The shooter that Tencent abandoned: Wardogs hits 2m sales in one weekend – YouTube
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Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer is catching heat from industry colleagues for his studio’s stance on crunch. In the latest episode of The Game Business Show (as covered by Game Developer), Brammer and host Christopher Dring chatted about Bulkhead’s journey as an indie studio and Wardogs’ big success before the conversation turned to work culture and crunch.
Brammer was upfront that crunch does happen at Bulkhead, and if you’re not OK with that, you’re probably not getting hired.
“A lot of people who may have an issue with crunch—rightly so, I understand that issue, we always try and avoid it, but we don’t hide that this is going to happen at some point—they often don’t make it in the door. Because we want to be known for that: this is a place you come to work hard. If you care about the work you’re making and the result of what you make here, you’ll feel really valued. If you don’t, you will feel slave-driven,” he said.
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“We check people’s socials, and if you’re constantly tweeting anti-crunch messaging: ‘This should never ever be a thing’, we know that and go, ‘Look, you’re not going to be happy here, so we’re not going to go with you.'”
Brammer acknowledged that this is a controversial policy in game development, which has made strides to eliminate or limit mandatory crunch following years of reporting detailing the industry’s labor exploitation, burnout, and the human cost of a work culture that says you only “care about what you’re making,” as Brammer says, if work is more important than your family.
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That’s another direct quote, by the way: “For the last three months, Wardogs has been more important than a lot of [our team’s] family lives. But now, Bulkhead and I have to acknowledge that it needs to go the other way. Everyone’s pushing us to get [the console version] out earlier, and we’ve said, ‘No, that’s not how it’s going to work. We can’t push them more.”
The CEO believes Bulkhead balances the scales by offering bonuses and incentives to some (but definitely not all) of its staff.
“If we’re going to be a company that says ‘We do crunch,’ then you have to get something for it,” Brammer said.
On Bluesky, Brammer’s game industry colleagues aren’t so convinced he’s cracked the code.
“There’s an endless mountain of peer reviewed, double-blind studies that show this shit doesn’t work and *negatively impacts profits* but the facade of looking like you’re a big tough special boy is more important,” wrote game dev bplane.
“Tell me you need a producer without saying you need a producer,” said producer and consultant Nazih Fares.
“Imagine being proud of your attitude towards crunch and calling it ‘hard work.’ Crunch is a result of bad planning and poor management,” wrote Studio Gobo’s Michael Howe. “This [interview] stinks of lies and excuses to drag devs through the grinder, may this kind of lead never find me.”
How outwardly does Bulkhead embrace crunch? Back on Wardogs launch day, Brammer posted studio tours on X that included a room full of air mattresses for employees working overnight to fix Wardogs’ troubled servers.