But I hate careless game design. And while Dante’s Inferno doesn’t have a lot of that and I’ve been enjoying the fuck out of it for a while now, at one specific moment  they got careless and pulled you out of the game; made you realize that you’re just playing a God of War knock-off, with almost no story or character progression. And you ask yourself as you sit there in your sweats, stuck in your house in a cold northern winter that won’t end: Why are you playing this again?
Take last night. I’m playing the Greed layer of Hell. I’ve just managed to skip over a jumping puzzle and fend off waves of enemies. I have no save at this point.
The idea is to pull a lever to pull a lever to pull that first lever so that you can run, jump twice, go on the lowering platform and get back up to the top doors before the doors close on you and you have to do it again. If you touch any of the blades that are lowering while you’re doing this, you die. Simple as that. I tried this 15 times with different variations, but always missed one part of the timing mechanic. After the 15th time I punched the controller and turned everything off.

Here are the underlying problems with this shit.

1. No Save:  I just killed waves upon waves of enemies and while I do get a ‘restart point’ if I turn it off in frustration,  like I did, I’ll have to start at my previous save point.
   NOTE TO FELLOW DEVELOPERS: Stop being lazy and using save points to  make your game more “challenging”.
2. Redundant Redundant Redundant: I have to pull a lever to pull a lever to pull that first lever. And if I fail, WHICH I WILL, I do it again.
3. One shot kill: after pulling these levers I have to try and make it under the blade that is slowly falling down. If I don’t, I die immediately.
4. Time Mechanic: A time mechanic is fine, but a time mechanic that makes me have to do all of the above again is not. I managed to pull the lever to pull the lever to pull the lever, to double jump under the blade before it killed me, got on the platform, but by the time I got to the door, the door was closed and I had to do it all again!
5. Cone of Error, how small it is: I need to be exact, and with a response system that isn’t I can’t be as exact as they want me to be.

Listen. I’m not saying make games uber easy, I’m saying design for your PLAYER, not for you. Too many times in games I’ve made and played I’ve seen designers make game levels for what they find fun. But listen bub, you’re playing the level 20 times a day. Your average player is going to play this once.

Remember Cel Damage? I worked on that game. We balanced that game for us, new game developers on a new platform with one QA guy. And to quote American McGee when I met him at GDC after we released that game “You made that game too fucking hard!”

And we did. Because we made the game for us: developers who played the game 20 times a day. And for that we got ridden hard in reviews. For that, we sucked.

When you make a level you have to say to yourself: besides what would be cool, and visually interesting, what would make this fun. And 9.99 times out of 10 that will not be to punish your player. And that’s what this mechanic is doing in Dante’s Inferno. It is punishing the player for not playing EXACTLY the way the developer did. The cone of error is so narrow that the player MUST play it exactly how the developer played it, and this only leads to the 10th ring of hell: frustration. And my controller thrown against the wall.

With the game pressed and waiting for January 26th this week has been about reflection and planning. During this time it is customary to sit at an email and spew hate for the things you didn’t like while working on this project, ignoring everything that was great about what you did. Some would call this a ‘post mortem’ – a dissection of how the project faired in terms of production. I call this unproductive bullshit.

Listen, the point of a post-mortem is to have a retrospective look at how the project faired: We are a young industry and we’re still making all this shit up, so it’s important to aggressively criticize the methods taken to make the game. Writing down emails of ‘and then this person did this and I hated it’ accomplish nothing. Sitting in a room with 30 people and having a shouting match about what you hated accomplish nothing. You need to break it down to what worked and what didn’t. But also one more thing that many studios forget: you have to create action items for everything on the list; you need to ensure that every complaint, every kudo has task to fix it or continue it.

But it doesn’t stop there: you need a production or management staff that will use those action items as tasks for the next project. In 2005 for Full Auto, the art team filed me (as Art Lead) emails that were broken down into such categories and combined and filtered them into what ended up being a 55 page document with action items for everything. This was then sent to the managers of the studio, where it sat and wasn’t looked at. Which then created more emails of hate. The Art Team did everything right and all the work and effort that was put into it was put out with the heel of a boot.

