“For me, it felt like there was a divide between the contractors and full-time. It’s the little things that builds up to a division.”- Shora Farahani
Shora Farahani is a Senior Level Artist and have been all over the United States working at prominent studios like Sledgehammer Games, Naughty Dog, and now Ghost Story Games (formerly Irrational Games). He share his personal story while working at Naughty Dog and the pressure of its environment. We also dive into the state of contract work and its increasing rise of replacing full-time stability.
Topics discussed in this episode:
0:00 About Shora
3:12 Uprooting the family and moving around constantly
4:27 Naughty Dog experience working at the studio
9:36 Systematic crunch culture or game developer’s choice
14:37 Comparisons between a mobile company and AAA company
20:15 Office settings at Naughty Dog
26:00 the onslaught of temporary (contract) positions
33:49 Why AAA studios preferring contractors more so than full-time workers
38:27 What solutions can we propose to fix this?
48:54 How remote working can be sustainable to this problem
53:38 Benefits of working at naughty dog
58:05 Shout Out
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
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Are you interested to learn more about Shora? Then you should check out his other appearances on the show.
0153: Pop Culture Thoughts With Shora Farahani
Pop Culture Thoughts is about all things that are news in entertainment and nerd culture. In this episode we discuss how discussing taboo subjects can be dangerous. The hype vs quality on movies like the Black Panther. Cultural representation and impact on Crazy Rich Asians. Racial undertones in Zootopia. What you are missing out on UK’s ‘Love Island.’ We also briefly touched based on the Battle Royale genre. If Battlefield and Call of Duty is going be this years biggest flop? The Marvel/Fox Licenses. If the DC movies have a bright future. And lastly, what the best superhero endings are.
0094: Unabashed Game Dev Opinions with Shora Farahani
