Cyberpunk 2077 - Development More Humane

CD Project Red promises in an interview with Kotaku to be more humane to the devs in crunch-time:

As Cyberpunk 2077 Development Intensifies, CD Projekt Red Pledges To Be 'More Humane' To Its Workers

Footage of the upcoming role-playing game Cyberpunk 2077 has blown away fans so far, but coupled with that hype is a burning question: Are workers at CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio behind the game, ruining their lives to make it? The developer best known for The Witcher series has cultivated a reputation for crunch--asking its employees to work nights and weekends for weeks or months at a time--but studio management now tells Kotaku they want to improve their work-life balance, even if they continue to feel that crunch is a necessity.

"We're known--let me be humble for a moment here--we are known for treating gamers with respect," said Marcin Iwiński, the company's co-founder, in an interview with Kotaku this week. "This is what we've been working hard toward. And I actually would [like] for us to also be known for treating developers with respect."
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A fairly extraordinary phrase to apply to a work environment.

Devs at Red only get one shovel hit to the head per hour, so its better now.

One per hour… To produce one hit shovelware wonder, right?

Oh boo hoo. Hard work never hurt anybody. If some people don't want to work hard or do long hours, perhaps the gaming industry is not for them. I'm pretty sure Poland doesn't have slavery and these people can quit their jobs if they find it too stressful. The Navy Seals reject a huge percentage of their applicants, who just don't make the cut, maybe CD Project Red should be considered the Navy Seals developer of rpg gaming…

Originally Posted by Ripper
A fairly extraordinary phrase to apply to a work environment.

Yeah, especially considering it is bad business to have overly tired employees; and even more so in a business where concentration is so important to avoid costly bug hunting (or a terrible release).

Considering how many free passes they are given by their supporters, them taking a public declaration about changes means work conditions must have been pretty bad.

They would not have bothered otherwise considering the blind support their supporters grace them with.

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
Oh boo hoo. Hard work never hurt anybody. If some people don't want to work hard or do long hours, perhaps the gaming industry is not for them.

Hard work maims, hard work cripples, hard work kills.

The perception that hard work is being active for long hours has appeared lately, from the same period of time that led people to consider dog eat dog when it was known before that dog does not eat dog.

Up to that period, hard work was perceived relatively to the yield. Work is hard when it yields little. So little it can not yield enough to offset the loss because of work.

It had been the perception for millenia.
Spending long hours hunting, gathering food etc when fauna and flora are abundant was not perceived hard work, it was perceived as a gift.

Hard work was spending long hours for a meager rabbit, a couple of roots.

People did not consider spending long hours to accumulate excess. They also knew dog does not eat dog.

Take the time to do it right, including not burning out your employees. The customers (we) suffer from having a game delayed, but I am okay with that considering the alternatives.

The only reason we're reading about this goes all the way back to the development of Witcher III. Anyway crunch is a necessary evil in the gaming industry, and nothing new.

As for the article it's Jason Schreier of Kotaku nuff said.

The problem with Cyberpunk 2077 was announcing to early in 2012 and starting development years later. So save the bullshit about more delays being necessary.

So the author did not collect an answer from the studio, he made it up.

Work conditions must have been very bad considering the buffer this studio's supporters are prone to set.

At least, these guys have now an excuse to explain why black people's skins do not represent all the ways black people's skins can be.
They were not allowed to push their employees enough.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
The only reason we're reading about this goes all the way back to the development of Witcher III. Anyway crunch is a necessary evil in the gaming industry, and nothing new.

To a degree, but there are different "types" of crunch. When it's two extra weeks of implementing something new that would elevate your game, is very different from lead designers going back'n'forth on core design ( last few games from Bioware).
There is a very interesting blog from one of their former devs who described his experience, I recommend reading ( as relative newcomer in industry):

http://mystartupfails.notecompanion….e-dark-part-1/

( Ironically, he ended up "crunching" years of developing his ( 100%) personal projects and did not end up finishing either)

It's also nothing new ( first Deus Ex is infamous for having difficult development), or something exclusive to "AAA".
I don't see how unionization would fix this, it seems in worst cases, problem with bad leadership/management that ( sometimes ) waste away years of development.
Seems large studios need to reorganize themselves and have better oversight on how their leads are performing…like with Bioware: nearly 5 years of development and they couldn't even come up with a name.

Apparently the law allows CDPR to have their employees work 13 hours a day maximum. In a week there has to be at least one period where they have 35 hours off. And the maximum amount of overtime (based on a normal working period of 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week) is 150 hours per year.
That makes it possible to have their employees work 6 days a week, 13 hours a day for 4 weeks in a row. That would result in a 78 hour working week.
I would categorize that in the unhealthy and inhumane category, so the question I would have is what CDPR would consider to be humane and healthy enough.

Besides that, crunch time is always the result of bad planning, so if your build it in from the start you already know your planning sucks.

Originally Posted by BoboTheMighty
I don't see how unionization would fix this…

It doesn't need to fix it, it just needs to threaten it and it'll get fixed by itself.
Just like the ongoing, although different, current sexist scandal within Riot Games.