BioWare, and more specifically the Mass Effect team’s preferred method, is to gather everyone in a room for half a day and with a Producer at the helm gather the feedback. (I should note here for others in the gaming industry that we have the best producers in the world here. Your preconceived ideas of what a producer is is completely shattered at BioWare). Usually doing this causes chaos and a Kill Cloud of negative energy gathers in the room. People start talking over each other, others become quiet and irritable, even worse is when some people’s comments are negated because someone has a louder voice. But kudos to our production team for finding a way to resolve this. Yesterday our Project Manager Corey Andruko split the giant whiteboard into 4 sections of development: tools, workflow, systems and communication (usually the whipping boy of these meetings) and like a conductor, a stinking and sometimes unworking marker his baton, brought in the the ‘What went rights’ with the ‘What went wrong’. Everyone had a chance to speak and every item was boiled down to the issue at hand, sometimes being combined with other issues into a larger task. Even though we were trapped in that dark meeting room for the entire morning, we all left feeling that someone had listened to our thoughts.
And here’s the thing…every item brought up were things that would make the next project better. There was nothing disastrous brought up and that really showed how well this project went. We were all sitting in that room wanting things to change, or stay the same, to make the next project better.

So now the poor production team has to collate not only our feedback but the feedback of every department and discipline on Mass Effect 2. And this is where we’ll see if our minimal effort and productions hard work goes further and is rolled out as tasks for the next project. Seeing as how this process and a post-mortem of Mass Effect 1 created Mass Effect 2, a game and process we’re all immensely pleased and proud of, I’m optimistic.

But for those of you entering the industry or working at a studio that doesn’t have any or a productive post-mortem process, here’s my advice. It is critical that we do this: we are a young industry with gangly arms trying to get the respect of the adults. If we don’t seriously criticize ourselves and work to fix those issues that arose; if we don’t research how other studios resolved those problems and envelop the successful studios processes we will not only not get that respect we’re asking for, we will never mature as an industry. So gather your people after a project, ask them what went right, ask them what went wrong and take those tasks to heart as to how your next project will work. Don’t make this a shouting match of hate because that will do nothing but piss people off.

1. how dynamic the levels are (only an OH MY FUCKING GOD can describe this). The level of interactivity with living and breathing levels (moving train, falling building) is unprecedented and this game will be seen as the game that changed EVERYTHING when it came to environments.
2. There is absolutely nothing in the game that takes you out of the game experience. Texturing, Modeling, animation, lipsyncing: all is perfect and shows nothing that would tell you that this is a game.
3. The story and character development is perfect: you feel growth in the characters, you fear with Drake as he almost (doesn’t) make a jump. And the pacing of the action and story kept the adrenaline up, the heart racing, and you were waiting to see what would happen next.

But one thing Naughty Dog: if your Boss Fight is going to be as annoying and difficult as what ended up in the game, then don’t fucking punish me for wanting to see what happens in the end and putting it on Very Easy just to get the pain over with. What punishment? That would be the Trophy I received for completing it on VERY EASY. I spent 11 of the 12 hours on Normal. And that, my friends, is what we call a Weeny Move.

If I gave a shit about PS3’s Xbox Achievements, I’d be more pissed off.

