Silent Space
Silent Space was . . . one of my most demanding tasks surprisingly, and I could see the issue coming a long time in advance.
The game was pretty straight forward: A physics-based puzzle game set in space. The story is relatively straightforward, basically 2001:Space odyssey but in a space station (not my choice, I was given the basic lore by the producer director).
Actually, writing out the lore and and dialogue was a lot of fun, mostly because I’m a HUGE fan of sci-fi, especially sci-fi. Granted, this story involved a crazy AI in the 60s, it was still interesting to try and capture that retro feel in terms of story and dialogue.
So where the problem really started was when the producer/director asked me to build the narrative and writing for the third act on a mechanic that wasn’t tested yet. I tried to warn him that it was not a good idea to base a whole act on a mechanic that wasn’t even prototyped, but I was young and naive, and I was given assurances so I relented.
As you might have guessed, the mechanic never materialized and two weeks before the hard deadline we had set (and about a week after I handed in everything), I was informed that I needed to rewrite the third act. Oh, and that I needed to maintain the assets that had already been built for the third act, as well as complete it within the same deadline.
Well, that was my first ever run-in with crunch, and it wasn’t pleasant. I did nothing but get up in the morning, work and go to sleep for 10 days in a row. easily 14-16 hour work days.
But hey, at least I learned how to actually so no to a director/producer, especially on an untested product. I’m don’t plan to go through crunch again for a foreseeable mistake!
Albert Bassili 