So does it depend on the publisher since they are the ones financing the project or does it depend on the project(scope and money invested into it) ?

something that solving a complex problem, something innovative and "has not been done before"

What do you mean by dependencies?

I sometimes get this long:

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And sometimes if I am lucky this long:

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But most of the time I get somewhere between.

Just driving home the point that there are as many answers as there are replies, and many factors.

I don’t know what a useful answer would be, as it depends on:

What everyone else has said.

Size of the company.

Location/country of the company.

Your position within the company.

The client.

Your own relationship with the client (there will usually be none until you become upper-up).

While in Thailand I was the senior programmer and on a project for Eidos I had to make a Nintendo DS game in which you could draw on the face of a 3D model in real-time.

This had never been done on Nintendo DS and I was part of the meetings with Eidos, and I gained their trust by continually showing them improving results. After a while they would make requests for changes and be much more tolerant on the time I requested.

Meanwhile, later, in my first job in Japan I was allowed no flexibility. The schedule is the schedule, period. Same at NTT Data, the software side of mobile giant NTT DoCoMo.

But that doesn’t mean location is the only factor. I am still in Japan but I am in R&D, so I don’t really have deadlines, and my entire job is about new technology. Every task is solving a new problem and the time I have is “as long as it takes to finish it properly”.

So there isn’t a single useful answer.

All I can say is you will find out when you get a job, and if you don’t like what you get quit and find another job. There are plenty of fish in my stomach the sea.

L. Spiro