Insomniac Devs Say Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Was Made without Crunch

If you listen closely, you can hear CD Project Red developers full of anger and sadness.

But really I feel bad for the Cyberpunk developers.

I really dont get it, who cares if there was crunch during development?. That is part of everyday life at almost every job.

I rather have nestle crunch instead😄.seriousley though.insomniac games have become the people's champs.well done.now give me a resistance remake collection.best fps ever.word up son

@Royalblues is game development really still a dream job these days ? im genuinely asking , no sarcasm.

These tweets definitely are low-key throwing shade at the other developers. 😬

Makes sense. Wasn't Insomniac recognized as one of the best places to work in America a few years ago? It's clear that they actively avoid crunch.

They are a wholly underrated developer.

Great for them. Sounds like they plan their projects out well or have a really talented team (most likely both)

Regardless of Crunch or not. Still better to be in a top studio making high profile work. In the end you get a portfolio piece.

Same as any creative job. Can be advertising, annual report or a game - you just suck it up, it pays off later on.

What is the world coming to? Bless their little finger tips and dead bums...

When i was working 60 hr weeks (hard labour) for little over minimum wage, if i mentioned something like crunch, i would have been sacked at the end of the day and beaten up in the carpark!

I recommend checking out The Golden Bolts Up Your Arsenal retrospective. It goes into a lot of detail about Insomniac's past experiences with crunch, and I think it really helps illustrate why they work to avoid it now.

Sony really did snag a winner with this studio.

I was one of the people that was saying, "crunch is just millennial speak for overtime" but when my friend, who's a new father, said he was working 60+hrs a week. I decided to recant my statement. It's prevalent in most development studio, from AAA to indie, I guess

Its good to hear, but also kinda sad that we have to point this out in the first place.

Insomniac has had a reputation for being a good place to work for while now. I think they even ranked in the top 10 places to work at in the US a few years back and it's great the team made the game comfortably. However I'm not a fan of the demonization of crunch in general. There is a point where it gets to be too much but so long as the employees are compensated fairly for the extra work I simply don't see the problem.

Game development is a difficult profession for sure, but it's not the only difficult profession in the world that sometimes requires overtime.

The worst news Schreier could hear.

Insomniac rarely crunch and their they're making games very quickly, their project management is super great and I really think insomniac should consult other sony 1st party devs how to make games without crunch.

Especially naughty dogs, after crunching and losing most of their old staff, their last games sales isn't as good as other sony 1st party games (SP, Insomniac, SM).

See that Naughty Dog? You can get the job done without treating workers like slaves.

@wiiware And here we have yet another stealth comment about The Last Of Us Part II sales. You're obsessed, you've been going on and on and on about this for a year.

Back to Insomniac: Fantastic for the team that they have zero crunch, they've been knocking out hit after hit and it's great they can do so at leisure (of course, within reason), they must be an organised and disciplined crew. They'll no doubt be taking a well earned break before they jump into their next production...

I like how people in the comment section are justifying crunch because it is normal in most industries. Working more than 8 hours a day is not healthy either you like crunch or not.

@Profondo But that's the point isn't it? Nd crunch it's people so severely that's more than 70% of it's employee left, yet in the end their latest games sales is only good in the first month. While insomniac didn't crunch and still get good metacritics and sales, if you really like nd then I'm sure you want nd to be managed like insomniac, no cruch, loyal employee, and good sales.

@GamingVeteran decent human beings do. The world doesn't revolve around me. This is great news.

"That is part of everyday life at almost every job"
No it's not nor should it normalized. People literally died fighting for 8-hour work days.

@Th3solution nooope. Not everything is shade nowadays.

OK but... 40h a week?
I mean, good for them but it's just hard to believe given the job.

This is great news!!!
Crunch burns everyone out. On top of that, it can lead to a worse product if it goes on too long. The occasional overtime is fine but constant crunch should always be avoided.

So was Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion 3, and many games from other developers.

And it's really sad those games need medals for that.

@GamingVeteran ""The world doesn't revolve around me" then why are you making it about you? Just because you want to be lazy and not push yourself at work doesn't mean everyone else does. One of the main reasons the world has millionaires and billionaires, is because of crunch time."

R.I.P., reading comprehension

Also, nice ASSumptions, as expected. You call me lazy while knowing nothing about me, which is typical. I work as a senior lecturer in academia. We don't have any holidays. There are days I have to work 14-16 hours and there are months I get 4-6 hours sleep per day. I hope that people in other professions get to live normal lives and their entire life does not revolve around their work, just so that some people can benefit from it (e.g. play a video game earlier at their expense).

