Game Dev: Fear the almighty crunch time

Well so far there where not really many game development posts, I guess something like zero. So I will change that now and make at least one. So for the moment I will focus on crunch time, please note this is a generell view and in no way connected to the company where I work (you know NDA if you don't know maybe thats something for another post).

So why did I choose crunch time for the post? That's easy many developers are talking about it in interviews that they had 4 month crunch time on game XYZ, but I'm not sure if people who don't work in the business work really know what that means and to make clear that it is not some 24 hours per day fun paradise working world. Of course the Job is also fun and being creative and working with a lot of nice great people together, but it is also hard work and nothing proves that more then crunch time. I take now as example for this 4 month crunch time (I likely never had 4 month crunch time maybe maximum 2 month).

So whats crunch time exactly? To put it short it is usually the lovely time before the Gold candidate, sometimes it can be also for a short time during the project if there is a important submission to publisher or console manufacturer near. To make sure they get a good alpha or beta build to show in what direction the game is going. Besides from that the crunch time is normally before the final build. Thats like the time where it is clear that the time is running out and still a lot needs to be done on the game to make it good, stable and/or pass the submission (if it is a console game). Of course you could change the release date, but the thing is even if the game will get a later release that there will be crunch time. Normally the developer would not only use the extra time to fix issue and also keep on improving the game or adding new features. As long as the version seems good an acceptable a few month before the gold version deadline the release date will not change and crunch time kicks in.

For a Developer direct crunch time means most of the staff will get a lot of overtime that can even mean working until midnight. I had the lucky experience to even be able to work until 5 a.m. a few times when I was in Vienna. Apart from the overtime during the week there is also weekend work that means weeks without a free day. At all basically the people are almost living in the office and are only at home to have a show and sleep. Bigger Developers have even shifts so some people are working day shift and others night shift because the amount of energy needed for crunch time is high. It's sometimes not only to work longer and instead also to work faster.

From a Publisher QA tester point of view it's a bit more “relaxing”. One of the reasons can be the build, as example the build is not stable. If the build does not work proper or even does not launch you can send the people home especially for localization testers. There are several QA teams in action one of them is the developer QA team, then there might be a technical QA team from the publisher and then they can have also a localization QA team. Besides of that there can be several smaller QA teams for special use depending on the Publisher size and structure. As localization QA tester you don't feel much of the crunch, mainly the weekend work. You avoid to have to much overtime during the week (maybe 2 or 3 hours more each day) especially if the developer is on another continent it takes a long time to get a new build. A lot of the overtime is then made on the weekend or let's say extended week. Even on Publisher or Outsourcing side you can get a lot of overtime, I'm used to work 4-6 weeks, if needed even more, without a free day (don't know how it works at activision I just started there).

What I can say from my experience is that crunch time is different from company to company and between Developer and Publisher. Small Developer studios are less organized and shorter notice of overtime or a bit more “chaotic” during the crunch time and sometimes to many bigger changes on the game before important deadlines. On the Publisher side crunch time is not that bad, at least as QA tester. In generell big companies have it a little bit easier due to there experience and more organized handling, as example making day and night shifts. Crunch time uses a lot of energy and you get fast tiered, but sometimes it makes people more motivated to get the project done and with a good team and good/nice people around you it is only half as bad. So the industry is not only easy work where you have always fun, or like as QA you can play the whole day a game and get paid for it. Of course you have fun, but more with the people around you and not with the game. You can end up working one year on the same game every day. Even with games that are not bad and shorter work time on it like FF12 (had only a few month to work on that), well they are not fun after finishing the game for the tenth time.

At all crunch time is no fun and if you see some developer say they had what ever amount of month crunch time, I hope you know now what that means for the people and what they have sacrificed during that time.

