Kotaku: Inside Rockstar's Culture of Crunch

[Xevross]

Jason finally finished the article he's been teasing for a long time, here it is:

Inside Rockstar Games' Culture Of Crunch

Here's Era's thread on it:

Kotaku's  Jason Schreier: Inside Rockstar Games' Culture Of Crunch | ResetEra

Quote https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-games-culture-of-crunch-1829936466

 Here's the story Jason has been working on the last weeks.

 Here's a sample:

Quote In the final year of development on Red Dead Redemption 2, the upcoming Western game, the top directors decided to add black bars to the top and bottom of every non-interactive cutscene in hopes of making those scenes feel more cinematic, like an old-school cowboy film. Everyone agreed it was the right creative move, but there was a catch: It would add weeks of work to many people's schedules.

 "You can't just slap black bars on the cinematics we've already shot," said one person who worked on the game. "You have to reframe the camera so that the cinematics flow in a particular way, and you're emphasizing what you weren't emphasizing initially with that shot."


 With no hope of delaying the game any further--Red Dead Redemption 2had already been bumped internally before it was announced, then publicly delayed twice--there was no way for the developers at Rockstar Games to add more time to their schedule. Instead, they would have to crunch, putting in extra nights and weekends in order to redo these scenes and deal with the rest of the massive workload that was ahead of them. Would the black bars prove to be worth it?

 This has been a common occurrence in the last years of development on a Rockstar game. Dan and Sam Houser, the co-founders of Rockstar and creative leads on Red Dead Redemption 2, are renowned for rebooting, overhauling, and discarding large chunks of their games. Through eight years of development on Red Dead Redemption 2, the Housers and other directors have made a number of major changes to the story, the core gameplay mechanics, and the game's overall presentation. It's a process that some see as essential for making a game of this nature, but it's also one that leads to a great deal of overtime, and has contributed to a culture of crunch at Rockstar Games that is impossible to deny, according to interviews with dozens of current and former employees. This isn't crunch that came in a burst of a few weeks--it's crunch that, those employees say, has lasted for months or even years.Click to expand...

I just finished reading it, its a great read that provides a lot of insight into crunch culture in the industry as a whole.

[Xevross]

I've been on the fence with Red Dead and waiting to see if I should pre-order, hoping this article would clear it up for me. Here's a key paragraph for anyone thinking the same

Some fans have asked if they should avoid buying or playing Red Dead Redemption 2 to show support for those who had tough experiences making it, but many of Rockstar's current and former employees--even those who had the worst things to say about the company--say they're against the idea. For one, those who put long weeks into the game want people to see what they've done. Also, given that this year's bonuses will be based on royalties, any sort of large-scale boycott may hurt Rockstar employees more than it helps, some current employees have said. What fans can instead do, those people say, is speak out about crunch and workplace issues like this, helping put public pressure on the company.

So, yay I'm pre-ordered! And fudge crunch!

It does sound like they're acknowledging it more and more and are improving now, so hopefully things get better for the worst affected.

[Xevross]

Its a real long read, so anyone looking for highlights the Era thread is a good place to check as people have been picking them out. It seems Rockstar Lincoln in the UK is the worst hit by crunch, because its their main QA studio. They've been working 3-4 evenings a week plus one weekend day for over a year. The worst the article gets is probably this line, when reporting from a current lead tester at Lincoln:

One tester who worked below me told me he had gone to the doctor for help dealing with depression, was asked where he worked and when he replied Rockstar, the doctor said. 'For god's sake, another one.'

Rockstar have replied to claims like these, saying overtime is not mandatory at lincoln and apologise for confusion in the past which might have led people to believe it was. With the game done, their crunch is now ending and they hope they never have to do anything like it again.

[the-pi-guy]

I've been on the fence with Red Dead and waiting to see if I should pre-order, hoping this article would clear it up for me. Here's a key paragraph for anyone thinking the same
So, yay I'm pre-ordered! And fudge crunch!

It does sound like they're acknowledging it more and more and are improving now, so hopefully things get better for the worst affected.

Protesting is hard in this case.  
Because boycotting hurts the developer that crunched.  

That way, it'd be like not only did they work 80 hour weeks for nothing, but it could even hurt their job.  

[Xevross]

Protesting is hard in this case.  
Because boycotting hurts the developer that crunched.  

That way, it'd be like not only did they work 80 hour weeks for nothing, but it could even hurt their job.  

Its definitely a tricky situation. I think if you want the game, this shouldn't put you off buying it.

Like the devs said, boycotting the game won't help and may in fact harm some of these guys. Best we can do is spread the information and add more voices to the call for change.

[Legend]

Long read but worth it.

Pretty damning of the studio heads. There seems to be a ton of miscommunication between management and a lack of understanding what their employees are thinking.

Pretty good though that the problems seem to be exclusively related to crunch.

[Xevross]

Long read but worth it.

Pretty damning of the studio heads. There seems to be a ton of miscommunication between management and a lack of understanding what their employees are thinking.

Pretty good though that the problems seem to be exclusively related to crunch.

Absolutely. Sounds like the Houser brothers are treated like royalty as well. Having to sit around the office and look like you're working on weekends just in case they turn up is so fudgy dumb. It kinda sounds like the babying that White House staff have to do for Trump.

That's one thing they can just change immediately, stop making people come in just for the Housers.

[the-pi-guy]

Those who had worked fewer than 60 hours were marked with the word "Under" in red letters.

Employees are also told to log their individual tasks, which Rockstar says is for project management purposes, so the company can know how long it takes to fix bugs or implement features. It's an environment that has made some staff feel as if they're constantly being watched, and several current employees have shared stories of being called into their manager's office and asked why they aren't working more than 40 or 45 hours a week.

Even something as simple as changing the name of a city could lead to tons of extra work. At one point, Red Dead Redemption 2's biggest city was called New Bordeaux, two sources confirmed, but when Rockstar found out that the open-world game Mafia III (developed by 2K, which is also owned by Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive) had used that name, they changed it to Saint Denis. That meant taking voice actors into the dialogue booth for a whole lot of re-recording, which meant a whole lot of extra work for anyone involved with cinematics--not to mention all the artwork and interface changes.

"I feel like I'm going to need to get to know my partner again," said a current tester.

Many of the most harrowing stories shared by current and former employees--anecdotes of damaged relationships, mental breakdowns, and heavy drinking at work--were impossible to print without risking that the individuals involved might be identified. Given Rockstar's complex non-disclosure agreements and possible repercussions for violating them, we erred on the side of being as cautious as possible in this piece, which meant leaving out some of the roughest details we'd heard.

[\quote]

[the-pi-guy]

That's just lovely stuff right there .

[Legend]

That's just lovely stuff right there .

Renaming the town does not seem like something that'd be worth that much extra work, but the game prints money so I guess it doesn't matter.