Scheduling Sanely

How much of a say do developers have in their schedules?

- Xalavier Nelson Jr

I’m talking to Jake Birkett of Grey Alien Games, developer of Regency Solitaire and upcoming card-based RPG Shadowhand. “It occurred the day after I had done some kind of crunch until 5 am,” he says. “I got up in the morning and crawled under my desk to switch the plugs on, and my back went out. I’m just in my early 40s now.”

In a blog post from 2015, creative director Clint Hocking said the 80-hour weeks he worked during the development of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory “gave me brain damage”. Whether or not crunch time is necessary to release a game ‘on time’ is a perennial topic in game development circles. The web connecting contractors, publishers, platform holders and developers that determines how release dates are decided upon, and whether they actually get met, is obscured behind a cloud of non-disclosure agreements. When you throw the possibility of community-enraging delays into this potent mix, it quickly becomes apparent how developing a schedule that allows you to make an excellent game, while taking care of yourself and launching in a reasonable period of time, is far more complicated than it might initially appear.