“No game that required its developers to crunch, like The Last of Us Part II did, should be given a Best Direction award.”
This is coming from Kotaku‘s Ian Walker who argues that awarding The Last of Us Part II for the best direction can be interpreted as “a tacit endorsement” of crunch on the part of The Game Awards’ advisory board.
The Hades devs at Supergiant, on the other hand, are famous for their culture of sustainability. The way their management was able to avoid crunch across multiple projects, Walker writes, makes Hades that much more deserving of the Best Direction award.
The piece concludes with a statement, coined by Fanbyte podcast producer Jordan Mallory: “I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I’m not kidding.”