Middle of Week 15

There's not a lot of news this week. Basically, we're a little further than last week and close to recruiting 3D Modelers now that we just about have concepts for them. We should have the male and female character model done and rigged soon, which means recruiting animators next.

There's a few other things I've been wanting to talk about. One, the Valve Employee handbook has been circulating around a bit on the internet. Valve is probably best known for Steam (a game portal), Team Fortress 1 and 2, and the Half Life series. What's interesting about the handbook for new employees is that it makes clear that there are no managers, no bosses, and no leadership in the company. Everyone is equal. They started as a small company and now employ hundreds, but they still let their employees do whatever they want. It makes a point about how each desk has wheels on it, so employees can pick where to move their desk to based on where they should be to do the most good, what needs to be done, and who they need to work with to accomplish it.

This is a bizarre way to run a traditional company. Most people hate their jobs and do the least amount of work they can unless they want a promotion. Most people have no idea how to do the job they're hired for and have to be trained and molded. Employers often complain about the enormous cost and loss of production it takes to train people and how they need that employee to make that money back for the company within a certain time frame.

But the game industry is different. It's an extremely competitive industry where finding very experienced and skilled people are much easier. And despite the fact that people in the game industry often earn less money for comparable work, game developers are often self motivated and driven to make the best product they possibly can. Because of these unusual characteristics, a game company need not operate the way others do. Though as a side note, breaking into the incredibly competitive game industry against people far more experienced and skilled, is a scary thought. How do you get experience if no one will hire you? You do exactly what we're doing.

Of course, I can't really develop Stigma Games into the next Valve right now. We don't have any funding, nor do we have a physical studio yet. So people stress out about their day jobs, paying off student loans, and all that. But we are getting close to that idea.

What else? This isn't really Stigma Games related, but I'm finishing up the game lore for another game studio--one that's actually paying me. And I'm going to pitch a game idea to Loki's Planet that I think will bring in a lot of traffic. I have no idea if Loki's Planet will pay me for developing it for the site. But again, I'm one of those self motivated people that just wants to make games so that's not as important to me.