by Tommy Delp | published Jan. 11th, 2020. Illustration by Hannah Wertz. Is the crunch culture rooted in just CD Projekt Red? ... During 'crunch' periods in the games industry, many individuals work upwards of 40 hours a week Crunch occurs in a cultural context where employers have a skewed relationship with health and the well-being of employees. As an incubator for C&G's mission, design for culture, our monthly internal workshop series, Culture Crunch, explores big questions. Little do they realize they actually hurt production in the long run only to gain a minute amount of immediate productivity. If crunch culture is a problem across Rockstar, then at Rockstar Lincoln, it appears to be an epidemic. Phrases that get thrown around a lot in discussions about the video games industry are “crunch culture”, “crunch time”, and “crunch crisis”. The crunch has been a common trend plaguing the video game industry for quite some time. What is culture? But what is crunch in video games? What relationship do people have with culture? Crunch culture is a symptom of the growing problem all over the US/CA : management & executives forcing producers to work harder, for longer, and with little extra compensation. 'Crunch culture' is a term given to the practice of working long, intensive hours in order to make sure a game is ready by its release. Crunch Culture: How Game Development Becomes Toxic. Crunchbase is the leading destination for company insights from early-stage startups to the Fortune 1000. Get insights into your competition. But “crunch culture,” the expectation to push yourself harder than normal to meet a deadline, has marred the game’s hype. Uncover startup trends, get company funding data. How does culture unlock relevance? As a word of In this brief blog post we’re going to gather up a lot of the thinking about it, and give our perspective. 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