Rockstar Artist Remembers The Crunch Of Working On Bully

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I firmly believe that Bully is just as excellent as games like GTA or Red Dead Redemption, and deserves the same appreciation and praise from players. I’ll always stand by that opinion.

However, it seems that certain parts of making the game weren’t as enjoyable as actually playing it – and that’s according to a developer who was directly involved in its creation. It’s a candid admission about the development process.

Former Rockstar Dev Opens Up About Stress And Exhaustion On Bully’s Development

During a recent conversation with Retro Gamers magazine (with thanks to GamesRadar), Andrew Wood, a former environment artist on Bully, shared that he had “mixed feelings” about his time working on the game. He explained that the final months of development involved a lot of intense crunch time.

Working long hours – often called Rockstar Games’s ‘crunch’ – wasn’t unusual for game developers back then, but Leslie Benzies’s accounts detailed immense stress and burnout. He described constant pressure, working seven days a week, and colleagues experiencing mental health crises.

“The memories of it are love-hate. It was a fun, weird, hellish, chaotic, awesome time”, Andrew says. “I reflect back fondly on the people and the times and the crazy things we did after hours, but then I think about the stress. […] There were constant internal conflicts due to the stress of always being at work. A couple of people had mental breakdowns. They snapped. It was difficult to work in that kind of environment, but I knew that Bully was going to be worth it in the end, so I stuck it out”.

As the release date for Bully approached, the development team was working incredibly hard, often skipping meals. “They even brought food into the office to discourage us from leaving!” one developer recalled. “It started to feel like we were trapped.” The final stretch was particularly difficult. The team was putting in seven-day weeks, with shifts averaging 18 hours a day. This intense pace led to significant burnout among the developers. It was brutal at times, especially near the end.

Although Andrew correctly predicted that Bully would become a remarkable game, the current working environment isn’t healthy for the team. It’s unfortunately reminiscent of the development of Red Dead Redemption 2, where many developers reported a grueling experience involving weeks that regularly stretched to “100-hour weeks”.

Thankfully, recent news from within Rockstar suggests a significant positive change in their company culture and improved working conditions. This means the development of their highly anticipated game – Grand Theft Auto 6 – is happening in a more supportive and healthy environment. It’s a welcome development for both the developers and fans alike. Hopefully, this new approach will continue.

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2025-10-03 22:40