At Big Blue Sky Games, we’re committed to developing careers, not just games. We believe high quality work comes from well-rested professionals bringing their best to the table. To that end, one of our guiding principles is preventing crunch and burnout by prioritizing employee retention.
People leave game studios all the time, for all kinds of reasons. Maybe there was no path to a promotion or changing roles within the company; maybe the claims about diversity and inclusion rung hollow when 85% of the staff were men. The game shipped, but it didn’t blow the lid off the entire industry, so a thousand people got laid off. Maybe months (or years!) of extended crunch left people barely feeling like they could get out of bed.
None of this is acceptable, and it leads to the average game developer – a person solidly in their late 30s or early 40s, trying desperately to create a sense of security for their family (or start that family at all) – changing employers roughly every two years. This is fine by most studios, because to them, every one of us is replaceable, and there are people lined up around the block to take our jobs.
Our philosophy is simple – nobody is at their best when they’re being forced to work overtime, burnt out from years of the grind, or constantly on the hunt for their next opportunity. We want to empower everyone who comes to work with us to stick around, improve, even change roles altogether – because we value the individual, not the role they perform. We’re all healthier, happier, and more productive when we have that stability, and able to make better games for our players as a result.
