Mars Horizon is out now! 🚀

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5, 4, 3, 2, 1... LIFT OFF!🚀
Mars Horizon is available to buy and play right now!⭐

It’s time to launch into space and try to be the first agency to Mars! Mars Horizon is a strategy simulation game where you lead a major space agency as you guide humanity to Mars. Construct a base, design and build rockets, conduct missions throughout the Solar System, and write your own history of Space exploration. 

Mars Horizon was created with support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency and developed by Auroch Digital & published by The Irregular Corporation. Both Space Agencies have been integral to making Mars Horizon the game we wanted it to be, so we'd like to say a huge thank you to them.

Buy Mars Horizon now, with a 10% LAUNCH DISCOUNT
on Switch, Steam, Xbox and for PlayStation Plus users!

 
 

The Irregular Corp’s Twitch channel will be taken over today by some awesome streamers 🛰️

Check out the schedule here, all times are in GMT!

Tim peake

Tim peake

Real life astronaut Tim Peake plays Mars Horizon with the Xbox team!

Yesterday legendary astronaut Tim Peake played our game over on the Xbox Twitch channel!

Tim Peake was the first British ESA astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS). His work during mission Principia captured the hearts and minds of millions. He has a background as a test pilot and a British Army Air Corps officer and he is also a STEM ambassador and best-selling author.

In April 2016 Tim ran the London Marathon from the ISS treadmill, becoming the first man to run a marathon in space.

Watch the stream with Tim to hear about what it’s like training to be an astronaut, hear his stories from space, and hear him talking about watching Alien on a real space station!

>> Watch Tim Peake play Mars Horizon here! <<

Catch up with our podcasts where we talk all things Mars Horizon!

Auroch Digital CEO, Dr Tomas Rawlings at the European Space Agency

Auroch Digital CEO, Dr Tomas Rawlings at the European Space Agency

  • Visiting the European Space Agency

    Hear about Auroch Digital's visit to ESA to show off Mars Horizon to ACTUAL rocket engineers and scientists

  • Space Is Hard…

    Find out about the challenges involved in getting the gameplay just right and how to balance the reality and complexity of space travel with game design - all while keeping it authentic! 

  • Why we must work together to land on Mars

    Dr Alice Bunn, International Director at at UK Space Agency. explains how space agencies co-operate and collaborate, why this is so important, and how this collaboration will help us get to Mars.

  • A brief history of Space Games

    Go on a tour of some of the most important Space games that have been made with Mike, Jem and Matt.

Check out our livestreams where we’ve been joined by some amazing special guests!

Libby jackson, Human Exploration Programme Manager from the UK Space Agency

Libby jackson, Human Exploration Programme Manager from the UK Space Agency

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Jemima Crow

Enter our Mars Horizon Space Bundle giveaway!👨‍🚀 [Giveaway has now ended]

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Win this bundle, plus a copy of Mars Horizon⭐

[Giveaway has now ended]

win all of this awesome spacey stuff!

win all of this awesome spacey stuff!

We’re giving away a load of Mars Horizon goodies in the run up to release including one of our famous orange spacesuits!

You’ll also be able to get your hands on a Mars Horizon Steam key so you can play the game for free, a Mars Horizon mission patch that you can put on your favourite jacket or bag to show the world how much you love space (and specifically Mars Horizon), and a selection of various space foods including a Neapolitan ice cream sandwich.

Imagine eating all that space food in your space suit whilst playing Mars Horizon on Steam? Well, maybe you don’t just have to imagine it…

Enter the giveaway over on Irregulars page to win:

  • 👩‍🚀Your very own Official Mars Horizon spacesuit!

  • 🚀An Official Mars Horizon mission patch

  • 🎮A copy of the game on Steam

  • 🍦 Astronaut ice-cream

  • 🍎Astronaut fruit

Mars Horizon Price

Mars Horizon Price

How much is Mars Horizon?


Mars Horizon is up for pre-order right now! Depending on which platform you’d rather have it on, you can pre-order it on Switch here, or Xbox here. If you’re wanting to pick it up on PC, wishlist it on Steam so you can be notified when it’s available to buy. We’re even doing a launch discount for all platforms (PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Switch) because we love our community so much! So don’t worry if you can’t get your hands on a pre-order just yet.

About Mars Horizon 🚀

Mars Horizon is a strategy simulation game in which you lead a major space agency as you guide humanity to Mars. Construct a base, design and build rockets, conduct missions throughout the Solar System, and write your own history of space exploration. Created with support from the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency. Check out the announcement trailer to see the game in action.

