Splash Damage: UK devs exploited and burnt-out

The UK game industry is a poorer working environment for the “continuous exploitation” of its development talent, the boss of a leading independent studio has said.

Paul Wedgwood, the founder of London studio Splash Damage, was unambiguous in his criticism of development traits that have crept across UK studios:

"If there’s one thing we suffer from in the UK, it has been this continuous exploitation of game developer talent until we drive them into the ground and they become cynical and burned out and hate the industry."

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Wedgwood was candid about the practices at his own company.

“We suffer from the same challenges that every studio does, we crunch six-day, seven-day weeks sometimes: it can be really, really challenging,” he said.

“But to be honest with you, when the studio isn’t in crunch we still have people working six or seven days a week because they like what they’re doing.”

Wedgwood said Splash Damage was nonetheless respectful of its team’s work/life balance.

He added: “If you’re at the office and you’re having fun, then you’re on the right track whether you’re working out of hours or not.”

Splash Damage is working on a least one project, with the upcoming title Brink being the only one discussed in public.