Slime Rancher’s Game Director says crunch is not always a recipe for success

Slime Rancher’s success is crunch-free guaranteed.

Back in November, the increasingly erratic public figure Elon Musk tweeted, ”nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week”. Game Director of Slime Rancher, Nick Popovich, was quick to point out that in their studio’s experience that was not always the case.

Popovich tweeted at the time: ”We made Slime Rancher working 40 hrs a week. It has been played by over 5 million people, created an amazing company of talented people, and currently has a 98% positive score on Steam. There is always another way.”

Since these tweets, Popovich has taken to Waypoint to talk further on the issue, describing the origins of his healthy attitude to crunch culture and the difficulty that can surround it, including interviews with members of his staff. In Waypoints piece, Popovich states “I feel strongly that we have a big hit because we have a healthy work/life balance.”

This is an industry in which crunch culture is very difficult to avoid, but if Slime Rancher’s success is anything to go by, there are ways to succeed without working overtime. Let’s hope more studios can follow Monomi Park’s example.

To find out more about Slime Rancher, visit the game’s Steam page.