10 Biggest Misconceptions You Have About Video Game Developers

Quite possibly popularised by the likes of Riot and Rockstar, who all but gloated about the overworking of their respective staff pools, the idea of working 100-hour weeks consistently is not only terrifying, but completely unsustainable.

When I was in my twenties, I found myself in a self-destructive cycle of overworking in the games industry. It was a truly dark time for me, and literally almost ended me, and at my absolute worst time, I was “only” working around 85 hours (though you could argue, working from home might push that number up - not something I’m proud of).

To work 100-hour weeks, you need to be doing a minimum of fifteen hours a day, with no time off. Given how mentally draining game development is, and that it’s recommended you take a break every four hours, it suddenly becomes clear that this is a crazy thing to brag about.

It’s partly the fault of the normalisation of crunch (a term used to describe short, super-intense work sessions normally used to finish a tricky sprint of work off), which has now become a completely regular part of working in the industry, but we now have the return of the “death march” - what happens in game development when crunch has to be sustained indefinitely (normally because of an impending release and poor planning), until the project is finally finished.

We don’t all work 100-hour weeks, and if you ever see a company bragging about how they’re crunching super-hard “to bring you, our loyal customers, what you want”, tell them to get a grip - it’s a pretty crapadocious thing to boast about.