Strangely, though, the stability of these studios itself tends to impact their known presence in the talent movement circuit. Because they tend to stay more stable, they have fewer openings, so they tend to fly below the radar of the migratory population. However, complete equilibrium is very unusual, and studios generally either grow or recede, and through that growth opportunities become available.
Besides the budgetary and managerial challenges to maintaining a family-friendly studio - particularly in a market where the studio must compete with hungry frat houses - the remaining challenge for the family store is one of sustaining culture. Because game developers are in the business of things fun and cool and smart, boredom is a genuine threat to talent retention, and even if a particular developer has been through a rough time, a couple of years at a stable studio can result in amnesia and encourage risk-taking behavior. Higher-level challenges, like maintaining a sense of ownership, also start to arise, and these can be addressed by encouraging developers to take ownership not just of the work they produce but how they produce it. Most people thrive when in possession of their own destiny.
The Nine-to-Five Hardcore: Serious About Quality and Life
A third and final model shares "recent development" status with the family store: the nine-to-five hardcore. This new model of studio is a "we are smart" hybrid of the frat house and the family store, with a sharp emphasis on efficiency of productivity and life outside the office.
Though gaining steam in the United States, this model is also rising in Europe, and two notable studios are High Moon and Relentless Software.
Like the frat house, the nine-to-five hardcore has a passionate, driven culture with a little dash of elitism thrown on top; they're passionate not just about the delivery of games, but about their ability to do so in less time than the average studio, through innovative process and a focus on efficiency.
This studio model comes in varying degrees, from a light implementation of Scrum and a focus on minimizing crunch to studios (like Relentless) that don't allow internet access during work hours and other studios that actually lock people out of the building outside of core hours, barring special permission from management. The full gamut of these methods has not been fully tested, but the internet issue is a hotly debated one and definitely impacts company culture in the truest sense.
Because it is a new model, the nine-to-five hardcore has not been tested across the timelines of either the frat house or the family store, though its adherents will tell you it most certainly works. While combining the intensity, exclusivity and "hardcore" elements of the frat house, it puts an emphasis on quality of life like the family store. If anything, its liabilities will remain in the maintenance of a company identity; to some extent, frat house style stay-after-work-to-play-Guitar-Hero-II sessions support company culture and lubricate team dynamics by encouraging people to work together voluntarily.
