So today Dean and his company had to submit their game for a review which meant that the last few days were crunch time. Most of this week was 10-15 hour days for him depending on how much stuff he had to do, but yesterday topped them all! He went in at 9am (usual time) and at about 12am I went up there to hang out with him and the guys.

During most of crunch time, the day is spend waiting for this or that and they fill the time by playing games, Nerf gun wars, beer, porn, and other crazy antics followed by periods of frenzied typing to fix bugs that were found. After the bug fixes the cycle begins again. The end of the day is signified by a build that runs smoothly and everyone is happy with. There is no way of knowing when that one build will happen but I was hoping not too long after midnight.

I enjoy hanging around up there and it does not seem to bother anyone that I am there. In fact I feel like a part of the team in a way because I do little things around the place like letting other people in the building (doors auto lock at 6pm), picking up food, making snacks, ect. but last night I did one little thing that resulted in me helping the team. After making a game it gets monotonous to play it and you know exactly what to do and it is hard to find bugs sometimes. Well Dean handed me a controller and said play, so I did. I found a few little bugs, one of which Dean reported and I guess got fixed. So in one VERY small way I helped on the game.

Hours have gone by and I can’t count how many times I have laughed my ass off talking with Dean’s co-workers and bosses. I spend most of my time in other peoples offices while Dean is working on something or other. Each time they compiled a build we would cross our fingers to make sure it worked right. At about 4am I was tired and decided to go to sleep. The theater room is pitch black with the most awesome soft leather sofas I have ever seen! I laid down and rested for a while and finally at about 6am there was a build they were happy with!

Dean went in at 9am and got off at 6am for a record of 21 hours at work! He does not have to work today or Friday at all, but as it gets closer to D day for the game, this will become a routine schedule, and I am just glad I can come and hang out up there. I would not say it is quality time spent with Dean, but it is super fun for me!