So I wanted to make a quick news post, you know for the me that reads this blog. Seems the internet was right! Once again. Two big news items today. The first Sony is releasing the long-rumored 40GB PS3. Granted it's just in Europe right now, but it will be here soon enough I'd put money on that. Hopefully for Sony it will start to put them over the edge this holiday. An important holiday as far as install base is concerned, maybe not as important from the software side.
On the other side of the next-gen war, Bungie is free again! What does this mean for now? Well... nothing it seems. My guess is that soon enough there will be a more interesting result from this than what is happening right now. Over at Kotaku, they have a QA with Bungie's Community Director that doesn't really answer all the questions I have, but at least speaks to some of them. My thinking is that Microsoft was faced with the prospect of a majority of their favorite studio jumping ship because of the nature of their relationship. So, backed into a corner, they allowed Bungie to leave, while securing some level of exclusivity with them on their future projects. I can think of two possibilities for Bungie from this point. 1) They start work on brand new IPs which might start out with Microsoft but eventually end up elsewhere. 2) They begin to expand, leaving one team to work on whatever ridiculous Halo thing Microsoft wanted in the first place, while another team does that thing from part 1. If the first becomes true, it will be very interesting to see where Microsoft goes with Halo. Stephen Totilo had some interesting, and fun, speculation over at Multiplayer.
Big news for a Friday, it will be interesting to see how all this shakes out.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Thursday, October 04, 2007
What is the deal with crunch time?
So, I'm in the games industry, not hip deep in it like some, but in it nonetheless. And the one thing that always stares me down is the dreaded crunch time. It is de rigeur in the industry to have a period near the end of a project that essentially sucks the souls out of all involved. This is accomplished by hellish workdays, in excess of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for as long as is necessary to get a project out the door and on to shelves. It isn't always this way, in fact some companies deride crunch time as unnecessary. However, it is pretty damn common in the video game world to experience some level of crunch time on every project. It is so accepted that at this point people don’t question it too much, whether for fear of reprisal or simply because they believe it really is necessary. So, I'm going to examine crunch time, why it happens, and why it shouldn't. Hopefully at least.
I've thought about this topic for quite some time now, but I was spurred towards writing about it by this article about gaming schools written by Lisa Laughy. In it she talks about gaming schools attempts to acclimate students to the rigors of crunch time by putting them through it with their school work. If she's right, and I have no reason to believe she isn't, then this is just an example of how wrongheaded the industry is. Crunch time arises because games have to be made. If we lived in a perfect world of infinite time and resources, it's quite likely that most game developers would be perpetually iterating on their pet projects. Iteration is good, it is what makes games work, however it is also what can lead to feature creep. Feature creep should be the thing that makes a Project Manager wake in a cold sweat. Games have deadlines, some not set in stone, but some more so. It isn't every company that can afford a seven year break between games. What happens in many games is, people want to add new things after they shouldn't be adding anything. Once those changes go in, it creates more work for everyone else. Even though they already are stretched too thin, they now have more to do. So everyone starts showing up everyday for 10 hours. Fortunately, game makers are passionate people and they will do what they have to, in order to release their product. So games get made, sleep is lost, and countless hot pockets are consumed. But what are the consequences?
Well the most noticeable consequence of crunch time is the severe turn over that studios experience. Most of the industry has less than 5 years experience and that is because as people get older, have families, regain sanity, etc. they are unwilling to keep working insane hours without extra compensation. We lose some of the most talented people every year because they want to *gasp* see their children. This is something that many industries face, but it isn't something that needs to be as pervasive as it currently is. One big improvement would be compensated overtime. The developer Free Radical has implemented this system and good for them! I'm currently paid hourly, so the pay for OT is it's own reward, but I don't relish coming in on weekends and would be far less likely to do so uncompensated. So there is the first step towards fixing the problem. Something even more revolutionary is the system that Gas Powered Games uses. Their founder, Chris Taylor, realized after he had his first child that he wanted to put his family first, so he implemented a strict 40 hour work week. Apparently it works, because the company's first game, Supreme Commander, was well received. I've been told by people who work there that the reality of the schedule is that they have to focus on their work, rather than goofing off or wasting time in the way they used to. So at least at GPG it seems to have created tighter focus and eliminated wasted time. As another piece of anecdotal evidence, I've heard stories of people playing other video games for hours at a time, then finally once the afternoon rolls in, starting their actual work.
