Why do people crunch?

I was asked by a friend an colleague: "why do people crunch"? This is not an easy one to answer. I suppose for everyone it is a little different, and is often based on the person themself, their attitude, personality and history. For me, I usually enjoy the work, and like the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment when all is said and done (to a point). There are others who will feel it is their duty and responsibility to complete a task to the best of their ability. Others still will fear the consequences if they do not get their work done, and for many it is likely a different combination of all of these responses (and more).

What a crunch can be, is a way of finally pushing the efforts of your labor out into the real world. It can be a symbol of pride to get your work out there, and to finally see it stand by itself. It is hopefully something to be proud of, to feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of what was achieved (often the more difficult projects are the most rewarding in the end). Hopefully along the way you have gelled with the other developers and created a great and fun team.

The opposite end of the spectrum is a situation where whips crack, and people yell. Where all of your blood, sweat and tears is just going towards making someone else richer, and everyone on the team feels that way. While some overtime is almost always expected with any sort of programming job, a ridiculous work schedule should not be accepted for any job. Do what you can, and make sure that whatever you do, you work as a team. Making games should be fun, if it is not, something is going seriously wrong.

Best of luck,
Michael Hubbard,
http://michaelhubbard.ca