The full game is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in on November 17th 2020. In the meantime, check out the free demo over on the Mars Horizon Steam page.

Don’t forget to join us in our Discord and come chat to us and the Aurochnauts and lets get hyped together! 🤩 

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Jemima Crow

We have lift off! Mars Horizon release date announcement👨‍🚀

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5, 4, 3, 2, 1... LIFT OFF!🚀
Mars Horizon is launching 17th November 2020!⭐

We're super excited to announce that Mars Horizon will be coming to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on November 17th 2020! The Auroch Digital team, along with our publisher The Irregular Corporation, have been working hard on the game and we can’t wait to share it with you.

The game was created with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency. Both organisations have been integral to making Mars Horizon the game we wanted it to be so we'd like to say an extra big thank you to them!

Very soon you will be able to run your own space agency and get humanity to the red planet. In the meantime, we've got a demo of the game for you to try on the Mars Horizon Steam page, check it out.

About Mars Horizon 🚀

Mars Horizon is a strategy simulation game in which you lead a major space agency as you guide humanity to Mars. Construct a base, design and build rockets, conduct missions throughout the Solar System, and write your own history of space exploration. Created with support from the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency. Check out the announcement trailer to see the game in action.

The full game is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in on November 17th 2020.

Join us in our Discord and come chat to us and the Aurochnauts and lets get hyped together! 🤩 

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Jemima Crow

We’re part of the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest running 21 - 26 October 🎲🎮

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Auroch Digital are part of The Steam Digital Tabletop Fest running from October 21st at 6pm until October 26th at 6pm!

Digital Tabletop Fest is an online event that celebrates games which play with the line between digital and physical games; this can be a digital port of (or based on) a physical game, a game which has produced a physical version from the digital one, a game that simulates the physical play experience or a digital game who’s aesthetics are inspired by physical tabletop games. 

We’re hoping to create a community of players that enjoy experiences that portal between/around the digital and physical and back again! 

Check below for the talks and livestreams we are a part of!

The Mars games panel 🚀⭐

Mars is often featured in both videogames and boardgames around Mars. But why are we fascinated with the red planet and landing humans on it? How long until this is a reality and how do games represent the challenges of getting to, landing on, and living on Mars? Find out all about games and Mars with four incredible experts from different areas of gaming and space featuring Terraforming Mars, Tharsis, Mars Horizon, and Mars Horizon: Blast Off!

Dark Future: Blood Red States stream with Graeme Davis💥🚗

A deep dive into Dark Future Blood Red States, the digital adaptation of the 1988 Games Workshop cult classic board game ‘Dark Future’ and also look into the subgenre of car combat games. The stream also includes a special guest, Graeme Davis, one of the developers on the original 1988 Games Workshop physical game.

  • Date: Thursday 22nd October

  • Time: 1pm BST/ 5am PDT

  • Host and guests: Allie and Tom from Auroch Digital

Mars Horizon stream - Video game vs. Board game🚀🎲

Game Designer Tomas Rawlings talks to devs Jem and Allie about the creation of Mars Horizon the video game and Mars Horizon: Blast Off the board game!

Both games are about running your own space agency and landing the first crewed mission on Mars. Hear about the differences between the games and how they adapted the themes and gameplay for physical and digital. You can also learn how Auroch Digital worked with the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency to make both games accurate, accessible, and how they captured the excitement of mission control!

  • Date: Friday 23rd October

  • Time: 11pm BST/ 3pm PDT

  • Host and guests: Jem, Allie and Tom from Auroch Digital

Mars Horizon: BLAST OFF! was inspired by our video game Mars Horizon - it’s creation came about through pen and paper prototypes of the digital version. Get your own copy of Mars Horizon: BLAST OFF! in our shop.

