The video game industry made headlines earlier this year when it was exposed that a number of globally-leading companies had been pushing their development teams to work upwards of 100-hour weeks to meet publishing deadlines.
The backlash that followed revealed that, despite the idea that working in video games is considered a ‘dream job’, this level of pressure is commonplace in the industry. High-pressure unpaid overtime, known as ‘crunch’, is a common practice that companies demand of their employees to hit near-impossible production deadlines. Demands on employees are generally so stressful that anyone in the industry longer than 5 years is considered to be a ‘veteran’.
Northern Ireland game development company Italic Pig are making a radical move in the opposite direction, by adopting a four-day work week.
“Creativity is not something that can be forced, and it’s ridiculous to think that perpetual stress, crunch, and lack of sleep won’t have an impact on the quality of that creativity,” says Kevin Beimers, CEO of Italic Pig.
“I’ve worked in enough studios where magical schedules are conjured up from a basic formula of ‘work to be done divided by time to do it’, no matter how impossible the workload may be. This formula inevitably results in employees being forced to work nights and weekends for months at a time, with the blame being put on them when these impossible deadlines aren’t being hit.”
“In my experience, the best creative output comes when stress is low, energy is high, health is good, and the work environment is positively charged. Now that I run my own creative company, that’s what we’re aiming for here.”
The company has always put a high priority on the mental and physical health of its team both inside and outside of the workplace - skills development, employee perks packages, random talent challenges and internal health & fitness competitions - but the four-day work week is their most radical decision yet.
“The four-day week actually started off as a cost saving measure,” explains Kevin, “Finding funding for creative development is always a lengthy and unpredictable process. Having assembled a kick-ass team of top talent, I was loath to lose any of them as funds began to dwindle between projects. So, to keep everyone together, we suggested a proposal: let’s drop everyone’s salaries by 20%, and close the office on Fridays.
“With this sacrifice came a challenge: If we as a company found that we could achieve in four days what would traditionally take five, without undue stress, simply through efficiency and energy, then, when the next round of funding comes in, we’d bump the salaries back up to 100%, but stick to the four-day week.”
And that’s exactly what happened.
Italic Pig recently signed a deal to collaborate with The Irregular Corporation and Northern Ireland Screen to produce Paleo Pines, a dinosaur-ranching social management sim. Whilst the full production budget is undisclosed, it represents the largest video game investment into Northern Ireland to date. It’s getting done smoothly, efficiently and stress free, four days at a time.
To produce the Paleo Pines title, Italic Pig recently recruited 7 new members to its team. Several of the new hires cited the four-day week as one of the most enticing benefits of joining the company.
Recent hire Britt Bailey explains, “ The four-day work week was one of the things that really sold me on the decision to come over to Belfast from England to work for Italic Pig. It stood out to me as something no other studio I applied for had offered and made me confident that I'd have a good work/life balance at the company.”
With a highly-skilled, diverse team of 19 people, varying in age from 21 to 44, the management team at Italic Pig was eager to not merely follow best practice guidelines, but exceed them to create a business culture that suits everyone.
“We pay our staff competitive, industry-standard salaries for a full week,” explains Ross Morrison, Head of Production. “The producers and line managers lay out achievable estimates for the week, and the employees endeavour to get that work done in four days. Friday is still there as a ‘just in case’ - contingency, slippage, or the unexpected hiccup in production - but more often than not, Fridays are the first day of the weekend.”
Since starting the four-day week, the team at Italic Pig has seen a huge increase in focus, with the team eager to meet their well-considered deadlines. “If anything, the team is more efficient now than they ever were, not to mention happier.”
Recent research is backing up Italic Pig’s approach. Autonomy , in their August 2019 research into the four-day week, found that there is no positive correlation between hours worked and productivity. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the creative industries. Forcing creative and programming teams to work 100-hour weeks doesn’t result in better games; it simply results in a crew that is burnt out and resentful.
“Italic Pig have never been your standard company,“ offers Amelia Lingman, COO. “We are in the position of being able to shape our own creative environment that we can be proud of, one that we would have enjoyed working in when we first started out in the industry. We want to show that an indie studio can be just as productive and successful, if not more so, by putting the emphasis on creativity and balance, rather than constant pressure from above.”
“We want the studio to enjoy working on each project, not just breathe a sigh of relief when it’s released.“
Not only does a 4-day week allow for far better balance, but makes sense from a recruitment and efficiency perspective as well.
Recruitment of highly talented designers and programmers is one of the more costly aspects of running an indie video game studio, particularly in an industry where turnover is typically high. Furthermore, the loss of a trained employee has a huge impact on a well-managed pipeline.
Impressively, in their 7 years of business, although they have periodically had to shrink and grow the team to fit their project load, they have maintained a turnover rate of zero. Not a single team member has ever chosen to leave Italic Pig in favour of another opportunity.
Noel Watters, Italic Pig’s Lead Programmer, explains: “I’ve been with Kevin for four years now. As an experienced programmer, I’m aware of the fact that there are other opportunities out there, but the work environment here is all about creative quality and doing things right, not just doing it fast. That sort of environment is hard to find, and the four-day week is even harder to beat.”
Italic Pig have also seen a decrease in the number of days that employees take off for life admin.
In the UK, life admin can cause the average person to lose over eight days of work per year, and most people still feel they don’t have a proper handle on it. With a four-day week, doctor’s appointments, mortgage meetings and MOTs can fit into the week smoothly without upsetting the core workflow, and with no detriment to annual leave.
Besides life admin, employees are encouraged to use their free day to explore their own creative interests, and spend time with their families, ensuring that the team returns on Monday morning fully recharged. All of this leads to a more productive work week and a happier team.
“If someone tells you ‘that’s just how things have always been done’, that’s the worst reason to do it,” Kevin explains. “As the head of one of the largest game development companies in the country, I’ve got the power to choose which trends I want to follow, and the power to make changes to the ones I don’t.”
“How can we expect to make fun, creative products if the work environment is exactly the opposite? If we do our part to make the work environment as creative and enjoyable as the games we produce, and other companies see what we’re doing and join us swimming against the tide, maybe working in video games really can be the dream job everyone thinks it is.”
www.italicpig.com
Italic Pig is a kickass Northern Irish entertainment studio filled with creative, talented and
attractive individuals. We create sarcastically epic, narrative-driven stories for all
audiences and platforms, and occasionally win awards for them. Italic Pig were recently
nominated for Best Immersive Game at the Raindance Film Festival, and have won a
GDC Best In Play, a number of Big Indie Pitch competitions and Northern Ireland Studio
of the Year in 2018 & 2019.