It all comes down to project management. Effective production schedules as well as producers who can control their teams' energy will not only waste less time but will have a better product at the end of the day. This gamasutra article is a roundtable discussion with several producers about project management at their companies. It gives a little insight into all the thing that one has to do to keep a team on time and scheduled properly. I know producers who have complained about their teams' lack of focus, something that seems pretty prevalent, but nonetheless needs to be eliminated. A good PM or producer is your friend, because they will help you make the game you want and still have time to see the kids. So... after all that, I hope I've made an argument for the death of crunch time, or at least extended crunch times. Not only will you have to work less, but your work will be better. We just can't work as well when we are dead tired and stressed out. Getting the work done on schedule and in the course of a regular work week is so much better. Trust me.
I've thought about this topic for quite some time now, but I was spurred towards writing about it by this article about gaming schools written by Lisa Laughy. In it she talks about gaming schools attempts to acclimate students to the rigors of crunch time by putting them through it with their school work. If she's right, and I have no reason to believe she isn't, then this is just an example of how wrongheaded the industry is. Crunch time arises because games have to be made. If we lived in a perfect world of infinite time and resources, it's quite likely that most game developers would be perpetually iterating on their pet projects. Iteration is good, it is what makes games work, however it is also what can lead to feature creep. Feature creep should be the thing that makes a Project Manager wake in a cold sweat. Games have deadlines, some not set in stone, but some more so. It isn't every company that can afford a seven year break between games. What happens in many games is, people want to add new things after they shouldn't be adding anything. Once those changes go in, it creates more work for everyone else. Even though they already are stretched too thin, they now have more to do. So everyone starts showing up everyday for 10 hours. Fortunately, game makers are passionate people and they will do what they have to, in order to release their product. So games get made, sleep is lost, and countless hot pockets are consumed. But what are the consequences?
Well the most noticeable consequence of crunch time is the severe turn over that studios experience. Most of the industry has less than 5 years experience and that is because as people get older, have families, regain sanity, etc. they are unwilling to keep working insane hours without extra compensation. We lose some of the most talented people every year because they want to *gasp* see their children. This is something that many industries face, but it isn't something that needs to be as pervasive as it currently is. One big improvement would be compensated overtime. The developer Free Radical has implemented this system and good for them! I'm currently paid hourly, so the pay for OT is it's own reward, but I don't relish coming in on weekends and would be far less likely to do so uncompensated. So there is the first step towards fixing the problem. Something even more revolutionary is the system that Gas Powered Games uses. Their founder, Chris Taylor, realized after he had his first child that he wanted to put his family first, so he implemented a strict 40 hour work week. Apparently it works, because the company's first game, Supreme Commander, was well received. I've been told by people who work there that the reality of the schedule is that they have to focus on their work, rather than goofing off or wasting time in the way they used to. So at least at GPG it seems to have created tighter focus and eliminated wasted time. As another piece of anecdotal evidence, I've heard stories of people playing other video games for hours at a time, then finally once the afternoon rolls in, starting their actual work.
It all comes down to project management. Effective production schedules as well as producers who can control their teams' energy will not only waste less time but will have a better product at the end of the day. This gamasutra article is a roundtable discussion with several producers about project management at their companies. It gives a little insight into all the thing that one has to do to keep a team on time and scheduled properly. I know producers who have complained about their teams' lack of focus, something that seems pretty prevalent, but nonetheless needs to be eliminated. A good PM or producer is your friend, because they will help you make the game you want and still have time to see the kids. So... after all that, I hope I've made an argument for the death of crunch time, or at least extended crunch times. Not only will you have to work less, but your work will be better. We just can't work as well when we are dead tired and stressed out. Getting the work done on schedule and in the course of a regular work week is so much better. Trust me.
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