... (check the Youtube clip linked above to realize that).
Flat structure? No bosses? Well, I did suspect that this was a bad idea, and there must be someone who makes decisions ;-)
And although I'll never create a company of that size I know I will not just clone it. I also need to think double about all those things I considered to be good ideas for a team/company.
Here's to yet another fallen myth!
