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[Lady Jane]

Well they can start making games that don't feel like a second job. That could help.

 

[MP!]

they need to adjust their scope

 

[Evil Calvin]

GTA 3, GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas, GTA4 were all made in 7 years

But making 1 game in 5 years without crunch is easy. Just takes enough people and good management and roadmap.

Crunch is normal though. Everyone just cries about it now. All jobs do OT. If you don't like it, or are surprised by it, then get a 9-5 job elsewhere.

 

[FloatingIslands]

Adopt continuous delivery.

 

[kyussman]

Remove all the fucking useless bloat games have these days.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Yes. A.I.

 

[IndianaJack]

I think this gets to the larger issue of what should a game be?

 

[Dane]

im not a game developer obviously, but i think most of the time game progress hault is not due to bugs but bad plannings, like changing of game features/game engines half way, overconfident etc....

Nintendo does a mini-version of this sometimes. They don't make the entire game in primitive form, but they seem to lock down most of the gameplay very early - without even deciding what IP they're using first.



It always blows my mind when you see stuff like Final Fantasy XV where they're trying to get the core gameplay loop to work at the very end.

This is how you can shorter development time. A major problem in western studios is that they can't lock down the content at pre production early on, many games languish in years of pre prod then during the full production they start to change most stuff , if not basically scrapping what they had settled in (Cyberpunk 2077) which makes into a hellhole where staff knows it can't be developed to the intended vision in a short time.

Overwatch for example reused the content from the cancelled Titan MMO, but they developed the entire codebase and assets from day zero to release in just two and half years, when the game was announced they only had roughly 13 months of development and considered releasing it right there, they instead decided to work on it for one and half year more to increase the content as a paid game, the shortest announcement to release for a blizzard game.

 

[Droxcy]

Focus on the core gameplay loop & mechanics. (It's difficult in NA because of so many influences on a game studio it's stupid and unnecessary) - That's why I like Docs studio Midnight Society starting from the ground up and doesn't have anyone telling them how to make their game regardless of how you feel about NFTS that's a great business model for employees and a studio. (HIGHLY DEPENDS ON WHO AND WHAT STUDIO - Looking at you 343 )

Make sure department teams & leads communicate (accurate and useful information). Too many places I've seen where a week is filled with dogshit meetings instead of working. Take a quick walk to their desk or a quick teams message. Keep standups in the morning & EOD short. Trust me I'm fun to work with lol, I know when to fuck off and slack, and when it's time to work you're head down grinding till it's complete. I don't think most people operate like that anymore.

Hiring talent that has the ability to take on the tasks at hand and not because of "hiring quotas" and HR mumbo-jumbo.

List could go on and on

 

[Hendrick's]

That can't really. Unless they are essentially using the same engine and reusing assets and game mechanics.