1. Chud.com: Before games my first love is movies and when you work in the games industry and you’re a father of 2, sometimes it’s hard to be a movie buff: you’re either at work, or you’re at home with the kids. I’ve been reading Chud since the late 90s and I feel like my movie nerdisms are kept intact by the folks there. And the site really has elevated itself with the somewhat recent addition of Devin Faraci and their games column written by Trevor and Alex. Thanks guys for making me feel in the loop, even if I don’t get out to the theatre anymore.
2. Transcend Coffee: I had an admiration for coffee for years before coming out here, but it was this little shop in an industrial district in South Edmonton that elevated that admiration into love. I’ve come to appreciate the many layers that coffee has, and learn to hate it when I’ve not cleaned my french press enough that it tastes ashy. The guys there all rock (Josh and Poul especially) and make me feel at home whenever I come in.
3. My music collection. I don’t think I’ve ever been so appreciative of having a very broad taste in music as I have this year: with many hours sat in front of my work computer trying to come up with fun designs, being able to switch from Judas Priest to Radiohead, from Muse to Pantera, from Depeche Mode to Skinny Puppy has got me through the day.
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum Because finally a superhero game was serious and fulfilling. And it showcased some of my favorite Level Design techniques (that I neglected to write about): Spoke and Axel (free roaming central node with spokes of linear level design), multi-pathing, and elements of choice within a linear design. This game was tight, and while I don’t agree with every (boss) design choice (boss) they made (boss), we should all strive for the marker of excellence they made.
5. Blade, Near Dark and Nosferatu: As reminders of what great Vampire films used to be.
6. BioWare: I say this all the time because it’s true: I am a fan of BioWare before I am an employee. I feel on many levels that Dragon Age was made for me because it was made for fans of Baldur’s Gate, and I live and breathe those games. It is why I am here: to make games that everyone talks about…I think we’ve done that with Mass Effect 2.  But beyond as a gamer, as a developer BioWare was something to admire because of all the love and care they put into their games, and now, as one on the inside I can say: Holy CRAP to these guys care about their games. And now I am one of their fold. BioWare also puts up with a lot of shit from me and lets me flex my muscles at what I’m good at. Thanks Ray and Greg: you guys really have set something special here.
7. Dragon Age: Teeheeeheeheeheeheeheehee. I LOVE THIS GAME!
8. Supernatural: TV is fun again! Most of my favourite shows (Deadwood, Twin Peaks, Carnivale, The Wire) are fantastic shows that have no equal…but man are they dark and depressing. I remember sitting down and watching the entire series of Buffy with the wife and even through the crappy episodes having a really good time. And then Angel came along and pooped all over that. We’d heard from a few people about how great Supernatural was, and we finally bit the bullet when the first season was on sale. And wow. We’re 1/3 into Season 2 now and…well take everything you loved about the great episodes of Buffy, add some of the great things about the great horror movies over the last 40 years and you have Supernatural. And Sam and Dean..man I don’t think I’ve seen chemistry between two characters like this in a while.
9. My family: puts up with a lot of shit from me: coming to this cold hell called ‘Northern Alberta’, putting up with long hours, grumpiness, a vegetable on the sofa at the end of the day… I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing at a great company like BioWare. And my kids constantly remind me of what’s important: colour of your dress, the importance of Barbie Stickers, the placement of food on your plate for dinner.

So there you have it. A little insight into what I’m thankful for this year. Mass Effect 2 would have definitely made the list had we shipped in 2009 but alas like you I have to wait until Jan 26th.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you out there. Keep an eye on some new posts in 2010 (the year we make contact).

This is just Not Right

If you’d rather a less scary Halloween Wallpaper from Mass Effect 2, visit: http://masseffect.bioware.com/media/wallpapers

• News
• last.fm
• Instant On Zune marketplace Zune Marketplace Video Marketplace Beta
  In place of America’s interactive, instant-viewing library of 1080ps movies features, Canadians will relish in their sole feature of  a reskinning and a library that continues the tradition of such new releases as ‘Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey’ and ‘Analyze This’. Finally! We can see what the hype is about!
  In addition to this is the new category of TV, allowing you to ‘download’ your favorite new hits like Beavis and Butthead.
• Twitter:
  I was expecting an automated way of tweeting what I’m playing, but instead what I got was a slower, more awkward version than what’s on my phone (I use twidget for Android).
• Facebook:
  Xbox’s version allows you to continue the tradition of finding smut photos of people you know but this time, on a larger TV while your wife watches.
• List of Shit Americans get that you won’t be getting
  This feature is loud and proud under the Preview menu.

Shut Up and Play This? You really don’t have a choice: the update will be mandatory soon. And while the list of new features on the American’s featurelist looks exciting, Canadians once again won’t be getting any of them, making this update near pointless. While the featuring of the lastest social networking sites is trendy and cool, its a feature that detracts the Xbox from what it’s intended to be: an entertainment device. You don’t sit down with your friends to twitter. You don’t show photos of your best friend dressed in drag in highschool to your new girlfriend. Xbox is used primarily as a movie watching and game device, and these features actually detract from that.

…and now a rant….
I’m proud to be a Canadian. While not from birth, I naturalized here and for many reasons that are outside of the scope of this gaming site, I couldn’t ask for a more diverse and greater country to live in. But we are constantly, as Canadians, on the short-end of the stick when it comes to technology and media. I’ve been doing research as to why and been saving that up for a larger, more journalistic article as to why this keeps happening. There are many things that stem this issue, from government intervention to corporate greed, but let me put up a challenge to any Canadian owned company. Instead of complaining that there isn’t enough support for Canadian content or Canadian businesses and asking the government for handouts, or simply being forced to shut your doors or be bought out by American Interests, why not find out where the opportunities are and start it yourself? Bind together with other businesses of like? There is a HUGE opportunity for not only featuring old and current Canadian content on Xbox Live Video Marketplace here but also for creating new content for a perfect demographic that is trapped to do nothing but WATCH your content. And Xbox Canada, isn’t it your duty to help Microsoft mold their features and services to the needs of a Canadian clientelle? Shouldn’t you already know and be figuring out ways to get help to set this in motion?
I’m tired of being treated like the 3rd world of technology up here and seeing, for no other reason than greed and the over protectiveness of our government, the lack of choice given to Canadians. Choice breeds ingenuity, initiative and a more competitive marketplace and it’s about goddamned time we were given some. And it’s about goddamned time someone in Xbox Canada, in one of the controlling corporations, or in many of the small-time production companies realized the potential to promote, provide and showcase some of the Canadian talent we have up here.

