Hiro Antagonist ([info]hiro_antagonist) wrote,
@ 2009-04-10 12:38:00
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Entry tags:ethics, gaming, rant

Crunch time, as a video game developer = bullshit



Expanding on an interesting Slashdot article about the IGDA having internal heated arguments over 'crunch time' being a bad or good thing (the irony is that the IGDA is supposed to increase the quality of life for game developers in general, so being pro-crunch time would be doing the opposite of their stated goals), in general, the concept of 'crunch time' is a bullshit concept.

Back from my dotcom days, when I had no connection to video game development, we did 'crunch time' on a regular basis. With every single project, actually. What is came down to was "We need you to do 85 hour weeks to make up for our lack of planning."

Companies love crunch time. You can get employees to do insane amounts of overtime and not pay them for a minute of it. You can work them to death, then lay all of them off when the project is finished, and bring in a fresh batch of people too naive to catch onto what's going on. You can burn people like matches and get away with it.

Until your company collapses, anyway. Like mine did. And lots of others. But unintelligent management types who *think* they're awfully clever can keep this up for a few years, then move on to the next company, so it's no big deal to them.

Coming from someone who used to do 85 hour work weeks during 'crunch time mode', if the management can't "see a viable strategy to meet these deadlines without crunch time", you have idiots in your management, and quite possibly incompetent idiots, or even worse, malevolent idiots who think they can burn workers like a cord of firewood.

Between solid planning, and the sound business sense to not take on projects that have idiotic and unrealistic deadlines, crunch time can be entirely avoided. Don't take the line of bullshit they feed you that 'it's inevitable'. It's not.

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[info]bsdcat
2009-04-10 06:29 pm UTC (link)
I have a ton of opinions on this, none of which I've been able to adequately organize and express so far. Very frustrating.

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[info]laviemoderne
2009-04-10 06:54 pm UTC (link)
I know exactly what you mean! I sum it up in 4 words: DOWN WITH THE MAN!

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[info]bsdcat
2009-04-10 06:57 pm UTC (link)
That can not, in fact, sum up my feelings. :-P

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[info]hiro_antagonist
2009-04-10 07:21 pm UTC (link)
Express away man, express away

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[info]bsdcat
2009-04-10 07:50 pm UTC (link)
"Reasonable budget," "reasonable schedule," "reasonable work hours," and "desired success" can't always coexist. Sometimes you have to start removing requirements or changing scope until everything you're left with can coexist. Typically, "work hours" is usually the most flexible part of the equation, but not always. Often, these things change in unpredictable ways during the life of a project, so you can't always plan ahead to make sure it's all going to work out.

From the other end, the employee end... sometimes crunch is worth it, sometimes not. I wouldn't want to work long hours just to get Madden Football 2010 out the door, but if I were looking at a six figure bonus if the game did well... yeah, that's a pretty big carrot.

I guess I just want dialogue. I want to be invested in the success of my projects, and I want to be involved in the decisions that affect the project's success. Sometimes I'll conclude on my own, or be convinced, that working long hours is necessary to the project and that it will be worth it to me personally to do that in order for the project to succeed. Lots of times, it won't. But every time, it's a conversation about what the problems are and how people want to solve them.

That's about the best explanation I've tried to give of the matter so far, and I've been trying to write something on this subject for at least a month now.

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[info]hiro_antagonist
2009-04-10 08:15 pm UTC (link)
Intelligent management is the biggest key. Too often, from what I've seen, crunch time isn't necessary if sanity and some, really, any talent at planning were present to begin with.

If the project could be on time without a crunch period, but there was six figure bonus attached to shipping it ahead of the original deadline, that'd be something different. How often does that happen though? Is the actual amount of money the employee ends up getting (after taxes, 'management fees' etc) worth the 80 hours a week? Is it more or less than they would have gotten for being paid overtime for that extra 40 hours?

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[info]radiumx
2009-04-10 10:42 pm UTC (link)
I blame production and management. Instead of changing the schedule to fit the facts, or even TALKING to the development team, supervisors tend to make a lot of unrealistic schedules.

Bonuses and royalties would be the greatest motivator, but they're sadly super-rare.

