We’re only a few days away from returning to the ripping and tearing of demons in the classic id Software FPS series with DOOM Eternal. People have worked on this, and no doubt there’s been tons and tons of crunch (overtime) put into this spectacle of violence– and the game’s creative director is all about it, in what’s sure to be something of a controversial point of view.
In an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Hugo Martin seemed to suggest that he loved the crunch, not even looking at the excessive overtime as crunch in the traditional way. He likens making games to more of a lifestyle, and his passion for making something like DOOM drives him to actively want to work more and consume as much pop culture as possible. He even says he’s not forced to crunch- he just wants to go the extra mile because of his passion.
“It’s not really crunch… this is going to sound hokey. It’s like a lifestyle. I live and breathe this,” Martin said. “No one makes me stay at the office,” he said. “Even when I come home, I see my kids, I do my thing, and then I just do research.”
“You have to ingest a ton of it, which means [this job] is 24/7,” he continued. “I get up really early; I try to do the exercise thing … then I come home, send the kids to school. Then I have about two hours where the house is empty and I’ll just play games.”
Crunch has become something of a hot button topic in gaming in recent years, especially due to reports, such as the recent one on developer Naughty Dogs’ allegedly insane crunch culture. While Martin isn’t endorsing these long crunch hours per se here, it’s at least not an issue for him. Whether his team would agree or not is another matter.