Comments on: What I look for in a studio

By: Rob Galanakis

Rob Galanakis — Thu, 19 May 2011 05:16:29 +0000

The lecture slides I mentioned are mine ( http://www.robg3d.com/?p=264 )- specifically the section with the line graphs about performance vs resources.

Dmitry: Here’s a more verbose explanation:
0%/0%: If no one gets a bonus, that’s fine and fair. This is how CCP works.
100%/anything: If I’m making a bonus equal to my salary, I can hardly care what corporate gets (as long as my salary is fair). This is how some companies like Blizzard and Epic work/worked.
1-to-5 ration: If I max out at a 10% bonus, the highest bonus % at the studio should be no higher than 50% of a salary. Few companies work this way in practice (because it is hard to keep in this sweetspot/ratio- better to do all (giant dev bonuses) or nothing (no bonuses at all).

Most companies operate like this: http://people.forbes.com/profile/john-s-riccitiello/28819
A ‘$0’ bonus but actually a 10-to-1 bonus ration when considering stock (which they give to employees as a form of bonus).

That shit is NOT ok.

By: Swat3d

Swat3d — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:03:13 +0000

Nice post Rob. Yeah I have been looking for the GDC presentations you mention without success. Could you be more specific about the ones you are referring to?

Best,
R.

By: Dmitry

Dmitry — Sun, 15 May 2011 12:58:32 +0000

That post has just amazingly shaped all the mess in my head about limitless money effect for the company. Thanks a lot for that!

Can you please give links or names of GDC lectures about rewarding incompetence? I was not able to find it on GDC Vault.

And can you please write more detailed version of bonus plan variants? I can’t say for sure that I have understood
“OK: 0%/0%, 100%/anything, greater than/equal to a 1-to-5 ratio. Not OK: Anything less than a 1-to-5 ratio. “