The Cthulhu Panel 🐙

From a little known pulp character to a global cultural phenomena, H.P.Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos have become the source for countless books, films, comics and - of course - games. It's time to explore the cyclopean horror and what it means in 2020;

  • Date: Friday 23rd October

  • Time: 10pm BST/ 2pm PDT

  • Host and guests:

    • Tomas Rawlings (Moderator) From Auroch Digital and developer on Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics

    • Sandy Petersen From Petersen Games and creator of the original Call of Cthulhu RPG and many, many Cthulhu titles including Cthulhu Wars

    • Chris Lackey From the cult weird fiction podcast, HPPodcraft

    • Pia Jacqmart From Cyanide Studios and writer on Call of Cthulhu

    • Chris Spivey From Darker Hue Studios, writer of the award winning Harlem Unbound supplement for Call of Cthulhu

    • Dan Ackerman Creator of the ‘Silicon Valley meets Lovecraft’ boardgame Techlandia

Steve Jackson Interview with Big Boss Battle

Game design legend Steve Jackson, creator of beloved classics such as Munchkin, Car Wars, GURPS and the giant cybernetic tank wargame, Ogre (as well as many, many more!) joins us to chat about his remarkable career so far.
Interview by Jupiter Hadley of Big Boss Battle.

  • Date:

    • Thursday 22nd October 12am BST/
      Wednesday 21st October 4pm PDT

The Adventure Game Panel ⚔ 🛡

Sheath your sword, grab some extra first aid kits, and buckle-up your walking boots as a panel of developers explore the depths and adventure and narrative;

  • Date: Thursday 22nd October

  • Time: 4pm BST/ 8am PDT

  • Host and guests:

    • Tomas Rawlings (Moderator) From Auroch Digital, Designer of the digital version of Chainsaw Warrior

    • Dean WoodwardFrom League of Geeks on Armello

    • Morgan Jaffit From Defiant Development with Hand of Fate 2

    • Gregory Shives From Antihero Studios with The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game

    • Carl Jackson From Nomad Games on the classic Talisman

Dice & Probability in Game Design 🎲🎲

Join the panel that rolls 6s every time as we explore the role (roll?) of dice and probability in both physical and digital games, including:

  • Date:

    • Thursday 22nd October 3am BST/
      Wednesday 21st October 7pm PDT

  • Host and guests:

    • Nina Collins (Moderator) Auroch Digital, developers of the digital version of Ogre

    • Steve Jackson Founder of Steve Jackson Games, Legendary game designer and creator of a whole host of classic games including Ogre], Cthulhu Dice and Zombie Dice

    • Zach Gage Independent (Tharsis collaborator)

    • Marlowe Dobbe Developer (with Terry Cavanagh) of Dicey Dungeons

    • Gian Paolo Vernocchi From DESTINYbit, developers of the upcoming Dice Legacy

Join our Discord

If you want to talk to like minded people about board games and video games you can join the Auroch Digital Discord and you'll have lots of people to chat to.

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

Astronaut Tim Peake is going to play Mars Horizon! 👩‍🚀

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officially The coolest selfie ever taken

officially The coolest selfie ever taken

We’ve got an awesome event coming up for Mars Horizon, our space agency simulation strategy game - a real life astronaut is going to stream our game! 🤩

We are super excited to announce that European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Tim Peake will be streaming Mars Horizon live with the Xbox team over on Twitch!

👩‍🚀 WATCH THE LIVESTREAM ON TWITCH 👩‍🚀

Tim Peake was the first British ESA astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS). His work during mission Principia captured the hearts and minds of millions. He has a background as a test pilot and a British Army Air Corps officer and he is also a STEM ambassador and best-selling author.

In April 2016 Tim ran the London Marathon from the ISS treadmill, becoming the first man to run a marathon in space.

One of Tim’s most cherished moments of his mission was having the opportunity to talk with the late Professor Stephen Hawking from the ISS. During their hour-long video call, they discussed many topics from their favourite music to quantum physics and the future of humanity whilst marvelling at the spectacular view of Earth from space.

Join the chat to ask Tim your questions and to win some awesome Mars Horizon prizes too! 👩‍🚀

Mars Horizon bundle giveaway

During the stream, as well as playing the game, the XboxOn team and Tim will be trying astronaut ice-cream, astronaut fruit snacks, and doing a giveaway where you can win awesome Mars Horizon prizes including:

Join us in our Discord during the stream and geek out with us over how awesome it is that a real astronaut is playing our game! 🤩

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Jemima Crow

It’s our 10th birthday! 🎂🎈

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Auroch Digital turns 10 today!🎉

This is a big milestone for us, and we’re really excited and proud of how far we’ve come. We’re planning a bigger party soon with lots of awesome activities for you to get involved in. We’ll be celebrating properly in November, so keep a look out for that! 

Make sure to sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with all things Auroch Digital and so you don’t miss out on the celebrations - we’ll have streams, sales, giveaways, and more!

