Yesterday a former Naughty Dog employee Jonathan Cooper shared his reasoning for departing from the studio, once again sparking the age-old discussion of crunch time in the video game industry.
I’ve heard of these crunches in the past, how employees are expected to work ungodly hours to complete a game on time. And each time this topic comes up, people throw their hands in the air in disgust, only to forget about it a week later. I’m serious, this discussion will go on for another week and afterward, people will move unto other things that are trending.
If they really cared they wouldn’t purchase a game from a company that encourages so a horrible work environment. However, that’s not the world we live in. Jonathan Cooper shared what he’s learned during his time with Naughty Dog and while his experience has been fine, the same can not be said for his fellow co-workers who are animators for Naughty Dog
When I left Naughty Dog late last year they threatened to withhold my final paycheck until I signed additional paperwork stating I wouldn't share their production practices. They finally relented when I assured them that was most likely illegal…
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 12, 2020
For the demo shown last September, the gameplay animators crunched more than I've ever seen and required weeks of recovery afterwards. One good friend of mine was hospitalised at that time due to overwork. He still had over half a year to go. There have been others since.
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 12, 2020
While super-talented, they lacked the technical/design knowhow to assemble scenes. Similarly, the design team ballooned with juniors to make up for the attrition of key roles. Every aspect of finishing this game took much longer due to the lack of game experience on the team.
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 12, 2020
Contract work is a huge part of the LA ecosystem to ship large games. Unlike game design, there is a thriving animation industry here and seasoned animators can (often) choose their projects. Most of the contract story animators quit last year.
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 12, 2020
There are ND stories worse than this but like everything on my twitter I'm focusing on animation. For TLOU2 fans, the game should turn out great with industry-leading animation. I would just not recommend anyone work at Naughty Dog until they prioritise talent-retention.
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 12, 2020
Ultimately, ND's linear games have a formula and they focus-test the shit out of them. While talented, their success is due in large part to Sony's deep pockets funding delays rather than skill alone. A more senior team would have shipped TLOU2 a year ago.
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 12, 2020
I was surprised to learn just how bad it was at Naughty Dog. From senior/junior ratio being out of wack to the game been released a year before, it sounds like working for Naughty Dog is hell. I was also surprised to hear that Naughty Dog had to hire actually filmmaker because no one from the gaming industry wants to work there. It seems their troubles are more deep-rooted than I initially thought.
If this type of work environment keeps up, the gaming industry might suffer a great collapse. The question now is how do we fix it? It was made clear during the interview that crunch time is not enforced or mandatory but peer pressured. You can leave when your shift is up, but if your colleagues are staying back to work on a game, you’ll either feel guilty or shunned by your peers, and no one wants that. I’ve heard talks unionizing but that clearly hasn’t happened yet.
I thought maybe not announcing the date for their games, or the game itself would help levitate the pressures of trying to meet the deadline, however, investors are a thing and they want to know what a studio is doing. It’s a tough situation that’s for sure, but one that needs to be addressed.
Early I mentioned how people who are outraged about crunch should likely not purchase the games if they feel that the practice is unethical, however that too wouldn’t do much, but in fact, it could be devastating for the lives who work in that company. They could lose their jobs if the studio is not profitable and some people have families. The only “solution” I could think of is to do what Nintendo is doing.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I haven’t heard any bad news when it comes to working hours over at Nintendo. I know people make fun of Nintendo games (don’t know why cuz they awesome), but Nintendo seems to have it locked down when it comes to handling working hours for game development. Maybe take a page from them and adjust if needed.
Crunch time is something that just happens. It’s not great but sometimes it can’t be avoided, however, it is handled and compensated for accordingly then at least it’s a start. Let me know what you guys think about all this!
