作者：Patrick Miller

根据游戏开发者的生活质量调查：快乐的开发者能够创造出更加出色的游戏，固定工作时间越长意味着关键时间周期越长，而不快乐的开发者总是会离开而寻找新工作。

《游戏开发者》杂志针对1051名游戏开发者（不管开发科目，工作室大小以及目标平台是否相同）展开调查，以明确他们对于自己的工作，职业，报酬以及项目是否满意。以下是《游戏开发者》2013年3月刊中的一些主要发现：

Game Developer（from boston）

工作满意度：29%的开发者对自己的工作“非常满意”，39%表示“有点满意”，13%持“中立”态度，13%表示“有点不满意”，还有6%表示“非常不满意”。如果开发者能拥有灵活的工作安排，并且能在家工作，那么他们对于工作的满意度便会大大提升。

游戏质量：对于当前项目的质量，开发者们基本上是持着乐观的态度：31%的开发者充满“绝对的自信”，36%的开发者则拥有“一定的自信”，还有16%属于“中立”，11%表示“不确定”，以及6%认为“非常不确定”。高达88%的开发者既对自己的游戏质量充满自信，同时也呈现出了较高的工作满意度。

工作量与成功之间的关系：一周工作51至60个小时的开发者的项目更有可能取得市场上的成功（64%），紧接着是工作40至50小时的开发者（60%），61至70小时的开发者（50%），71至80小时的开发者（43%）以及少于40个小时的开发者（38%）。70%从未在周末或节假日工作的开发者拥有成功的项目，相比之下选择在周末或节假日工作的开发者中只有43%的人取得成功。除此之外，大约有60%动机明确的团队拥有成功项目，而动机不明的团队中只有40%取得过成功。

关键时间：关键时间的范围非常广泛。7%的开发者表示他们每周的关键时间少于40小时，25%的开发者是40至50小时，27%是51至60四小时，20%是61至70小时，12是71至80小时，还有10%是80小时以上。但是这些时间规划的使用很少能够持续4个月以上：29%的开发者表示他们的关键时间周期不足1个月，30%是1至2个月，23%是3至4个月，7%是5至6个月，3%是7至8个月，2%是11至12个月，也只有3%的开发者表示会超过1年。我们发现拥有关键时间周期就足以削弱开发者的工作满意度了（游戏邦注：尽管持续时间不会影响这一因素）。

有趣的是，与25%每周工作51至60个小时以及7%每周工作61至70个小时的开发者相比，38%每周固定工作时间不足40个小时，以及32%每周工作时间为41至50个小时的开发者在关键时间周期里，他们的工作时间并未随之增加。基本上，固定工作时间越长的开发者在关键时间周期总是需要投入更多时间。

成为管理者的优势：管理者对于自己工作的满意度会更高，更有可能获得在家工作的权利（游戏邦注：比起29%的非管理者，管理者的比例高达56%），对自己的产品更有自信（比61%的非管理者，管理者的比例高达75%），并且有一半的管理者不会在开发周期对自己的家庭以及社交生活带来负面影响。

报酬和利益：当提到报酬时，13%的开发者认为自己获得了非常好的报酬，35%认为自己的报酬算是很高了，25%认为报酬一般，19%表示未得到应有的报酬，还有8%感觉自己的报酬极低。不出所料，那些获得较高报酬的人都具有较高的工作满意度。

裁员：23%的开发者希望在发行当前项目时能够进行裁员，但是害怕裁员的开发者比例也多于实际裁员率，即根据游戏开发者工资调查约为12%。

可能离开的开发者：对于自己的未来开发者们有不同看法：只有55%的开发者表示在近5年内将继续待在现在的公司。在这些愿意留下的开发者中，90%的人拥有较高的工作满意度，并且只有3%的工作满意度相对较低，这便意味着如果公司不能让开发者感到满意，他们便会选择离开。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Happy devs make better games: The quality-of-life survey results

By Patrick Miller

Results from the Game Developer Quality of Life Survey are in: Happy developers make better games, working longer regular hours means working longer crunch hours, and unhappy devs will find new jobs.

