I know where you're coming from, and what you're saying is currently true, I do however fundamentally believe that the death march is not a given. It is a choice that the games industry has made because it:
a) Doesn't know any better
b) Doesn't care enough to change (there are always hungry young fresh graduates to replace those old guys who keep complaining about not seeing their children grow up)
It's partly a process thing, and it's partly a technology thing. I'm researching game testing [1]. Perhaps if we can get game testing to be better, we might end up with better processes, such as how TDD helps other software domains. Same goes for other technologies leading to other better processes.
Lots of really complicated software gets made every day, but only the games industry really uses terms like "crunch time" and "hero" and "oh thanks for finishing Red Dead Redemption after months of crunch time, here's your pink slip [2]." It has to mature, at some point, I just don't know when that will be.
a) Doesn't know any better
b) Doesn't care enough to change (there are always hungry young fresh graduates to replace those old guys who keep complaining about not seeing their children grow up)
It's partly a process thing, and it's partly a technology thing. I'm researching game testing [1]. Perhaps if we can get game testing to be better, we might end up with better processes, such as how TDD helps other software domains. Same goes for other technologies leading to other better processes.
Lots of really complicated software gets made every day, but only the games industry really uses terms like "crunch time" and "hero" and "oh thanks for finishing Red Dead Redemption after months of crunch time, here's your pink slip [2]." It has to mature, at some point, I just don't know when that will be.
[1] http://www.zenetproject.com [2] http://www.next-gen.biz/news/rockstar-san-diego-confirms-lay...