Unfortunately, the answer is that you really can't. Unless you're in a position of significant power at the studio (and you'd know if you were), there really isn't much we can do as individual contributors to affect things. Team and studio leadership propagates the culture to the rest of the studio. If they choose to hire and promote devs who crunch and choose to crunch regularly, those choices affect the studio culture and expectations. Change must come from those with the power to affect that change. If those below try, they usually either change their tune, leave, or get pushed out.

If you're not in the position to make hiring and leadership decisions, it's best to find a new job at a studio that has a better work life balance than where you currently are. I've worked at crunch studios before and I've worked at studios where there was very little crunch. The crunch studios would talk about "work life balance" and promise to do better after the game shipped each time, but would always go back to "old reliable" when the need arose. In contrast, the non-crunch studio leadership actually practiced what they preached. At one such studio, my boss literally told me to stop working so late and to go home. He led by example. While I worked there, I crunched a handful of weeks total out of multiple years of employment. Studio culture changes a lot from place to place. If you have the opportunity, find an environment better suited to your needs.

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