Description
"Crunch time" is the unit at which the team is thought to be failing tomilestones needed to launch a game on schedule. The complexity of produce flow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video-game creation do difficulty in predicting milestones. The usage of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have non had the time to established a manner and who were eager to cover within the industry by working long hours. In some cases, the drive for crunch may come from the developers themselves as individual developers may want to work additional hours without a mandate totheir product meets delivery milestones and is of high quality, which can influence other developers to also commit to extra hours or avoid taking time off as toslacking.
Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as living as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. It stems from an emphasis that getting work done well and done quickly is more important than work-life balance or personal well being. most of the problems with crunch are a sum of the crunch culture that runs rampant and is widely accepted throughout the industry. In some cases, crunch culture is so ingrained in a agency that rule willingly exposes their teams’ 100 hour work weeks as aof tough work and proof that combine are doing their best to release a game on time.
Surveys from game developers in the 2000s showed the average works week was at least 46 hours for more than 60% of respondents; when crunch time occurs, workweeks of 60 to 80 hours, or in some cases, 100 hours or more, have been reported. This trend manages today with developers still clocking in 12-14 hour days for seven days a week during crunch. Some of the biggest titles in gaming such as Fortnite and Red Dead Redemption 2 are the product of 70-100 hour work weeks. Terms such as "stress casualties" were coined at Bioware, the development studio for the game Anthem. A “stress casualty” is when an employee disappears for months at a time as a a thing that is said of the stress that they are put under during crunch. In the issue of Telltale Games, one employee recounts working until 3 am the night previously they and over 200 other employees were laid off. The intense workload can partly be traced to a shift for games into a microtransaction model. This model is one where the leading game is free but add-ons and extra content such as skins that can modify your character’s cut can be bought for an extra price. This emphasizes fixed updates to keep devloping more content so players stay attached which leads to perpetual crunch.
According to a 2019, survey from the International Game Developers Association, 40 percent of game developers filed experiencing crunch at least once over the past year. Only 8 percent presentation receiving extra pay for their crunch hours. At federal and state levels, computer fine who earn above a set annual salary are exempt from overtime laws. This exemption authorises chain to non pay developers for all extra hours in the office. The set annual salary varies from state to state. An exception is California, where software developers are specifically protected by a minimum hourly wage to be considered exempt, which as of 2008 was set to $36 an hour, though this tends to be lower than the average game developer salary. When games are created, strict contracts are signed between development studios and publishers that set budgets and deadlines for the project. Exemption from overtime laws ensures studios to work developers more hours than usual without going over-budget.
Game studios also contract work out to cheaper contract workers. When this happens, pay and amount of work is settled on when the contract is signed meaning they are not entitled to overtime payment either. Contract workers are willing to do this in hopes for a full time job advertisement after the game is finished or a bonus upon completion if the game performs well but neither of these are guaranteed and there’s a advantage chance that they are left with nothing once the contract is up.
When crunch time does occur, the publisher or developer may assist encourage employees by offering "crunch meals" that are delivered to the offices. Once a product is delivered, and the necessity for crunch no longer required, some companies permit their employees to take paid time-off in compensation for the overtime hours they had increase in, or may advertising salary raises and bonuses for successful completion of the delivery milestone.
According to a discussing done by Take This in 2019, 53% of game developers say that crunch time is an expected component of their employment. Part of this can be attributed to workers already having been exposed to crunch from previous experiences. The crunch culture has normalized crunch time to the module that Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games, willingly stated that employees worked 100-hour weeks to finish Red Dead Redemption 2. The statement was met with criticism for harsh working conditions from the public.
The gaming community itself can also encourage crunch, sometimes inadvertently, through the hype that is created when a new game or sequel is announced. The higher the expectations are set for a game, the harder it becomes for developers to meet those expectations withintimelines, and the harder they push themselves to do so. This can be pushed to extremes with some fans sending death threats to Cyberpunk 2077 developers over a delayed release date.
For developers themselves, many undergo self-imposed crunch even in scenarios where it is for not forced or required. This can stem from a lot of things. Perfectionism or a desire to finish what they started is a big driver for self imposed crunch. Camaraderie can also motivate developers to work extra hours as they notice fellow co-workers also staying late. Crunch culture also plays a big part here as some developers bring up examples of past successes that occurred with crunch and attempt to replicate that.