Vantaggi
- Amazing co-workers - Flat structure meant the ability to speak directly to any lead/owner in the company - CEO do regular town halls, speaking directly to each team along with showing exactly the status of the company (Profit/loss, short and long-term company goals, etc). - The work environment is relaxed and great work/life balance - "Full stack" mobile studio: Every aspect of game dev is done in-house (marketing, audio, art, designer, code, QA, etc). As someone on a live product team, being able to sync with and collaborate directly with marketing to understand and manage budgets was tremendous - Weekly lunch and learns to learn/present what is going on in the company and or the industry - Lots of perks: large free gym with daily free classes (yoga, cardio/strength training, tryitout! ), yearly education budget, snacks (some healthy) and coffee, solid extended befits, pays MSP, RSP matching - Good location, rooftop deck (with BBQ) with a great view of North Vancouver. Tons of great restaurants within walking distance.
Svantaggi
- Unwilling to kill underperforming projects hurt overall company morale as the mantra at the time was "Fail fast and learn from mistakes" (This mindset looks to be changing as of late for the positive) - Handfull of high performing legacy games must be worked on with dated tech (lack of solid tools, means longer than normal task times for event minor changes) - Heavy emphasis on KPIs (Good), but one-off manager requests for unique data lacked direction ("What would be the action to take if we look at the data that way") - Lack of clear career growth chart rolled out for each discipline - At times would get differing direction from multiple owners on the same subject. This meant confusion and wasted time going back to each owner to sort confusion (This issue has been acknowledged and looks to be changing as of late for the positive) - Growth opportunities and or salary increases should come directly from an employees manager, not one of the studio owners Not coming from your direct report (the person that knows your work the best), makes the opportunity/salary increase feel a bit hallow. At times it could feel like only a retention plan instead of acknowledgment of hard work/success in your role