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- Bully’s development saw Rockstar going through a brutal crunch phase toward the end.
- The team had to work 18 hours a day for the full week, and the employees were not allowed to take breaks for lunch and dinner.
- This situation also led to internal conflicts and mental breakdowns.
The Bully franchise has always been a staple of Rockstar’s catalog. This series offers an over-the-top gameplay style, and fans have always wanted to see what another outing in the Bully universe would have looked like.
During a recent interview, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser confirmed that the sequel never happened due to a lack of resources. Now, another ex-Rockstar developer has revealed an interesting bit of insight into the IP’s development. According to the developer, Bully’s development led to the most crunch of any Rockstar game.
Why it matters: The gaming industry has been prone to crunch more than most other industries. This problem can even harm creative vision and developer motivation in the worst-case scenarios.
Speaking to Retro Gamer (via GamesRadar), Andrew Wood, one of Bully’s Environment Artists, remarked that Rockstar went above and beyond to get the game finished in time for its October release.
Unfortunately, this meant that the developers were forced to work seven days a week, with the typical day lasting as long as 18 hours. The developer also remarked that people were no longer allowed to take lunch and dinner breaks.
At one point, he compared the situation to being in prison. Moreover, Andrew Wood confirmed that many developers started having mental breakdowns, something that made the situation even worse.
All this considered, this environment was far from healthy. Perhaps it’s even more of a surprise, then, that Bully turned out as great as it did.
There were constant conflicts due to the stress of always being at work. A couple of people had mental breakdowns. It was brutal, especially near the end.
Of course, Bully is not the only game that forced Rockstar developers to crunch before release.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s development also became famous for the extreme crunch that Rockstar developers endured to polish the game. Fortunately, it seems Rockstar is avoiding a similar crunch period for GTA 6.
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[Senior News Reporter]
Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than 5 years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.
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