Unless the gods of mythology take pity on you like they did Pygmalion, whose ivory sculpture came to lovely life, it's rare that work ever truly cares about you as much as you worship it. 55-year games industry innovator Don Daglow gave this advice to other developers during his recent panel at the 2026 Game Developers Conference (GDC), where he'll be collecting a Lifetime Achievement Award. Instead, he tells his peers to respect the craft as much as the reward.
"Games are a business, and right now, for the last few years, it has not been a good time," says Daglow during his March 9 talk, GDC Masters: 50 Years in Games and a Legacy for Creators, attended by GamesRadar+. "And I wanted to share the way I look at it. First of all, with games, business does not love you back." An accompanying slideshow nailed in, "Games are a Business. A business does not love you back.*
