Runner2 development fueled by 744 beers (so far)

How do I know? I consulted the "beer count" note on the title screen of the in-progress build I played. Gaijin Games has implemented a counter to track the number of beers drank by the team during development of Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien. Eventually, it'll be automated — and keeping track live even after the game is released — but for now it's a manually updated spreadsheet.

"We have a whole system," co-director Alex Neuse told me. "We have a spreadsheet; we're thinking of developing an iPhone app just to use internally. Then if you drink wine or something, we have a conversion, so it converts it to beers for the beer count." There was talk of a bottle opener that automatically logs every cap it opens.

At this point I began to think that I was being told a very fanciful tale about programmers drinking programmatically, but Neuse assured me otherwise. "We are completely serious about this. This is a real thing."