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If game development paid overtime, game scheduling would be as well developed as film scheduling is. When a film goes over budget, the director and producer usually get their share cut. I've written about this before. [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9557954
Scheduling software is hard: granted! But do we see 90 hour crunch on every single shipping product in the US software industry? No, that's ludicrous. Do we see 90 hour crunch on substantially every shipping software project in, I don't know, the Japanese software industry? Oh we do! Curious! Does that industry also write schedules which assume crunch? I mean it sounds far fetched but no, literally in the design document written in the first week of a three year project there are exhortations about how understaffed we are (Why?) and how tight he schedule is (Why?) and how required heroic efforts are (Why?). And does the Japanese software industry hire people with poor boundary control and ruthlessly inculcate lower boundaries? Great Scott it does!
Crunch in the video game industry is not an accident. It is a policy. Do not work in video games.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This level of hate is unfounded - the author specifically condemns the kind of situation you're describing. He's arguing that teams must maintain a culture of normal working hours, to keep energy and morale high even into the project's final weeks, just in case a brief crunch becomes unavoidable. Unless you're saying that you saw three divorces caused by a project where nobody worked any overtime until the last few w…
Not quite, from the article: > Perma-crunch is stupid and destructive, but voluntary crunch by people who are trying to push the medium is a good thing. Hard work is not bad or evil. Great things can happen when you’re willing to push. The thing with voluntary crunch is it becomes institutionalized and part of your company culture. If you don't pitch in you're managed down and out since there's always some poor soul…
Just say No. What i like about voluntary crunch is that it is voluntary. At the current job we don't have them - it is a BigCo after all, life-work balance, you know. At one of the previous jobs we had semi-voluntary crunches. Well, i would just get up at the standard time, pack my laptop and say Bye! to all the guys who semi-voluntary stay out for the semi-voluntary crunch. Was rated as the top performer anyway :)
I come from USSR/Russia, the country which has been relying a lot on heroism of the people through various moments in its history. One thing becomes obvious when you learn all that history - heroism is usually required as result of preceding idiotism performed by some other people.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This level of hate is unfounded - the author specifically condemns the kind of situation you're describing. He's arguing that teams must maintain a culture of normal working hours, to keep energy and morale high even into the project's final weeks, just in case a brief crunch becomes unavoidable. Unless you're saying that you saw three divorces caused by a project where nobody worked any overtime until the last few w…
Not quite, from the article: > Perma-crunch is stupid and destructive, but voluntary crunch by people who are trying to push the medium is a good thing. Hard work is not bad or evil. Great things can happen when you’re willing to push. The thing with voluntary crunch is it becomes institutionalized and part of your company culture. If you don't pitch in you're managed down and out since there's always some poor soul…
That's exactly what the author argues teams must avoid. His premise is explicitly that a little crunch isn't harmful as long as it's not an institutionalized part of the company culture.
If game development paid overtime, game scheduling would be as well developed as film scheduling is. When a film goes over budget, the director and producer usually get their share cut. I've written about this before. [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9557954
I like that idea, also please take a cut from the salesman.
Seems like the solution to this is not to promise release dates, and fixed budgets.
You can do a hell of a lot to just pay workers overtime - people in the film industry in LA may work overtime, but if they go overbudget it comes out of the show runners cut. In software overtime is just free time, and they'll squeeze you out like an orange and replace you with a new fresh eyed person when you can't go anymore.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like that idea, also please take a cut from the salesman.
Neither film nor games have a "salesman" per se -- are you saying this just because you dislike salespeople?
Seems like the solution to this is not to promise release dates, and fixed budgets.
Release dates aren't going anywhere as long as there's a traditional retail chain and marketing spends. You can do a hell of a lot to just pay workers overtime - people in the film industry in LA may work overtime, but if they go overbudget it comes out of the show runners cut. In software overtime is just free time, and they'll squeeze you out like an orange and replace you with a new fresh eyed person when you can'…
Thankfully, in many European countries software development is under the same rules as any other job, and one is entitled to get either free time or money form those extra hours.
Granted not all companies play ball, but then one can make them play ball, if they feel like getting some external help from either unions (we have IT unions) or lawyers.
Nope, nope, fuck you. Voluntary crunch leads to a culture of overtime. You won't be considered a "team player" if you decide that you don't want to spend weekends and extra hours in an industry where you make 40% less than your peers. I feel even stronger about this after having a kid. There's no way I'm destroying the relationship I have with my family for your product. I saw it again and again when I was in the ind…
I agree, and as a consumer of games I find crunch stupid and unnecessary. If a game needs another week just DELAY IT A WEEK. This idea that once marketing sets a date of completion that it's a total must-make is complete nonsense.
It's wild profits undermine my point slightly, granted, but games like duke nukem forever suffered hugely from When It's Ready, poor expectation management, and final products ultimately not living upto the hype.