Infinity Blade 2 dev Chair 'burnt out' after crunch

Infinity Blade II developer Chair Entertainment had to "death march kill ourselves" to release the iOS game today, co-founder Donald Mustard has said. "We definitely won't do that again," he said, calling it "not really good... for the longevity of our st

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Infinity Blade II developer Chair Entertainment had to "death march kill ourselves" to release the iOS game today, co-founder Donald Mustard has said. "We definitely won't do that again," he said, calling the long months of crunch "not really good... for the longevity of our studio."

Chair made Infinity Blade II in only six months, Mustard said. But "it required for us, for the last two or three months, to just death march kill ourselves." He explained, "We don't look at that like that's a good thing at all. We only did it because we definitely, passionately wanted to get the game done, and we wanted a little more in there."

"I think in retrospect, having done it twice, that our development cycles are a little too short," he told Gamasutra. Not that the games are less polished because of it, but we're way more burnt out because, in order to make II feel the experience it needed to be, required way more crunching than is effective. I mean, guys are just working so many hours, doing so much, and that's not really good, I think, for the longevity of our studio."

"We definitely won't do that again," Mustard said. "It's not worth the cost. I would rather take an extra two or three months than burn the guys out, or burn even me out. It doesn't allow enough time to sit there and let the game breathe."

'Crunching' to finish a game, working long hours and weekends for weeks or even months, is a standard industry practice, though not a popular or uncontroversial one.

When Team Bondi, the now-defunct developer of L.A. Noire, was under investigation for alleged excessive crunch, the International Game Developers Association declared, "Reports of 12-hour a day, lengthy crunch time, if true, are absolutely unacceptable and harmful to the individuals involved, the final product, and the industry as a whole."

It's easy to declare an end to painful crunch at your studio, but the real test for Chair will come when its next big deadline is looming.

Infinity Blade II is now available on iTunes for $6.99.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 1, 2011 7:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Infinity Blade 2 dev Chair 'burnt out' after crunch.

    Infinity Blade II developer Chair Entertainment had to "death march kill ourselves" to release the iOS game today, co-founder Donald Mustard has said. "We definitely won't do that again," he said, calling it "not really good... for the longevity of our st

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      December 1, 2011 7:02 AM

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      December 1, 2011 7:02 AM

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      December 1, 2011 7:03 AM

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      December 1, 2011 7:03 AM

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      December 1, 2011 7:04 AM

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      December 1, 2011 7:12 AM

      Why crunch for an ios game unless the last one didn't do very well? It's not like it had a hard release date like console games

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        December 1, 2011 7:31 AM

        [deleted]

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          December 1, 2011 8:13 AM

          From how it reads they were in crunch mode for half of the development cycle. That's just bad management. They should have seen it wasn't going to work in a 6 month cycle and pushed it back.

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            December 1, 2011 9:53 AM

            I feel like half of the game publishers/developers out there have bad management.

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        December 1, 2011 8:33 AM

        Whoever's paying for the game often makes the rules...

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        December 1, 2011 11:33 AM

        To release by Christmas I would assume.

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      December 1, 2011 7:12 AM

      Porting Shadow Complex to the PC or working on Shadow Complex 2 is what they should have been doing. Everything else is a waste of their time.

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      December 1, 2011 7:14 AM

      FBI got him. =/

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      December 1, 2011 7:15 AM

      The curious thing about the article is that Mustard doesn't give a reason why the deadline had to be 6 months. Do you think it was just a case of not wanting to burn their personal cash to pay staff for a bit longer or was it a mandate from Epic that it had to be out during the Christmas shopping season?

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        December 1, 2011 7:27 AM

        Yea I was going to say, why not just push it then? I guess they want in on the holiday push... lots of people will be getting new phones and tablets and iTunes gift cards as gifts.

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      December 1, 2011 7:17 AM

      It was CEO Mustard in the chair with gas.

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      December 1, 2011 7:17 AM

      Aww the fella fell asleep.

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      December 1, 2011 7:29 AM

      working on iOS game = 60mi march was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder.

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      December 1, 2011 7:30 AM

      Did 8 months of deathmarch crunch once. Will never do that again.

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        December 1, 2011 8:03 AM

        yup, same here.

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        December 1, 2011 8:08 AM

        ditto

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        December 1, 2011 8:20 AM

        so just so those of us not in the biz can understand - what do you consider normal working hours as a game developer and what do you consider deathmarch?

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          December 1, 2011 8:32 AM

          We shoot for 8-hour work days, with weekends off. It's understandable for the last couple weeks before a major milestone to have a bit of overtime. The term: "Death March" often implies that major overtime has been in effect for for more than eight weeks, and the developers' homes and families feel less familiar than their offices and coworkers.

