Double Fine’s Tim Schafer has always been vocal about the state of the game industry, and he has since spoken out against the practice of firing game developers upon the completion of a project.
He believes that the practice is damaging to the industry, which would be better off retaining their talent instead of letting them go.
Speaking to Wired, Schafer expressed his frustration at how some studios treat their talent as little more than expendable resources.
“One of the most frustrating things about the games industry is that teams of people come together to make a game, and maybe they struggle and make mistakes along the way, but by the end of the game they’ve learned a lot – and this is usually when they are disbanded.”
He cited how he refused to go along with the practice upon the completion of Psychonauts and chose instead to retain his developers at Double Fine to work on future projects. In doing so, the studio earned their loyalty.
“Instead of being allowed to apply all those lessons to a better, more efficiently produced second game, they are scattered to the winds and all that wisdom is lost. After Psychonauts, we could have laid off half our team so that we’d have more money and time to sign Brütal Legend.”
“But doing so would have meant breaking up a team that had just learned how to work well together. And what message would that have sent to our employees? It would say that we’re not loyal to them, and that we don’t care. Which would make them wonder ‘Why should we be loyal to this company?’”
“If you’re not loyal to your team you can get by for a while, but eventually you will need to rely on their loyalty to you and it just won’t be there.”
The interview appears in the wake of recent lay-offs at Lionhead, which let go of its staff after they completed their work on Fable: The Journey.
