Zamfir Dumitru (Dawnblade) & Red Dead Redemption 2's 100 hour work weeks

Zamfir Dumitru, the Founder & CEO of MonsterScope Studios joined us this episode to Share his team's latest project Dawnblade the modern hack 'n' slash dungeon crawler and Action RPG for mobile devices. Zamfir talked about the challenges of taking his work to Gamescom in Germany and at the Tokyo Game Show and why exhibiting it at PAXAUS seems like a walk in the park in comparison and what it is like to be so close to the end of a long development journey.   The launch cycle of the hotly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2 is in full swing and with it are the standard pre-release interviews happen with key creatives. Dan Houser, Rockstar Games Co-founder and writer caused some controversy this week when hesaid in an interview with Vulture that "The polishing, rewrites, and reedits Rockstar does are immense. 'We were working 100-hour weeks' several times in 2018" before quickly clarifying. Over the last few years we've seen a lot of push back against crunch culture in games development, and the era of high intensity work expectations isn't as readily accepted as it once was.   Pixel Sift is produced by Scott Quigg, Sarah Ireland, Fiona Bartholomaeus & Mitch Loh. Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Salty Dog Sounds for some of our promo music this week.   SPONSOR: Thank you to Murdoch University School of Arts for their support over every single episode of Pixel Sift. We couldn't have done it without you. If you want to bolster your skills in media, journalism or game development, check out the Murdoch University School of Arts website for more information!   You can find us on social media, Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"Support the show: https://sifter.store