A former id Software producer says development of DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations involved months of severe crunch, with some weeks stretching to at least 80 working hours. Andrew Willis, who worked as a producer on DOOM: The Dark Ages, told Insider Gaming’s Kiwi Talkz that the expansion was completed under an extremely tight schedule. According to Willis, some experienced members of the team described it as the worst crunch period they had encountered in their careers.
Willis said there was a roughly two-month period in which he regularly worked at least 12 hours a day, with some individual days reaching 17 hours. He estimated that the majority of Revelations was built within three or four months, requiring significant overtime across the development team. His comments provide a rare first-hand account of the workload behind the expansion, which launched on July 7, 2026.
The producer described starting some days at around 5 or 6 in the morning and arriving at the studio before sunrise. He also recalled multiple days when the schedule meant he did not see his son at all. Willis stressed that he was not the only person putting in those hours, saying other developers with lengthy careers in both Hollywood and game development regarded the period as exceptionally difficult.
At its heaviest, Willis said his own workload could reach at least 80 hours during a week. He characterized the decision to work those hours as more complicated than a straightforward order from management, saying there was not an explicit company-wide mandate telling employees to crunch. Instead, he described a situation where the volume of assigned work and expectations around quality effectively left developers feeling that extensive overtime was necessary to finish what had been planned.
Willis referred to that dynamic as a form of “pseudo-induced crunch.” His explanation was that developers could technically deliver a more limited version of their work within normal hours, but doing so might fall below the quality standards expected by the team and players. That distinction is significant because workplace crunch in game development is not always imposed through a written requirement; it can also emerge from deadlines, production scope and pressure to meet internal quality targets.
The claims come from a named former member of the production team rather than an anonymous report, although they still represent Willis’ account of development conditions. id Software and Bethesda have not publicly provided their own detailed account of the Revelations schedule or responded to the specific crunch allegations. The expansion itself was developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks as a new campaign for DOOM: The Dark Ages.
Revelations was released one day after Microsoft announced a major restructuring across Xbox on July 6. Microsoft said approximately 1,600 Xbox positions would be eliminated immediately as part of a wider plan affecting around 3,200 roles during its 2027 fiscal year. Subsequent reports indicated id Software was heavily affected, and Willis says he was among the employees who lost their jobs in the cuts shortly before the expansion became available.
That timing made the experience particularly difficult for the former producer. Willis said developers had sacrificed substantial personal time to deliver the project at the expected level of quality, only for layoffs to follow immediately before launch. Reports at the time suggested significant portions of id Software were affected by Microsoft’s restructuring, although Microsoft did not publicly provide a studio-specific headcount for the cuts.
DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations expands the base game with a new campaign set in a frozen purgatory, new demons, additional puzzles and the Chain Spear combat system. The DLC launched for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on July 7 and is also included with qualifying premium editions of the base game. Willis’ account now places renewed attention on the development conditions behind that release, particularly the human cost of completing major game content on compressed production schedules.
