Rockstar developers talk about "100-hour weeks"

<img src = "https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/rockstar-time-800×450.jpg" alt = "Are developers invited to force themselves too hard to create similar games Red Dead Redemption 2? "/>

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser was criticized this week for an interview in which he said "we were working 100 weeks a week" on the next Red Dead Redemption 2. The conversation that followed, which now includes many Rockstar employees who are speaking for the first time in public, has reignited a long debate about how long it will take (if any) for developers to perspective of the major versions of the game.

The controversy began on Sunday, when a rare interview with Houser and his studio co-founder (and his brother), Sam Houser, was featured as part of New York Magazine's vertical Vulture. Dan's statement that "we worked 100-hour weeks" on several occasions in 2018 is treated as an almost irreversible line in the context of other figures highlighting the immensity of the game: 300,000 animations; 500,000 lines of dialogue and "several hundreds" of changes for each trailer. This is a recurring theme throughout the interview, where the Housers boast of the game's "main story" script, 1,200 SAG-AFTRA actors, 2,200 days of motion capture and capture. 192 "interactive" musical scores, for example.

"We have always worked until the bone", former Grand Theft Auto developer notes Navid Khonsari in the room Vulture. "We all thought we were doing stupid shit, so it did not matter how tough our work was."

A "hard job" impressive or not, many people were disturbed by the idea that employees of Rockstar undergo a week of work a week, or more than 14 hours (in the absence of weekend). This type of sustained overwork is quite common to have a widely accepted abbreviated name in the industry: "Crunch". And the health and well-being problems of employees caused by this type of crisis have been the subject of intense discussions for years in and around the sector. The International Game Developers Association cites research showing that the level of prolonged burnout is detrimental to productivity.

Discreet discussion of "100-hour weeks" on RDR2 has prompted many developers to share their own stories how crunch has had a negative impact on their lives during their career in the video game industry. "In my first job at Games, we had a ranking that allowed us to know who worked the most hours in a week.I came in 3rd place … with 118 hours," said Adam Boyes , CEO of Iron Galaxy, wrote in a representative example.

The other developers challenged Houser's proud, almost boastful comments, suggesting that the long weeks of work were worth it to create "this fluid and natural experience in a world that seems real, an interactive tribute to the world." American rural experience, "as Houser has said. "This must stop being a cause for pride, no matter how badly you say it," said Pete Stewart, developer of Creative Assembly. wrote. "I do not want developers to work 100 hours a week, even if the end result is a game of the year – no game is worth that kind of burnout."

Speak

As a result of this type of reaction, Rockstar published a statement attributed to Kotaku, attributed to Dan Houser. The statement states that the comment "100-hour weeks" refers only to the senior writing team consisting of four people, who devoted "three weeks of intense work" to finalize everything at the end of the week. Seven-year development process of the game. This level of "intense work" was temporary and was not expected of all staff, the statement said:

More importantly, we obviously do not expect others to work this way. In society as a whole, we have executives who work very hard simply because they are passionate about a project or their particular work, and we think that passion is reflected in the games we publish. But this extra effort is a choice, and we are not asking anyone to work in that direction. Many other seniors work in a totally different way and are just as productive. I'm just not one of them! No one, senior or junior, is ever forced to work hard. I believe that we put a lot of effort into managing a company that cares about its employees and makes this company a great place to work.

Some were skeptical about this, especially given public accusations that Rockstar employees were systematically overloaded with work in the first report. Red Dead Redemption. So Rockstar opened the discussion to the actual employees themselves, lift a ban talk about work policies and experiences on social media.

The wave of employee comments (such as collected by employees like Miriam Bellard) paint a much healthier picture of Rockstar's work culture. Employees who shared their thoughts on Twitter are almost unanimous in saying that they have never worked 100 hours a week, nor put under pressure to do anything. Most say that light overtime is common and sometimes encouraged before the deadline, but it never exceeds 50 to 60 hours per week at most.

Most of this extra work time is driven by personal dedication and not by management pressure, according to at many Rock star employees. Many too consternation expressed Houser's "100-hour weeks" have been described in the media.

For its part, Tom Fautley, tool designer at Rockstar North wrote"I did not see anyone having to work 100 hours a week, but I've certainly seen friends get closer to that number, which is healthy, I'm asked, I encourage and I intend to work overtime (nights and weekends) when I come up to a big delay.The maximum I've ever worked in a week … was 79 hours, but it was not recently. "

Many employees suggest that over-tightening was a bigger problem at Rockstar in the past. "During my early years here, it was much worse," Owain Davies, Rockstar North's screenwriter (and a five-year veteran of the company) wrote. "There were several weeks of over 70 hours, the worst that he had ever had was, I think, was just under 80. It's getting better, but it's absolutely happening." normal for me today is rather 50 to 55 hours, and I've personally not been as serious as other colleagues I know. "

Senior Code Content Developer, Phil Beveridge d & # 39; agreement that "work practices have improved significantly. Red Dead Redemption 2 was definitely a lot better than it was on GTA V, where I pulled a month over 70 hours (while my boss advised me to go home …) "

It goes with Job, a former Rockstar employee. J Stauffer, who wrote that his working time Grand Theft Auto V It was "like working with a weapon in the head seven days a week." Be here Saturday and Sunday too, just in case Sam or Dan come in, they want everyone to work as hard as they are. "

Some employees also report that developers are being pushed by society to force themselves to match their colleagues. "It's easy to fall into this trap if you leave at the time and see other people still working or if you read a comment about a week to a hundred hours to feel guilty about it "said a Rockstar North employee at @palbudster. wrote on Twitter. "Wondering if you are doing enough, to stay longer … if I'm not alone in this situation, and in fact, anxiety is fueling the amount of overtime we work? Is waiting for this to be a problem of the industry criticism of Rockstar ".

Still others point out that there may be a fine line between "forced" overtime and overtime simply encouraged by workplace culture. "The veterans of the industry, the few who survive the crisis, and that's something that I'm guilty of over the years, are starting to wear their ability to crack like a badge." # 39; honor " Tectonics of destiny developer Alex Bethke told GameDaily. "[That’s] By further strengthening the bad culture and by saying directly and / or indirectly to newcomers, if you even want to have a chance to get where I am, you have to sacrifice everything. "