There’s a lot of great features on the 360 that they could be advertising, such as downloadable games and video marketplace.

1. Market in the United States the things that Xbox already does, out of the box (such as Netflix, Video renting, Games on Demand, photo viewing, mp3 playing and watching your videos on your tv). Microsoft changed the face of gaming by doing a complete overhaul on the dashboard last fall, yet there’s not a single plebe who knows that this was done, or what it means to their dollar.
2. Increase the availability of features such as Netflix and Video Marketplace in other countries. I’d go so far as to say they need to consolidate features through all countries so they are the same everywhere. Canada and many other countries are continually shafted in this regard getting secondary and sometimes significantly reduced feature sets than what is found in the United States. And countries like Canada should get off their ass and deal with these  copyright, distribution and in sometimes laws that are hampering with these availabilities.
3. Simplify the video watching process: I still have a swarm of personal avis and movs I can’t watch on my 360 because the container format isn’t compatible.
4. Significant bundles: Chances are people won’t decide on the 360 because you’ve bundled two shitty games nobody wants with it. What they do want are more controllers, a wireless adapter, an HDMI cable, gamer points. Perhaps Microsoft could kill two birds with one stone and make Zune bundles giving people an mp3 player with their console. What if there were a Rockband bundle?
5. Casual Gamer Developer Exclusives: Forget Natal, what if they took some significant mainstream games from renown casual developers and gave had exclusives from them for the 360? Imagine if you had a bundle for these exclusives? ‘From the maker of The Sims’ or ‘World of Warcraft’ or ‘Roof Rats” or ‘Peggle’ can have a lot of clout with the mainstream crowd, especially if marketed to them. Just look at the sales and numbers of these games!
6. In-Store visibility: I was just in my local Future Shop and perused the games section. Each section is white, with the name of the console emblazoned over white over the shelves. There was nothing pointing me towards one type of console or the other, nor any immediately easy way to identify the consoles. The End of Row and Kiosk displays were no more than more shelves of more games, or piles of existing consoles. If Microsoft were to, let’s say, make a giant Xbox 360 that you could sit in and play a game, think about what the consumer would see: a giant 360 the minute they walk in the store. Even if they had designs on a Playstation3 the first thing they would do is gravitate towards it.

There is one thing Microsoft should not do to compete with the increasing popularity of the Playstation 3 and that is introduce another console. Bringing another console into the market would only confuse the already confused Joe Consumer crowd; it would tick off a great number of people who already bought an Xbox360, and it would probably tick off a number of developers who would have no desire to support more than the 2 existing Nexgen systems. No, there’s enough on the 360 as it currently is that it could stand up next to the Playstation now that their differences have been reduced. But it’s going to be a long hard fight, with no doubt some casualties on the way, while they try and regain the ground they have lost.

I’m here at this loathsome store to pick up party gifts for my daughter’s 3rd birthday. But the real story begins when I arrive, to browse, in the games section. That locale inhabited by pimply, uneducated employees watching from afar the locked glass that stands between you and your purchases.
I’m looking at the DS games, to see if there’s anything for my kids, when I overhear, as I always do in these stores, an employee giving misinformation — or more appropriately information that he’s been told to say. The conversation was between a father, in his 40s, and an employee, in his 20s and it went something like this:

Father: Do you have that new PS3?
Walmart: No. That comes in next week.
Father (moving to the locked glass): What’s this then?
Walmart: That’s the one that came in last week.
Father: Oh…is this not that new one? The one in the news?
Walmart: No this is different. This doesn’t have all the features.
Father: Does it have a remote?
Walmart: Yes. No.
Father: It doesn’t? It does? Is it wireless? Or have that string?
Walmart: Er….no it’s not wireless
Father: Does it play that, what do you call it, Blu Ray?
Walmart: (Silence)

Frustrated I speak up, as I always regrettably do in these situations and informed the Father and corrected the employee. And then it began: the father asked me what he should get. We talked a bit: I told him I had a 360, that it had many games on it and you could download more. He told me that he didn’t get a lot of time to play games because of his wife and kids, but PlayStation 3 had The Blu Ray right? He wasn’t going to buy any BRDVDs. He was going to rent them.  So I told him he could ‘rent’ HD movies on the 360. And he informed me that he didn’t realize that and his face contorted with indecision.

