Crediting Ones Work in the Games Industry
There’s a problem with crediting standards in the videogames industry… we don’t have one. After reading about a recent situation I remembered I was left out of the credits of Sin Episodes. Officially, I wasn’t working on the project but I did contribute dialog for a phone message players can listen to in game. If I recall correctly, some panicked guy says he has stolen documents from a major pharmaceutical which implicates them in a big scandal related to deaths of their users. He says, that big pharma can’t be trusted and they aren’t in the business to help you get better but actually sicker so they can sell more drugs. Then you hear the door being busted in and he’s frantically screaming “they’re here”, oh no and then gun shots ring out and the line goes dead.
I thought this contribution to Sin Episodes fit really well within the fiction of the world and left an open hook for future episodes to latch on to. It was also really personal for me, as when I was younger, I took Accutane to help with my acne, which it did, but it destroyed my immune sys and in 1997 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s. Enough of that, my point is, I put something personal into a game and wasn’t credited for it. It’s partially my fault. I was upset when I didn’t see my name in the credits, but I didn’t speak up. Let this be a lesson to all you young game developers, if there’s a crediting problem, do speak up. You’ll be proud for standing up for yourself.
The other thing I want to mention is, as an industry, we need to band together and take credits more seriously. I mean the actual credits in a game. Take the time to read them in the manual or watch them scroll during the game. You might be surprised to see many old friends pop-up or new pals you met at GDC. Here’s another thought, why don’t we as an industry make achievements and trophies, etc, to reward people who do go through the credits… to the very end? I should be securing a new job soon and I’ll push for this at my new gig, who’s with me?
Tags: credits, sinepisodes, videogames