Derek Paxton on Development Crunch

That was an interesting read. Thanks for posting.

One of the many reasons I like Stardock so much: they value their staff and games over release dates.

Good find - thank you for posting it.

That article says in a nutshell why Stardock are so good at what they do. They Take Ownership Good or Bad, they look after their Developers, and predicate Release Dates on finished Games, not selfish Shareholder driven dribble......

..... and their Gamers love 'em for it.

It isn't rocket science, its just sad when so many Corporate Driven Games Houses let their Paymasters get away with murder on this.

It helps a lot that Stardock is privately owned (mostly, if not entirely, by Brad).  Companies whose stock is publicly traded often don't have that luxury.  

Well it's not like most of those game shops have much of a choice.  Their "paymasters" own the game shop, and as such have the legal right to dictate whatever release date (and/or demand "crunching" from their employees whenever) they please.  It's often not smart how they go about things, but it would be unfair to blame the developers for "letting" the company get away with it -- their only real choices are comply, or be out of a job. 

What a great read.  I've stayed away from the forums For too long.  I am so glad there are companies like Stardock around

Indeed, what a great read. Especially the tagline - “The money takes care of itself when you make a great game. Take the time to do that.”

Love Stardock and they may be one of the few companies that get it.

But the industry reality for all of the development industries is that crunch does exist and it is certainly usually occurring on mismanaged code projects.  But, it also happens due to scope creep and trying to implement last minute changes well into the 23rd hour.

So much truth there.