Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart developers say they did not crunch

Getting a modern triple-A game out is a monumental task, regardless of how large a development team is. Any number of things can go wrong, delaying the game and leaving fans upset. But not only did Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart release when developer Insomniac said it would, the developer apparently accomplished that task without employing the crunch.

For those that don’t know, crunch is a commonality in the games industry, specifically for game developers. It’s a period of time where developers are pressured into working extremely long hours to finish a game on time. Oftentimes, this practice can lead to developers working massive 60 or 70 hour work weeks, if not more, taking a toll on both their mental and physical health.

However, according to two of the developers at Insomniac that worked on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, crunch simply never happened, at least for them. “I can’t speak for anyone on the team but myself, but I didn’t crunch once,” Grant Parker, a game designer at Insomniac, said on Twitter.

An animator at the studio, Lindsay Thompson, echoed Parker’s message, saying, “I didn’t crunch once, entire production. A couple late nights here and there finishing something up, but completely crunch free.”

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is out now, and is playable solely on the PlayStation 5.