@Total_Weirdo it shouldn't? People should be allowed to live a dignified life with enough time for sleep, family, hobbies, social life, etc.
It's like saying, "why are you complaining for being a slave? There are slaves everywhere". So what? It didn't make it ok back then, it doesn't make it ok now, that's why we don't have slavery. But if the world consisted of people with your mentality, we most certainly would.

Its worth mentioning that Insomniac Games regularly places in the top 100 places to work. That's not just video games, but work every in general. It goes to show that crunch really is simply a case of poor and lazy management within the gaming industry and entirely unnecessary. For my money, Insomniac Games is the jewel in Sony's crown, not Naughty Dog.

@GamingVeteran if those billionaires and millionaires put those hours in to make themselves millionaires and billionaires then fair play to them. If they force other people to do it, sit back and count the money then thats were the issue lies.

Crunch is just a nasty sounding buzzword for paid overtime.

@ApostateMage while both are paid, overtime is optional. Crunch is not. Thats the main difference.

Crunch is awful but what irritates me is how its only ever mentioned in the gaming industry

@GamingVeteran risky move putting an opinion like this in a comment section.

Completely agree though.

@PhhhCough 60 hours a week - hahaha. Come to Japan where doing 60 hours in a week is a vacation.

@The_New_Butler been under the spot light more cos of covid as well, most industries will have a kind of crunch, we have it in building I've had months when I've worked 70 hour weeks because you give a finish date and you have to hit it

One of, maybe the, best going today. Sony will never make another studio acquisition as great as this one. Not much crunch for the teams, little drama surrounding its releases and since getting back on track in 2014 with Sunset Overdrive the studio has been consistently pumping out quality releases in a timely fashion whether it's cool updates, expansions, brand new titles. Really good stuff going on there right now.

I've experienced 'Crunch'/overtime at times in every job I've had in the last 35 odd years. You sometimes have to meet fixed deadlines. Sometimes it's paid back in terms of money, sometimes time off, sometimes nothing but an honest thanks. Some of the best employers have given me both extra pay and time off. If I felt I was being take advantage of I'd leave and get another job. I'm not a slave and have never been forced to work for anyone against my will.

I don't think it's unhealthy as long as it benefits you as well as your employer.

if Crunch was as normal a thing as some people are making out, there wouldn't be any video games because no one would have any time to play them

The more I research crunch and crunch culture, the more I see it as a complicated and not so cut and dry issue. Especially in creative industries, but certainly not limited to them, long hours and personal sacrifice on all fronts are required in order to realize ambition. Further, a competitive work environment can be healthy and productive with the right people.

I come from a place where folks work their hands to the bone and are happy to do it. With that said, I think a lot of the problems with crunch culture stem from the iterative nature of development, inconsistent cash flow, immense pressure from all sides to meet deadlines and simple mismanagement. Some of these are fixable, some are not, and there really is no simple solution.

Perhaps the easiest first step would be to ensure your employees truly feel valued. This responsibility rests on management. It’s amazing what employees will produce if they simply feel like an important part of the team. Hard work and long hours are all good in my book. Not appreciating your employees is not.

With that said, you can always start your own video game company. You can prototype, fundraise, build your game, supply equipment, salaries and benefits, shop your game around and establish a work culture you deem healthy and see how much overtime you have to put in to realize that vision. A little appreciation of our employers and what they’ve provided us goes a long way as well. As usual, understanding on all sides is the path to a solution. Good job Insomniac!

@RubyCarbuncle I don't think I'm ignorant or closed minded because I don't outright condemn 'Crunch'.
Most working people have 'Crunch' at some point, it's not an issue if it's well managed and not the norm. In real-life you can't always do 7.5/8 hours a day and get what you need done.

@Constable_What This is an incredibly important thing to point out in crunch arguments. If you're an hourly employee and you're not being appropriately compensated with OT, that isn't just unethical, it's also illegal. If you are salary and exempt from OT, yeah it sucks to be in crunch mode, but most likely the original employment contract states that longer hours are either a possibility or probability.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think crunch is right, but the crunch situation isn't as binary as most people think. And as a person that has had to deal with crunch, it happens in far more industries than imaginable.

@themightyant as someone who has experienced serious burnout twice in my life, you’re right in that it is very real and very unhealthy. I agree that much is cut and dry.

