CRUNCH! – Videogame Development Crunch Culture (the REAL reason)

CRUNCH! The dark, awful tool of videogame development.
When there is bad news about a studio, it probably involves crunch.
It hurts people, causes burnout.

You may assume that crunch is about getting more work out of people.
Indeed, many of the people who INSTITUTE crunch may think this.
But that isn’t what it does (or at least not for long)
BUT it does drive things to stop changing. It does create Completion Urgency.

But using Crunch to drive Completion Urgency is like charging your phone by plugging it into your car and idling it in the garage. It’ll DO it, but you won’t like the side effects.

What can we do to avoid crunch? What can we do to mitigate crunch once it is happening?

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:47 Part 1 – Definitions
3:20 Part 2 – Consequences
7:42 Part 3 – Completion Urgency
13:49 Part 3.5 – Generating Completion Urgency
19:40 Part 4 – Sources of Crunch and Mitigation
20:05 Source – Bad Estimates
23:04 Source – Ignored Estimates
23:17 Source – Quality / Fidelity Mismatch
26:18 Source – Dependencies
28:25 Source – Wishes
29:31 Source – “Immovable” Dates
30:29 Source – Missing / Changing Decisions
31:19 Source – Quest For Perfect
33:00 Source – “Keeping the Powder Dry”
35:22 Part 5 – It’s Happening!
36:02 Mitigation – Completion Urgency
37:05 Mitigation – Sympathy Crunch?
39:33 Mitigation – Get Rid of Meetings
39:52 Mitigation – Food
40:40 Summary

Clip Credits:
Anvil – Photo by Mark Neal from Pexels
Teabag, Tea, Pouring, Water – Erik Nuenighoff
Positive, Light-Table, Sand, Love – Oleksandr Ostapchuk
writer looking up words in dictionary for editing his book – Omri Ohana
man lifts and drops momentum balls – Pausa Production House
blonde woman types into computer closes it and stretches at her table at
home – Roman Chernykh
Nature, Meadow, Poppies, Wild Flower – Clip by Giulio Venier
e_22 – Evgeniy Shkolenko

clock tower in a city aerial – Daniel Walther
Measure, Diet, 50, Weighing-Scales – Hans Peter Schepp
medieval knight rubbing his beard and looking confused – Rene Strgar
Athlete, Para-Runner, Training, Ice-Bath – Ross Hillier
Woman, Veil, Hand, Abstract – Max Freyss
couple running late with their suitcases at the train station – Andrei Efimov Fontanki
Woman, Yoga, Breath, Laptop
– Anna Bizon
old vintage car exhaust emitting smoke – Trunk Studio
Female, Dancer, Ballet, Ballerina – Hans Peter Schepp
Convention – Photo by Thibault Trillet from Pexels
Businesswoman, City, Confident, Woman – Thomas Gellert
granular powder falling through an hourglass – Hugo Will
Business, Businesswoman, Presentation, Leader – ReelDealHD
man switching off the main switch on vintage device – Arbel Rom
WWII poster displayed among heels in a shop – Shally Zene
Well organized tools hanging on a wall with leather holders – Omri Ohana
Bike – Photo by Philipp M from Pexels
recording studio sound mixer bringing down audio levels – Arbel Rom
fisherman sewing net on fishing boat – Marzio Mirabella
Woman, Cake, Candle, Wish – Anna Bizon
stone wall building rack focus – Pausa Production House
Man posing while spinning in a cyrwheel in empty room – Gabriel Stella
Couple watching a movie eating popcorn at home
– Yigal Ohanna
Rabbit and tortoise sharing food – Ami Bornstein
men and women shake hands and leave room – Yigal Ohanna
family and friends eating and drinking outdoors on a sunny day – Kristian Kettner

Source