Brand names. Established, powerful brand names. They provide shelf appeal to retailers. Putting these names on your resumes open doors.

Companies that do a good job of developing and nurturing such brand names are very appealing to me.

It also helps if a company has been around for over a decade with a good track record.

$0.02

Well, I guess it depends. Obviously, big name companies are good for resumes and such, but I prefer working with smaller companies since I feel I have more influence with the projects.

Some of the bigger companies have almost an assembly line approach to games (i.e. 3DO and their Army Men games), and that just isn''t rewarding to me.

However, you need to be selective here, since many startups fail. For me, the ideal company is small enough to have fresh ideas without being so small that they can''t compete with the big boys.

I''ll grant you that working to realize somebody else''s vision isn''t nearly as gratifying as working on something of your own creation, or even something you had significant input on...

...but shipping bonuses, sales bonuses, annual raises and stock options - all of these things are incentives, too.

It all depends on where your priorities are. I rolled the dice on a startup and got burned. I rolled the dice on another startup and broke about even. I''m going with a brand name now.

$0.02