Dan, a graphic designer by trade, was looking to move into game development. He uploaded some of his design concepts onto the Australian games industry website Tsumea. What followed was an unexpectedly unpleasant correspondence.
In late November, Dan received an email. The email was from the head of a Melbourne studio. He introduced himself in the email and wrote about his experience in the games industry. He listed his accolades, vaguely mentioned what his studio was working on, and requested samples of work and a CV from Dan.
Dan believes it was his work on Tsumea that caught the studio head’s attention, but he didn’t think it was worth replying to the email.
“I thought the email I got from him originally looked more like a blanket email that would have been sent to a lot of people on Tsumea, just talking up his company and asking people who were interested to submit their CV,” says Dan, who preferred to not have his full name revealed.
“It wasn’t personally written or anything, so I assumed I was just one of many recipients and ignored it.”
Over a week later, Dan received a follow-up email.
“Dan,” the email began.
“If I don’t get a response from you within 24 hours, we’re removing your CV from our system and adding you to our employee blacklist. Thanks.”
Dan was taken aback. Was this the way the games industry in Australia worked? He understood that there were few game development jobs available in Australia, but should he have responded to such a hostile message? He hadn’t contacted this studio. He hadn’t expressed interest. He hadn’t done anything — beyond uploading samples of his work onto an industry website. He decided to not reply. He hasn’t heard back from the studio since.
In light of this incident, we spoke to the CEO of the Game Developer’s Association of Australia, Antony Reed, to find out what industry standards are in Australia and how developers—independent or otherwise – should go about handling such situations.
“It is not uncommon for a studio to send out an unsolicited letter or email to a person whose work they admire and might be interested in talking to,” says Mr. Reed.
“Street artists have been offered jobs at development studios based on pavement chalk drawings. However, to be clear, these are unsolicited communications and as such the recipient has absolutely no obligation to respond, and should never feel compelled to.”
Mr. Reed says that there is a degree of immaturity shown in both communications sent to Dan, which is a reflection of the sender and the company.
“It is the second email that is deeply concerning,” he says.
“It is unnecessarily aggressive and I can’t imagine why anyone would consider an employment opportunity with this company if this is indicative of their communication style. If, as you say, the recipient of these emails has never made of attempted to make contact with the sender, there is absolutely no justification for the hostile tone.”
Mr. Reed says that emails of that nature are far from the industry standard and that Australia has very strong laws protecting employees. Whether a developer is in the process of looking for work, collaborating with a small independent team, or working within a large studio, they need to know that they have rights and should speak up if they feel that said rights are being infringed upon.
“No one should fear reprisal for speaking up if they feel unreasonable demands are being made of them,” he says.
“The key is not to take a confrontational attitude into the discussion and address problems early. Be prepared to listen, too. Don’t let issues fester and don’t succumb to secretive complaining within a core group – both are poisonous to an individual.”
As mentioned, emails like those sent to Dan are not the industry standard, nor are they a reflection of the Australian games industry. Studios may often go through periods of crunch and game developers may constantly strive to be better, often resulting in late nights and stress, but this is an unfortunate reality of the industry and Mr. Reed believes it can be greatly reduced through good leadership and management.
[Image credit: Uptown Magazine]
Comments
47 responses to “Knowing Your Rights In Game Development”
Did anybody attempt to contact the sender of the email (or his company) for comment? It’d be interesting to know who they are what they had to say for themselves.
Also – why would they first request a CV from Dan and then, when they didn’t receive one, threaten to remove his CV from their “system”. Although “threaten” probably isn’t the right word to use since it doesn’t sound like working for them would really be an unmissable opportunity.
For the purpose of this article we did not feel that the sender needed to be named.
Don’t need to name them, but it would be nice to get an idea of what they were thinking.
From what I’ve heard from many people in the Aussie industry the person in question is quite batshit. Any feedback from him would only be inflammatory and possibly lulzworthy, nothing of true value will be gained.
Besides which, Macnamara isn’t doing the recruiting for KMM now.
This clearly states a Melbourne studio, both team bondi and KMM are based in Sydney
You say that as if lulz have no value 😛
I would be curious to know who threatened Dan with a blacklist so I can avoid purchasing any title they release.
This.
I’d want to know the name of the sender to know who to avoid. If they are that poor at communication, it could be pretty terrible unwittingly being stuck with them.
Shouldn’t you “name and shame” so the rest of us looking for employment in this industry can avoid them?
We had to consider it very carefully and in the end decided it was in the best interest of everyone involved to not name names. It was not a lightly-made decision!
Good call, no sense bringing drama here.
Inaction only empowers bullies. A name should be put forward.
I’m not sure shaming them is entirely appropriate here.
It is important that people are aware of these situations, and someone should probably approach the unnamed individual/company about their actions.
