5 ms·

> Also the argument that it's "grueling 80+ hour weeks day in and day out is" is bullshit! The only time I ever worked 80 hours in a single week was when I was

> Also the argument that it's "grueling 80+ hour weeks day in and day out is" is bullshit! The only time I ever worked 80 hours in a single week was when I was starting out in Quality Assurance and I was getting paid hourly so I was happy to make the extra overtime. Sorry but I'm going to call bullshit on your bullshit. Spent ~5 years in the industry and every place I worked crunched like hell and every place that my coworkers came from crunched like hell. There are companies that limit crunch but they are few and far between. My experience was that those who survived crunch perpetuated a culture of needing to "pay your dues" and you weren't a "team player" if you didn't put in the extra hours on salary.

Pfhreak 5y ago
I also worked in the industry and would agree with your assessment. Many of the senior folks I talked to even agreed that crunch was a 'mandatory, necessary' part of game development.
mssundaram 5y ago
You can even perceive it from the vernacular of how you refer to "crunch" - it has a feeling of something often talked about, a term used in the industry.
socialist_coder 5y ago
You could be right, my game industry career could be an outlier. I never worked at a big AAA studio like EA or Ubisoft. I worked on MMOs.
johnnyanmac 5y ago
anecdotes are just that. They vary wildly. Me: I worked 3 years, had a total of 6 weeks of crunch @50-55 hours/week, compensated 1.5x and with "free" dinner (AKA they actually complied to state law due to staying after 6PM). This was after literally cutting the content of the game in half due to client deadlines (A certain Big Tech company was not going to delay their product just because they set unreasonable deadlines to the studio). Attitude wise, no one liked it. Manager didn't pretend to be pleased with the discussions. No extra vacation, but overall it wasn't one of those death grinds people talk on the internet about. I think both tales are valid, but of course one of them gets a lot more attention.

Pfhreak 5y ago

I also worked in the industry and would agree with your assessment. Many of the senior folks I talked to even agreed that crunch was a 'mandatory, necessary' part of game development.

mssundaram 5y ago

You can even perceive it from the vernacular of how you refer to "crunch" - it has a feeling of something often talked about, a term used in the industry.

socialist_coder 5y ago

You could be right, my game industry career could be an outlier. I never worked at a big AAA studio like EA or Ubisoft. I worked on MMOs.

johnnyanmac 5y ago

anecdotes are just that. They vary wildly. Me: I worked 3 years, had a total of 6 weeks of crunch @50-55 hours/week, compensated 1.5x and with "free" dinner (AKA they actually complied to state law due to staying after 6PM). This was after literally cutting the content of the game in half due to client deadlines (A certain Big Tech company was not going to delay their product just because they set unreasonable deadlines to the studio). Attitude wise, no one liked it. Manager didn't pretend to be pleased with the discussions. No extra vacation, but overall it wasn't one of those death grinds people talk on the internet about. I think both tales are valid, but of course one of them gets a lot more attention.