The Creator Of 'Super Smash Bros.' Once Worked 13 Months In A Row Without A Single Day Off

It's not easy being a video game developer.

Masahiro Sakurai, the director of the game "Super Smash Bros.," which will be released for the Wii U at the end of November, wrote about his experience making the game in a column in Weekly Famitsu.

As director, he's in charge of overseeing everything having to do with "Super Smash Bros.," according to Kotaku, which translated pieces of the column. That includes everything from animations to editing what each player can do.

Sakurai worked on the previous installment of "Smash Bros.," called "Super Smash Bros. Melee," for 13 months in a row without a day off.

"Towards the end, there were instances where I would work for 40 hours straight and then take 4 hours off to go home and sleep," Sakurai writes.

Although his workload for the new "Smash Bros." game wasn't quite as intense, he says that he still had to "work from mornings to late nights, even on weekends and holidays."

"I hardly have any free time, let alone time to play other games," he writes.

That's because there are a ton of new features in the new "Smash Bros." game, not to mention the fact that it was simultaneously produced with the version for Nintendo's 3DS handheld console.

But still, even with the long hours and the hard work, Sakurai admits he's still trying to keep healthy. "I'm not depressed and I continue to remain healthy and positive, but developing 'Smash Bros.' is beyond hard," he writes.

It's no wonder that so much pressure is on him. Nintendo reported strong earnings this week, saying that it was on track to post its first profit in four years, according to the BBC. And that's thanks to games like "Super Smash Bros."

In a financial results briefing on Thursday, Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata says strong interest in "Smash Bros." will give a huge boost to console sales. "Super Smash Bros." for the 3DS was released in September, and has already sold more than 3 million units.

"Since characters from various Nintendo games appear in 'Super Smash Bros.,' consumers naturally get to know the entire lineup of Nintendo IP and this title could make them interested in other game franchises," Iwata said. "In other words, the more this game is played, the higher the overall value of the Nintendo IP lineup becomes."