Homefront Studio Responds to Crunch Time Complaints

[AK47Marine]

being a regular worker


considering i make rougly "$10,000" dollars a year, i bet that guy makes double at least, let alone the damn "bonuses" he earns if he gets the bugs out in time or certain requirements are met.

If your only making 10k/yr for those hours you need to quit and get a better job mate, no disrespect intended.


On the OP, I'd like to see old boy deal with military working hours 8 (the shortest I ever worked) - 15 hour (we had multiple aircraft down) work days with a minimum hour of unit PT tacked on, mandatory formations at least once a week for barracks maintenance and cleaning (2 hours of exterior cleaning/formation minimum then you have to clean your own space), then you get weekday/weekend duty which consists of a 24 hour post. You sometimes get the day off after to catch up on your sleep but that's subject to the whims of your Staff NCOs and any additional crap you might need to get done at the time. Of course that day starts at 0400-0500

 

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Whether this is normal for any form of work or otherwise, I defy you to tell me humans were meant to live like this.

Surely this doesn't help morale which must in turn have a negative effect on the quality of the work and thus the quality of the game? Screw the consumers, developers are people too.

Finally, some sense on this topic instead of the usual "I worked for 23 hours a day for 2 cents an hour whilst walking on hot coals" bullshit that everyone else is posting.

Seriously! Thank you! And we wonder why North Americans (specifically the US, but Canada isn't far behind) have the highest rates of anxiety in the world... Seriously, the responses I see in this thread are astonishing. Since when did ten hour days, 52 weeks a year, with the occasional Saturday thrown in become normal? What the hell happened to work-life balance? They say the difference between Europeans and North Americans is that Europeans work to live, and North Americans life to work. I'm inclined to agree.

You simply cannot focus at the end of a 10 hour day. Any longer, and you're actually making worse progress. You make mistakes that end up costing you so much time to fix that it completely negates any advantage you've gained by working extra hours per day. Especially if you're writing code. I say this as a software developer myself. I would love to be able to make a living writing games instead of boring web pages or transaction processing scripts, but I do not envy the people who work in the mainstream games industry today. It is batshit bonkers.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

...People mostly get Saturdays off? Oh yeah, I suppose that does happen. Weird. I had forgotten about that. And they get off during crunch time? Well, that's even more generous. Yeah, ten hour days are tough, but you get an hour lunch, and still 13 hours of doing other things. Call it 6-8 for sleep, Still leaves you a good few hours of downtime. That's not bad, all things considered. And you still have Sundays off during your crunch, so you have at least a day of downtime. Welcome to the working class, friend.

 

[HentMas]

If your only making 10k/yr for those hours you need to quit and get a better job mate, no disrespect intended.

actually, i have a very good Job, it pays enough here in MX, its one of the best payed jobs to Young workers

you cant find a job here in MX that would take you and give you $10,000 being the age i am, the lowest jobs pay $5,000 a year, while the common pay for a "secretary" or someone mor in the mid range is about $8,000 i am rounding down of course.

 

[HentMas]

you talk to your employer about that? I'm pretty sure that your hourly wage is less than minimum.

actually, the minimun wage here in MX is of USD $0.57 an hour... so yeah, i´m making well above the minimun

shitty economy is shitty

 

[Khakionion]

Pretty terrifying to read these comments defending crunch time, or at least not recognizing how bad it is.

Something you need to understand is that many companies in the game development industry have crunched for so many years on so many titles that it has become something of an institution, an "unfortunate necessity" among planners and managers.

I read a couple comments from people trying to get into the industry, saying that they'd be willing to crunch insane hours just to work on a video game; please, stay as far away as possible from the industry. You are part of the problem.

 

[LondonBeer]

being a regular worker

i get up at 7 to be by 8 at work, then i work up untill 12 and have a break of 1 hour to eat lunch, at 1 i get back to work untill i am needed, sometimes its 5 and i´m already out, sometimes i get out at 8

considering i mostly get out at 6 those are 9 hour a day, five days a week, 180 hours a month

of course i sometimes have to get in the office on saturays and sundays deppending on the workload

and this has being for 4 years, having no vacation except the ones implemented by the goverment, that means my work NEVER ends, NEVER, there is no goal, there is no finish line, there is no real "WE CAN FINALY STOP WORKING!"

so excuse me if i call this guy an irresponsible, delutional, whiny jerk that has no sense of what does it mean to really WORK

considering i make rougly "$10,000" dollars a year, i bet that guy makes double at least, let alone the damn "bonuses" he earns if he gets the bugs out in time or certain requirements are met.

