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His position is bizarre because on one hand he says, "I think there’s a legitimate complaint if crunch time is never-ending." but he defends Bondi even though t

His position is bizarre because on one hand he says, "I think there’s a legitimate complaint if crunch time is never-ending." but he defends Bondi even though there seems to be a wealth of information out that there shows that the conditions at Bondi (and Rockstar for both this project and Rockstar San Diego) were very much in line with "never-ending." Perhaps there will be some sort of bonus for those who stayed on (especially after this negative publicity) but what about everyone else who left over the years during this massively delayed project?

kelnos 15y ago
And I'd consider his 3-6 months of crunch time as "never-ending". Two weeks, tops. At my last company we spent over a year in crunch time. Never again.
Tiktaalik 15y ago
Here's an article (reg required sorry try bugmenot) that offers developer emails and a lot of behind the scenes details about how awful the situation was at Team Bondi. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-07-05-revealed-the-internal-emails-that-provoked-whistle-blowing-at-team-bondi-blog-entry http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-07-05-revealed-th...
kevingadd 15y ago
He's defending Team Bondi because he's a financial analyst who doesn't actually know much about game development. From a purely monetary perspective, crunch is great, because: Employees produce more under crunch. Their productivity per hour is lower, but you're still going to get more out of them. You can hit deadlines more aggressively if you crunch, so you end up paying less salary and benefits since you can fire the team once they're done. Crunch enables you to hit unrealistic deadlines, so you can avoid investing energy into proper planning and skip hiring competent managers/producers. Crunch causes developers to leave of their own volition to get away from it, so you don't have to worry about wrongful termination lawsuits, etc. The developers who do stay, you can easily fire once crunch time has burned them out, and replace with new developers. There's a near-infinite supply of gullible developers who are desperate to 'break into' the game industry, and they'll accept awful pay and work conditions. The mindset espoused by Pachter and Team Bondi is the 'slash and burn development' people have complained about ( http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35985/Develop_WB_Games_Fryer_Calls_Slash_And_Burn_Management_Unsustainable.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35985/Develop_WB_Games_Fr... ). It's singlehandedly responsible for destroying careers, families, and companies.

kelnos 15y ago

And I'd consider his 3-6 months of crunch time as "never-ending". Two weeks, tops. At my last company we spent over a year in crunch time. Never again.

Tiktaalik 15y ago

Here's an article (reg required sorry try bugmenot) that offers developer emails and a lot of behind the scenes details about how awful the situation was at Team Bondi. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-07-05-revealed-the-internal-emails-that-provoked-whistle-blowing-at-team-bondi-blog-entry http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-07-05-revealed-th...

kevingadd 15y ago

He's defending Team Bondi because he's a financial analyst who doesn't actually know much about game development. From a purely monetary perspective, crunch is great, because: Employees produce more under crunch. Their productivity per hour is lower, but you're still going to get more out of them. You can hit deadlines more aggressively if you crunch, so you end up paying less salary and benefits since you can fire the team once they're done. Crunch enables you to hit unrealistic deadlines, so you can avoid investing energy into proper planning and skip hiring competent managers/producers. Crunch causes developers to leave of their own volition to get away from it, so you don't have to worry about wrongful termination lawsuits, etc. The developers who do stay, you can easily fire once crunch time has burned them out, and replace with new developers. There's a near-infinite supply of gullible developers who are desperate to 'break into' the game industry, and they'll accept awful pay and work conditions. The mindset espoused by Pachter and Team Bondi is the 'slash and burn development' people have complained about ( http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35985/Develop_WB_Games_Fryer_Calls_Slash_And_Burn_Management_Unsustainable.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35985/Develop_WB_Games_Fr... ). It's singlehandedly responsible for destroying careers, families, and companies.