Ask Lemmy

I can't imagine anybody would prefer work-sanctioned "fun" to the same amount of PTO and the money the activity would have cost.

This was my career. Seeing popular sci-fi/fantasy movies maybe 1-2 times a year (especially on opening day...woot!) seemed fun and to boost morale a bunch. The studio was large enough so that several times we could rent out the theater to ourselves and be extra raucous, which was also fun. I don't think people complained, since this was during office hours and not after hours or on a weekend. Otherwise, I think 'if your going to give me free time then let me go home'.

I think longer 'field trips' might have sucked, even if they related to a game we were making. Sticking to sci-fi and fantasy films with cool fx was close enough.

I despise the ones where it's basically like "get on the bus, we're having mandatory fun!" and then you get going and it won't finish until 2 hours past your quitting time, but it's totally cool, because it's a good time!

OTOH, I'm not at all interested in sports and I've had a good time going to a baseball game and once a company took me to an arcade which was a lot of fun. Alcohol provided by the company.

For me, as long as quitting time stays quitting time, I'm more or less happy even if I don't actually like the event, but if you keep me away from my family, I'm unhappy and I can't imagine how pissed the people who pick up their kids from work/school/etc... must have been.

My company has a summer picnic. They get a few rows of seats at the MLB stadium, and a dedicated area with free food and drinks. I think they pay for a bus from the office to the stadium too.

It’s on a weekend but they let people bring family members or a date (not that they check)

It’s actually pretty fun.

Meh, even if "relieved of responsibility for the day", projects and tasks still have deadlines and it could easily have a ripple effect that increases stress more than relieves it.

No fucking surprises. Work should be the least surprising thing ever. "Surprise, we're going to have a meeting just the two of us. No agenda". Surprise, you thought you would close the last tickets today but now I am taking you socialising.

I think going to a location related to the project would be a great idea. I'd encourage note/ pictures. Then, I'd discuss those observations as a group, and how they could be implemented in the game.

If you're talking about r and r, throw them a day off.

At a previous job we had outings occasionally, the last one was axe throwing and we had our bonuses handed out there.

Do it on the clock, during a work day. Make sure you plan for nothing to get done that day. Make it optional: go to the field trip (expenses paid), or take a free day of PTO. Either way they get paid and, because you planned for it in the development schedule, don't have to worry about potentially having to play catch up because of the day off later. That way it gives them the choice to go do something fun on the company's dime or stay at home and recharge. Another thing to note: don't limit yourself to game-related stuff like video game museums.

Go to an aquarium.

Go to a zoo.

Go to a national park if there's one nearby.

Go to a natural science museum.

The artistic side of game dev takes inspiration from a wide variety of sources, not just other forms of media. Tbh, the most boring field trip I can think of would be to go to a movie theater or video game museum. I want to see something new and take inspiration from that.

Good luck with your job search! I hope you land something good

I would want my employees to be happy, so I'd be lenient any time they needed to take off. Bonus them well. Give them paid vacations

It seems pretty common in the industry to go see a movie during the workday every once in awhile. I think companies often get free or discounted tickets so its relatively low cost for them. Doing a surprise day of mandatory fun isn't likely to go over well with anyone who has actual work to get done.

If i wanted to hang out with my coworkers i would do so.
I don't for a reason.

Whatever you do make it optional.

Pro-Tip - If you get a party bus, make sure it doesn't look like a prison bus. Just sayin'...

At my work in the past we had a scheduled day where we all showed up at 8am and took a bus to go do activities downtown, it was nice and it was good to plan ahead of time.

A different time to congratulate us they did a surprise event to go go karting but I worked two jobs at the time so I would get to work at 6 to be off at 2 to be at my next job by 3 so this late surprise made me have to call my other job to tell them I couldn't go which sucked but also i didn't want to miss karting. overall I did not like the surprise. I rather know ahead of time to plan what I'm going to wear or bring lunch etc even if I did get paid over time

I love your rationale and agree. You seem like a good leader and I hope you get there some day

"...you get to be relieved of your responsibilities for the day and go do something fun" is a terrible attitude to take about the underlying work if you're trying to make games. If you didn't enjoy making it, they won't enjoy playing it.

Edit for the downvote: I have a small games studio. I also attended d.school and have an EMBA. Large companies will have some people who phone it in day-to-day. A small studio needs people to be committed and giving 100% basically at all times. If you've done your job properly, you might find that you have to force people to take time off or even go home at the end of the day. That's what I was getting at. Field trips might form part of that engagement strategy, but not as a respite from an otherwise grim day-to-day.

My job offers quarterly team building budgets to each department so we can go out to dinner or whatever during work hours. I think this is preferable to surprise events since people might have things they need/want to get done and it would be annoying to spring this on people without prior notice. We don't use it every quarter but it's still nice to get away every now and then even though I don't always enjoy the social aspect of it.