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20 Years of Crunch Take Their Toll on a Game Developer
- timavr 8y agoThis is a little misleading title. He didn’t crunch for 20 years, but point still valid. Just wondering how much crunch there in game dev vs startup vs FB/Goog/etc.
- racer-v 8y agoIt depends on the startup. If it's well run, you aren't working late every night and every weekend. If it's run by sociopaths who want to keep their employees in a state of perpetual crisis in order to maximize the value of their shares, it's pretty awful.
- munificent 8y agoI worked at EA before and at Google now. EA got better over time (and I worked to avoid game teams where crunch was worse), but I had patches of bad crunch. My longest was 9 months of 60+ hour weeks, 6 days a week, 10+ hours a day. Outside of that, I had a couple of more intense shorter crunches. A couple of 80+ weeks. At Google, I don't believe I have ever once worked more than 50 hours in a single week. 99% of the time, I'm right at 40. If I stay a bit later, the office looks like a ghost town by 6:30.
- stevenwoo 8y agoI worked 80 hours a week at a startup for about six months where we weren't sure we were getting paid unless we shipped to customers so we had to get things done but I was the only programmer at that time. I worked 12 months in 70+ hours a week crunch on one game project (I found documentation here https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131533/postmortem_blizzards_diablo_ii.php https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131533/postmortem_bli...) - remember the motivation speech was we had to finish or we were all getting fired but I never felt like it was ever as hard as the startup - it was a larger team effort so I was hardly ever the one thing holding up progress. YMMV.
- raarts 8y ago> six months where we weren’t sure we were getting paid unless we shipped Don't do this unless you own significant shares
- stevenwoo 8y agoYes, great advice, don't kill yourself unless you have skin in the game.
- timavr 8y agoI remember the leads doing promo videos before the launch and they looked like zombies.
- argimenes 8y agoThe word 'crunch' is used so frequently in the article that the repetition becomes strangely hypnotic and the word becomes disassociated from meaning. Occassionally using 'overtime' instead might have reduced this effect ... :-)
- jjoonathan 8y ago'Overtime' is paid, crunch is not.
- montyf 8y agoThat's not true at all. Overtime can most definitely be unpaid, and usually is.
- em3rgent0rdr 8y agoand couldn't crunch also be paid?
- jjoonathan 8y agoBy the legal definition, sure, but in common usage the word "overtime" is usually qualified as "unpaid overtime" if that's the case. Invoking the word "overtime" to mean "unpaid overtime," especially by young team-members, typically results in uncomfortable coughs, silence, and expectation setting from managers / senior members of the team, none of which would be necessary if, like the word "crunch," the unqualified word carried no connotation of payment. I've seen this happen many times in a number of settings so I'm pretty sure it's not just a regional quirk. Connotations are important.
- hug 8y agoNo one I know specifies overtime as unpaid or paid. It is simply time that is worked over the amount normally worked, and may be paid or not. Of my friends, I know if some of them say they worked overtime they mean unpaid, and I know if some of them say they worked overtime they're getting a fat paycheque.
- wolco 8y agoWondering how he can blame this crunch time for all of these ailments. Maybe he ignored everything but why does his foot hurt and go out? Back related?
- munificent 8y ago> Maybe he ignored everything but why does his foot hurt and go out? Back related? Yeah, being sedentary for long periods of time can mess up your back, which can in turn cause peripheral neuropathy because all of your nerves go through the spine too.
- jiggliemon 8y agoThis article felt more like an ad for his game, than it did a warning about "crunch."
- all_blue_chucks 8y agoEngineering talent is in such high demand, the only reason anyone would work a death march is masochism. I mean, we get paid 5x the average US salary. We make enough to retire in our thirties. Working stupid hours in this environment is a choice.
- mulmen 8y agoEngineers are retiring in their 30s? I can honestly say that I have never met a person that did this. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. What's the secret? e: engineers, not people in general.
- mendelk 8y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/ https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/ (See sidebar for lots of links) 30s is a bit aggressive, tho ;)
- mulmen 8y agoThe comment I replied to made it sound like engineers are commonly retiring in their 30s. I have never seen an example of that happening personally.
- mendelk 8y agoYup. GP is definitely exaggerating how likely it is, although his larger point that in this era, working in the game industry is an explicit choice, because there lots of other options out there for devs, that point still stands IMHO!
- jogjayr 8y agohttp://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ It's not common but the math behind it is solid. You just have to not live like most other people do.
- 8y ago
- jarsin 8y agoI'd get a Captain Crunch tattoo if I were this guy.
- moneytide1 8y agoIt makes sense. We spend our days making sure the machines are running properly enough to keep us entertained, fed, or traveling. The clerical lifestyle is phasing out our bodies. Use it or lose it.
- retrac98 8y agoPeople have nobody to blame but themselves for working crazy hours, in an in-demand role.