I work in video games, and it’s seemed this year to be pretty immune to the recession. Kids always want their video games, and when you can’t do much else, like building that addition, or moving to a new place, picking up a game or two to play away the misery is a comforting alternative.
Or so we thought.
Looks like it’s finally trickled up, or down, or sideways, and as such, we had The Meeting today. While not officially laid off, I’m on ‘forced vacation’ starting tomorrow morning. The good news is that I don’t have to get up early! The bad news is that we’re waiting on a deal with another company before we can all come back. These kinds of things are notoriously painful and slow. There’s a lot of wishy-washy back-and-forth when trying to get a game started, or in this case, finished. We were told that they “don’t want to cancel it,” but there’s a lot of negotiating still going on. Meanwhile, the bosses – who are really great guys – have tried every avenue they could imagine – old contacts, cell phone games, 1-off stuff we could all do separately, like the script I alone wrote for another company earlier this year, and of course, subcontracted work for larger games being made elsewhere – a usual savior for us. Unfortunately, large companies are all saying the same thing – the recession has them fighting just to feed the mouths in their own companies.
There are 40 in our employ, and with one side job going still, only 5 will be coming in to work on that, and I’m not on that project. I do have 19 vacation days saved up, and will be paid for them as the days off add up, but after that I’m unpaid until we get work. The bosses gave the other company an ultimatum – we must know where we stand by the 15th of October. That’s sort of the cut-off date., but if we get the greenlight to continue tomorrow, we’ll be back to work on Friday. It’s all up in the air. It’s looking like at the very least, some layoffs will unfortunately be in order. The other company hasn’t even paid us for all the work we’ve done up until now, so we’re robbing our own coffers to pay ourselves for that for the time being. Fortunately, I’m one of about 9 leads, and the bosses privately told us that they will consider us last during layoffs. This isn’t really favoritism, though. Mostly it’s just seniority, and our knowing how the bulk of our programs and processes work. Small comfort, though. I’d hate to lose any of us. It’s a great group, and the end of the day was filled with hugs, well-wishes, and scribblings down of email addresses so we could all stay in touch in the interim, or in case that’s it for the company.
Meanwhile, I have some unexpected free time. Sleeping late, cleaning the workshop “for realz,” sawing up huge Eucalyptus logs, finally conquering The Ebay Pile (most of which isn’t even worth selling anymore – anyone need a 3” thick book on Visual Basic 6.0 from half a decade ago? How about two of ‘em? ;) – it’s all queued up, and for that much I am excited. I do wish I had no money worries so I could go buy all the lumber I need for the half dozen or so projects I really want to build – organizers, wood storage, cabinetry, shelving, etc. Plywood is pricey! I’ve had this happen once before in about 2003, free after we were all let go at the end of months of hard work at a company, trying to enjoy the time, worrying alongside that about finding new work. I’m fine, though. I have a good amount saved up in several different areas. However, with the incredibly high cost of living here in LA, it really isn’t as much as it seems. You can scale things for yourself by noting that a 1-story, 2-bedroom, 1-bath house of about 800-900 sq. ft. on a sub-1-acre lot, with a 1-car, detached garage, all built in and negligibly maintained since 1924 currently goes for – starting – about $650k, rents for about $2500/mo, no A/C. It’s crazy times.
Anyway, good luck to us all. Apparently none of us is safe from this economical beast.
-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator
21 comments so far
Innovator
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3125 posts in 305 days
posted 51 days ago
I feel for you Gary, best of luck to you and your company on the upcoming job.
-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!
Karson
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25788 posts in 1292 days
posted 51 days ago
Sorry to hear about that Gary. I hope that your customer steps up and keeps the project going.
-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
Mike Gager
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214 posts in 159 days
posted 51 days ago
sorry to hear.
have you worked on any games i might have heard of?
king
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50 posts in 839 days
posted 51 days ago
Gary, I enjoy your posts and I am sorry to hear about your job. hopefully it will be only a short amount of time off GOOD LUCK AL
-- franklinalbert@sbcglobal.net
degoose
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1972 posts in 246 days
posted 51 days ago
Always look on the bright side of life..keep your chin up and your spirits high.
-- Drink once, cut twice. New website up.... lazylarrywoodworks.com.au
Scott Bryan
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20519 posts in 713 days
posted 51 days ago
Gary, this is a bummer. I hope that you get back to work soon. I know it is going to be a “vacation” for a few days sleeping in and working the shop but that does not pay the bills. Hopefully you will be back to work shortly.
I have always wished I could move my house to LA. We have over 4000 sq ft of living space and 3 garages on a half acre lot. Here in Kentucky it would bring around 300K, if we were patient and waited for the right buyer. My wife has suggested that she would like to build again but there is something about paying more money for less house that bothers me. Building costs here run $100 to $150 a sq ft.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
lew
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4467 posts in 647 days
posted 51 days ago
Gary,
Wiith your positive attitude and talents, you will be fine. Shouldn’t be long before you will be back at the “grind”
Lew
PurpLev
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2728 posts in 540 days
posted 51 days ago
uughh.. sorry to hear that Gary. just before we moved out of LA we were looking to buy a property – a 2 bedroom APARTMENT in an OK place was running at $450K+... needless to say – we are still renting.
it is crazy times – in our case, we both are high tech people with good income, but still can’t afford to buy our own house in Boston metro (I guess we’re looking at the better places with better schools for our daughter so that makes things more difficult – but still…)
I heard a good tip 10 years ago which was – always keep looking for a different job position, even if you’re perfectly happy with your current one- just to keep your options available should something happen, and built your network. I hope nothing bad happens and you all get to go back to your same old jobs- but it’s a good idea to use this opportunity and sniff around some other places.
