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Nier Automata's Director Hated Waking Up Early
Nier Automata, a 2017 action RPG about a rad combat android, sold millions of copies and was beloved by critics, too. It also saved gamers the trouble of creating their own erotic fanart of the protagonists, so, ya know, win-win-win. The game was the brainchild of developer Yoko Taro, who'd made his name on the Drakengard franchise (which the Nier games spun off from.) And despite his prior success, all of Taro's previous achievements pale in comparison to Nier Automata, a project he almost gave up on because of his sleeping schedule.
Look, game development is often plagued by overlong hours that prevent developers from sleeping enough, but that's not really the case here. Taro just didn't want to wake up early, which was problematic because it prevented him from working with the rest of the team for a big chunk of the day. Taro defended his position that starting a workday at the deathly early hour of, umm, 9:30 AM as a freelancer is impossible, and this caused constant arguments among his team.
In an interview, Taro stated he considered straight up just canceling the game because of his sleeping schedule. And before anyone pulled the "Oh, Taro. You're a famous game developer. You must be joking. I bet you don't even sleep at all!" card, he clarified that he was dead serious.
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