By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
IcaroRibeiro on 30 August 2025
Edit Thread
curl-6 said:
sc94597 said:

If the systematic incentives of the organizations you are part of are designed that way, then one's capacity to push back is very limited. If the decision makers (mostly executives) are saying "do x" you're not going to get very far in saying "we can't do x." That's a quick path to unemployment. Your best bet is to say "in order to do x we need n resources" and the response would be one of the following: "oh then don't do x, it's not worth the cost of n resources", "oh then we will provide n resources", or most likely "why can't you do x without n resources? Why isn't n-m resources enough?" In organizations that fail at achieving their goals, usually it is the third response. The developers in this situation are making a rational decision, "save my job for now, maybe be able to achieve x without n resources, and if not -- deal with that when we get there." 

This is how software engineering in a for-profit system works in almost any organization, but its very much exacerbated in video game software companies. 

If you have to make impossible promises to keep your job, then you should probably leave that workplace for your own good.

Such conduct can only continue as long as people tolerate it.

If we do that, we would all be doing anything else with our life other than working with technology. Late-project crunches and keep repeating cycle of oversized escopes are fundamental part of a programmers life. Best no mistake it happens in everything companies, even the healthier ones. Just yesterday I finished in 7 months with a escope that needed at least 12. It was extremely intense and the team is all but exhausted. Have everything planned worked? Of course not! But we delivered a minimum viable product nonetheless 

It's an already expected part of our career, kinda. Software is really hard to estimate, and is a more hand-made/manufacturer kinda of job, so how long something takes to develop will dramatically vary 

For software engineering we can, close to deadlines, stop developing some adjacent features to focus on more core/critical ones. Games absolutely do this also, but the results tend to be more evident/jarring because sometimes content cannot be cut completely, we can see some areas/levels being pretty barebones as a possible result of deadlines finishing

Truth is software engineering is easier to plan and better to work if we think of it as service instead of product. A product needs a clear cut and release date, with a defined and specific and fixed escope and a place to start and finish. You can add some stuff later, sure, but it can't be big or major

This might work in something like a movie that takes 2 hours, but for games... nah. Some developers mitigate this doing things like early acess, to varying degrees of success