For Father of Four the inital attraction of the Playstation came down to the name: Playstation has been around for over a decade and people know it and the Sony brand.  The deciding factor came down to a count of features, and even if Father of Four doesn’t understand what BluRay is, or what the future of the technology is, it is the latest buzzphrase because there’s a whole section devoted to it at the local Walmart. And if the PS3 has this Brand New Thing then Father of Four must have the console with the Brand New Thing.

It was an interesting conversation and not the first one I’ve had about this topic since the price drop announcements: my neighbour, Guy Who Likes Sports Games, decided on the PS3 for the very same reason that Father of Four did.  It used to be that everyone, including hardcore gamers such as myself, wouldn’t dish out the steep pricetag of a Playstation 3: there were more games on the Xbox 360  and you can get an Xbox 360 that plays games for $199. Who’s going to pay $599 for a PS3?  Sony and subsequently Microsoft’s announcement of a price drop put these two consoles on even ground: price is similar, the library is eerily similar, and the features at root the same, but on the surface only are they unbalanced by BluRay.

In the past Exclusives were the way Sony and Microsoft waged the war and right now the war is being waged the same way. But I don’t think this has the power it once did, at least not for Father of Four or Guy Who Likes Sports Games. God of War III, Heavy Rain and Uncharted 2, while potentially stellar games with a lot of media surrounding it, will only interest people like me: people who are even aware that these games exist. I guarantee that Joe Consumer will buy a 360 expecting God Of War to be available, only to find it’s not. No if Sony and Microsoft think that Exclusives will help get the install base, then they should be looking at the Maddens, the Sims and the NHL games: the games that Joe Consumer plays, and plays for an entire year until the next one is out.

What about these so-called Casual Gamer Features like Natal and Playstation 3’s Motion Controller. Will they be the exclusives that these companies are looking for? While each are neat, and Natal moderately compelling in what new it brings to the industry,  I don’t think they are the selling features that will change minds. After all, the people they’ll be marketing to are casual gamers, and these casual gamers already have a Wii ‘And doesn’t that do the same thing? Why would I want two?’

So if not Exclusives, then what? Well I think Sony nailed it when they released the PS3: BluRay. But to adopt BluRay wouldn’t make sense for Microsoft: that move would just match them in features to the PS3 and wouldn’t make the 360 stand out.  And no company in their right mind would limit some of the best selling games in the industry to only one console.

So what is it that Microsoft should do to compete with the growing behemoth of Sony? In the next part I’ll list out some ideas that Microsoft can do to compete.

• Start. Oh yeah. Forgot Bethesda made this.
• Oh my god. The music is killer. That with the art gives it a crazy 70s vibe.
• Controls screen. Does anyone read these anymore? Or do they just mash buttons?
• We definitiont: A euphonism yadda yadda screen went away.
• Rendering is very reminiscent of Mercs 2…which has me fearful of the quality.
• Simmons voice does NOT fit the face.
• 70s grain is kinda annoying on this cutscene. Wonder how thatll play in the game.
• More awesome music.
• Tutorial time!
• Well that was short: first one is pretty damned short.
• ICK. they cut to the next tutorial and teleport you to another place. Kinda jumpy considering how short the tutorial was.
• And there we go: final battle to use my newly learned abilities.
• Bullet Time galore: pretty standard fare so far: shoot your gun, run on walls, slow down time.
• More tutorials
• Ah.. collectables
• Health potion.
• UGH. Quick Time event to open a door. Pretty sure that I’ve never a) had to use effort to open a door and b) had to use a sword.
• Sword Tutorial
• Oh now this just got interesting. Very Kill Bill.
• Okay….if they string together all of these ideas within small areas and get rid of the linear levels, this could be very interesting. I’m not looking for open concept, just some multipathing.
• Some cool acrobatic pole swings and sliding is a lot of fun. Sword and gun is fun. and I can use my gun whenever I want. Awesome.
• Hrm…got lost already.  and found an invisible wall. disapointing.
• There we go. Heading into an arena fight. Not really sure what they’re telling me I have to do.
• 5 minutes later
• Ah…this isn’t about me killing guys. This is about me closing the spawn doors. /facepalm.
• Done. Phew. That will be fun….next time when I know what I’m doing.
• Okay..just went into some weird sort of berserker mode: everything is red, black and white….game has sped up. Pretty fun. Slick visuals.
• Really great presentation there. That song sucked tho. Generic 90s punk.
• Now I’m on a car. For some reason. Firing my gun.
• Doing quick time events to stay on car.
• Firing at enemies and…didn’t hit A to not die, and died, and that completely BLEW.
• Okay…if you don’t die, this is kinda fun: you’re leaping from car to car and sending other cars to their explosive fiery death.
• and if you fire while doing that A to not jump death, you get automatic kills on the enemies in the car. Neat!
• Oh…and then it ended suddenly.