We’re super busy at the moment with everything going on with Mars Horizon and Digital Tabletop Fest. Make sure you check both out so you can see what we’re up to, and wishlist Mars Horizon if you haven’t already as a lovely birthday present to us.

Looking forward to celebrating with you all soon! 🥳🍰🎈

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Jemima Crow

Play the free Mars Horizon demo in The Steam Game Festival Autumn Edition 🍂☕

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Mars Horizon is part of The Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition, running from October 7th until October 13th! 👨‍🚀

The Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition is an event that shines a spotlight on games set to be released within the next six months. From October 7th - 13th you can check out upcoming releases, try them out with time-limited demos, connect with the devs, and add games to your wishlist for a reminder when they release! Here's how to get the most out of The Steam Game Festival.

Play the Mars Horizon demo 🚀

Check out the demo - available to download from the Mars Horizon Steam store page. Choose from 5 space agencies, play through Era 1 of space exploration, build your base, design rockets, and put the first human in space! 

This new demo includes all the improvements from the beta play testing and from previous demo feedback, so Mars Horizon plays better than ever. ✨

Wishlist Mars Horizon on Steam 🪐

Please Wishlist Mars Horizon on Steam to stay up to date with all the latest news and release date!

We're a small developer and wishlisting makes a big difference to how many people see Mars Horizon on Steam. If you’d like to know more we've written a blog post on how Wishlists help us.

Wishlist Mars Horizon on Steam here

Chat to us on our livestream - Allie joins the Auroch Digital space agency! 👩‍🚀👩‍🚀

A new member of the crew joins the Auroch Digital space agency! Allie joins Jem for a special livestream during the festival. This will be broadcast straight to the Mars Horizon Steam page and we will be taking questions over the Auroch Digital Discord to answer on stream.

Allie and Jem set up their own space agency and answer your questions about Mars Horizon. Join the stream to help them run mission control. Will they be more successful than Jem and Mike? Will they win the space race? Will there be crumbless nuggets?

Come chat to the crew in Discord to find out

Join us on the Auroch Digital Discord 🎤

Now that you've played Mars Horizon you probably want to talk about the game with someone. Where can you go? Join the Auroch Digital Discord and you'll have lots of people to chat all things space and Mars Horizon!

You can find out more about getting Discord here and you can join the Auroch Digital Discord here.

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Jemima Crow

Mars Horizon is at PAX Online X EGX Digital!

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This year PAX Online and EGX Digital have combined forces to bring you PAX X EGX - a new digital show floor experience. Populated with the latest and best games, delivered by the most respected digital brands. Come check out our booth and listen to our talk!

PAX Online X EGX Digital - 12th - 20th September 2020

Mars Horizon’s PAX indie booth!

This year we’ve got a Mars Horizon Indie Booth, check it out here! In Mars Horizon you lead a major space agency and guide humanity to Mars in this strategy simulation game. Construct a base, design and build rockets, conduct missions throughout the Solar System, and write your own history of Space exploration. Created with support from the European Space Agency.

EGX Digital talk - we chat space and gaming!

Even better, we are giving a talk during the show where Dr. Tomas Rawlings, CEO of Auroch Digital, will be chatting to Jem and Mike from the Auroch Digital team about how playing games can help you get into space and the space industry  

Don’t forget to wishlist Mars Horizon if you can’t wait to build rockets and win the space race. Mars Horizon will be taking off on a platform near you later this year. Follow us on social to stay up to date with the latest news: Facebook    |    Twitter    |    YouTube

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Jemima Crow

Boardgames about Mars: What do they get right and what do they get wrong? Auroch Digital's panel at The UK Games Expo

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The UK Games Expo is the largest Hobby Games Convention in the UK, which is now in it's 14th year. Because of Covid, 2020 sees the show going Virtual for the first time ever. Using a range of different technologies UK Games Expo are makig as much as possible of the traditional expo available from the comfort of your own home.

  • UK Games Expo - Virtually Expo

    • Date: Fri 21st August - Sun 23rd August 2020

    • Times: Friday 6pm BST - Midnight / Saturday 9am BST - Midnight / Sunday 9am - 4pm BST

Even better, we are running a panel discussion during the show! Our gaming panel will cover “Gaming and Mars - What do the games that use Mars as inspiration get right and what do they get wrong?” hosted by our own Tomas Rawlings with 3 incredible experts from different areas of gaming and space.

