Ryse Crunch Angers Developers

Twitter went mad

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E3 2013
E3 2013
Crytek has made a bold and probably ill-advised move by glibly tweeting on the Ryse: Son Of Rome Twitter account about the number of meals the dev team has missed through the game's crunch period.

The Twitter account joked about the team working through 11,500 of their lunch breaks throughout the development process as well as "working into the nights" to ensure the game was shipped on time.

Because of this, dozens of developers lashed out using the hashtag #RyseFacts to get their point across that it was poor project management and planning, and theft of developers personal time.

A few tweets in particular stood out - one from game artist, Tanya Kan who posted: "So much for being progressive, moving the industry forward with good management and work-life balance practices."

She continued "While crunches are endemic for the entire industry, that tone of pride is galling, twisted against health of creatives."

Loel Phelps, Senior Designer at Maxis added, "Family and Health should always come first. I've seen first hand people hospitalized and friends divorced over crunch"

Another came from Proletariat CEO Seth Sivak, who said "At best crunch shows our inability to control our passion and at worst it is forced labor. Never something to brag about."

What are your thoughts on the situation? Are development crunches acceptable? Tell us in the comments!

Source: Develop
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Comments

config 17 Oct 2013 06:45
1/1
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
It's seems only two minutes since the whole EA_Spouse think kicked off.
Have management learned nothing, not least that this not something to brag about?
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