As part of a panel at the DICE executive summit in Las Vegas, Insomniac co-founder Ted Price discussed quality of life and his own personal breakthroughs in setting an example in easing back on his overwork.
Talking to fellow panelists Mike Capps of Epic and Frank Pearce of Blizzard, Price explained how he learned important lessons when completing Spyro 2 and feeling negative about the future of his Southern California developer. He felt his overwork was affecting his own life and colleagues, and noted: "I stopped working weekends... if you say that in this industry, you're kind of a loser."
But he realized that as a result of the change he himself made, "people in the office seemed to be a lot calmer." They were feeling less pressure, partly because their boss was setting a good example.
Price noted: "It's inevitable in a creative industry... we have so much passion that people are going to work really hard." But the challenge is not to make enough peer or elder pressure that people work 365 days a year, and to set a good example yourself - something that the CEO of the Ratchet & Clank creators feels he is now doing.
Later, asked about how you run game development teams when there may be a few people in there who are "poisoning the well," Price suggested: "Sometimes you have to just be brutally honest with yourself."
If there's a couple of people on the team that aren't working, it's up to the leaders to take action. When they don't, "we do everybody a dis-service." And if people aren't happy, and perhaps have an alternative agenda, it might be that "you're not giving them something that keeps them motivated."
As for Insomniac's ethos in recent years, Price explained that "we're constantly re-evaluating who we are," but the thing that's stuck with him over time is simply "collaboration." Over almost 20 years, the Spyro and Resistance creator has also emphasized transparency: things go so much better if "people aren't freaking out over things that really may not be a problem."
I think aside from getting out and enjoying life, just having the freedom to grow as a developer on your own time helps with motivation and creativity. To be given the time during the weekends to be at home, or not having to work crunch hours all the time has given me the opportunity to work on side projects. From my own experience, this has done more to motivate me to progress with my craft than burning me out due to an extended deathmarch.
I hope studios and managers would see the value in letting their developers live life outside of work.
Crunch does get an initial surge of work output, but the positive effects are short-lived. Extended crunch creates a burnt-out atmosphere where more mistakes are made and more effort needs to be put in to finish the product.
The only thing extended crunches serve in the industry is for a studio to be able to prove to the executive level that they are doing something about meeting a tight deadline. But it comes at the cost of health, talent, ability, and quality of the final product.
The 40-hour work week on average has been proven to have the most efficient output. This does not mean every week has to be 40 hours. Sometimes you need to put in more effort than an 8-hour day allows. But an 80-hour week is not doubling output. It is actually getting a marginal increase of output but now with twice the overhead.
Crunching is not a badge of honor. Pouring all of your creative energy into a game and shipping an excellent product is a badge of honor. I would rather put in a really hard Mon - Fri and recharge on the weekend, then work a seven day week.
Everyone knows how bad crunch actually is for productivity, but this has some really great statements, particularly:
- "But the challenge is not to make enough peer or elder pressure that people work 365 days a year, and to set a good example yourself"
- "And if people aren't happy, and perhaps have an alternative agenda, it might be that "you're not giving them something that keeps them motivated.""
It's not enough to tell you're employees that they don't have to crunch. You should be striving to create an environment where people are motivated to work as hard as they can, and then provide leadership that shows them how to maintain a healthy work/life balance.
The first step is for leadership to stand against crunching themselves. Then maybe we can learn to set realistic milestones/deadlines during development.
On the other hand it is a young persons medium. And creativity is also a young persons domain for the most part. And the young can work a lot more hours on average than old timers.
Notice that this guy is probably over 40 or close to it.
He is probably having somewhat of a middle age crisis if only some reflection and straightening out of priorities that comes with age.
And probably wonders why the hell he is spending 60+ hrs a week making Spyro for a bunch of brats er i mean kids and juves.
Btw it is funny how all the older designers always seem to say they are playing iPhone or DS games. They don't have time for the the types of games they are making.
"On the other hand it is a young persons medium. And creativity is also a young persons domain for the most part."
What utter BS. In Hollywood the best directors continue to improve into their 50s, 60s, and beyond, honing their craft to perfection. Are you telling me Clint Eastwood is not a great movie director?
Crunch-culture is a young persons game. If it drives the creative and experienced designers out of the business, more's the pity.
You get too insular working all the time.
I hope studios and managers would see the value in letting their developers live life outside of work.
The only thing extended crunches serve in the industry is for a studio to be able to prove to the executive level that they are doing something about meeting a tight deadline. But it comes at the cost of health, talent, ability, and quality of the final product.
The 40-hour work week on average has been proven to have the most efficient output. This does not mean every week has to be 40 hours. Sometimes you need to put in more effort than an 8-hour day allows. But an 80-hour week is not doubling output. It is actually getting a marginal increase of output but now with twice the overhead.
Crunching is not a badge of honor. Pouring all of your creative energy into a game and shipping an excellent product is a badge of honor. I would rather put in a really hard Mon - Fri and recharge on the weekend, then work a seven day week.
- "But the challenge is not to make enough peer or elder pressure that people work 365 days a year, and to set a good example yourself"
- "And if people aren't happy, and perhaps have an alternative agenda, it might be that "you're not giving them something that keeps them motivated.""
It's not enough to tell you're employees that they don't have to crunch. You should be striving to create an environment where people are motivated to work as hard as they can, and then provide leadership that shows them how to maintain a healthy work/life balance.
The first step is for leadership to stand against crunching themselves. Then maybe we can learn to set realistic milestones/deadlines during development.
Notice that this guy is probably over 40 or close to it.
He is probably having somewhat of a middle age crisis if only some reflection and straightening out of priorities that comes with age.
And probably wonders why the hell he is spending 60+ hrs a week making Spyro for a bunch of brats er i mean kids and juves.
Btw it is funny how all the older designers always seem to say they are playing iPhone or DS games. They don't have time for the the types of games they are making.
What utter BS. In Hollywood the best directors continue to improve into their 50s, 60s, and beyond, honing their craft to perfection. Are you telling me Clint Eastwood is not a great movie director?
Crunch-culture is a young persons game. If it drives the creative and experienced designers out of the business, more's the pity.