Had my first encounter with a bear last night; never again. :’)
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Just killed my first legendary grizzly last night as well! The shotgun did the trick.
This game though! Fuuuuuuck! I’m not going to be able to make any music in a long fucking while. I feel like just stopping up, doing a 360 turn and just taking in the landscape wherever I am in this game. Imagine a VR version of this game! Sheeeeeeet, I wouldn’t be found in the real world ever again. It’s stunning!
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This game is exactly what I wanted it to be based on what I remember from the first game… Gorgeous, immersive environments and great writing/character interactions.
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“Wow, those 100 hour work weeks really paid off”
Best comment, I think was “the beatings will continue until horse physics improve”
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Rockstar was in full damage control mode a few days ago, but more evidence keeps emerging that their company culture is truly toxic.
That said… Really enjoying the game so far. Also lol at this
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I’ve been in the video game industry for 3 years and I have yet to see/hear of such a detailed and large-in-scope product being pushed out without major crunches. Hell, my team crunches just as hard, and we’re making casual games. I hope the whole fiasco sheds more onto the industry as a whole and more developers begin to express their discontent.
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I’m nearly 30 years making games , I’m burnt out and have taken a year off so far , unsure what to do next but I need to start earning again soon.
Rockstar seems quite harsh though , I’ve never worked there .
The reports of crunch are pretty awful, but the game itself is absolutely astounding.
As much as I like the game and even though I‘m a cynic at heart, it‘s disturbing that it‘s been built on the backs of countless people and their families who will neither get the time back they lost in crunch mode nor will they get their fair share of the profits RDR2 will create.
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Yeah I have lots of friends who work in videogames and it’s awful how pervasive and soul-destroying the crunch mentality is, and how it’s simply considered normal in the industry. Something really needs to change.
No chance id give any job that amount of my time. The amount of £££ they make of RDR2 should be able to have more staff to do the job.
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I’ve been an avid Retro Gamer reader for years now and the amount of times there is an interview with someone involved with games across the years, even way back to the C64 days, were the comment on mammoth hours to meet mad deadlines is pretty outrageous. Definitely seems an industry norm.
Having said that, there are some who have commented on feeling that the crunch was worthwhile for bonus/monetary reasons as well as self satisfaction in seeing the end product being enjoyed by so many. It’s not unusual to see the Rockstar North guys out on a massive blowout in Ediburgh from time to time.
It must truly blow to work through the crunch only for the finished game to remain a piece of shit that gets critically and commercially panned!
Well, a lot of games go through several crunch periods only to get cancelled entirely. That is not uncommon. And the staff work through it with a lot of uncertainty and stress, not knowing if the next review is going to see their hard work canned and themselves out of a job.
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Just sayin’.
It’s not normal in other professions, just sayin’.
This game is incredible. They did not reinvent the wheel but there is so much love for detail. Everything is naturally animated (everything!).
I had a bad conscience on some missions 
not done with story mode but I cant wait for the online multiplayer to release
People are all ready making the best of the super awesome graphic engine… Drawing penises in the hyper realistic snow. Whats not to like 
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At my first in house job in 1990 I saw a coder finally burn out , he couldn’t take any more pressure to finish a game in time for a big football tournament
I’ve done many late nights , weekends , ‘extra effort’ for what can last for months , … we had monthly deadlines so typically the last week if each month was working late .
At the end pre alpha , alpha , beta , release candidate , gold , day1 patch , day1 dlc , dlc , etc etc it can continue.
It’s often the entire team but towards the end it can be code , engine , audio and QA departments doing long hours , the art side normally gets quite strict in term if changing things .
Code teams may employ a 2nd coder to authenticate the changes , and each change list is evaluated to judge potential impact on code base and the impact on size of update
I was mostly production in the last few projects , we’d be asked to open the office / lock up , call people into the office if bugs came in at the end of a project , calling each person , going through the issue with them…
Often the team feel the need to plough through , pull together … in addition to bonuses , we did get paid leave for weeks , lots of food , i’m Not sure it evens out … some team members don’t seem to be effected by it , actually enjoying their work and doing it from home , some definately suffer from health issues , lose touch with family , friends , split from partners … perhaps no different from many jobs …
The idea that making games is ‘fun’ can be true , but it’s a big business and once a publisher commits to a street date , have purchased self space , stores allocated a slot for particular big games , booked advertising , secured magazine covers , trailers etc… 100million + just on advertising for the launch week… it’s all out to hit the deadline even if there has been years of development …those years are not easy going.
It’s hard work , multiple platforms , multiple territories , lots of hardware profiles to check ,
I’ve enjoyed it a great deal , felt a great deal of satisfaction with the work I’ve been part of , but the flip side can be as low as the highs.
And once shipped … it’s on to the next , likely to be bigger , more realistic , more demanding , more years .
When I started I’d get 3 in 4 games released in a yearv(c64/spectrum etc) , anyone on AAA consoled dev at the moment might be lucky with 1 game every 3 to 4 years if they’re lucky to avoid games that get cancelled and close down studios.
But I know vfx , movies also have periods of sleeping under the desk.
This might explain my expectation that synth firmware QA could be done better , some aspects are easy in the scheme of things to check but still seem to get out into the wild , often I’ve seen things instantly that are wrong , but I’ve been in a work environment where attention to detail and experience has caused me to expect better.
To balance that , I hope synth developers aren’t working weekends .
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Thanks for the insight! It’s really interesting to read.
I work in Finance - it too can have ridiculous hours but I’ve finally struck a balance and a role that I generally don’t need to. I’m happy to not chase the promotions or bonuses - it’s not worth it really. What goods a few extra £’s if I’m too knackered or not around to spend it on my family?!
Anyway, veering off topic. It’s certainly struck a chord when I play my next game. I will pick up RDR2 soon. My other half is away this weekend - sounds like an ideal time… But Dark Souls on Switch has me hooked.!