"They often don’t make it in the door": Wardogs studio Bulkhead check for "anti-crunch messaging" on prospective hires' social media, CEO says

Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer has revealed that the studio behind recent FPS hit Wardogs check the social media accounts of prospective hires for public criticism of crunch practices, and deliberately prefer to avoid bringing such folks on board. In the exec's view, devs working extra or long hours to get a game or update out of the door - otherwise known as crunch - "is going to happen at some point", even if the studio "always try and avoid it".

Brammer made these comments in a lengthy interview with The Game Business. "A lot of people that 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," he said.

Brammer painted this as being down to Bulkhead seeking to be known as "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," he continued. "If you don’t, you will feel slave-driven. 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'."

That sounds to me like Brammer implying that developers who're against crunch don't care as much about their work, or at least the end result of it. There's also an undercurrent of 'oh, look at us doing people a favour because we know best' in the CEO presenting anti-crunch advocates not being hired as a matter of the company simply wanting their staff to be happy, rather than deliberately avoiding bringing in voices who might question or criticise Bulkhead's working practices.

Brammer argued that the hard work and potential crunch at Bulkhead is balanced out by devs being well-compensated for it, though The Game Business report that not all of the studio's staff own shares or get bonuses. In a subsequent tweet that saw him claim coverage of his chat with TGB has taken his crunch comments "out of context", he also pointed out a number of other things he mentioned in the interview about Bulkhead's working practices, such as giving staff the month of December off and having operated with a four day work week for "50%" of Wardogs' development. He also declared that he's "not going to get into a public debate about this", seemingly unaware that when - especially as the CEO of a company - you talk about how you view a controversial issue like crunch in an on-the-record interview, you are in fact getting involved in public debate about it.

Brammer said in the interview with The Game Business that Bulkhead have made staff rendundant every year for the past six, adding that following Wardogs' early success "this will be the first year we haven't done it". Our James has given Wardogs a go and found himself making cash as a pacifist rideshare driver, while Edwin's reported on Bulkhead's efforts to come down hard on XP farming and exploits which get around the money-making grind.