Who Likes to “Crunch” Some Hours?

This will be a short one.

Yesterday, video game journalist Jason Schreier wrote an exhaustive article on a world-famous video game company, specifically about the issue of ‘crunch.’ The article also talked about the company’s organizational culture, the (figuratively) human sacrifices required, and public perceptions of the development side of the video game industry.

When there’s a project deadline, one may need to add more time and effort into the work in order to complete this project on time. That may mean more (or, way more) than a widely-accepted average of working 40 hours per week for a sustained period. That is the basis of ‘crunch.’ In the video game industry, it may mean 60 hours or even 80 hours per week, often without overtime pay. That’s working at least 10 hours per day, six days per week with the extra hours not paid for.

This leads little time to socialize, spending time with spouse and/or family, and doing activities outside of work, which may lead to severe depression.

Schreier had been covering this issue from the years past: here and here.

For me, these are interesting reads because it really opens up the world of video game development. I thought about doing that when I was in college, but after reading these articles, I felt that I’m very lucky that I didn’t, even though I thrive for expressing creativity. Go ahead and think about what crunch can do to us from an emotional and psychological standpoint (e.g. what can crunch do to our bodies, minds, and relationships).

-Sam