Few names are bigger in gaming than Amy Hennig, and now the former Uncharted director and writer (and current Electronic Arts employee) is speaking out against development crunch. It’s no secret that many games are turned around on tight deadlines, and Hennig shows that these problems still exist even for some of the biggest developers in the industry. This comes from a great episode of Idle Thumbs’ Designer Notes podcast, where Hennig discusses her time at Naughty Dog and working on Uncharted 3.
When asked about what impact working at Naughty Dog had on her personal life, Hennig had a sobering response (transcription courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz). “[It was] really hard. The whole time I was at Naughty Dog – ten-and-a-half years – I probably, on average, I don’t know if I ever worked less than 80 hours a week. There were exceptions where it was like, ‘Okay, let’s take a couple of days off,’ but I pretty much worked seven days a week, at least 12 hours a day.” Hennig also revealed that it wasn’t just her who was working a crazy schedule, as she said “a lot” of the team would work weekends as well. “Naughty Dog is pretty notorious for the amount of crunch, but obviously in a leadership role you try and do even more,” revealed Hennig.
She also described the working conditions in 2011, while she worked on Uncharted 3. “[Uncharted] 3 was hard, because even though we had two year...