Replies to Zbeng contest

I’ve heard a lot of bad comments about my Zbeng 3d model contest idea when i posted it on some animators forums.

One of the emails I got was this:
Dear Oded,

This is the second most insulting job offer I’ve ever recieved.
Have a nice day

I started repling her, but decided not to, and instead post it in my god forsaken blog, where only you readers can enjoy it:

Hello.
I’m sorry to hear that you think a potential steady job with a high paycheck is insulting.

A game requires dozens if not hundreds of models, over a course of many months, and we check the quality of the candidates by 1 model, to me it seems reasonable.
If you cannot easily provide one model, you’re apparently not passionate enough about game making or in this case Zbeng.
Same as programmers are asked to code a small code samples.
For some reason (you not being the first) most artists find it absurd to work on games while most programmers are very happy to code games.

I wonder, what’s the first most insulting job offer you got, something from Pixar ?

Oded



Something I learned in my MBA (and I hope is true – life and acedemics are diffrent), is that hiring efforts can use pre-selection effects. And you can save time and effort by having your candidated select themselves.
I’ve spoken to a few graphic artists who actually were excited about the game and contest, and those are exactly the people I want to work with. Not those that will only do it for the money.

Another thing I learned is that hiring efforts also have PR implications, so if the Zbeng contest will generate some stir, it will become more publically knowledgable, and viral marketing will flow and increase it’s awareness.
At the end what matters is how many copies of the game is bought, and the more hype you generate around it, the better.

There, you got 2 of my strategic trade secrets for free.

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