When I started developing games, I thought that it’s going to be fun and I’m going to enjoy it. Well, the last two weeks of February have been anything but fun. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that these weeks have been the worst weeks of my professional life.

It all started when I posted the ad for the writing position on Feb 11. The conditions were simple:

• We need a writer for Luna’s Fishing Garden, our next game
• Someone with a published game
• We’ll do a paid test for the writers that we like
• I’m going to respond to everyone who applied via email twice: once to acknowledge the application (unless they applied really close to deadline) and once to let them know about the final choice

I knew we’d get some traction and I certainly wanted to have some choice. I knew I’d have to turn down people eventually. I did not expect that many. I counted the applications and we got over 70 over the course of two weeks.

Well, I realized that picking a candidate is anything but fun. I mean I do love the final result, but the process has been agonizing. It showed me that:

• I have very little idea about good video game writing. Imagine you had to pick a nuclear scientist for your project while knowing only basics about nuclear science. “Can you create a nuclear thingy that works great please?” Yes, I know the monomyth and three act structure. No, I don’t know what makes dialogues good and how much control a writer should exercise over the game plot.
• Paid tasks are a double-edged sword
• I might not have the right mindset to turning people down

What’s wrong?

Imagine that you need to determine whether a person is a good fit for a project. If you spend quarter of an hour for that (I think a very moderate amount of time) – that would be almost 18 hours for 70 people. I quickly realized that I can’t do it this way.

Choice paralysis is a thing: what if I am missing a candidate that is a great fit because I’m only giving a brief overview? Can I reject someone because of a poorly written resume? What if I am judging a book by its cover and missing the ideal person for the job?

It took me roughly 40 hours to go through all the candidates and more than 6 hours to write replies. This does not include the correspondence with shortlisted candidates. I am confident that we ultimately picked the best person for the job, but even if we did not: it’s not a pass/fail thing, it’s more of a spectrum and someone can still be capable of doing the job despite not being an objectively best candidate.

Paid Tests

While I think that assignments should be paid and this is how things are going to happen in Coldwild Games while I’m in charge, I realize that it does make the whole thing quite complicated.

I have a very limited budget to pick ~4 people for a paid test. I think this inherently favors more experienced writers: if someone has a strong track record, I am more inclined to pay for the test. At the same time, it would feel wrong to ask the beginner to do a test for free.

But what if, hypothetically, I am missing the best candidate again? I can see why some richer companies ask people do the tests for free (even though they can probably pay every person who applies). With huge influx of candidates, you might miss some eager writer without a solid track record, who’d still do a great job. No way you’d pay them for the test as this seems too risky.

Another part of the process is contracting/bureaucracy: signing the paid test contract for small amounts of money just seems like an overkill (that still need to happen for accounting purposes).

All in all, this is not an open-and-shut case so I can understand the companies that might be asking everyone to submit a few pages of work for free, even though I do not condone it personally.

The “Why”

More than anything, it made me think why am I going through this sort of discomfort. My office job was quite cozy and paid more. So why am I willingly going? It seriously triggered an existential crisis and the question that I’ve been trying to answer myself over two weeks.

Ultimately, I know the answer: I just want to make good games. I know Luna’s Fishing Garden would be passable with as-is writing. But the whole point why I’m in this is that I don’t want to have just passable works in the studio portfolio.

Thanks to everyone who applied and I’m sorry I had to turn most of you down.