former designer san diego rock star Kris Roberts was recently interviewed by KIWI TALKZ, a YouTube channel that specializes in meetings with developers in the gaming industry. During the chat, Roberts reflected on the years of making games such as Midnight Club 3 and Midnight Club: Los Angeles, especially the first one. Red Dead Redemption.
One of the central themes of the conversation was the use of overtime during the development of the western adventure. Roberts explained that in some cases, requests for weekend work are not motivated by a true technical need but rather by a desire Demonstrate fully functional offices during executive visits.
parade staff
“A senior executive, Sam or Leslie or whoever, is coming to visit the place. weekend. Everybody needs to be available,” Roberts recalled. “I remember a couple of specific instances on Friday afternoons. Management would send an email saying, ‘Just to clarify, we need to be here this weekend. ” Then a follow-up email read: “This weekend isn’t just about Saturday. ”
The designer believes this approach is very unfair to staff: “Maybe I’ve promised my kids what they’re going to do over the weekend. At 4.30pm on a Friday, you tell me I have to be here on Sunday no matter what? That’s unacceptable.”
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“It’s not because you have a certain amount of key questions Roberts continued. “It’s more of, ‘No, we have to give the impression that everyone is here all the time because we have an executive visiting or whatever.'”
These pressures were one of the main reasons that prompted him to do so. Leave the company. Roberts also emphasized that the situation is particularly difficult for dedicated multiplayer teams. While single-player developers were able to slow down once the game reached its “prime” stage, online staff continued to work to meet deadlines set by New York headquarters that were considered unattainable.
“I remember they provided a Gantt chart to show how we were achieving our goals, which showed past deliveries that we hadn’t started yet,” the former designer noted. “This doesn’t make any sense!”
Despite criticism of the organization of the work, Roberts has positive memories of his meetings with studio management. speaking of hauser brothersexplained: “Sam really wanted to be involved in the development of our multiplayer game. He was constantly in playtests and things like that.”
The designer also shared an anecdote from the development of Midnight Club, when he took Sam and Dan for a ride in a BMW M Roadster. After giving Dan a test drive, he talked about it with Sam, who asked him if he could take it for a test drive. Roberts made it clear he did not Never had a personal conflict with either managerwhile expressing approval of the overall atmosphere in the studio: “I’ve never experienced ‘Oh my god, these guys are crazy’ or anything like that, but I’ve heard stories…”.