Grasshopper Manufacture head and developer superstar Goichi “Suda51” Suda is taking a stand against development crunch culture. Even with his game No More Heroes 3 in development, the dev is saying no to overtime.

Crunch culture has become something of a meme. Between games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons getting delayed to Naughty Dog slipping a few crunch culture references into Last of Us 2, gamers are constantly reminded that their games were paid for dearly in stress and overtime by their favorite devs. But some studios are moving away from crunch culture, saying it’s bad for studios, employees, and gamers alike.

In a recent interview, Suda51 says that his successful studio Grasshopper Manufacture is built on the idea of “work-life balance.” Suda51 says that “Unnecessary overtime is simply not allowed at all" at his studio, and that he enforces this idea of taking time off as a necessity. Considering how ingrained crunch culture is in video game development, it’s quite the surprise to see someone taking a stand.

He isn’t the only one. Newly-minted LightSpeed Studio has also said that crunch culture will not be allowed in its new, AAA development studio. This new studio will be run by former Rockstar Games Steve Martin, a man familiar with crunch due to working on games like Red Dead Redemption 2.

Grasshopper has been in business for more than 20 years, making an amazing array of classic games that will hopefully come to Switch. The studio is living proof that gaming development without the tremendous pressure is something that can work. With less burnout and less overworking, players can also benefit. They may get fewer games a year, but those games will be of higher quality.

Suda51 is working on No More Heroes 3; he mentioned back in November that the game was about 35% complete. He also said back in October that Grasshopper will be making a horror game with Silent Hill creator Swery65. It may be a bit before gamers seen anything new from the studio, but it’s almost guaranteed that the game will be worth the wait.

Source: PCGamesn, Youtube