Profilerte Amy Hennig, som jobbet hos Naughty Dog i mange år og var sentral i utviklingen av Uncharted-serien, holder for tiden på med et Star Wars-prosjekt for EA-studioet Visceral Games. I likhet med Uncharted-spillene er dette prosjektet trolig et såkalt AAA-spill, men det kan virke som Hennig har bestemt seg for å ta det mer med ro fremover.
I podcasten til Idle Thumbs forklarer hun nemlig at utvikling av storspill rett og slett ikke er verdt det:
- The whole time I was at Naughty Dog - ten and a half years - I probably, on average, I don't know if I ever worked less than 80 hours a week. There were exceptions where it was like "Okay, let's take a couple of days off", but I pretty much worked seven days a week, at least 12 hours a day, kommenterer Hennig.
Hun nevner også at Naughty Dag er ekstra kravstore på dette området:
- A lot of the team was there. I mean, Naughty Dog is pretty notorious for the amount of crunch, but obviously in a leadership role you try and do even more. You may not be hands-on with the game as much, but you're writing, you're reviewing stuff. Maybe you're working with the composer, reviewing the music, giving them notes. It's like being a film director.
Til slutt reflekterer hun rundt hvorvidt all innsatsen har vært verdt det når alt kommer til, og beklageligvis er svaret nei:
- I don't think so. There's people who never go home and see their families. They have children who are growing up without seeing them. I didn't have my own kids. I sort of chose my career in lots of ways, and I could be single-minded like that. When I was making sacrifices, did it affect my family? Yes, but it was primarily affecting me and I could make that choice. But when I look at other people... I mean, my health really declined, and I had to take care of myself, because it was, like, bad. And there were people who, you know, collapsed, or had to go and check themselves in somewhere when one of these games were done. Or they got divorced. That's not okay, any of that. None of this is worth that.
Trist lesning. La oss håpe arbeidsforholdene hos Visceral er bedre, så får heller vi spillere tåle en utsettelse eller to.