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Game Development vocabulary · Production, QA & Playtesting

Crunch

Meaning in game development, with examples

/krʌntʃ/nounCommon term

In game development, crunch means: A period of very long working hours, often including nights and weekends, that a team works to meet a deadline, usually before a milestone or release.

In Turkish: crunch, yoğun mesai dönemi, fazla mesai baskısı

How it is used

A widely criticized practice in the industry, linked to burnout. People say a studio is in crunch, went through months of crunch or has a no-crunch policy. Also a verb: we crunched for six weeks. It is fair to ask about crunch in interviews.

Example sentences

  1. We cut the scope so the team wouldn't have to crunch before launch.

  2. How often does the studio go into crunch before a release?

Common collocations

  • crunch time
  • go into crunch
  • months of crunch
  • no-crunch policy
  • avoid crunch
  • scope creepThe slow, uncontrolled growth of a project as new features and ideas keep being added without extra time or people, which often causes delays and crunch.
  • milestoneAn agreed point in development when specific work must be delivered and reviewed, such as a playable demo, alpha or beta; publishers often pay the studio per milestone.
  • AAAUsed for games with very large budgets and teams, made or funded by major publishers, usually with high production values and big marketing campaigns.
  • postmortemA review held after a project or release in which the team discusses what went right, what went wrong and what to do differently next time.

More terms: Production, QA & Playtesting

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