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Quality of Life

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The mission of the IGDA’s Quality of Life Committee is to make the process of game development easier and more pleasant for everyone.

Quality of Life Events and Presentations

The IGDA hosts several Quality of life oriented events, summits and lectures each year. These events serve the purpose of furthering the IGDA's QoL work, providing a forum for developers to converse/connect and to work together to overcome challenges of poor working conditions. The proceedings, notes and materials from these events are catalogued (as much as possible) on this page.

Quality of Life Resources

A compilation of resources and references are provided to help educate the industry on the issues, challenges and opportunities related to quality of life and working conditions. Resources are provided in the following categories:

Quality of Life White Paper

The Committee has documented the impact of quality of life issues on employee turnover and on the loss of qualified personnel in the Quality of Life White Paper. The White Paper elaborates on “best practices” to improve quality of life and reap the economic benefits of a happier team. The Committee first presented this White Paper at a panel during the 2004 Game Developers Conference.

Discussion Forums

Dive into the Quality of Life Discussion Forum. The IGDA hosts online discussion forums to faciliate peer-to-peer communication and the sharing of knowledge.

Related Special Interest Groups

Human Resources SIG

A big part of the quality of life challengeGs about human resource management. While there are many general purpose HR resources, there is nothing specific to the game industry. The HR-SIG is meant to be resource for the community of game industry HR professionals and those involved in the HR process. The HR-SIG's private mailing list often discussed quality of life related issues and solutions.Production SIG

Production SIG

The Production SIG is dedicated to refining and formalizing a structured approach to game production, one that outlines proven practices for development teams taking on interactive projects. Instead of reinventing the wheel, inexperienced and veteran development teams can both benefit from a toolbox of production strategies drawn from the experience of industry leaders.

Our industry is notorious for the toll it takes on people: long hours, high levels of stress, difficulty to conciliate career and family life. As a result, many game developers leave the business within a few years, taking with them a wealth of experience that our companies sorely need to succeed in an ever more competitive marketplace. Some development companies never recover from the loss of their best people, while others suffer from a loss of productivity, not to mention increased (and repeated) hiring costs.

The IGDA Quality of Life Committee's mission is to make the game development experience smoother and more pleasant for everyone, therefore extending developers' careers and helping companies make better games in easier fashion.

Committee

Goals

In order to achieve its mission, the Quality of Life Committee has set the following goals:

  • Gather and disseminate practical knowledge of proven business practices that can improve quality of life and make development studios function better.
  • Advocate developer-friendly management and contractual practices.
  • Improve living conditions within the game industry to minimize the "brain drain" of seasoned developers leaving the business.

Activities and Deliverable

The Quality of Life Committee has recently completed work on its QoL white paper, online survey and GDC sessions. All of the details and results from the Quality of Life Committee's endeavors are available from the "Advocacy - Quality of Life" section of the IGDA web site.

Next steps for the Committee include:

  • Web section with quality of life resources, links, articles, etc.
  • Studio recognition program (ie, "great place to work" style awards, etc).

 

Committee Contributors

  • Tom Buscaglia
  • Hank Howie - Blue Fang Games
  • Francois Dominic Laramee
  • Andy Luckey - Greater Family, LLC
  • Gaurav Mathur - Factor 5
  • Clarinda Merripen
  • Sheri Pocilujko
  • Judy Tyrer - Red Storm Entertainment

Contact

The Quality of Life Committee can be reach via email at: qol@igda.org