Time, as in Free Time
Yet at Relentless, the company has three different priorities: time, scope, and resources. Eades believes that those three factors are what in turn affect the overall quality of the product being made, and that those three things are relevant not to the company so much as to the employees.
“At Relentless, we have those three things, but we’ve kind of twisted it around,” Eades says. “What I would say is that you people who are making the game are the key” and time is important to you. “Thirty-five hours a week is a good thing,” he says, explaining that time spent in the office is time spent working, not goofing off. “We do not run some kind of glorified social club.”
Time is treated seriously at Relentless, meaning employees’ free time is seen as being equally important as the time spent working. Employees are encouraged to use their free time as they wish -- unlike what happens too often to other game developers, Relentless employees are not pressured or forced to work crunch, or extreme overtime for extended periods of time. Relentless believes that when employees are overworked, they do not produce their best work. They are productive for a stint, says Eades, until the hit their breaking point, and then the rest of the time in the office is spent cleaning up the error-ridden stuff they produced while burned out. 
Another factor that’s taken seriously from an employee perspective, says Eades, is money. Relentless has a bonus system for its employees, in which it “gives more than £800 away in bonuses.”
Additionally, Eades says it’s necessary for a company’s business goals to be in alignment with the employees’ goals, and vice versa. The rules and philosophy of the company need to gel with how the employees are willing to live and work, and how they are willing to fit work into their larger existence.
“I think I get more out of people by acknowledging that they are real people with real lives to lead and are not just dedicated to Relentless Software,” he says. Then and only then can a company achieve a suitable work-life balance, in which the teams are happy and therefore productive, and hence the projects stick to their schedules and budgets. “We go from one product to the next product, to the next product, and we never ever miss our deadlines,” he says. “I’ve been working in the games industry for over 15 years, and I know I’m right about this. There’s no publisher who is going to tell me otherwise.”
When asked if the industry was becoming better or worse in terms of quality of life and having a “burn-out” methodology, Eades say no. “I don’t think it is changing. I’d like to think it is going the other way, but it’s not.” Working under stressful conditions with unpaid and “encouraged” but not enforced overtime “is kind of ingrained in the game industry, and I don’t think it’s likely to change.” 
To learn more about Relentless’ sustainability culture, or to view a ticking clock indicating the amount of time the company has worked without crunch time, visit www.relentless.co.uk.
