The issue of crunch in the video game industry has been a hot topic for years, with many developers being criticized for overworking their staff in order to meet tight deadlines. Larian Studios, the developer behind Baldur’s Gate 3, is no exception to this trend. The director of the game, Swen Vincke, recently admitted that the studio did experience crunch during the development of the game. While he tried to downplay the severity of the crunch, the fact remains that it still occurred.
Vincke defended the crunch by stating that it was necessary to finish the sprawling Dungeons & Dragons CRPG. He claimed that unexpected events occurred during the development process that required the team to put in extra hours. While he emphasized that the crunch was less severe than on previous projects, it is still concerning that crunch was deemed necessary at all.
One point of note is that Vincke mentioned that the staff were paid for the overtime they put in. This is a positive step towards acknowledging the hard work of the team members. However, the issue of whether the compensation was truly fair compared to the amount of work put in remains unclear. It is also worth noting that while Vincke claimed that the studio’s building would be empty by 8pm, indicating a limit on working hours, the fact that any overtime was needed at all raises red flags.
Vincke tried to highlight the fact that Larian Studios made efforts to minimize crunch by utilizing their other studios around the world. This allowed developers to work across different time zones, ensuring that no one team had to work late into the night. While this may have helped to reduce the overall impact of crunch, the fact that any form of crunch was still necessary is a cause for concern.
While Larian Studios may have made improvements in their handling of crunch compared to past projects, the fact that crunch was still present in the development of Baldur’s Gate 3 is worrying. The video game industry as a whole needs to address the issue of overworking its employees in order to meet deadlines. Hopefully, Larian Studios and other developers will continue to find ways to eliminate crunch entirely from their development processes in the future.
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