Wardogs CEO Joe Brammer has defended the long hours his team had to put into the early access release of its FPS hit, declaring the anti-crunch attitude of some other developers as "Californian bullshit."
Speaking to Edge, Brammer explains the some of his philosophy behind the high standards of recruitment Wardogs studio Bulkhead has adopted. In the past, Brammer has said that the Wardgos team checks the Steam accounts of applicants to see if they're genuinely passionate about FPS games. "We liked how talent-driven the industry used to be," Brammer says. "And then it started to be about 'everybody should be able to get a job in games.' We don't really think like that."
Brammer thinks "the floodgates opened" for games industry hiring, "but now they're closing again, and there might be some benefit to saying to people: 'you have to be fucking good to be here, and you have to prove your worth.'"
Some of that involves working late hours, but Brammer argues that's sometimes a necessary evil. "Our team doesn't love working late, but they do work late and we do crunch. What we're saying is that sometimes, yes, life is more important. But sometimes, when you're on the eve of releasing a game that keeps you all employed, work's more important."
Brammer's philosophy stems from his own family. "My mum was a teacher and a headteacher at a school," he says. "I've never seen someone do so much crunch for barely any money. And so when game devs are like 'I don't want to work overtime for my 100K salary'? Fuck. Off. Respectfully, it's Californian bullshit."
Known for being pretty direct in his communication, Brammer has also told his players not to expect much from the team over the coming weeks. Ahead of a month-long break in December to celebrate Wardog's early access success, he told fans to "go play GTA 6" because "we need to detox" and said that he wants "to make sure players know they can fuck off" for a month while Bulkhead takes a break.
