I'm Anna, an award-winning freelance Senior/Lead writer and narrative designer for games with 6+ years of experience!
โ๏ธ I've written for everyone from Nintendo to Netflix and have a background in the performing arts
โ Chair of the Freelancing Committee and OC Member of UVW-CWA
๐ annacwebster.com
I've seen an increase in this behavior as well. I know that people gotta eat, but remember not to get so desperate for work that you're majorly undercutting wages. These companies know they can probably find someone who will do the same work for cheaper since so many people are looking for work. :(
do... people not know about negotiating rates? I've had multiple times now when I quote a client the high end of my rates and they immediately ghost me. I'm not going to lowball myself my dude this is freelance 101
I regularly chat about rates with my fellow freelancers (especially ones around my same experience level and in the same geographical area). Since we don't have standard wage tables (yet!!!), this is the best way to know what the market rate and floor look like for your work.
In our hustle-culture world, talking about wages and hours with others feels almost illegal, but it's not! It's actually essential to making sure that things stay fair for everyone. Your fellow freelancer is not your competition. They are your ally!!!
Iโm not a political journalist, so was gladly surprised at the community I found here last night. To Americans anxious about the upcoming elections, a key thing we learned in Brazil that might help you: DO NOT engage with the far-right online. Donโt share rage bait. Amplify your people. Ignore them.
Hey. Hey you!
(if someone worked on a game during that game's development they should be in the credits)
That's some free advice right there.
Not at all based on recent personal experience NO SIRREE
The current AAA Publisher practice of disbanding studios, even if they ship a game successfully, is so counterintuitive to their own financial future it boggles my mind.
I try to be more of a court jester than a soothsayer, but the news about all of these foundational studios closing (Monolith, BioWare, maybe Arkane) let alone the gutting of everyone else makes me think the 2020s will be looked upon historically as some kind of games mass-extinction event
Just like chickens are descended from dinosaurs, mass extinctions donโt mean that everything will be wiped out. But it creates a bottleneck through which everything that does survive through the other side usually is very changed.
I stubbornly believe that we, the workers, will help shape what survives into something more equitable. The business practices of these conglomerates are unsustainable and in many cases irrational. But it will be different once we are out the other side. And thank god for that, at least.
โWildwoodโ director Travis Knight on AI:
โA pencil is a tool. A paintbrush is a tool. A 3D printer is a tool. A digital capture is a tool. AI is not a tool. AI can go fuck itself.โ
Whenever someone asks me how I became a game writer without ever having had an anime phase, I'm like.... I dunno man, I just work here. My game director is clearly working on fixing it though
it's really frustrating to explain to my non-games industry, offline friends why their favorite game studios keep shuttering. a lot of them think I'm being dramatic when I start yelling about late stage capitalism because they think their favorite childhood hobby must be disconnected from reality
As someone who is exclusively free-to-play, I literally cannot even wrap my head around the sheer volume of capital that must be at Cygames' disposal.............
Thanks to everyone who has reached out to me with kind words about this devlog for the Seventh Screening! Process and pedagogy have become really important to me the longer im in this career and Iโm so glad that love shines through ๐งก
Curious about how we're making the multimedia approach work in terms of our storytelling? Check out my most recent devlog!
stupendiumsoftworks.com/writing-a-mu...