Late last week a blog post appeared on the game industry news site Gamasutra from “Wives of Rockstar” The lengthy post details what can best be described as systematic exploitation of the staff working on the game Red Dead Redemption. While the allegations are as of yet unproven the numerous responses and replies from people who claim to be intimately familiar with the situation make it clear that some, if not all of them, are likely to be true.

In my role on the IGDA Board of Directors I have been helping to craft our response to this unfortunate situation and that response has just been posted on our website and e-mailed out to our membership. I’m very glad the IGDA has been able to take a stand on this issue, though I realize issuing a statement is just one step in the process.I also realize there are some people who feel we should have responded sooner, but this statement has the full support of the entire board of directors, a cross-section of industry representatives from studio heads to independent developers. The process to gain that support takes time and I am extremely happy that we were able to do this so quickly.

The IGDA’s 2nd Quality of Life white paper is currently being written based on the data gleaned from our survey run last November. The final paper is slated to be released in Q2 2010. The IGDA released our first Quality of Life white paper in 2004 a few months after “EA_Spouse” posted a similar letter condemning the practices of EA and what those practices were doing to her then boyfriend. (As an aside EA_Spouse has since been outed as Erin Hoffman and she serves with me on the Board of Directors). That original paper showed a significant number of people in the industry were forced to endure crunch time of 65+ hours/week in their jobs. While our latest research shows that most developers today rarely crunch and feel that their studios work to avoid it, the scenario described by Rockstar Wives is still far too common in our industry.

It is my firm belief that the management at studios which engage in these activities are operating in a reprehensible and unethical manner.

I believe this regardless of whether the practices are disclosed during the interviewing and hiring process (as is purportedly the case at Epic), or whether it happens as a result of poor management and planning (as may be the case with Rockstar San Diego).

I myself have worked in a studio that enforced 80+ hour weeks with no end in sight, and while I was able to quit and move on to a better company more respectful of their employees, not everyone has that option. It is very easy for people outside of the situation to simply say “if you don’t like it then quit” but the reality is that for many people, particularly those with a family to support, are not in a position where that is possible, especially in today’s economic climate.

I have also been on the other side as a manager with people working 70+ hour weeks for me, and I know just how easy it is to slip into these scenarios. Fortunately in my situation we were able to keep this time down to just a couple months, and I believe I maintained the respect and appreciation of the people working for me. Ultimately people decide to make games for a living because they want to be here, and most are willing to put in a reasonable amount of extra time and effort to do what they love, and to make their games great. Issues like these come to a head when management loses respect for their employees and fails to appreciate the contributions and sacrifices their employees are making on their behalf.

My heart goes out to all those currently working under these types of conditions. Know that these studios are not the norm and it is absolutely possible to work in the game industry for a company that respects you enough as a person to allow you live a proper life. If there’s anything I can do to help either as an individual or as a member of the IGDA Board of Directors please let me know!

Sincerely,

Brian Robbins
Founder, Riptide Games
Member IGDA Board of Directors

Gravity Sling Deluxe has just been released to the App Store. This is the deluxe version of our hit game Gravity Sling. Feature-wise this is identical to the original game, with the difference being that Gravity Sling Deluxe is a paid app that gives you all of the in app purchasable content, without any additional cost. This means that we’re able to support OS 2.2.1 devices (iPod Touch users who haven’t upgraded) as well as anybody who is unwilling or unable to purchase In App content.

As a special incentive for all of you, we’ve decided to release Gravity Sling Deluxe for just $.99 to the first 5,000 players, $1.99 to the next 5,000 players and then the price will reach it’s normal price of $2.99. This won’t last long so be sure to act fast!

We hope you enjoy playing and look forward to hearing your feedback. While you’re waiting for it to download, go ahead and check out our gameplay trailer:

What are you waiting for. Go get it from the App Store now!

