343 "taking a bit more time" to invest in tools for Halo Infinite

Bonnie Ross is a distinguished developer that is currently the head of 343 Industries, and when USgamer talked to her after being inducted into The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame, they asked her about how 343 tackles crunch in development.

"Yeah, with Halo 4, just given the nature of being a brand new team that had not worked on the Halo engine before, we did put the team through a really bad crunch. Obviously we had a ton of feedback that that was not a great thing," she explained. "And one of the reasons is that the Halo engine is a very technical engine, which means it's a lot harder for artists and designers to get content into the game. So we promised the team that for Halo 5, we would do the work. And we did a ton of work to improve the engine along the way, but we promised them that we would do the work to really create tools and pipeline that was easy to work in so that we could help prevent crunch."

"And we didn't do that for Halo 5. It ended up being a bigger game than we thought it was and we didn't have time. When we shipped Halo 5, it definitely was a point of, I think, crisis with the team. Crisis might be not the right word, but it was a point where the team was like, 'You promised us and we're not doing crunch again.' And they were right."

"That's why we've taken a bit more time—usually it's three years between every Halo—to really do the investment in the engine and the tools and pipeline, and we're still working on it. But we showed it at E3 last year, and it is basically trying to create an environment that we can build the game better, faster, and ideally, you know, prevent crunch. I think there will always be with any game, I think there will be times where we need to work longer hours. But I think that we need to be really deliberate with that because it's not fair to the team, and the team doesn't want to do it. And so we're trying to work out how do we create the best environment to hopefully mitigate that."

Around the release window of Red Dead Redemption 2 the concept of crunch in development came under the microscope as reports emerged of overworked staff working 80-hour weeks to hit deadlines, so it's been a big talking point in the industry ever since then.

In terms of the future, here's what Ross had to say on what's coming:

"So we are heavily invested in when we look at our legacy because I think so many people still love to play the old Halo. So we've been doing a ton of work on the Master Chief Collection and kind of changing the way that we engage with fans and players and really kind of bringing them into the dialogue on like what do they want. I think that today fans expect a different type of engagement. They want to be part of it. So we're definitely trying to pave the way there with Master Chief Collection and Halo 5. And as we work on Infinite, we'll also be engaging more with fans along the way to make sure that we are creating something that resonates, and that we have time to be agile and make sure that we're creating the best experience."

Do you like Ross' approach to development?