no-crunch development (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Monday, August 07, 2017, 16:54 (2752 days ago) @ dogcow

I agree with most of what you've said. Some good sage wise words there.

Bungie was in a state of crunch for virtually that entire period - based on Timmins' definition of crunch as, "whenever you're working at least 50 hours a week."

This is a joke, right? 50 hours? I never worked less than 60 hours a week in the 13 years I tested video games, except for the six months I worked 30 hours a week while being full-time enrolled in college. "Crunch" meant 80-100 hour weeks. Listen, I get that we shouldn't normalize more than 40 hour work weeks, but there's overtime and then there's crunch, and crunch in the gaming industry is fucking brutal. 50 hour weeks ain't it. The existence of this line makes much of the rest of the article feel like whining about nothing rather than solving a difficult and chronic problem. The writer undermined the whole thing, right here. Maybe Timmins does define anything over 50 as "crunch" but don't write the article in such a way that it draws a false equivalency between 50 hour work weeks and breaking a company's morale. Especially in this industry.

"The Halo 2 crunch almost killed Bungie as a company," he said. "It is the most I've ever seen humans work in a year and a half. It was brutal.

50 hour work weeks didn't do that. UGH. This article makes Timmins sound like a whiny brat. I bet most of that year and a half was spent around 80 hour work weeks, not 50. 50 doesn't break a man the way 80 does. Last I'm going to say about the hours thing.

I'd say at 45 hours you may be fine, above that it starts to add strain to home-life, especially if it's "normal". 45-50 hours may not put MUCH stress on the family @ home, but it does start to affect them. At over 50 hours the strain is notable. I don't think short stints of 50 hour weeks will break moral, but it does have a negative effect. So, I guess I'm saying I agree with Timmins at wanting to keep things below 50 hours a week. There's a cost paid for weeks over 50, and it's not just paid by the company or the employee.

50 hours/week, assuming 5 days a week that's 10 hour days, + an hour lunch + an hour (or more) commute + 8 hours sleep & you're at 4 hours "free" time, take an hour from that if your employees are taking time for their physical health (workout), another 30 minutes to get ready for the day and you're under 2 & 1/2 hours for "home life": help with dinner (1+ hour to prep, eat, & cleanup), help with homework (30-60 minutes), keep up your house & yard (30-90 min), and put the kids to bed (30+ minutes 45+ if you're reading to them), oh, wait I ran out of time a while ago, I still need to volunteer in my community, go to kids soccer games, and find time to spend with my wife so she doesn't go insane from lack of adult interaction or forget that she loves me.

Now when do I get to relax & watch netflix or play a video game? There's the weekend, but it's often filled up with things that I didn't have time to get to during the week. I guess I'll just sacrifice more of my sleep.

Keep that up for very long & you'll have unhappy burned out employees and families.

After working 80-100 hour weeks for so long, anything 60 or less still feels like vacation to me, and it's been more than a decade since I did 80 hours in a week. I don't get to go to the movies as often as I like, but it's all relative, I'd say. 50 hour work weeks are typical in my job as a TV editor.

Destiny brought the final stage of the process: enforced vacation, a measure directly related to, "the crunch you want to do." Bungie gives its engineers 40 days off each year, but whether through paranoia or passion, a lot of employees simply weren't taking the opportunity for a break.

What? I used to force my team to take 15 minute breaks and they fucking hated me for it. I can't imagine forcing them to take 40 days off. Maybe if the entire company shuts down for 40 pre-selected days so that everyone can plan ahead, but you can't just tell mike in backend design that it's his 40 days and don't worry because joey the intern can totally handle his work while he's out. You can't hold a gun to someone's head and tell them to "relax."

I would agree with your team hating the forced 15 minute breaks. When I'm in the flow a break is the worst thing ever, but a meeting is worse than a 15 minute break. I'd prefer a manager protect my flow and also help me to be able to arrange my day so that I don't burn my eyes/brain out staring at a monitor for 5-10 hours straight.

No argument here. I was a terrible manager when I worked in video games. Who puts a guy with no management training, just out of college, being paid only $9.75/hr. in charge of a team of 300 people? Activision, that's who.