Just read on the company's working conditions, from cogconnected :
“So my take on crunch at Naughty Dog: The truth is more gray than black-and-white,” said someone who worked at the studio for several years on multiple recent games. “There is no official mandate for crunch. There can be a significant amount of peer pressure, though. And that can include peer pressure from the people who are effectively your managers. Peer pressure comes from having a team of brilliant, talented, dedicated people working hard on a project together.”
According to the source, the remarkable talent at Naughty Dog can make someone want to work as hard as possible in order to meet the studio’s high standards. “That internal motivation drives a lot of the peer pressure,” they added.
“Naughty Dog doesn’t have much dedicated managerial structure,” the source continued. “But there are a few leads in each department. Leads are both peers and managers. They do the same work as everyone else, and also run the department and have significant input into performance reviews. Being human, they may participate in the peer pressure… not always, but sometimes.”
“In my experience, the ones I worked with tried not to, but there were times it happened anyway,” they said. “I’m sure that different departments, led by different people, might have different experiences.”
Additionally, the source also said that they “received some flak and feedback” for not frequently working extra hours throughout a game’s development.
“So while crunch is not required, it’s not discouraged either, and managers may participate in the peer pressure,” the source said. “And allowances are made to encourage it — most notably dinners, and sometimes decisions being made in the off-hours, so if you’re not there, you’re not part of the decision.”
When asked about their work hours, they said that they tried to work “40-50 hours” a week but at specific points in development those work hours would increase.
“During the last three to six months of a project [my hours] would slowly creep up toward 60 or 70 hours depending on how much was on fire,” they explained. “Some people would do way more than that, which I thought was unhealthy.”
“The truth [is] they don’t tell you that you have to work X amount of hours,” the developer said. “But you have to get your work done. And the amount of work is just impossible for any person. It is just way too much. And if you don’t hit the goals you will be fired. So I guess you don’t have much of a choice.”
The developer also claimed that they were reprimanded for missing a weekend shift and, in a different instance, for not working “at least 14 hour days”. This was despite completing their “well done” work on time, the developer told COGconnected.
“I called Sony HR once (they have a hotline) asking what was this all about and they just ignored me [saying], ‘You will get used to Naughty Dog’s way of doing things,’” they said.
While the hours can be grueling, another source points out that Naughty Dog takes care of its employees by offering catering, food trucks, and paid meals.
According to one QA tester, the normal workweek goes from 10AM-10PM, but that can go up to midnight or 1 AM. Additionally, some people worked 24-hour shifts towards the final seven weeks of Uncharted 4‘s development, which lead to no life for the testers outside of work.
“I think this is one of the biggest issues there,” they said. “People keep working until 1 AM on these projects and no one from upper management seemed to make even the slightest effort to say that we shouldn’t do this.”
“While it certainly wasn’t ideal, it was also very exciting, and I never felt that any of my co-workers were punished or retaliated against if they did not work the increased hours,” the source said. “It’s my view that crunch at Naughty Dog is ultimately a by-product of the company culture.”
“You are surrounded by talented, passionate, people who focus on making the best possible product and you become inspired by that to devote all of your time and energy into your work,” the source continued. “This is not to say that this is a healthy process, but I think how much someone is ‘forced’ to work is up to the individual.” The source mentioned that working more than 60 hours was optional and said that “developers in other departments were empowered to set their own schedules [while] QA schedules were set by the department leads.”
The source also said that multiple co-workers had “quit and several suffered physically and/or mentally during crunch.”
“After crunch ended, it took some time for me to readjust to normal life but I was grateful for the experience, although unsure if I would ever want to go through another crunch,” they concluded.
“So my take on crunch at Naughty Dog: The truth is more gray than black-and-white,” said someone who worked at the studio for several years on multiple recent games. “There is no official mandate for crunch. There can be a significant amount of peer pressure, though. And that can include peer pressure from the people who are effectively your managers. Peer pressure comes from having a team of brilliant, talented, dedicated people working hard on a project together.”
According to the source, the remarkable talent at Naughty Dog can make someone want to work as hard as possible in order to meet the studio’s high standards. “That internal motivation drives a lot of the peer pressure,” they added.
“Naughty Dog doesn’t have much dedicated managerial structure,” the source continued. “But there are a few leads in each department. Leads are both peers and managers. They do the same work as everyone else, and also run the department and have significant input into performance reviews. Being human, they may participate in the peer pressure… not always, but sometimes.”
“In my experience, the ones I worked with tried not to, but there were times it happened anyway,” they said. “I’m sure that different departments, led by different people, might have different experiences.”
Additionally, the source also said that they “received some flak and feedback” for not frequently working extra hours throughout a game’s development.
“So while crunch is not required, it’s not discouraged either, and managers may participate in the peer pressure,” the source said. “And allowances are made to encourage it — most notably dinners, and sometimes decisions being made in the off-hours, so if you’re not there, you’re not part of the decision.”
When asked about their work hours, they said that they tried to work “40-50 hours” a week but at specific points in development those work hours would increase.
“During the last three to six months of a project [my hours] would slowly creep up toward 60 or 70 hours depending on how much was on fire,” they explained. “Some people would do way more than that, which I thought was unhealthy.”
“The truth [is] they don’t tell you that you have to work X amount of hours,” the developer said. “But you have to get your work done. And the amount of work is just impossible for any person. It is just way too much. And if you don’t hit the goals you will be fired. So I guess you don’t have much of a choice.”
The developer also claimed that they were reprimanded for missing a weekend shift and, in a different instance, for not working “at least 14 hour days”. This was despite completing their “well done” work on time, the developer told COGconnected.
“I called Sony HR once (they have a hotline) asking what was this all about and they just ignored me [saying], ‘You will get used to Naughty Dog’s way of doing things,’” they said.
While the hours can be grueling, another source points out that Naughty Dog takes care of its employees by offering catering, food trucks, and paid meals.
According to one QA tester, the normal workweek goes from 10AM-10PM, but that can go up to midnight or 1 AM. Additionally, some people worked 24-hour shifts towards the final seven weeks of Uncharted 4‘s development, which lead to no life for the testers outside of work.
“I think this is one of the biggest issues there,” they said. “People keep working until 1 AM on these projects and no one from upper management seemed to make even the slightest effort to say that we shouldn’t do this.”
“While it certainly wasn’t ideal, it was also very exciting, and I never felt that any of my co-workers were punished or retaliated against if they did not work the increased hours,” the source said. “It’s my view that crunch at Naughty Dog is ultimately a by-product of the company culture.”
“You are surrounded by talented, passionate, people who focus on making the best possible product and you become inspired by that to devote all of your time and energy into your work,” the source continued. “This is not to say that this is a healthy process, but I think how much someone is ‘forced’ to work is up to the individual.” The source mentioned that working more than 60 hours was optional and said that “developers in other departments were empowered to set their own schedules [while] QA schedules were set by the department leads.”
The source also said that multiple co-workers had “quit and several suffered physically and/or mentally during crunch.”
“After crunch ended, it took some time for me to readjust to normal life but I was grateful for the experience, although unsure if I would ever want to go through another crunch,” they concluded.
