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Build a Rocket Boy

Is this your company?

Egomania and sadness. - Anonymous employee Build a Rocket Boy Employee Review

1.0
18 Apr 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- People at middle management and below were very friendly and talented. - Did some really nice work with some cool people.

Cons

- Overly political. Politics gets in the way of everything. - Dizzying turnover created massive developmental problems. - Trust was pretty much decimated by layoffs. - Only one person matters, everyone else revolves around that person. Nobody must enter the spotlight or steal the show or they will be shown who's boss. This is the fundamental root cause of almost every significant problem. As a result the whole production was paralysed with fear and all collaboration and critical thought was stamped out. - Too much focus on micromanagement of Art and not enough development of game mechanics. Tiny visual details would be pored over, done, redone, meddled and tinkered with over and over and over while the gameplay mechanics rotted on the shelf for so long. - This endless 'fiddling while Rome burned' reality actually caused a lot of the best people to leave the studio. - Far too much good work was needlessly destroyed. - An eye watering waste of talent and time in service of nothing particularly fantastic or ground breaking. It's just very sad at this point.

Explore other reviews about Build a Rocket Boy

1.0
21 Jan 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A stepping stone into the industry. BARB is an opportunity to start in video gaming, collect experience, and move on.

Cons

Political Drama, drama, drama. There have been multiple changes of studio leadership, countless times of department restructures, individuals are in one day and then disappear under 'mutual agreements' to never return. Psychological safety is at an all-time low, due to entire departments getting caught up in the political blast-zone between the constant power struggle of leadership. Culture war. BARB cannot define its culture, because leadership constantly breaks culture definitions. What are the cornerstones of BARB? Bullying. The definition is: To not be given credit, being set up for failure, constant undermining. It's all rife in BARB and if the leaders do this, it trickles down into management, departments, and projects. Keeping up with the misinformation is hard. Knowing who knows what can, and cannot be discussed is a minefield. There is studio facing 'information', the reality, and 'leadership facing truth'. With little to no communication in the studio, staff do not believe what information they are given, as it will likely change in a week or less. CRUNCH. This is a studio in full crunch for months, veiling as "focus time/bug-bash!/do your damn job". You do not get overtime, as you are salaried (on a very low salary for industry). You will struggle to take holiday, this is due to the constant crunch. Little to no notice is given for changing timelines, be prepared to cancel your approved holiday because leadership cannot plan ahead more than 5 days in advance. There are some great and very talented people working at BARB but leadership does not take people's professional (previous or current) experience into account. Most of the time you are just doing what you are told and you best do it quietly.

42
1.0
4 Mar 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There is nothing positive here

Cons

The most toxic unethical senior leaders I've ever encountered

28
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