this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
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Larian Studios' CEO says, "we did have to do a bit of crunch" making Baldur's Gate 3 (www.eurogamer.net)
submitted 5 months ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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[–] dsemy@lemm.ee 41 points 5 months ago (3 children)

but we did have to do a bit of crunch. And I think, to be honest, you will always have a little bit when you're trying to finish something, especially when there's so much complexity that needs to be brought together.

What does doing "a bit of crunch" even mean? Crunch means you're (practically) forced to work overtime, there is no excuse for this IMO. The game was on early access for a while, surely they could've delayed its full release by a bit to prevent this.

[–] Mad_Punda@feddit.de 36 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I agree.

Crunch is a project management failure. This is my professional opinion as a tech lead at a mid sized gaming company.

When I saw all the praise the game received at release, the level of detail etc. My first thought was, so what was the cost on individuals?
Don’t get me wrong, this is an amazing game. But I worry that a lot of overtime went into this.
And other projects will be measured against that. This might set another very bad example.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 months ago

Exactly. I can think of one valid reason for a crunch: production is down. That's it.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Release windows can make or break a game, and they were counter programming Starfield, which they expected to be a bigger deal. I would interpret "a bit of crunch" to be a few weeks rather than the several month death march you hear about in game development all the time.

[–] dsemy@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

IMO crunch has no excuse; it is a decision that benefits the business while hurting the workers.

"A few weeks" of crunch translates to hundreds of extra working hours.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

I agree, it does, and it does. In many cases it's necessary for the survival of the company once you've committed to release dates and marketing expenses. Larian ought to have enough cushion for their next project that requiring it makes even less sense.

[–] sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago

Here's a video by Tim Cain that I think covers this topic well: link