Game Developer magazine surveyed 1051 game developers, ranging across development discipline, studio size, and targeted platforms, about their satisfaction with their jobs, careers, compensation, and projects. Here are some of the key findings included in the March 2013 issue of Game Developer magazine:

Job satisfaction: 29% of developers reported feeling “very satisfied” with their jobs, 39% “somewhat satisfied,” 13% “neutral,” 13% “somewhat unsatisfied,” and 6% “very unsatisfied.” Developers were far more likely to report higher levels of job satisfaction if they had a flexible work schedule and the ability to work from home.

Game quality: Developers are largely optimistic about the quality of their current project: 31% report they are “very confident” and 36% are “somewhat confident,” compared to 16% “neutral,” 11% “somewhat unsure,” and 6% “very unsure.” A whopping 88% of developers that reported being confident in their game’s quality also report positive job satisfaction.

Connecting workload to success: Developers on 51- to 60-hour work weeks are the most likely to report their last project as a market success (64%), followed by devs on 40- to 50-hour weeks (60%), 61–70 (50%), 71–80 (43%), and less than 40 hours/week (38%). 70% of devs who never work weekends or holidays report having successful projects, compared to only 43% who worked weekends/holidays at any frequency. Also, about 60% of motivated teams had successful projects, compared to 40% for unmotivated teams.

Crunch time report: Crunch times vary rather wildly. 7% of respondents report working crunch schedules less than 40 hours/week, 25% work 40–50 hours, 27% work 51–60 hours, 20% work 61–70 hours, 12% work 71–80 hours, and 10% work 80+ hours. These schedules rarely last more than four months; 29% report crunch cycles that last less than a month, 30% 1–2 months, 23% 3–4 months, 7% 5–6 months, 3% 7–8 months, 2% 11–12 months, and 3% more than a year. (One wonders at what point a yearlong crunch cycle is simply considered a typical work week.) We found that simply having crunch cycles was enough to dent reported job satisfaction, though the duration doesn’t seem to affect that factor.

Interestingly enough, 38% of devs who regularly work less than 40 hours and 32% of devs who regularly work 41–50 hour weeks do not see their hours increase during a crunch cycle, compared to 25% for devs with 51–60 hour weeks and 7% for 61–70 hour weeks. Essentially,the longer your regular working schedules are, the more likely you are to work even longer hours during crunch, not less — something to keep in mind next time you’re asked to work longer hours during normal dev cycles in order to avoid crunch later on.

It’s good to be in management: Managers are twice as likely to be satisfied with their jobs, more likely to be allowed to work from home (56%, compared to 29% of non-managers), more confident the product will be good (75% compared to 61% of non-managers), and half as likely to report a very negative impact on their family and social life during normal dev cycles.

Compensation and benefits: When it comes to compensation, 13% of developers feel they are very well compensated, 35% feel fairly well paid, 25% feel neutral, 19% feel fairly underpaid, and 8% feel very underpaid. Unsurprisingly, feeling adequately compensated strongly correlates to job satisfaction.

Layoffs: 23% of developers expect layoffs after shipping their current project, but the fear of layoffs is greater than the actual layoff rate, which, according to the Game Developer Salary Survey, typically hovers at around 12%.

Devs will leave: Devs are largely split over their future at their current company; only 55% say they want to be working at their current company in five years. Of the devs that want to stay, 90% of them also report positive job satisfaction, while only 3% of the devs that want to stay report negative satisfaction, which indicates that devs will leave if they’re not satisfied.

For the full results from the Game Developer Quality-of-Life survey, check out the Game Developer Magazine March 2013 issue, which also features a postmortem of Telltale Games’s The Walking Dead, an interview with Epic Games CTO Tim Sweeney on the future of engine tech, and more. You can also subscribe to Game Developer magazine, or download the Game Developer iOS app. (source:gamasutra)