You can join this event by watching the UK Games Expo Twitch channel. You can also use your mobile device to watch via the Twitch app Click here for more information for Android devices or Apple devices

Gaming on Mars - Panel guests

Dr. Tomas Rawlings (Moderator)
CEO of Auroch Digital, Co-designer of Mars Horizon: Blast Off!

Dr. Tomas Rawlings is the CEO at Auroch Digital. As well as running the studio, he is an experienced, award winning games designer who has created games from original titles to well-loved IP such as Games Workshop, and Star Wars, and Lovecraft’s Cthulhu. He is a well known speaker and consultant on gaming who has also worked with major organisations such as the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, UK Parliament and the BBC.

Dr. Jacob Fryxelius
Game Designer at FryxGames, Creator & designer of Terraforming Mars

Dr. Jacob Fryxelius is one of 5 brothers of the Fryxelius family that work for FryxGames. His doctorate is in chemistry (artificial photosynthesis) and he previously spent many years teaching science. He is also a veteran gamer. Jacob is a creative game designer, mainly focused on card games, and brings his science background into the games he makes. He designed the hugely successful Terraforming Mars boardgame which has since had 5 expansions and been adapted into a videogame too.

Dr. Sian Proctor
Professor at South Mountain Community College, Geoscientist & Analog Astronaut

Dr. Sian Proctor is an American explorer, scientist, STEM communicator, and aspiring astronaut. She is a geology, sustainability and planetary science professor at South Mountain Community College.
She does a lot of exploration and education outreach, as well as television appearances and she was a finalist for the 2009 NASA Astronaut Selection Process.

Paul Smith
Robotic Exploration Programme Manager at the UK Space Agency

Paul Smith is from the UK Space Agency. His work focuses on the robotic exploration of Mars and the Moon. His areas of expertise include the Mars Rovers, Mars missions, the future of Space Travel, colonising other planets, resources in space (e.g. mining asteroids, generating water from lunar regolith etc) and more. Paul joined us on a recent stream Mars Horizon which you can check out here!

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Jemima Crow

Video game crunch: What is it and is it a problem?

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Phrases that get thrown around a lot in discussions about the video games industry are “crunch culture”, “crunch time”, and “crunch crisis”.

But what is crunch in video games? In this brief blog post we’re going to gather up a lot of the thinking about it, and give our perspective.

As a word of caution, as with any piece that features opinion, this is going to be heavily biased by our experience, our thoughts as a group of people, the past successes and failures of the studio, the way certain laws work in our country, and so on. For example, we’re based in the UK, so we don’t rely on employment in order to continue receiving health insurance to cover private medical bills, a factor that might heavily influence a person’s motivations for accepting crunch in, say, the United States. Ultimately crunch is a thing that affects human beings, so by its nature much of what will be discussed is subjective and we’re not here to judge people for their feelings toward the topic - we’re just presenting some of the threads of thought on the matter and then stating our opinion.

How is video game crunch defined?

We’ve looked through dozens of articles on the subject and spoken with plenty of colleagues, and no one seems to fully agree upon a standard definition of “crunch” - it means different things to different people. For some it’s “working long hours”, others it’s “working long hours repeatedly”. For some it’s “forced overtime” and others include any overtime, even if it’s theoretically “optional”.

Our aim here isn’t to come up with a cast iron definition, instead it’s enough for the scope of this short piece to set out a variety of viewpoints so you can see for yourself that the common thread that runs through all of them is “working more hours than planned”. We’ll keep using the word “crunch” here, just bear in mind that it has multiple meanings, depending on who you ask.

Where does video game crunch happen?

video game crunch screen.jpg

A really big misconception is that crunch can only happen at very large video game studios - that it’s the big bad giants of the industry with the multi-million selling franchises doing all the crunch. And that’s just not true.

It can be smaller teams too: the indie studio with limited resources but big ideas, the passionate university students running out of time to submit their end-of-year project, the solo developer working 100 hours a week to finish their experimental masterpiece.

Big or small or somewhere inbetween; crunch can happen.

Is crunch a good or a bad thing?

While there’s generally a consensus that crunch can be negative, which we’ll get to in a moment, there’s disagreement over whether or not crunch can have some positive effects as well (and additionally, if those positive effects are ultimately worth it).

The core benefits of crunch usually boil down to the following;

  • If people at a studio work more hours then, quite simply, there are more hours to spend on trying to make a game better, and a better game is preferable to a less good game. People really care about the things they make, and some may want to put extra time into a project to get it working exactly the way they want it.

