Poll: Crunch Time in Game Development - do we need it?

[Araksardet]

So I was reading some threads and got to wondering about crunch time, and the very long working hours in general you get in game development (sometimes upwards of 80 hours a week, often without overtime pay). Some people seem to think that crunch time is just the inevitable, necessary evil of the industry, but there are other voices who claim it harms productivity and creativity, and there are, apparently, some minor studios who have alternate structures for avoiding crunch time altogether.

What do you believe - or better yet, what do you know, and have the stats/data/experience to back up?

 

[SoopaSte123]

Personally, I know having crunch time in my own life is a huge motivator and I work better than if I had plenty of time. That being said, there's no reason to make people work 80 hours a week, ESPECIALLY without overtime. I think the games industry IS too hung up on deadlines... there are games that could be so much better if they just pushed back the release a few months and improved the game more. I will always forgive publishers for pushing back deadlines if it means a better game.

 

[Irridium]

Well, considering Blizzard and Valve's financial stability, I doubt they have crunch time. And their games are some of the most celebrated in the industry. Just assuming, but it's likely.

Whether or not it hurts the games, it definitely hurts the people working on the game. Which I guess could negatively affect the game. But if it sells well, the people in charge won't care all that much. If it doesn't have a negative impact on money, it doesn't matter to them.

 

[Araksardet]

It just occurred to me that most game devs aren't paid overtime *in the United States*. Does anyone know what the situation is in Canada or Japan (apparently the two largest game development nations besides the US)? Considering Bioware and Ubisoft, for example, are both Canadian, it might be worth looking into whether and how pay standards differ in Canada (plus I'm Canadian, so I'm looking for excuses to gloat).

SoopaSte123, I'm not certain here - do you work in the games industry, or do you mean crunch time in whatever other job/studies you do? I know crunch time works for me at university, at least in the short term (I once crunched an essay analyzing a 25-page text in 2 hours... having neither read the text nor even remembered the assignment up until that point - and I got a good grade!), but I can't imagine crunching for weeks on end.

 

[Rayne870]

Unfortunately devs have deadlines, and finite funding, so pushing back deadlines isn't really an option unless you are one of the massive powerhouse companies like Blizzard. It's also a reality I hope to face soon lol.

 

[Sixcess]

Every time I read a story about 6 and 9 month crunch times I figure it's one of two things - these guys have spent way too long goofing off, or the powers that be were unrealistic in their initial planning. Either way it's bad management, and should be seen as such.

Management need to take responsibility for this sort of thing. Like most people I've done the occassional bit of unpaid overtime to deal with unexpected things like sickness or a sudden crisis, but that should be the exception rather than the norm, and there comes a point where you have to say to the suits "Fuck you. You should have planned for this. That's your fucking job."

(Perhaps not in those exact words, but the message should be clear.)

If, on the other hand, you're on a contract where you can be sacked for rejecting unpaid overtime for weeks or months at a time (which is as I understand it, common in the games industry) I got to say I have limited sympathy. Just about all companies aim for maximum work for minimum expense, and to expect them not to exploit these slave contracts isn't realistic.

In the long term though the games industry needs to grow up. They're going to pay a high cost for this in terms of burn out, ruined morale leading to substandard work, and watching their brightest and best get lured away to the companies that do treat their employees as people and not slaves.