The International Game Developers Association (IGDA)Â has released its annual video game developer satisfaction survey, and after a tumultuous 2023 for the industry, the results were certainly going to be interesting.
For the survey, 777 people were polled about their feelings on the industry. From inclusion to work environment to the relationship between developers and management, the results were varied across the board with some areas scoring out worse than others.
“The Developer Satisfaction Survey is a meaningful tool that helps games industry professionals identify what issues matter most among their peers,” said Dr. Jakin Vela, executive director of IGDA, via release. “Identifying the critical issues highlighted in this report is the first step in moving forward as an industry, and as a community.”
In 2023, 10,500 people within the industry were let go in some way, leading to concern among many within. That said, 67% of responses say that relationships between employees and management were either good or excellent. Only 10% said they were poor.
While relationships appear to be good, work balance appears to be hit or miss. Though crunch was down 5% since 2021 (28% in 2023 compared to 33% in 2021), the number of developers who said they worked “long or extended” hours in general rose from 22% in 2021 to 25% in 2023.
Moving away from crunch and working hours, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and anti-discrimination was a major point for those who answered the survey. According to the IGDA, 72% of developers say that their company had a DEI program. However, only 38% of companies had formal complaint procedures.
In regards to general non-discrimination, 72% said that their company had proper policies. That number fell to 62% and 61% for sexual harassment and equal opportunity hiring policies, respectively.
For game credits, less than half of the people who answered (48%) said that their studio had a game credits policy. It was added, however, that over 70% of people felt they would properly appear in a game they worked on provided they were still with the studio when the game shipped. That number dropped to 41% when asked if they think they’d be credited should they no longer be with the company at release.
If you’d like to read the full results of the game developer satisfaction survey, you can do so via the IGDA website.