However, I think the backlash from this kind of story would exceed what we know to be true about the company and workplace. Their actions here are unpleasant, but we can’t really know how that company operates internally. No point dragging their name through the mud, when this might be a great opportunity for them to learn from this mistake and improve their company practices.
I know who they are talking about specifically and can say i’ve ONLY heard bad things. These people are TOTAL crooks, you should name and shame them.
Wow. Just… wow.
Agreed, name the bastards
whoops, wrong reply sorry,
Hang on, so they asked for his CV, then said if he doesn’t respond and send them a copy of it, they would….. remove his CV?
I don’t think they will be releasing any titles. And I know this guy has been a problem for a long time in the industry. It’s one person from his own small company, not sure if he is by himself and he has been taking advantage of people for too long. He gives out test for employment. Then once you are done he will tell you it wasn’t very good, and at the same time he will use that test in the “game” he is making. It’s a way of getting people to do work for free where he doesn’t need to credit them. I’m sure 80 to 90% of the people who work in the games industry in the Melbourne area know who this is. If you know anyone in the industry they can tell you who it is.
That sounds like an awfully slow method for coding a game.
Not when you are using the unreal engine and have no real intention of ever releasing the game. It is mostly art assets that this person is after. It’s more of a mod made with the unreal SDK with some art assets that were made from poor people doing these “tests”. Hence why Dan was contacted by him through Tsumea, this is not the only forum he goes to get his free art from people.
Being a programmer, my mind just jumped straight to the code side of things. I guess art assets are a lot more discrete and would be easier to source in this manner. Seems pretty pathetic to be sourcing free work like this.
I’m unable to shake the vision of a Bond-esque villain laughing like a maniac as all the pieces of his game fall into place.
He really is a massive d-bag, he also trolls LinkedIn
With regard to the ‘name-and-shame’, I’d rather this not happen.
First, if you’re looking for work, even if you’re desperate, you should be a little picky. Make sure your prospective employer ticks the right boxes. You shouldn’t expect others to vet your prospects for you, especially in public.
Second, there are probably some good and decent people working at that developer. Public exposure of this type could put them all out of work.
Please don’t name and shame. Everyone just be careful where you get work… and don’t be afraid to let your feet do the talking if you’re someplace bad.
Precisely. The point of this article is to not point out that one developer is approaching things in the wrong way, but to let people know that that sort of behaviour is not industry standard and should anyone find themselves in such a situation there are ways to deal with it.
Yes war is always the answer!! For SPARTAA
nooo stealth edit makes me look silly, ahha
You are far too fast at reading. We are going to have to… deal with you.
alright….I’ll put my pitchfork & torch away then…
And bring out the OARS?
Back to TAY, you! *shoo*
(V)(;,,;)(V)
WoopWoopWoopWoopWoopWoopWoopWoopWoop!
It reminds me of that wannabee TV show producer who wanted to run a TV show to send people into space. Can’t remember his name, but I know people who dealt with him and his manner and communications were very similar.
This sounds like similar interactions I’ve had with a certain Melbourne based developer, and if it is the same I wouldn’t be too worried, they are a joke
I’ve heard of quite a few run ins with the person in question here. All of them quite unpleasant, and a few people have been ripped off in horrible ways. Just be careful when applying for jobs, and don’t supply unwatermarked artwork or orignal photoshop files.
Oh christ I’ve heard of that one.
“I need the PSD files so I can inspect the layers.”
Exactly, soooo dodgy!
If this guy is that well known in the industry in Melbourne, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a group of people out there trying to troll him / waste his time for lulz…
All I am going to say is Rickrolling FTW!
Id have told him to go fuck himself.
I don’t work for people with that kind of attitude.
Arrogant wanker.
Wow. The first email sounds *alright*, a company wanting to get samples of work. Yes, it does sound like one they’d sent to loads of people, but maybe that’s just their style?
The second email – what if Dan had been unable to respond to the first email? It has a sort of slap-in-the-face mentality behind it. Initially I would have said that the only way an email that blunt and rude would be sent is by some sort of idiotic mistake.
To me, this sounds like an employer wanting to build up a list of potential employees. They know, in the current industry and economy, that the employer is king. They’re looking at eliminating people from being potential employees to save them time during recruitment. Got a potential job and this guy, who’s on the employee “black list” applies? No need to consider him, he didn’t respond to our blanket email, he clearly doesn’t give a fuck.
Nice. lol.
+1
I Get these emails daily. They don’t ask your rates but demand samples. I will do paid art tests with the money paid in advance.
If they respond all offended that I would ask such a thing ,and “nobody has ever been paid for an art test” I tell them my portfolio is a fair representation of the work they can receive. If they insist on an art test with a brief I don’t open or read their material until they pay me to look.
Honestly you cannot work for free in the industry and anybody that wants you to is not worth the time. Spend your time on your own portfolio.
Laugh in the face of people that expect free work.
Lol, smooth!