It gets complicated when the very nature of game development, for a large variety of reasons, is anything but simple. Much like farming, oil and gas, filmmaking, trucking, or healthcare...It’s more than ‘just a job’, it’s a lifestyle. It’s demanding work and you always have the choice to leave if you’re unhappy, or start your own company. The “slave labour” rhetoric I see thrown around is laughable. There are definitely issues in the industry, company by company, and it’s good that this discussion is happening. Hopefully more companies treat their employees better going forward, in more industries than just gaming.

@GamingVeteran You see that's the thing. It SHOULDN'T be part of ordinary life. And sometimes it makes the game worse (cough cough, Cyberpunk).

I'm not saying that you don't have a point, you do, I'm just saying that crunch in general is bad.

Also don't expect me to immediately reply to you. Maybe.

@GamingVeteran You're making a lot of assumptions about the nature of the crunch and the reasons for it and the people being forced to do it.

Firstly crunch isn't the same as overtime, I'm not sure if you are making the distinction, you may be, but it reads to me like maybe you're not? I'm unsure so to be clear overtime is being asked or sometimes contractually obliged to work additional hours outside of your regular contracted hours for a day or two here and there because it's needed. That's fine, it happens. Crunch is a culture of relying on this to get the product/project done, and forcing staff to do this for much longer hours, everyday and weekends for months at a time. Crunch, as with overtime, isn't always paid, let alone paid at a higher rate. Essentially companies that use crunch as using it to try and fit a project that should take say 4 years, into 2 and a half by relying on the fact they can get staff to work more than their contracted hours. Like trying to cook a pie faster by just cranking the oven up higher. And like that, it often doesn't even work anyway.

Crunch also often involves employees being pressured to skip lunch breaks and not take holidays.

"If people don't like it they can say no" - this is one of the main issues, they can't. Aside from the fact that many are not necessarily in the financial position to be able to do this, companies that rely on crunch often prey on those new and naive and essentially gaslight them into believing this is the way it just works. People are conditioned into believing they can't say no. The games industry is a highly desirable industry to get into and the thought of working on something like GTA or The Last of Us is very alluring. Companies know this, and they abuse it. They push sentiments like "we're like a family here" and "everyone is so proud of what we make we all want the best" and whilst those can both be true and positive, they're essentially used a guilt trips and gaslights to make people feel obliged to do whatever the studio asks of them here. That then creates an internal culture where staff end up pressuring each other into staying. If you get up and leave on time, someone else is going to end up having to cover that. So you have to stay, because now it's not just a case of it affecting you it's affecting you 'work family'.

And the more it happens, the more people get burnt out and tired, and the more they just accept it, until eventually something breaks. When there are widespread reports of both mental and physical health conditions resulting from crunch, relationships strained to the point of breaking and lives being generally ruined as a result...all to aid poor management? I don't see how anyone can support it.

And the fact that it happens in other work areas? Yeah that's bad too. That also needs to stop. And for games at least, the fact a AAA, insanely high quality game such as this can be made without it. That proves it's not needed. It's not something the product needs, it's not something the company has to rely on. So again...why would anyone support it? It's basically saying "I think it's ok for companies to use their position to abuse, damage and break their employees , knowing that it's not necessary, doesn't aid the final product and can be avoided entirely".

Is that a statement you're willing to stand by? Because it is what you're saying.

@themightyant The worst of it is the issue though. If it was simply optional overtime paid at a matching or higher rate, it'd be mostly fine and it wouldn't really be crunch as such.

@themightyant Oh teamwork is essential in game development. And being friends with your team is great and can really help. It's only when that's abused and pushed as a way to take advantage of staff that it's an issue.

Staff working extra hours to push themselves harder than others is a more complicated one. Yes if you want to do that and feel comfortable with the return from that, from your personal perspective that's ok. But if you are so inclined, or are a company with staff who are so inclined, you have to be aware of this and cautious not to allow it to become a company culture where others start to feel they need to do that as well or for those people to burn themselves out. I've worked with people like that before and I've worked with higher management to help them strike a better work-life balance when it became unhealthy.

But that's self-imposed. That is nuanced and the solutions are varied often much more complicated and subtle. Especially if it is self-imposed due to financial reasons, that is a separate thing entirely and many companies have systems or departments to help staff there. The issue is the company enforced crunch, which is what people are referring too when they talk about how bad crunch is.

@Shepherd_Tallon Mine arrived too but I only have tomorrow booked off! I was a fool!