The grind

[onji]

As a developer how often do you guys have to grind to get assets, maps, or deliverables complete?

I haven't worked in the industry, but it's I'm going to try and break in sometime this year. I'm working about 35hrs/week for my day job, and I'm doing maybe 30-33hrs/week on my folio. I usually take a day off twice a month.

Do you guys think working 60-70 hours a week is productive to the project, or maybe quality starts to decrease somewhere after the 50-60hrs/week mark?

[Sentura]

i guess it depends on what you do and how much you enjoy doing what you do. for me i usually stay later doing more because i enjoy it when i don't have other appointments. i think if you're at the point where you think it becomes a grind then maybe you're not entirely doing what you really want to do.

[insta]

I grind in the Bottomless Burrows 3 days a week for a sword of +5 layout, so that i can further grind 24/7 at Oh God Please Plains for the Skullcap of +2 Hygiene +30% Chance of casting Funny Jokes +10% Chance What do we call ourselves Gangster Squad You cant shoot me You are a cop Not anymore The American Dream I was just hoping to take you to bed.

Haha no but not really, don't work too much overtime, your output will be excrement, holla at a minority!

[insta]

Haha I'm a real joker! A JESTER!!!!

[insta]

[onji]

..... So you're saying I should equip a more flamboyant red hat.

[Chimeray]

It depends a lot from game studio to game studio. And even game teams inside the same studio... and even individual positions.

So it's hard to say, one thing is sure though... everyone will eventually crunch in their career (Unless you work at Valve, although I've heard they crunch for fun as well if they feel like staying late...).

I mean, there's definitely people that don't HAVE to crunch but just do because they like to. Some days you're just on fire and don't want to go home

Edited January 13, 2013 by Chimeray

[2d-chris]

I crunch for fun, but by crunch I mean working later with people because we want to So when the work starts getting a bit boring we stop crunching. Depends on allot of factors. Typically I give a big push early on in development when whiteboxing and prototyping.

[Minos]

Yeah it highly depends on the studio you work at. I can stay late now whenever I feel like or when I'm having fun with what I'm doing but on the previous studio I worked I never really cared because:

* Overtime was usually unpaid and when it was paid the rules were never clear

* Overtime was usually a result of piss poor planning by other people

* Personal reasons (for example, some of the stuff I was more passionate about and actually did some crunch on was cut from the game due to stupid decisions)

I believe one should never crunch for free unless they work at their own company. By crunch I mean consistently working long workdays for a long period of time. Staying late to finish something you feel passionate about every now and then is fine imo.

Sometimes it's not as simple as just refusing to stay though, specially if it's your first job in the industry, so use your best judgement and what fits your case

[onji]

That's really cool that some of you guys are doing the crunch for fun. I'm also finding it's a lot easier to continue for long hours when the work is good.

Yeah it highly depends on the studio you work at. I can stay late now whenever I feel like or when I'm having fun with what I'm doing but on the previous studio I worked I never really cared because:

* Overtime was usually unpaid and when it was paid the rules were never clear

* Overtime was usually a result of piss poor planning by other people

* Personal reasons (for example, some of the stuff I was more passionate about and actually did some crunch on was cut from the game due to stupid decisions)

I believe one should never crunch for free unless they work at their own company. By crunch I mean consistently working long workdays for a long period of time. Staying late to finish something you feel passionate about every now and then is fine imo.

Sometimes it's not as simple as just refusing to stay though, specially if it's your first job in the industry, so use your best judgement and what fits your case

You *can* stay late now? Did you have a boss before that actually said you couldn't work late?

[AlexM]

I've been lucky enough to have all my jobs (except 1) that required me to grind pay me by the hour. So when I did grind (sometimes would work for 20 hours straight if there was a deadline) I got a lot of money that month.

That said the majority of the jobs I've had have had little to no grind. I've worked mainly on social games, educational games, artificial intelligence and robotics as a programmer though so take that into account. I've only worked 2 jobs as an artist.

Edited January 14, 2013 by AlexM