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[info]jeramey
2009-04-11 09:11 pm UTC (link)
In the best of cases, crunch time (or something very like it) can still happen due to Murphy. That's exceedingly true in the festivals biz. You can mitigate Murphy with good planning and having contingencies, but at some point you just gotta put in the 80-100 hours.

There are some differences, however. Good festivals companies plan the shit out of everything because a lot of their staff is both seasonal and hourly. It gets expensive if you fuck up. But very often the long hours are planned for and most people are compensated for the extra time in some way or another.

The game industry would be doing itself a favor if it just manned up and compensated its employees for crunch time — either through guaranteed remuneration or extra guaranteed time off/vacation time or some other thing. It works wonders to improve the morale of even temporary staff, and encourages management to pull their heads out of their asses and plan for these extended hours instead of just springing them on staff as a surprise.

There's nothing worse than having to put in an 80-hour week that you weren't expecting.

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[info]radiumx
2009-04-10 09:42 pm UTC (link)
Reasonable schedules exist in many other fields - including the film industry and other software development companies which are each about 50% like the game industry. I don't think the 'games industry' as we know it is much more than 20 years old. Companies like Valve and Blizzard consistently produce innovative, industry-standard work on schedules that are considerably less abusive to their employees - plus they retain team members!

As a developer, all I want to do is be compensated for my hours, and not sacrifice unnecessarily to complete the project. I'd be willing to forego overtime pay for a share of project royalties. I'd be willing to work a few 85 hour weeks if it meant I (and my team) wouldn't get FIRED at the end of every project.

In short - no 'taxation' without representation.

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[info]bsdcat
2009-04-10 11:15 pm UTC (link)
Sure, reasonable schedules exist in many other fields - and they fail to exist in other fields too. In my experience, it's as much a crap shoot on a game project as it is doing other kinds of software.

Past that, I think the rest boils down to being involved in the decision to work overtime. Is it unnecessary? Is it worth it (for whatever reason)? Sadly, firing the team after a game is done is another tough nut to crack. I've managed to avoid it by working on online games; significant on-going patches are a necessary part of the business, so it's hard to just fire everyone if the game does well.

Studios outside the online part of the industry can solve this too, but it depends on having more projects lined up, and doing the work to secure funding before the last project is done. :-/

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[info]hiro_antagonist
2009-04-10 11:35 pm UTC (link)
It really is all about planning or the failure to do so. It's not just the game industry - I worked for a telecom dotcom and we had 'crunch time' with every new project, and the people who ran the dotcom were good salespeople, they just couldn't plan beyond 'where to go for lunch'. "How should we pay our bills" "Where we should be in five years" "Where we should be in one year" "What clients we want to attract" "How do we fix the mistakes that happened with the last project" - none of these questions were ever asked.

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[info]cinnamonbite
2009-04-10 08:27 pm UTC (link)
Sounds like every company Spouse has worked with since he's had jobs. Currently, sounds like EA.
When I worked, sounds like Disney. Want to know how they managed to open MGM without hiring more workers? Took people from the other 2 parks and transferred them to MGM, left the rest of us with no days off and working open to close (that's 7am to 2am) every single day for 2 months--at least that's as long as I made it until I quit. There's only so long I can function without sleep and management's solve was, "if you sleep in the break room, you don't have to worry about travel time to and from work." And that's WITH a union.

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[info]hiro_antagonist
2009-04-10 08:30 pm UTC (link)
Wow, I knew Disney had a bad reputation for how the treated their employees, but that's insane!

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[info]cinnamonbite
2009-04-10 09:46 pm UTC (link)
Don't forget the dress policy. No nail polish. No make-up. No jewelry. All females must wear heels. Ok, even when I worked communicore, it was hours of standing. Then I transferred over to Spaceship Earth and that's nothing but walking the treadmill--in HEELS! Jeeeesus fucking christ on a crutch! My feet were always blistered and throbbing and do you know how long little stupid dressy heels last on a treadmill? Not very.
But I was grateful I wasn't one of the foreign workers they have for Epcot. That's some shit, right there. 6 to a 2 room apartment and they have to live over in nasty Buena Vista too. I think there's a bus or something is why. You just know they tell them in their home country that it's a country club or something, LOL

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