In a self-isolated world, developers are learning to make games from home
In a self-isolated world, developers are learning to make games from home
In a self-isolated world, developers are learning to make games from home
By Megan Farokhmanesh
April 16, 2020
Summary
As states began to shut down their cities, Alex, a writer for a large game company, was told to work from home along with millions of other Americans.
Across the games industry, developers from studios of all sizes are adjusting to a new work-from-home mandate.
"For big games whose data repositories are huge, it's 10x more efficient to be in the office with a direct connection to the data servers," one developer tells The Verge.
Then there's a question of infrastructure: how do you move a team of hundreds to their homes and achieve workable results? Developers at many companies were instructed to take computers home and do their best to settle in.
At Destiny developer Bungie, the company made the call to start sending people home on March 1st. Principle producer Carrie Gouskos says that her first reaction to the phrase "Social distancing" was to start work on an excel spreadsheet - a "Very small piece of control in the chaos," she says.
From there, the process moved on to software requests and connectivity problems as developers learned to troubleshoot from home.
Some had recently moved and were set up in apartments that didn't even have furniture yet; there were those now grappling with the challenge of working from home with their significant others and kids.
It can be difficult to turn off at the end of the work day, as home is now also his workspace.
Jesse Snyder, creative director at a small independent studio, works from home with his family, including his eldest daughter who is - was - in kindergarten.
"This could last for a month, or two years. And certainly things won't be the same anymore, but I have no idea what they'll look like." Another comments on holes in the structures we've accepted as status quo: "The systems of capitalism we have today can't support something like a pandemic - in many cases they are breaking right now, before our eyes." Developers say they hold on to the idea that their jobs and projects they're working on could still bring people joy.
Reference
Farokhmanesh, M. (2020, April 16). In a self-isolated world, developers are learning to make games from home. Retrieved April 17, 2020, from https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/16/21222465/coronavirus-game-developers-work-from-home-bungie-riot