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[Felessan]

For example in finance, the team cant close off the month or quarter until the numbers are accurately forecast and processed as much as possible late in the game and then the team submits final numbers. You dont close off the month or quarter at the beginning of the month or quarter. It's not close to being done yet. You got to wait till you get near the end point and then do it. And hope there's no weird shit going on that week that prevents smoothly doing it.

I worked in finance and when I came there crunches was huge. We worked 16 hours for 2 weeks to get it done. But it was due to process was poor and data quality was abysmal. Didn't like it at all, so we spent some time, even crunching in non-reporting period when everyone was relaxing, fixing the process, calculations, quality of data and self-checks. And in the end I was the person whom people hate the most - I left job casually with "good luck guys" as my part just didn't need any crunching anymore.
Now I work on the other side, the side that point out mistakes and make finance people crunch, and things remain the same. Finance so busy crunching so they left little strength to improve and optimize, making it a death loop.

Crunch is inevitable because human beings are most productive working under pressure and against deadline.

Actually opposite, productivity falls sharply after 6-8 hours of extensive mental works.
But it's really inevitable as people do have tendency to slack off and push things to the last minute making crunch the only viable solution.

 

[rofif]

Yes. It's my money. They gotta work for it.
No slacking. 2 years per game is more than enough. Like it used to be on 360 and ps2. Games are way too huge now

 

[Fafalada]

Crunch is inevitable because human beings are most productive working under pressure and against deadline.

Working under pressure is a lot different from working 16+hrs days sustained over long period of time.
The latter is self destructive and harms productivity.

 

[Last Hearth]

I worked in finance and when I came there crunches was huge. We worked 16 hours for 2 weeks to get it done. But it was due to process was poor and data quality was abysmal. Didn't like it at all, so we spent some time, even crunching in non-reporting period when everyone was relaxing, fixing the process, calculations, quality of data and self-checks. And in the end I was the person whom people hate the most - I left job casually with "good luck guys" as my part just didn't need any crunching anymore.
Now I work on the other side, the side that point out mistakes and make finance people crunch, and things remain the same. Finance so busy crunching so they left little strength to improve and optimize, making it a death loop.


Actually opposite, productivity falls sharply after 6-8 hours of extensive mental works.
But it's really inevitable as people do have tendency to slack off and push things to the last minute making crunch the only viable solution.

Yes, but crunch is probably the only time you get 6-8 hours of extensive mental work, most people will only do 2-3 hours when not under pressure.

 

[James0007]

Corporate crunch, absolutely.

But small teams of passionate dudes sleeping under their desks in the 80's & 90's, burning with a love and passion for what they're creating. Let them knock themselves out with whatever makes them happy.

Those are the people that brought the industry where it is today - and as the roof of the industry catches on fire & investors split off left and right chasing AI or whatever the next fad is - they'll be the same people still sat there eating pizza at 2am living their best lives like a 90's LAN party.

Long live the artists!

 

[StreetsofBeige]

It'd be interesting how widespread crunch really is in gaming.

The stereotypical image is a game is in its final year of dev and every person at the office is working 14 hour days and bringing a sleeping bag to their cubicle where it ruins their relationship with their spouse. Who knows. Some companies probably do that, some dont. And ones who do, nobody knows how much extra hours they put in and which roles do it.