By reading the story of ea_spouse, we become aware of a different reality, one in which people have to sacrifice their regular healthy lives in order to keep producing games in a crunch. Suddenly, the glossy veneer of playing games on the job, testing new mechanics, developing exciting new maps and landscapes that will make it into the books of gaming history, begins to fade. Unfortunately, in 2014 in an IGDA survey, 81% of the respondents said that they have been subject to “crunch,” a term used in the industry describing the intense hours put into the release of a game, at least once at their workplace. When asked for specifics about what “working long hours” meant, the interviewers coughed and glossed on to the next question now we know why.įor many of us, this might look surprising or seem like an individual case. I remember that they asked him in one of the interviews: “how do you feel about working long hours?” It’s just a part of the game industry - few studios can avoid a crunch as deadlines loom, so we thought nothing of it. She mentioned the long working hours, the lack of overtime pay, and the brutal work environment that was expected by employers to be normal: In November 2004, a blogger behind the username ea_spouse, published an opinion piece describing the working-conditions of her husband at EA Games, one of the biggest game development companies in the world. But reasonable hours are the key to productivity. Written by Radu Stochita Published MaThe game industry often requires developers to work sixteen-hour days to meet pre-release deadlines. (Photo: ) Business / Gaming Crunch: The Reality of Working Conditions in Game Development
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