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).

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.

Then BAM, a deadline looms like Damocles’ knife.

It’s hard to explain to someone not in this or another entertainment-based industry what it’s like doing crunch. In many ways it is the same as any other deadline in any other office: you work until it’s done. But the difference is that in the game industry, while you’re putting in the extra hours, balancing stress with productivity, while you’re feeling beaten down with no end in sight you fight with the fact that you are making games. How can you feel beaten down if you’re making games for a living?

So I’ve been doing what’s called crunching off and on for the last month and it hit stride last week. But crunch at BioWare, and specifically on Mass Effect 2, is a different beast than what I’m used to. It’s been mostly voluntary for not only me but for everyone (meaning I’ve chosen to stay at work to get stuff done as opposed to someone else telling me I have to stay to get stuff done, or staying at work to get stuff done because I have to make an entire sequel in 6 months). But everyone’s work is coming along amazingly. You’re in for a real treat.

Crunch is a very strange beast and one that doesn’t exist solely in the games industry. My wife works for the provincial government here in Alberta and sometimes she’ll have to spend a few hours after work to get things done, or spend a week of long hours (though that is very rare). The film industry has been doing it for a while and I think that the games industry thinks that it is like the film industry. And in some ways that’s not incorrect: a creative industry requires whatever you have to bring to the table to make the product the best product it can be. So sometimes extra time is required to get to that gold standard.

Is Crunch a sign of bad scheduling? Sometimes: I’ve experienced that on 2 of my projects not at BioWare. Poor planning for either the department you are in, or a department that impacts you can cause unwanted long hours. And sometimes, the worst kind of Crunch is when it is dictated by production: you must stay because other members of your time must stay. You begin, in those situations, to not only dislike the project, but those people who are having to stay late, whether or not it is justified.

Sometimes, and I mean this with as straight a face as I can, that it’s done out of love. No shitting. We crunched on Cel Damage because for most of us it was our first game, it was a launch game for the original Xbox, and we wanted it to be the best it could be. There was a bit of ‘OMGOMGOMG we’ve run out of time for this level! Crapcrapcrapcrap!’ going on, but also there were many late hours trying to get the population just right on the Junk Yard level so it’s the most fun; or spending several 17 hour shifts trying to get cartoon trees to look just right. The same can be said about Mass Effect 2: everyone is putting the hours in to make it the absolute best it can be. The difference is that the Mass Effect 2 team is comprised of seasoned veterans and on Cel Damage we really had no idea what the fuck we were doing.

In the next part I’ll talk about some of the ways I get through Crunch.