IGDA - Press Release:

"While game development is a stimulating and rewarding career, the work conditions are often taxing, making it hard to sustain a balanced lifestyle and leading many senior developers to leave the industry before they've done their best work," said Jason Della Rocca, Program Director, IGDA. "And it is not just the community that is affected, these issues also impact the quality of games produced."

The survey also says:

34.3% of developers expect to leave the industry within 5 years, and 51.2% within 10 years.

Only 3.4% said that their coworkers averaged 10 or more years of experience.

Crunch time is omnipresent, during which respondents work 65 to 80 hours a week (35.2%). The average crunch work week exceeds 80 hours 13% of the time. Overtime is often uncompensated (46.8%).

44% of developers claim they could use more people or special skills on their projects.

Spouses are likely to respond that “You work too much...” (61.5%); “You are always stressed out.” (43.5%); “You don't make enough money.” (35.6%).

Contrary to expectations, more people said that games were only one of many career options for them (34%) than said games were their only choice (32%).