Following the recent success of WARDOGS, CEO of developer Bulkhead, Joe Brammer, has provided some insight into the studio’s hiring practices. In an interview with Game Developer, Brammer has revealed that crunch is an important part of the studio’s development process, and those who are critical of the concept “often don’t make it in the door”.
While he acknowledged that crunch during game development is a serious issue most of the time, and that Bulkhead actively tries its best to avoid it, Brammer also believes that crunch is simply inevitable. To that end, he is also proud of the studio not hiding the fact that crunch happens during development, and even wants to make sure that his studio is known for it.
“A lot of people who may have an issue with crunch—rightly so, I understand that issue, we always try and avoid it, but we don’t hide that this is going to happen at some point—they often don’t make it in the door. We want to be known for that: this is a place you come to work hard. If you care about the work you’re making and the result of what you make here, you’ll feel really valued. If you don’t, you will feel slave-driven.”
Brammer revealed that his studio also actively avoids hiring developers who might be critical of crunch, with teams even going through a potential employee’s social media accounts to see if they have spoken negatively about the practice in the past.
“We check people’s socials, and if you’re constantly tweeting anti-crunch messaging: ‘This should never ever be a thing’, we know that and go, ‘Look, you’re not going to be happy here, so we’re not going to go with you’.”
On the flip side, the CEO noted that engaging in crunch at Bulkhead isn’t a thankless job as it might be at other studios, and that those who work hard are often provided financial incentives to do so. “If we’re going to be a company who says, ‘we do crunch’, then we have to also say, ‘but you get something for it.’ We want people to know that those people who do work hard get that return, and it is life-changing.”
Bulkhead is just coming out of the massive success seen by its multiplayer shooter, WARDOGS, which the studio announced recently crossed the 2 million sales milestone just five days after the title’s Early Access release. In a social media post, the studio was proud of having “made a game we wanted to play with friends.” While the team has plenty of content planned for the game, like more maps, vehicles, and weapons, Bulkhead is aiming to exit the Early Access phase of WARDOGS sometime in 2028.
The title is also slated to eventually make its way to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. However, no details about these console versions have been revealed for now. If you’re interested in checking out the title in its current state, you might be interested in the studio’s “harsh stance” against cheating.
