“Yes, there’s parts of developing a game that are difficult, but ultimately there should be some fun along the way.” And so with Laser League shipped, Roll7’s three co- founders (Simon Bennett, Thomas Hegarty and John Ribbins) needed not only time to recover, but to remember why exactly they were developing games in the first place. The team announced that Roll7 would be taking a break from game development, and the three planned a little getaway for themselves so that they could discuss the future of the studio.
CONFESSIONAL
What they ended up booking was, in an oddly appropriate move, an Airbnb in a refurbished church. Here the three sat down and hammered out what the future of Roll7 should look like. “We did a lot of soul searching about what we wanted personally, and what we wanted for the business,” says Hegarty. “That was the beginning of the next phase of Roll7. One of the top things was that there couldn’t be any crunch anymore. There has to be a different way to do it. Let’s work in a normal way with normal hours, and let’s appreciate that we have our own lives outside of this, and everyone who works for us also has their own personal interests. That was a crucial part for moving forward, that set the tone.”
Of course, ‘no crunch’ is a lot more than just a useful PR line. If any workplace truly wants to commit to a no-crunch environment, it first needs to rethink the way it approaches its work. “We also looked at a lot of our working practices,” says
Below: I didn’t know how to fit it in the feature itself, but it’s very important to me that you know that Danny Trejo is in this game
Hegarty. “In terms of how we managed, and the trust we put in people – or the lack of trust. It’s not that we didn’t think people could do it, but we were micromanaging. We thought that was the way to make a game. “So there was a lot of reflection, and we turned to a model of: Let’s just bring in people who are good at what
they do, and then trust them and see what they do. Of course, it’s important to give a broad idea of what we want, and set clear boundaries, but it was a complete 180 in the way we worked.” With this healthy new direction set, Roll7 would later begin work on OlliOlli World – a return to the franchise that first put them on the map. Which, given the circumstances, naturally resulted in a few mixed feelings. “Honestly at the end of Laser League, there were genuine questions as to whether we actually wanted to make a game again,” says Simon Bennett. “There was trepidation going into that process. Why are we doing this to ourselves, and to our families? Can we look each other in the eye and actually say that this is a good idea? “And then, obviously, we got excited. Because the
prototype was exciting, and there were all sorts of exciting things going on. But we were excited between the hours of nine and a half five in the evening. We had to resist the temptation – I would normally call John [Ribbins] at 9 or 10 o’clock at night, and we’d discuss new features or things that were happening. “Those conversations are now few and far between.
We had to stop each other from letting those exciting conversations just become normal. Because then later in development, you’re having those conversations, but they’re more arguments that are happening offline. And the other directors and the team aren’t aware of the decisions that are made. So then things just start falling apart, because it’s not happening in that structured way. “What we did is install a lot of structure and self-editing. Holding stuff back for appropriate times for conversations is not something that we’d done before. We’d spend hours in the pub discussing ideas for things, and there’d never be any clear outcomes. Everyone would have a very different idea about what all of those rambled conversations over eight pints actually meant. And then you’d come back in, and one person would go off and do one thing, and the other person would go do another. They’d say ‘oh, you meant the thing from before we got the shots in! Oh, no. I want to do the other thing that we discussed…’ I mean, it was just a crazy, crazy situation. The way that we work now is far more focused, it’s far more efficient. What we were doing was just crazy.”
STRUCTURED PASSION Structure is really the important thing here. In creative industries, crunch is often unwittingly self-imposed. When people love their work, they’ll happily throw themselves into it. But as with any relationship, without clear boundaries and structure, that love will turn toxic over time. Passion is a great motivator, but passion will always be a finite resource. While the team were excited by OlliOlli World
58 | MCV/DEVELOP April 2022
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