-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.
jockmike2
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7297 posts in 1138 days
posted 51 days ago
Sorry to hear. I’ve closed 3 factories. It got so I was taking it personal. Thinking it was my fault. Just the darn steel at the time was all going overseas. I just went back to school and found a different vocation. When one door closes another opens they say, and I believe that. I’ll say a prayer for you.
-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com
rustedknuckles
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92 posts in 643 days
posted 51 days ago
Hope things work out for you, I’m floored at your housing costs. Where I live I bougth a 2400 Sq.ft. 2 story, full basement home with 1 car garage and attached work shop on an average urban lot for 98 K. and that was 12 K below assessed value (buyers market). In you industry would telecommuting not be an option? If things get back to where they should be. Could be a good way to reduce your personal overhead. Mind you I would be hard pressed to leave California if I lived there.
Good luck and stay busy!
-- Dave- New Brunswick
StevenAntonucci
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179 posts in 830 days
posted 51 days ago
I’ve been fired before, but never “laid off”. It seems like there is hope for you to be “laid back on”, so I will keep my fingers crossed that things work for you.
In the meantime, start looking around for something else to do if “on” doesn’t happen, but also take the time off as time off. clean the shop, day trip, or whatever you can do to not think about the predicament. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.
work is small stuff…
-- Steven
alaskan79
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40 posts in 245 days
posted 51 days ago
I know how it feels to get layed off. I got layed off last mid-dec. and got called back in mid-may. You just need to keep your ears and eyes open because you never know when something might come your way. Right now even through I am working I do have a resume in at a different company that is a big increase in wages. Just by keeping my eyes and ears open I came across it.
Henry
-- alaskan79, Michigan
RexMcKinnon
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643 posts in 87 days
posted 51 days ago
That sucks Gary. Hopefully your company does get that other contract. If not I am sure there are better thing in store for your future. Maybe you need to free time to find them.
-- If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!
TopamaxSurvivor
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2984 posts in 567 days
posted 50 days ago
Good luck Gary!! I’ve been through the ups and downs many times in the construction business in the last 40 yrs. At least you have a bit of vaction time coming and a deadline where yoiu sort of know what will happen.
-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.
MOJOE
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83 posts in 160 days
posted 50 days ago
Yes Sir, times are a bit crazy right now. With luck, everything will work out for the best. Best wishes my friend, I hope it all gets straightened out.
joe
-- Measuring twice and cutting once only works if you read the tape right!
MsDebbieP
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14157 posts in 1052 days
posted 50 days ago
“pass the lemonade” (when you are dealt lemons…)
shop time is a nice silver lining but sorry to hear about the difficult times for you and for your company – and for the other companies that you mentioned
-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
socalwood
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968 posts in 495 days
posted 50 days ago
Opportunity presents itself-
-- rob
Occie gilliam
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307 posts in 188 days
posted 49 days ago
Good luck to you Gary, you are a very bright guy, im sure a better Opportunity will come up for you.
you have a lot of friends here at Lj’s
i have gone through three of these turn downs, we, the US just come back stronger
-- Occie down in Costa Rica. come down and see us some time. I'll keep the light on for you Occiegilliam@yahoo.com
huff
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1608 posts in 176 days
posted 49 days ago
I hope your next post will be telling us you’re back to work, but untill then, keep your spirits up and try to enjoy a few days off ( just a few!). I hope all works out well.
-- John @ Myrtle Beach
Gary Fixler
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644 posts in 273 days
posted 49 days ago
Thanks for the words of support, folks. It occurred to me that vacation days are work days that don’t count weekends, so really the 3 weeks of buffer is 4 weeks. That made me feel a little bit better.
Mike – I’ve worked on mostly PSP games, but also on PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, and I think the Wii. The team has also fiddled a bit on the 360 and PS3. Our team ported Star Wars: Battlefront II from PS2 to PSP. We’ve done a He-Man game back in the day for the three main consoles (XB/PSP/GC + PC) which only came out in Europe. We made both PSP Transformers games for the recent movies. We worked on-site at EA (subcontracted) on the Goldeneye sequel a few years back. We made a Scooby Doo game (“Who’s Watching Who”) for PSP. Our team made the Wall-E game for PSP. We seem to get a lot of work on things that were my favorite cartoons growing up :) We also made some training simulations for DARPA for training military teams. Lots of miscellaneous shorter stuff mixed into that.
PurpLev – sounds like Boston is pretty expensive, too!
huff – might be awhile before I’m posting that, and this little break is a perfect time to catch up on all the posting I’ve been too busy to get to! :)
-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator
Bob Kollman
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98 posts in 82 days
posted 49 days ago
Gary,
I worry about my job too, I understand where your comming from- But your job sounds really cool. My son is big into psp2 wresteling, gta, and legos star wars. For the life of me I cannot understand the appeal of turning people into legos. I hope things work out for you, and your back to work soon.
bob
-- Bob Kenosha Wi.