C-r-u-n-c-h

Most people believe that cuss words are four letters long. Well, in the game developing world, a six letter word is one of the worst cuss words ever: Crunch. Most people have absolutely NO idea what a crunch is when not in reference to a work out routine, and I get that. Thus the writing to tell you about it. (Duh, Carissa, they know this.... )

Crunch is probably best described as follows: a work week in a day. No, really, thats what it feels like. Most people work for 8 hours a day, more or less. Sure, some people are workaholics and work 10+ hour days. The people at Dustin's office fall into both categories because of what their specific fields demand. Different stages of the process demand more time from different people. For instance, at the beginning when the concept is developed, you have a group (or groups) of people working on the base code. After that, you have different teams of artists, coders, testers, and problem solvers who bring their talents and efforts to the title. (I probably left some out and if so, I'm sorry. It's hard to keep it all in this brain of mine!) As time gets closer to the launch of a game, different teams step up and take charge of what they have to get done. Dustin is sort of in the "problem fixer" group, so as testers (people who play the game and find errors, problem spots, or just general things to change) come up with things that need to work, Dustin goes and basically fixes it. Therefore, his crunch time comes towards the end of a project.

At the first crunch, as I'd mentioned before, I mistook his long hours working as a disinterest in me and wanting to spend time with me. There was more than the long work hours, though. I noticed that when he wasn't working now that he was pretty absent mentally when we were together. He had a hard time keeping up with conversations and didn't really want to do anything but lay around and rest or sleep. Thankfully, he shared with me what he was doing and how draining it was for him. After about a month of this, and the launch happened, things got back to normal with us. Then, after moving to Dallas, another crunch came and his long hours started back up. Thankfully, I was able to take him food and hang out in the office with him sometimes, so I wasn't completely alone. I will say, though, that getting home at 3am for several weeks straight isn't the most fun of times.

Now in our third crunch, the hours aren't quite as bad, but they still aren't exactly what you would call ideal. However, I'm not worried. Dustin's absentmindedness isn't going to last forever... (at least thats what I keep telling myself. ;) ) Until the day comes when the game ships, we will push onward and forward knowing that the day is soon approaching when we will once again eat dinner together on a week night. :)




Other news: The Wii-U looks AWESOME and I cannot wait to get it. E3 had some great shows this year, and the Zelda anniversary was way awesome with their full symphony. Now, if I could only get someone to make a game that did laundry for me, I'd be set...