Indie studios showing that crunch-free games are possible

In 2019, Cyberpunk 2077 Developer CD Prozac Red – and, in particular, co-founder Marcin Iwski – made the grand promise that its employees would not be forced to “crunch”. Crunch is a ubiquitous term in the video game industry, a stand-in term used to describe weeks, months, or years when developers work long, grueling hours to complete a game.

Iwiski said at the time, in an interview with Kotaku, that he wanted the company “to be known for treating developers with respect.” But there is a duality between that historical public perception (albeit, now lost) and how the company’s workers are treated. As it turns out, that goodwill – which the company has eventually lost – did not extend to its own employees.

Iwi mandatoryski said that crunch was not mandatory, but on developers Cyberpunk 2077 Said otherwise: that the culture involved in the company made Iwaski’s promise impossible.

Such practice has a long history in the video game industry. For some time, grueling hours were considered normal – an alleged “necessary evil” for the launch of any successful game. There have been a few studios over the years that are arrogant in this regard: Rockstar Games, BioWare and Naughty Dog, among many others. But there is a different way, and smaller studios are quietly implementing policies and structures to prove that a new model is possible – one that focuses on labor rights and employee health.

“Indie developers are usually trail blazers, showing what can and should be done,” Crien Coats, Crispy Creative co-founder, told Reporter Door. “And then AAA follows.”

With Crispy Creative, Coats has not been prevented from being open about its labor practices – even after seeing the promise of CD Prozac and failing at the same thing. Of course, the scale is much smaller than the hundreds of people who work Cyberpunk 2077Crispy creative than A long journey to an uncertain end. Kot is the only full-time employee, leading a team of about eight contract employees.

But this is a beginning, a way for Coat and Crispy Creative to create a studio on a platform that is different, one where labor and workers’ rights are considered and respected. in A long journey to an uncertain end The press kit, Crispy Creative, carries the message that “Crispy Creative was founded to deliver outstanding games and experiences, as well as to take creative risks other studios can get away with. A healthy without crunch All while applying work / life balance

Kot said, ‘If you set things right, initially, it becomes very easy. “As opposed to changing the ship some big studios are facing – changing the company’s culture is really difficult.”

Coats pointed to policies that highlight these tests, including paying prospective workers or contract workers for design tests. This is not common in the video game industry or elsewhere.

“It’s not as scary as people think,” Cot said, noting that companies sometimes hesitated to “waste” precious dollars that might be needed elsewhere. “There was a hesitation on my end, because I was like, ‘We are a small studio. We are self-funded. How can we pay? We had more than 100 people apply.’ But all those worries The ones I had were not revealed. The applicants felt more appreciated and valued for this.

“It’s going to come down to dollars and cents. People need to keep the lights on, ”he continued. “There are ways to keep the lights on and still make great games and not burn people left and right. It is happening slowly, slowly. “

Hadis And Turret Developer SuperGiant Games is another company that has taken this approach to development, although it is not necessarily on a scale up to a thousand-person studio. Employees of the company, including studio director Aamir Rao and designer Greg Kasavin, have been vocal about work / life balance at SuperGiant. In an interview with Kosaku, Kasavin said that Supergiant prioritizes “stability” for its employees – the formulation and tweaking of policies to grow and shift things.

For example, Rao told Kotaku that Supergiant has an unlimited time-to-time policy. This is a lucrative policy, yes, but Rao said it created “invisible pressure” on developers to continue working. Rao said that to accommodate for the pressure, SuperGiant implemented a mandatory days policy: requiring employees to leave for a certain amount of time, and work emails starting at 5pm on Fridays each week To stop sending, Rao said.

Supergiant declined to be interviewed for this story.

Such practices, implemented by those in charge, are essential in transforming the video game industry and how its people are treated at the workplace. Although this is happening voluntarily in some studios, unionization is another way to keep employees accountable to their workplaces and push for that change.

Workers in Paradox Interactive, Stellaris The developer signed a collective bargaining agreement with 200 union members in 2020. (The union does not include global employees based in Sweden.)

“It sounds to me like we’re starting to see some momentum in the broader game industry,” Paradox Union representative Magne Skejran told Reporter Door in June 2020. “For example, a panel in the GDC about unionizing a few years ago. We believe that unions will have a better place for everyone in the long run to advocate for the health and rights of workers.”

Even without unions, the video game industry has seen that collective action works: In 2020, a group of writers contracted to do the work Lovestreak: Choose Your Romance The mobile app went on strike. Together, as Voltage organized workers, the group – made up of contract employees who do not have full-time staff protection – went on strike for 21 days to demand better pay.

And they won. The group worked with the Campaign for Digital Employees (CODE), an initiative with Communications Workers of American (CWA), to increase payroll and increase transparency between bosses and workers. CODE-CWA campaign chief Emma Kinma said it was the first successful employee strike in the history of the industry.

According to the numbers from the Game Developers Conference Survey, support for unionization continues. In 2019, 47% of developers supported the association’s efforts, although 16% were against it. For an industry that has had a notorious anti-union for much of its history, the forces leading to collective bargaining are encouraging. This is an industry-wide shift that will benefit marginal employees.

But unionization is not the only way. Some small owners of medium-sized game development studios are wholly owners, rather than acting as a worker-owned collective. In recent years, these studios have been formed: Skull Developers Future Club is one. GNOG Developer and Lara Croft Go: The Mirror of Spirits Ally KO_OP is another in Canada. There is Dead cells Developer Motion Twin, too – although the game is now controlled by a separate studio, Evil Empire. Another is The Glory Society, created by the former Night in the woods Developers.

“We were part of the more standardized workplace model and they were not for lack of better words,” Scott Benson of the Glory Society told Reporter Door. “Like we all have jobs, and they should be controlled democratically. Workers doing the actual work, they should control the workplace and direct it instead of one or a few owners. Really as simple as that. “

Operating as a co-operation, at least for The Glory Society, means that traditional power structures do not exist; All activists share that power. It’s not something that solves every problem, but it “gives a better foundation and gives you a better toolset,” Benson said.

Wren Farrer, another activist at The Glory Society, said that structure makes development organic: “Much more to figuring out creative solutions as a team than tackling an entire ladder of hierarchy to gain acceptance on a basic basis.” There is space. Change or idea. “

Another activist at The Glory Society, Mint, gave an example: “As a programmer, this allows me to put more emphasis on decisions involving technical components, especially when they need programming work.”

When structures are moved to power workers, they are able to decide on the work they are doing – and this leads to better work. type The production of these types of structures of the game is different.

As reported by The Glory Society, John Wilinski also said, “By witnessing so many of my peers, I believe to be more assertive that things will just move on from here.” “In my view, working towards a future of healthy working conditions and reasonable expectations of creatives will only promote more quality art.”