So long I`m going now to watch Lost in Translation

Mass Effect the game send from hell take 725

Here we go again with my lovely friend from yesterday who talked about Mass Effect and all the pornographic content the game would have. This time he tries to correct his article, well more or less. The Problem is just he does not really tries to set all the things, which are not true, right. Instead of that he is more and more trying to offend gamers and spreed his untrue comments. The only god thing for his at the moment that I didn't work on the game, although I tested it once for a view hours and found one bug. Also normally such persons should be ignored because the air that they need to live is hits on there websites and being in the news, just like all time favorit Jack Thompson. But there are some things where I have really to comment on it as example the first sentence is great:

The Gamer-Nerd universe exploded in anger over the tone and a couple of the specifics of my most recent column, "The 'Sex Box' Race for President."

Well one thing that this person (sorry forgot the name and not worth to remember so he=this person) really likes to do in the correction is the use of Game-Nerd. Usually thats not offensive as long as it comes from someone who has any clue about anything, well this person does not have any clue about anything. No gamers where not angry because of the tone or “couple” of the specifics, they where just angry because everything in the column was wrong and/or completely made up.

The corrections of the person:

1. "The most realistic sex acts..." - from the YouTube footage I saw, I still concur, to me these acts are the most realistic put in video games - that I have seen. In the lesbian version one woman's hand appears to stimulate the crotch of the other passing between the legs. Today many of the more perv-oriented gamer-nerds took delight in describing for me the detailed description of games they claim are MORE realistic... Ok fine, I'll take them at their word, but for me the statement stands...

Ok first of all better don`t try Fahrenheit or Hot Coffee mod for San Andreas otherwise his head will explode, or well maybe he should give the game a try. Sure a hand that is not visible could not do anything else, maybe she is scratching here own ass? Thats like assuming in a very cloudy night where the moon is without any indication where the moon could be. Here we go again the nice term gamer-nerd, a normal gamer would do it and would not offend people (last PlayStation 2 sale numbers 130 million or something like that and they are all “game-nerds”)

2. "One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images..." Evidently the only thing I got wrong on this was the breast size, though I would like someone to explain to me how the female characters end up having different sizes again on the YouTube footage I witnessed with my own eyes... But the rest of it was true. race, hair style, color - etc.

How evil is that you can change race, hair style, colour and so on, that game needs to be band and all copies put in a rocket and send to the sun. Reminds me my hair is already to long and I need a new hair cut and maybe some different colour this time. Especially for the race thing, thats a very important point of the game and the game showed how humans are usually responding to different cultures (in the game Aliens).

3. "...the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of." Again true (not that there are that many combinations of human sexuality to begin with.) But since the makers of Mass Effect decided to throw in a little alien booty both hetero and homo it seems to me that they covered the range. Would these gamer-nerds have preferred that the game included bestiality? Later in the column I make a reference to being able to perform sex acts, homo and hetero, with whomever... Ok - you can't have sex with every single character in the game... But between copulating with Aliens, girl on girl, guy on girl, and according to my gamer-nerd friends who I checked with - it does not take a great deal of manipulation to add a few extra "kinks" to the mix for those who know a little bit about such things.

Well I can think of quite a lot of different things between humans that are connected with sex, so I might send the person maybe a Karmasutra book so he can find out that there are more then one or two things you can do with your partner or one night stand or what ever the prefers if he even have ever meet a woman. Wow “my gamer-nerd friends” I wonder how long those people will be his “friends” in fact I guess I would punch him in the face and no the game can not be manipulated it is not a PC version.

4. They (the gamer-nerds) also took outrageous umbrage to the claims I made in the column that the game is marketed to teen-age boys. (Though many of those giving me feedback happened to be under the age of 17/18.) The common argument is that because the game is marked "M" that means that no kid under 17/18 (depending on your state) would be allowed access to it...

That part is a bit longer, but the short version is retailers are selling it to kids under the assigned age. To go fast through that, Game Developers are free to do what they want, when they want and how they want in there games. If the retailers are not checking for the right age it's there fault besides of that Xbox 360 and also PS3 has parental control systems implement. So to speak age rating is printed on the disc and parents can set up the console that it will only play games that are for kids up to 12 years or what ever they want. It is they duty of parents to check what there kids are doing and not the responsibility of game developers.