This update has a lot of big changes and improvements to it. Most notably is that we’ve introduced moving planets, which adds a huge amount of complexity to the levels that have them. We’ve also added star pickups to most levels giving you more opportunities to earn points on each level. With these changes we added a total of 64 more levels to the game so there’s a LOT more content to play too. Here’s a list of all the big changes we’ve made:

• Moving Planets
• Star Pickups on most levels
• 64 new levels (4 free + 2 new level packs)
• Display indicators for if you’ve met a level target or not
• Better help for the first few levels
• Improved game flow between levels and retries
• Much better UI performance
• Updated OpenFeint to 2.3.1
• New achievements
• Fixed multi-touch bug in gameplay
• Numerous other tweaks and bug fixes

We hope you enjoy this update, and as always let us know what else you’d like to see!

Circle of Life from Gravity Sling v1.1

Gravity Sling Deluxe has not yet been approved for sale. It is identical to this version except that all level packs are automatically unlocked, and you will need to purchase it from the start (instead of it being free with In App Purchase).

Not to be outdone by our friends at HDDenver.com we’ve just put the finishing touches on our own Gravity Sling v1.1 Gameplay Trailer. This trailer shows off several moving planets levels and should give you an idea of what’s in store with the first update. Check it out!

Our friends at HDDenver.com shot some HD gameplay video of Gravity Sling recently, and we’ve just gotten it posted on YouTube. The footage shows one of the original levels in Gravity Sling, “Go for the Gusto” though you can see from the stars in it, that it’s actually the updated version from v1.1. Those of you who are really paying attention will also see that this is level 15 of the 109 levels available in the new version!

(Press the Full screen button or view it directly on YouTube to see this in it’s full HD glory).

Many thanks to the guys over at HDDenver.com for putting this together for us. Keep checking back here or follow @RiptideGames on Twitter to be one of the first to know when v1.1 of Gravity Sling is approved.

After a few late nights, and some last minute bug fixing, we’re very happy to announce that Gravity Sling v1.1 has been submitted to Apple. We’re expecting this review process to take a while, but hoping it will be approved before Christmas so you can get your holiday swing on!

A lot has changed with this version:

Moving Planets

By far the biggest update is that we now have added in support for moving planets. While we like the static puzzle nature of some of our current levels, we love the effect that moving planets has on the game. It can make things a lot more challenging in some places, and a bit easier in others. Ultimately it definitely makes the game a lot more fun. Can you imagine trying to create a path like this in the current version?

Screenshot from the "Quadruple Box" level in Gravity Sling v1.1

Star Pickups

While most people seem to love creating long paths and seeing them play out, we always felt like Gravity Sling needed just a little bit more. With v1.1 we’ve added star pickups to most levels. Sometimes the stars will help you see the way to get a big score, and other times they may be a bonus to encourage you to try to get somewhere difficult.

"Oklahoma" level from Gravity Sling v1.1

Over 60+ new levels

We’ve more than doubled the number of levels in Gravity Sling increasing the total from 45 in the initial release up to 109 in this release. 4 of those levels are free to introduce you to moving planets, and the other 60 come in the way of 2 new level packs. We also updated almost every original level to add star pickups for an added challenge.

Deluxe Version

While we still believe that Free + In App Purchase is the best way to go for apps like Gravity Sling, we have decided to introduce a deluxe version. We’ve heard from several people that they can’t or are unwilling to purchase levels from within the app, and we also didn’t like that the initial release kept many iPod Touch users who haven’t upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0 from being able to enjoy the game. The deluxe version will sell for $2.99 (or your equivalent local currency) and comes with every single level pack unlocked from the start. Further any future updates we do will also be released with the deluxe version.

Numerous Bug Fixes and Improvements

We also spent some time improving the overall user experience. A few people had found some issues with menu performance, and some general bugginess in the UI. We think we’ve fixed all of those issues, so the overall experience should be much better.

Follow @RiptideGames on Twitter to keep up to date on the latest releases and be among the first to know when v1.1 is approved.