  • Some individuals on teams report crunch being a good bonding exercise. There’s a “being in the trenches” mentality that promotes cohesion and lasting friendship between team mates.

  • Crunch can be paid work, or additional annual leave can be provided as part of working overtime, benefits that employees may see as being desirable (and, therefore, a net positive).

However, it’s also possible to provide counterpoints to the potential positive effects of crunch mentioned above;

  • Working longer hours demonstrably leads to work of a lower quality being produced - if you’re tired, you make mistakes, and that applies to writing code, doing art, making design choices, doing rigorous testing, and every other element of making games.

  • There are arguably more pleasant ways to enhance the cohesion of a team than working long into the night. Besides this, being away from friends and family can cause stresses and strains at home that leak into the workplace and, in turn, damage relationships at the studio.

  • Paid overtime and extra holiday is all well and good, but for some disciplines and career levels that extra money doesn’t make a lot of difference - a lead at a AAA studio is fairly well-paid already. But for others the additional money is almost a necessity: a junior tester in London or San Francisco may regularly struggle to make ends meet, ergo overtime becomes less “optional extra cash” and more “part of a wider problem that isn’t being addressed”. And sure, extra holiday is fine, but if you’re using crunch to meet deadlines, are you really going to have the opportunity to use that annual leave?

There are many more problems created or exacerbated by crunch beyond the obvious one we’ve actually yet to mention, i.e. decreased quality of life through spending more time at work and less time outside of work.

And these additional problems include damage to mental and physical health, demotivation for projects, dissatisfaction with place of employment and, for companies, losing skilled employees through them seeking employment at other studios or even other fields outside of games.

Is crunch optional?

video%2Bgame%2Bcrunch%2Boffice.jpg

Some studios state that crunch is purely optional for them. Let’s assume that the management at the company that states this is actually being genuine - they really do only want the people who want to crunch, to crunch, and would be absolutely fine with employees choosing not to, with no repercussions.

The first issue is that, realistically, employees can never truly know that statement to be true, often assuming that it’s being said as a wink-and-nod agreement that, actually, no, the company really does expect you to work late. If you’re a junior, new to the company, or are a contractor, there’s not a lot of incentive to assume crunch is optional and, in doing so, jeopardise your job.

Another is that company-wide crunch can often be an informal cultural issue, rather than a formal work policy. Statements from management about crunch being optional is often paired with claims about those who do crunch “working harder” than those that don’t. The logical implication here being, of course, that those that don’t crunch aren’t working as hard as their colleagues who do. Are those people letting the team down? Will those that don’t crunch be passed by for promotion as they don’t demonstrate the ability to “work hard”?

In some company cultures with crunch, team members - often leads - will regularly be the first ones in and the last ones out, racking up a lot more hours than juniors. Sometimes they’ll do “heroic” amounts of crunch to get something done. In the process they’re subconsciously telling their colleagues that if they want to make a good impression and achieve a lead role, that they had best start working more hours.

In these examples, though crunch may be theoretically optional on paper at companies that accept it as part of their business, in reality there is a very strong set of motivating factors for a person to engage with crunch.

What causes crunch?

There are a lot of factors, but the common throughline is, at a basic level, a lack of time.

A variety of factors go to cause this lack of time, with the following being some of the more common;

  • A new feature request being made, or a pivot in the direction of the product, without budget being appropriately provided.

  • Poor estimation of the amount of work required to make a product, i.e. overpromising and underestimating.

  • Signing a project that is known to be undoable without crunch, as the budget allocated to do the work is not enough, but is signed anyway due to financial necessity at the company.

  • A significantly large unexpected issue, with no budget allocated ahead of time to deal with such events.

  • Inadequate production methods at the studio, leading to mistakes being made, work being created inefficiently, and so on

Where does Auroch Digital stand on crunch culture?

We’re not fans of crunch.

That said, we’ll admit that at the studio in the past we’ve done small amounts of crunch in a focused manner in order to hit a very important deadline. It’s been extremely rare, and always a last resort, but it’s not something we’re particularly proud of, or keen on repeating.

And it was crunch that could have been avoided. So as a team we’re committed to continually improving the ways we work to ensure the chances of it happening again are dramatically reduced, and we’ll continue striving to make our studio and culture the best it can be.

Learn more about how we combat crunch in our video about working for our studio:

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Peter Willington