Parting Thoughts: the presentation is fucking sweet and the music killer. The sword and gun gameplay is (always) fun and the combination of acrobatics and firepower is stellar. I’ll definitely be watching the reviews for thoughts on the game as a whole.

Worries: As always a demo has to do 3 things: sell you on the idea, teach you how to play, and give you an idea on the gameplay as a whole. So what’s difficult to judge is how the gunplay, swordplay and acrobatics will play together in a proper level: will we see linear levels like in the demo? Or will we see some multipathing to spice things up? Will they keep the momentum up as you traverse the world, or will it be levels designed around one of your abilities: I’m really hoping for the former.

Shut Up and Play This?: Definitely.

Long hours can be draining, but over the years I’ve learned a few tricks. Everyone has different methods, but these have always worked for me.

1. Eat dinner at my desk, or eat dinner later. The reason for this is because a break at 6 or 7pm the length of a dinner has a tendancy to make you not want to go back to work.  Keep the break small enough to get dinner and that’s it. Keep your focus on work.
2. Schedule what I’m working on and meet that goal. If you don’t have a list of things you want to accomplish, you’ll either go home feeling guilty for not accomplishing anything or you’ll work aimlessly on many things. Hit your goal, cross it off the list and go the fuck home.
3. Don’t work past 10pm. This number will vary depending on your length of commute. The idea is that I need to go home rested to come to work rested, and that involves detoxing work when I get home with a movie, book, tv show or a game. Of course I broke this rule most of last week.
4. Take a break when I need it, no questions asked. If I work long hours 3 days in a row and feel the soul drain, I take a break from crunching or my productivity goes down. Again broken last week.
5. Music. Loud with a high bpm or intense driving beat. This is more than just me having music wrapped in every aspect of my life, this actually increases your heartrate and if its music you love, helps you enjoy your time at the office during times you really wish you weren’t there. My choices of music really depend on what I’m doing. If I’m concentrating on atmosphere and the feel of the final product, I tend to revolve around the Movie Score genre. If I’m hitting bugs, it’s usually Opeth, Tool, Disturbed, White Zombie. If I have a list of tasks to concentrate on then I’m usually putting on Underworld, BT’s This Binary Universe or Haujobb. Rarely do I work without music on and this is reinforced during crunch, though usually the headphones are off and the speakers are cranked (as my office mates can usually attest to)
6. Pick my time to socialize. Sometimes crunch can be fun: you and your workmates are delierious with lack of sleep, excited because the end is in sight (the project or the deadline) and some of my most memorable moments in the last 12 years has been in the off hours. But sometimes you have to get shit done and if you work with good people they will understand that if you’re upfront. If they aren’t, or you feel you must socialize and you’re not getting what you want/need to get done then come in when nobody is at work. This is usually between midnight and 7am.
7. Caffeine. Be careful. This is where you need to pace yourself accordingly. Or least I do. Coffee is both a stimulant but also a relaxer, for me: the warm mug, the slow sipping, appreciating the fantastic tastes. But I’m also fucking old so coffee late at night keeps me up for hours. So for me, if I’m doing coffee, it’s right after dinner. If I need a last minute jolt I do Red Bull, but that’s usually a few hours before I’m leaving as the crash from a Red Bull is painful and long.
8. Come in early as well. I find I can squeeze a few extra hours in the morning before the rush comes in. 7am gives me a few hours before anyone else is in and I can spend the time prepping for my day or resolving bugs

I can say for certain that the week of Crunch was worth it: I brought some things to the table on my levels and hit some requirements that ensured that key things are in my levels. But for now, the Crunch is over and I can relax a bit.  Until the next deadline looms.