Uncharted director criticizes triple-a development, says it can 'destroy people'

[GoOnKid]

potato_hamster said:

GoOnKid said:

I meant the second part of the comment. About releasing smaller games as well, not just AAA. I'm pretty sure the Zelda team, for example, works their damn asses off.

They all work their damn asses off. How about you go ask the guys at team meat how many hours they put into Super Meat Boy, or Phil Fish on Fez, or Jonathan Blow on Braid?

I bet you it's more than 80 hours a week, especially in the last 1/4 of their development process.

Just because you're on a smaller team or a smaller project doesn't mean you're not putting in disgusting amounts of time and effort. The only consolation being in those cases, those guys CHOSE to put in those hours, whereas working for any major publisher, they expect you to. In fact, in my experience, I put in more hours developing smaller, lower budget games than I did multi-million selling AAA games.

Again, that's just my experience though. In general, you're right, smaller projects tend to be less demanding.

So, is there any way out? Can anything be done? Who's to blame and what would be the solution? (I know it's not that easy and that multiple factors weigh in differently and after all it comes down to each specific game that is regarded, but I ask you anyway. You as an insider. What could put the pressure off?)