Crunch is a weird concept for our studio. We will never mandate crunch time like I did at Blizzard and Microsoft. But it’s a remote global studio so we can’t easily track how many hours someone does work. And we are a startup and we do need a sense of urgency. - ThreadSky

ghostcrawler.bsky.social • 66 days ago

Crunch is a weird concept for our studio. We will never mandate crunch time like I did at Blizzard and Microsoft. But it’s a remote global studio so we can’t easily track how many hours someone does work. And we are a startup and we do need a sense of urgency.

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lev42.bsky.social•66 days ago

Another factor: work from home is also just inherently less stressful than having to work in the office. After a year of doing full remote my company had to cut back on giving us the back half of December off because no one was using PTO to the point it was hurting the books.

lev42.bsky.social•66 days ago

So much easier to be able to work for longer stretches when you can just immediately cook dinner, take a shower, or roll into bed instead of having to commute back home. For wellness I'd take 50 hrs from home over even 32 hrs in the office anytime.

ghostcrawler.bsky.social•65 days ago

My commute at Riot was 3-4 hours a day roundtrip. It was my choice not to move closer to the office but let's face it, Santa Monica real estate is in the millions.

I can't put a price on being able to wear slippers, let my dog out, use my own coffee machine...

iamjbq.bsky.social•66 days ago

I just want to play devil’s advocate for discussion, but does the concept of crunch not only exist in the scenarios where either the project was mismanaged or a premature release date was set? I might be naive, but it seems avoidable.

ghostcrawler.bsky.social•65 days ago

It should be avoidable. We'd realize we spent too long on the first half of a milestone / year and were running out of time. They'd say crunch brought focus and urgency when the dates can't move.

So leader from 10 years ago would probably say it's inherent to the business. I was never convinced.

iamjbq.bsky.social•65 days ago

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Game dev is such a long and complex process, I can def understand how scope and time estimation can get really tough.

risberg.bsky.social•62 days ago

One weird part about crunch when working in a creative field is that it’s very hard to be creative on demand or know when you are the most creative. So it’s not always strictly a question about hours.

risberg.bsky.social•62 days ago

I worked on a project where they were anti-crunch and had reduced hours, but when all every workday felt like you were catching up the to the deadline you always felt like you were crunching without putting in the crunch hours

ghostcrawler.bsky.social•66 days ago

Best we can do is set a good example, encourage people to take time, and check in to make sure they feel busy but not massively overwhelmed (slightly overwhelmed goes with the new studio territory)

jonjagger.bsky.social•66 days ago

To me it is such a nuanced topic that has sort of boiled down to everyone either saying or pretending it's a terrible thing.

I think if people have honest discussions about it, it quickly becomes clear that it isn't clear at all. Anyone who has passionately worked on something likely knows...

jonjagger.bsky.social•66 days ago

...the value, ease, and joy that comes with diving into work like that. Just as much as someone who has ever missed out on real life moments because they felt pressured to work late knows how terrible that can feel.

ghostcrawler.bsky.social•65 days ago

And both can be true. You can choose (i.e. aren't being forced) to work late because the work is important, even though it is taking you away from some other important events in your life.

rikuharkonen.bsky.social•66 days ago

I hope the hype and talk around the game encourages and gives a boost for the people working and doesn't set the expectations for their work too high.

ghostcrawler.bsky.social•65 days ago

Me too! But also knowing people are waiting can help you balance "make it perfect" with "ship it eventually." Too often the former wins.

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