Industry outrage at ‘brutal’ Team Bondi crunch

Games industry professionals and association members have slammed Australian group Team Bondi, and its founder Brendan McNamara, for the studio’s intense crunch work policy.

And the chair of the International Game Developers Association has clarified the group’s position on the matter, after some IGDA members initially declined to comment.

Brian Robbins, chair of the IGDA Board of Directors, said the association would fully investigate the issue.

“[But] certainly reports of 12-hour a day, lengthy crunch time, if true, are absolutely unacceptable and harmful to the individuals involved, the final product, and the industry as a whole,” Robbins told Develop.

He said IGDA needed to know all the facts before commenting any further.

“We encourage any Team Bondi employee and/or family member to email qol@igda.org with comments about the recent past and current situation – positive or negative” Robbins added.

Over the weekend Team Bondi was exposed for its allegedly ruthless work ethic – with some developers claiming a regular working week could mean more than 100 hours at the office.

Brendan McNamara, who founded Team Bondi in 2003, said his studio’s work policies are not unfair.

The full list of accusations, some of which are not substantiated, can be found here.

Industry professionals, confirmed as genuine but speaking anonymously via Develop Online’s comments page, have laid into McNamara. Their opinions do not necessarily reflect Develop’s.

Numerous developers on Twitter have personally criticised McNamara.