If he/she answers anything except: “Get the right people in the right positions; then, get out of their way and just manage the risk factors,” then you probably want to think about looking elsewhere.

In other words: trust your people to do what they say they will and create an open atmosphere where they will TELL you if they can’t do it. If you do that, if you treat them like adults, they will move heaven and earth to make their own schedule and commitments. With the right people in place, you don’t have to worry about an official crunch policy; they will do what they say they are going to do and, barring unforeseen calamities, you don’t have to worry about it. They will set a schedule that will get it done.

We did crunch time ONCE for a monthly update for the AC franchise when I was with the project. We actually got less done than the team did on their own schedules, so that ‘management tool’ got dumped.

In fact, the joke after that was that we needed to do a crunch every quarter, just so Eric – who would normally put in a 12 hour day anyway – could get some rest, :-).

I believe the combination off less-than-stellar management practices intersecting with dreamers who never get practical is the root of many “crunch until you die” situations. Unfortunately game companies continue to hire managers for silly reasons such as they once worked at Blizzard, are friends with someone on the current management team, or because they’re a shameless self-promoting credits-quester (yep, I’ve known a few). Since management cultures aren’t turning around soon, the only way to combat “endless crunch” is by getting practical.

Getting practical means cutting back on the scope and features of the product until you CAN do it with the resources available. Resources available the current staff, working 40 hrs per week to the latest deadline. Creative directors and producers MUST sacrifice some of their sacred cows. Refusal to slaughter and eat the sacred cows is the foremost reason for both endless crunch, game project cancellation and company bankruptcy. If you de-scope the product at least you’ll get SOMETHING launched. If you keep pursuing the hopeless dream there is very real chance the whole thing will collapse before anything is launched.

Ask the management you talk with at a game company about the project scope they’ve reduced and the features they’ve cut to get past games out the door, or have already made on the current project. What they say in response will be very enlightening.