The Naughty Dog development studio has a reputation for producing first-rate games. He also has a reputation for working up to his employees. Naughty Dog co-chairs Evan Wells and Neil Druckmann recently sat down an extensive interview with Game informant in which both addressed concerns about endemic overwork in the study. His answers were … well, let’s face it, and I’m sure that will blow your mind, it looks like leadership doesn’t get it.
In the video game industry, the expected overtime is so widespread that there is a term for it: “crunchThe publisher of a game sets a deadline for the next version. The studio has to get it done. So the work is passed down the chain, largely to grassroots employees. Sometimes, crunch is mandatory.Other times, it’s the result of peer contagious pressure.You see how your head struggles until the bars close, or you see three other developers participating on Saturdays.Obviously, you’ll feel pressured to do a a little more work.You don’t want to be the weakest nexus, not in a discipline as competitive as game development (and certainly not in a studio as prestigious as Naughty Dog).
Naughty Dog is particularly prone to crunch. Time and time again, the company’s games can win prizes and sell billions of copies, but not in a cost. After the 2016 release Uncharted 4, a whirlwind 70 percent of non-major designers left the studio. How With cable recently noted, the typical turnover rate of the industry is about 15 percent.
Read more: While the naughty dog sinks The Last Of Us II, Developers are wondering how long this approach can last
Talking to Game informant for an article titled “Naughty by Nature,” Wells said he “personally worked very hard over the years” and that this persistent determination helped him climb the ladder of career as fast as he, a line of thought that implicitly says long hours and weekends the works fit into the culture of the Naughty Dog company. Typically, as anyone working in a competitive field can attest, these things come from the top.
G / O Media may receive a commission
Wells also said the studio has hired more directors and team leaders, noting that Naughty Dog conducts post-project evaluations to identify ways production could have been more efficient. Although, if you have to have a postmortem after every major release, these postmortem may not work as intended.
Druckmann, for his part, said the fight against widespread exhaustion at Naughty Dog requires a multidisciplinary approach and that the study hopes to deploy “working groups” to arrive at a system. As Druckmann says, there is no single solution. For example, some employees may find it “more convenient” to enter on a Sunday instead of a Friday.
“Everyone has a different definition of what crisis means,” Druckmann said. “We see that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Everyone has a unique situation that maybe we should address. “
When Game informant syndication emerged as one of those solutions, Wells rejected saying he hadn’t considered it much. So that absolutely nothing is lost in the translation, here is his complete answer:
I haven’t thought about it much. I don’t know if that would be a solution to the disorder. To the point of Neil making sure everyone can work as hard or as little as they want, we need to create an environment that allows it. If we had some kind of restriction in which when the clock goes out for 40 hours, the servers shut down and you can no longer work, that would frustrate people endlessly. There are people who really want to put on that extra polish of their own free will, and they would feel handcuffed.
May be syndication is the answer. Maybe it’s not. Although there are a lot of basic staff throughout the industry say it, this is not the point. What is key is that Wells is not “very thoughtful,” which is indicative, at best, of demoralizing toning deafness or, at worst, of a lack of consideration and ability to listen. its staff. Keeping the conversation going is always better than not.
For Wells, eliminating the notion altogether is a bad service to working employees who have demanded better working conditions and who have pointed to unionization as a potential solution.