more, AAA studios are often
beholden to shareholders – who can
be much less understanding than
players. “Hitting quarterly revenue
targets becomes the measure of
business health, versus the health of
the teams or the quality of the
products,” van Lierop says.
But, as we’ve seen before, players
can influence whether or not
developers ruin their health and
home lives, even at the highest levels
- by voting with their wallets. “What
we need in games is more of a ‘blood
diamonds’ concept – societal
pressure that acknowledges the
human cost of a product should be
part of how we measure its
value,” van Lierop says. “Until
consumer sentiment changes and
people stop buying games made
under unhealthy working conditions,
nothing will fundamentally change
around crunch.”
“Even if it would make no
difference for the final product, the
fact that it makes people unhappy,
unhealthy, and takes so much time off
their lives is more than enough
reason to end the whole practice
once and for all,” Nijman says.
“Instead of saying, ‘Not destroying
the Amazon Rainforest is good for
the economy,’ people need to realiseFREE-RANGE GAMES The best work of the devs we interviewed
that we shouldn’t be destroying the
Amazon anyway.”
Play Minit today, and you’ll find it
filled with places and people the
team encountered while out living
their lives, not staring into a monitor.
“Spending time not working is
important to fuel that,” Nijman
explains. “There’s a quote floating
around somewhere that there are
two types of poets: those who try,
try, try and squeeze and eventually
get their words on the page, and
those who live life and sometimes
poetry happens. I want to keep
designing games like that second
group of poets.”MARS HORIZON
Basically your own NASA control room. Auroch’s management sim is friendlier than
Kerbal but deeper than space itself.MINIT
In this Zelda-like adventure, your lives last only 60 seconds. It’s a typically intense
and giddy concept from Vlambeer’s Jan Willem Nijman.THE LONG DARK
“Your endless struggle to keep the Grim Reaper at arm’s length is enormously
rewarding,” said PC Gamer’s Andy Kelly of Hinterland’s chilly survival game.JOHN WICK HEX
Put together with the input of Hollywood fight choreographers, this is turn-based
tactics at its most stylish.Let’s Kill Crunch
FE ATURE
LEF T: Bithell’s
breakthrough hit
Thomas Was Alone
was made purely in
his evenings and
weekends.
RIGHT: Volume is an
underrated Bithell
Games stealth sim.