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            December 1, 2011 8:53 AM

            I totally get deathmarch - I remember when my good friend was working on Anachronox and didn't leave the building for almost a month - now that was a deathmarch :)

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            December 1, 2011 9:11 AM

            If the team is consistently working overtime before a major milestone then why not plan for that beforehand? Like for those of us not in the business, we're always hearing you guys talk about crunch time on every project you have. Are the bosses not giving you enough time? Are they setting unrealistic target dates?

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              December 1, 2011 9:30 AM

              Not planning enough time is the rule, not the exception, mostly due to publisher demands or hitting a holiday release or a specific fiscal quarter. Plenty of Gamasutra op-ed articles on this.

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              December 1, 2011 9:47 AM

              Most of those come up at some point, and occasionally, you get all of it at once, which generally means no going home except for sleep (and sometimes not even that). Publishers (or whoever's funding the game) make unrealistic demands, sometimes with the quiet threat of suspending/canceling the project. "Hey, this 6-month project we're having you do... let's make it 5-months, so we can be ready for Christmas!" - "Hey, I know we're almost done with this game, but we really need to double the content."

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          December 1, 2011 8:34 AM

          normal basically 40 hours five days a week, with an occasional 50 hour work week. Deathmarch, 70-80 hours, 6-7 days a week.

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            December 1, 2011 8:49 AM

            really it's all about the sustained overtime that makes it a deathmarch. no end in sight, your home life is wrecked, your sleep patterns is wrecked, your personal life is wrecked mostly due to poor managament and producers that over promise and under plan.

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            December 1, 2011 9:44 AM

            So is that what working for EA is like?

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            December 1, 2011 10:24 AM

            So, a pretty normal work week in the developing world.

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              December 1, 2011 11:29 AM

              Yup, you've proven once again that Mexico and the rest of the world are superior to us lazy americans.

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          December 1, 2011 8:39 AM

          normal hours: 40-50
          death march: 80-100 sustained for more than 2 weeks.

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          December 1, 2011 8:41 AM

          This subthread is funny. Goes from 'a bit of overtime' to 70-80, to 80-100.

          Anyone want to bid 100-120?

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            December 1, 2011 9:04 AM

            169 hours/week!

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              December 1, 2011 9:05 AM

              Dammit ninjase, you ninja posted and outbid me by one hour. I bow to your 1227 5k|115

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            December 1, 2011 9:04 AM

            168 hours a week!

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            December 1, 2011 9:16 AM

            [deleted]

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            December 1, 2011 9:51 AM

            If we're going for records, I believe mine is around 115 hours in a week. Yeah, that's not enough spare time to have 8-hours of sleep every night. There was one all-nighter during that week, and a few where I had less than 7 hours in bed.

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          December 1, 2011 10:41 AM

          For me it was 12-16 hour days, 6-7 days a week and multiple weeks with no days off. Oh, and now that I remember, it was 9 months.

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            December 1, 2011 11:48 AM

            cool. thanks. I often go from 7 am until 9 pm with my job, but its a breakfast mtg, client mtgs, conf calls, a lunch, a networking event, and a client dinner. I'm a partner, so the time is expected, but by pure choice. That doesn't include the travel time as well.

            But except for conferences and sporting events with clients, I never work on the weekend. Ever.

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        December 1, 2011 9:49 AM

        Ditto. I would rather quit. I simply refuse to do it and I don't understand why more people don't do the same thing.

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          December 1, 2011 9:52 AM

          I was a newbie, with few contacts and barely a year of development experience.

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          December 1, 2011 10:14 AM

          I understand the traders who do 120 hour weeks sometimes, because the good ones have a shot at making millions after a few years.

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      December 1, 2011 7:47 AM

      I love chair but hate Infinity Blade, plz to be making Shadow Complex 2 now?!?!?

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      December 1, 2011 8:34 AM

      I realize this sort of thing is commonplace in the video game industry but I just can't play games that devs had to crunch months on end for. Any time I see a cool feature or awesome vista I just picture someone's spouse divorcing them.

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      December 1, 2011 8:54 AM

      I'd rather have seen Shadow Complex ported to iOS. I got to the end boss in Infinity Blade in about 15 minutes and never played it again.

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        December 1, 2011 9:13 AM

        You know you're supposed you have to keep trying till you kill him?

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      December 1, 2011 9:01 AM

      [deleted]

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      December 1, 2011 9:04 AM

      Shadow complex 2 (or DLC) would make me hook up my Xbox again!

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      December 1, 2011 9:27 AM

      Meanwhile, CliffyB is saying "the six- to eight-hour AAA console game might be going away": http://www.computerandvideogames.com/328100/triple-a-games-might-be-going-away-says-bleszinski/

      This is essentially Epic's elevator pitch, that they want to work on smaller projects. They hinted at four smaller projects in the works. But CliffyB proclaimed that PC gaming was in "disarray" in 2007, and is making similar claims now about the feasibility of next-gen AAA console games. So I guess that means that Epic only likes iOS now? Just kidding, but they need to say something to avoid the impression that they're starting on Infinity Blade 3 right now.

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      December 1, 2011 10:09 AM

      Stinky pickle?

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