5. The major criticism the Gamer-Nerds had for me in their reaction was this challenge: "Unless you've spent the 20 hours of game time it takes to get to the explicit scenes, keep your fat mouth shut!" Many challenges stated that unless I played it myself then I had no business pointing out its objectionably content. Would they say the same of a strip club at the end of their block or hookers knocking at their door? (Well maybe sexually repressed gamer-nerds would...) Normal people would not. There is an innate instinct that tells us right from wrong, it's called a conscience. Did I play the game? No. Did I talk to some gamers who had and who knew the possibilities of the game. Yes! Does it make the lesbian, alien, hetero, homo sex that a player arrives at in the game a proper thing for teenagers to be tantalized by? Absolutely not!

What could I say to that? I heard someone in the tram talking today that GTA IV is coming out tomorrow for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PSP and NES so that must be true right? I better go and post a news about the release. I wouldn't have also no problem with hookers (they can also be lesbian and two or more) knocking on my door as long as it is not 4 in the morning and they would wake me up, because I have to be fit for work so I can help destroying the human civilisation as we know it by working on games. Don't know about the US, but at least in Austria you learn at school about sex when you are something like 12 or 13.

He makes also some statement about Blue channels on Europe TV stations. I don't know what he means, but I'm proud to be from Europe so I'm at least not from the same nation as this person. Still the problem is we are both human and apparently still somehow connected even if I don't like that.

"The real point of the piece was however to say that in the election coming up the next President will preside over a society that does more to push the envelope than any that have come before it..."

"God didn't design it that way..."

At least one point where I can only say yes even because of a different meaning. I really hope the next US president is more open to games and not like some stupid and clueless person who likes to lie about Mass Effect. Also the thing with god, I don't believe in god, sure if he really exists he would punish such ignorant persons who think there way is the only and true way. On the other side if he exists he has e good sense for jokes. Why? Because he created this person who wrote the article so he must have a very good sense of humor because he created a good joke there. At the end games are a form of art one where creativity is needed, like with movies and music (remember Rock and Roll that it would be evil?) the circle of life is repeating it self. Gamers are easy to bash at the moment like other art forms before, but sooner or later people will realise the truth and I hope the first president who grow up with games will come soon.

So long and god bless the USA, they really need that.

The cake is a lie, but that Mass Effect "article" is a even bigger lie

To be precise that lie has biblical proportion and once more it is coming from some very, very, very, very stupid person. I really wonder if Bioware could sue such person who talk crap that is completely made up. One of the comments in the "article":

It's called "Mass Effect" and it allows its players - universally male no doubt - to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived. One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of.

First of all where can I get that awsome version of Mass Effect? Second if anything in the "article" is right (by the way it is 54 inch HD LCD screen and not LCD, 54 inch screen, HD and I want to see where kids get such a screen I even have only 22 inch screen) kids are coming from the stork and I'm Santa Claus, or for the German speaking people "Das Christkind", and Elvis is still alive hanging around in the Bat cave with Superman and Stalin. There is a lot more in his "article" about Mass Effect and how much porn would be in it. It is already so bad that you could really laugh a lot about it especially if you have played the game. Besides of all that stupid comments that where made since Mass Effect was released, first parents are responsible for what there kids are playing and second I'm sure they don't care about virtual Characters if they have internet. I really start to like Manhunt 2 more and more, not only because a bit of the game was made in Vienna, also because Manhunt 2 is something where the Developers did not care about what non gamers will say about it. I only wonder how long it will take until German politicians are starting also with that crap, because usually they are the first to start with such stupid comments.

Link to the article --> Here

Link to the only scene in the whole game (almost at the end of the game) that makes that game so pornographic --> Here

So long and buy Mass Effect for your kids