[apeescape]

I'm just a regular web dev outside the gaming industry, but crunch is a concept that's occasionally present in any project work; I'm sure many HN readers are familiar with it from their own work too.

When you have a deadline to meet, sometimes you need to go into crunch mode to get things done. Of course the crunch mode should last no more than a week or maybe two, otherwise you risk burning out. After crunch mode there should be a slow period where you take some time off or work on something not urgent at all.

[merlindru]

yes but the compensation part is the problem

An 80h week should not be compensated the same as two 40h weeks

[estetlinus]

Actually, one hour of overtime should cost twice as much, if not more. When I worked on movie sets, hour 1-8 was ordinary pay. Hour 8-12 was 1/5 of the daily pay an hour, hour 12-15 1/3 of daily pay an hour and so on. This forced production companies to front load effort on planning.

[bigmadshoe]

In the case of crunch in the video game industry, an 80 hour week is compensated the same as one 40 hour week