Recently I've read the book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. It tells the stories behind the development of some of the major video games like Witcher 3, Diablo III, Stardew Valley, and more. Some are the stories of a huge success, like Stardew Valley that was created by a single developer and was extremely well received by both fans and critics. Others are the dramatic tales about the games that failed despite all the huge resources (in terms of both time and money) that went into them.

What I found the most interesting, though, is the fact that a game industry virtually can't survive without crunches. Unlike any other software product, there can't be any clear frameworks and guidelines that one can simply follow. You never now whether the game will be fun to play until you've made it and played it.

Then there is, of course, the never-ending conflict of interest between those with passion to create great products (aka the developers) and those who have money to make that actually happen (aka the publishers). At the end of the day, it's a business like any other.

Luckily, as far as I can see from the book, people who work in the game industry tend to really love their jobs and actually care about their products. They are willing to put in all the effort needed and pull as many all-nighters as is physically possible for the game to reach and exceed the consumers' expectations.