Show notes
Long hours before a launch have been treated as normal in games for decades. Studio director Elif Kaya explains how her twenty-person team has shipped three games without asking anyone to work weekends.
On this page
In the video game industry, there is a word that every developer knows and most dread: crunch. It describes the long stretches of extended hours — sometimes lasting months — that teams have often been expected to work in the run-up to a launch. For years, it was treated as an unavoidable part of making games.
Elif Kaya disagrees. She runs a twenty-person independent studio that has shipped three well-received games in eight years, and she says nobody on her team has been asked to work a weekend in that time. In this episode, she explains how — and why she thinks the rest of the industry could do the same.
In this episode
- 00:00 — Elif's first crunch, and why she swore never again
- 07:30 — Where crunch actually comes from
- 15:00 — Scope: the decision that matters most
- 24:15 — Cutting features you love
- 32:40 — Planning for the unknown
- 39:20 — What publishers and players can do
- 45:10 — Elif's advice for young developers
Where crunch comes from
Elif's view is that crunch is rarely the result of laziness or bad luck. It is the result of decisions made months or years earlier: promising too much, planning too optimistically and treating a release date as immovable while treating the feature list as flexible only in one direction — upwards.
"Crunch is a planning failure that gets paid for by the people with the least power to prevent it," she says.
"If your plan only works when everyone works weekends, it isn't a plan. It's a hope."
Scope is everything
The single biggest factor in her studio's approach, she says, is scope. Before production starts, the team defines a small, clear core experience — the thing the game must do well — and builds that first. Every additional feature is ranked. When the schedule gets tight, as it always does, features are cut from the bottom of the list, not squeezed in by working longer.
She admits this is painful. Her team has cut entire levels, characters and systems they loved. "Some of my favourite ideas are sitting in a folder called 'next time,'" she says. "A few of them made it into the sequel. Most of them never will. That's fine."
Planning for the unknown
Game development involves a great deal of uncertainty. You can't know whether a mechanic is fun until you've built it, and building it may reveal that it isn't. Elif's studio plans for this explicitly, leaving a substantial buffer in every schedule for things that go wrong.
"New studios plan for the work they can see," she says. "Experienced studios plan for the work they can't."
What everyone else can do
Maya asks what players and publishers can do to help. Elif's answer is direct:
- Publishers can agree to realistic schedules and be willing to move dates when needed.
- Players can be patient with delays, which are often a sign of a studio protecting its team.
- Studios can share how they work, openly, so that healthy practices become normal rather than exceptional.
Advice for young developers
Elif's final advice, aimed at people starting out in the industry:
- Ask about crunch in interviews. A studio's answer tells you a lot.
- Finish small projects before attempting big ones.
- Learn to estimate, then double your estimates.
- Remember that the game will be finished one day, and you'll still need your health.
Key takeaways
- Crunch is a planning failure. It's usually the result of over-promising and optimistic schedules made months earlier.
- Define the core first. Decide what the game must do well, build that and treat everything else as optional.
- Rank every feature. When time runs short, cut from the bottom of the list rather than asking people to work longer.
- Cutting is painful but healthy. Ideas that don't make it can live in a 'next time' folder — and sometimes a sequel.
- Plan for the work you can't see. Experienced studios build substantial buffers into every schedule for discoveries and setbacks.
- Everyone has a role. Publishers can accept realistic dates, players can be patient with delays and studios can share how they work.
- Rested teams make better games. Fatigue leads to bugs and poorer decisions; going home on time is part of quality.
Transcript excerpt
Maya: Does avoiding crunch make games worse?
Elif: I'd argue the opposite. Tired people make worse decisions. They introduce bugs. They stop playtesting with fresh eyes. Our games aren't good despite people going home on time. They're good partly because of it.
About our guest
Elif Kaya is the founder and studio director of a twenty-person independent games studio. Before starting her own company, she spent nine years at larger studios, working in production and design on several well-known titles. Her studio has released three games, including a narrative puzzle game that won a number of independent awards. She speaks regularly at industry events about sustainable production, and she is, in her words, "an evangelist for going home at six." She still playtests every build herself.
Credits
Signal is hosted by Maya Chen and Daniel Osei. Daniel was away this week; Maya hosted solo.