Crunch development periods are an "exploitation of staff"

The MD of Tag Games, Paul Farley, has told GamesIndustry.biz that 'crunch' periods of development can and should be avoided, because it's a sign of bad management and an exploitation of staff.

Talking on his own company's philosophy, Farley explained that Tag Games has never had a crunch period in its two years of business, and never intends to - preferring instead that people "have a life" and "are positive about what they're doing".

"Well the appeal for us is that we're getting experienced staff, probably coming up to their late twenties or early thirties, they have a family or want to settle down," he explained. "And they're looking for a job where either they can make games that are small and fun, enjoy day-to-day, work solid hours - work hard during the day, but go home at the end of it and have a life.

"That's always been very important for us at Tag - we don't do overtime, we don't do crunch. We've been going for two years and we've never had crunch. We never intend to, and we're very strong that crunch equals bad management, bad project management, bad timekeeping, or exploitation of staff. And that's not what we're about.

"So we want to create the sort of environment where people are positive about what they're doing, and enjoy it. We're picking up people at a certain stage at their careers, and for what you'd get in London they've got a five-bedroom house, a sports car in the drive, and still have money left over."

The full GamesIndustry.biz interview with Paul Farley is available now.