You said it my good man. I work an uncommon job & I work 3 12.5 hour shifts 6 weeks 4 times a year for nothing. Just so I can qualify to do that for the rest of my life except once a month I need to make up the hours by doing 4 days out of 7 for a whopping £18k ($28k). Now to be fair thats a very good wage, but the catch is if I dont do my job right people die. Thankfully I think people suck so its not a big deal but there is documentation and other drags that require me to be liable FOR PEOPLES LIVES.

Game designers make games. How stressful is that realistically ? I've known a few game designers and they spend alot of their time doing piss all just like every administration staff. Access to the internet, photocopiers & a swivel chair turn people into workshy loafers. I'd blame the toner fumes but its really just priviledged white middle class kids who've never done a days work in their lives bemoaning their 1st world problems.

Edit:- Ive managed a Tandy, Ive worked in manufacturing, stores, sales, finances, hazardous waste disposal, blah, blah, blah

 

[xDHxD148L0]

I work 10 hrs a day and weekends(depending on my schedule), only difference is I wish I was making games =(.

 

[Ericb]

What I find incredible is that over at Gamasutra where about 90% of the commenters actually work inside the industry, most of them agree that the usual practice of crunch time is very damaging to the game creation process.

Yet here, where 90% are not directly involved, tell developers to suck it up and do their job.

If that's the value most players give to the videogame creators (which sounds about like the managers seem to give them), it's no wonder more and more developers eventually choose other areas to work in.

 

[HentMas]

you talk to your employer about that? I'm pretty sure that your hourly wage is less than minimum.

actually, the minimun wage here in MX is of USD $0.57 an hour... so yeah, i´m making well above the minimun

shitty economy is shitty

You've got to be joking. Damn, dude. Here in Texas, it's $7.25/hour. Get here ASAP.

hahahaha, guess thats the train of thought of severall of my countrymen, but i´m actually making ok with what i earn, and i am in a possition where i can go up... i have being working for some years and i got a raise last year, probably gonna get another one next year, so i´m not exactly happy but i´m content.

 

[duchaked]

well I just hope the game is good
go ahead and delay it if need be cuz February to March 2011 are lined up with some big title releases and the only stuff I really see in June July are movies (Captain America?? whoo)

 

[Nurb]

When I was doing my internships in a studio a few blocks off the water between Venice beach and Santa Monica that does contracted 3D work for games, TV and film industries, the artists' normal expected work hours was 10 a day with a long lunch. For crunch time it was 12-16 hours for a month or two. This wasn't a big place, but it had a full bathroom like one would expect in a big home, and the artists would sleep in the studio most nights on couches or cots during that period.

It was was nuts, but worth it for the freelancers making $1,500-4,000 a week! I wasn't getting paid, so there's no way I could keep up with THAT much effort when I was just living off of savings.

 

[HentMas]

What I find incredible is that over at Gamasutra where about 90% of the commenters actually work inside the industry, most of them agree that the usual practice of crunch time is very damaging to the game creation process.

Yet here, where 90% are not directly involved, tell developers to suck it up and do their job.

If that's the value most players give to the videogame creators (which sounds about like the managers seem to give them), it's no wonder more and more developers eventually choose other areas to work in.

well look at it from our point of view, how much do they make? how many extra hours they get for crunch time? i know, "time lines" "stress" and all that stuff, when they are done they ussually have a few months to relax and bask in the money they made (what i think i might be wrong) AND the bonusses some of them get for working overtime, its not a cuttroath job, they knew what they were getting into when they accepted the job

and from waaaay over here in MX it feels like a "demanding" job, but anyone over here would give an arm or a leg to earn what they make in normal hours

i know programming can be really really dull, i have done some basic programming in my school days, but hell i didnt pursued that career for the same reason, they did, you would think they knew what they were getting into, and "crunch time" being so famous they KNEW what they were doing.

 

[maturin]

you talk to your employer about that? I'm pretty sure that your hourly wage is less than minimum.

actually, the minimun wage here in MX is of USD $0.57 an hour... so yeah, i´m making well above the minimun

shitty economy is shitty

You've got to be joking. Damn, dude. Here in Texas, it's $7.25/hour. Get here ASAP.

Isn't the 'getting here ASAP' thing what everyone's complaining about? lol