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

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.

We were doing a final push to submit Gravity Sling to the App Store today when we got word of a change in policy for In App purchases from Apple, which we think is great news! We are very happy to announce that when it is released Gravity Sling will be available as a free app from the App Store. Some initial set of levels (we’re thinking around 10-15) will be included for free, with the remaining available as an in-app purchase.

This is great, because it means everyone will be able to try out the gameplay, and see what Gravity Sling is all about without having to spend a penny. Those of you that love it (which we hope is all of you!) will then be able to support us by purchasing the additional level pack and enabling us to continue development on new levels and features.

We’d love to know what you think, but we definitely think this is going to be a win-win for everyone!

Also as an added treat I though you’d enjoy seeing a screenshot of my Million point run on the “Big and Little” level

Since the iPhone Game Jam wrapped up we’ve been hard at work finishing up our game Gravity Sling. We’ve made a huge amount of progress, having reworked the underlying physics engine, most of the graphics added proper UI, and picked up an awesome sound track.

The team has grown a bit adding Ben Long from Noise Buffet who’s doing all the audio, and Seth Howard who is helping with some game design, and porting the game to Palm Pre.

That’s right, you heard it here first – not only will Gravity Sling be available for the iPhone, but it will also be available shortly for the Palm Pre! We’re super excited about this, and can’t wait to see what Palm owners think of the game too.

More updates are coming, but for now here’s a couple quick screenshots from one of the levels we took yesterday.

My appointment to the IGDA Board of Directors was just announced. I was appointed along with Rodney Gibbs and Erin Hoffman, and we will all serve for a 2 year term through September, 2011.

I can’t speak for Rodney or Erin, but I know that I am very excited to join the board, and look forward to making a positive impact through the IGDA. It’s been a rough year all around, and I know that a lot of people are still very invested in the org, and I’m hoping that we can help get things going in the right direction again.

The IGDA has and does do a lot for game developers already, and my goal is to make that more clear to the membership, while striving to help the org do even more.

The 360iDev conference starts Sunday here in Denver and Brian will be speaking there 8:30 Tuesday morning on the topic “User Input in a multi-touch, accelerometer, location aware world.” It will focus on a lot of the challenges and opportunities that developers need to think about when developing games and apps for today’s mobile devices. If you’re going to be in town then be sure to come by.