Senior Character Artist - Character Artist/3D/2D Multimedia/Illustration/Design 5th Cell Media Employee Review

The company has a true no crunch policy. Some team members have failed to understand that some of our milestones leading to key important dates (launch windows, expositions, developer conferences) may require working an extra hour or two. I am always told ahead of time of these dates and I am never forced to work long hours. I been working here for several years now and I have only worked 5 weekends total. That is a far cry from the industry norm. Compensation is commensurate with experience and bonuses like most companies are merit based. Despite that we lost some team members, the turnover rate is amongst the lowest in the industry. We still have many original members from our first titles.

The recent outpouring of negative reviews stems from a segment of a vocal workforce which is less experienced or never worked at a triple-A studio. The studio has taken measures to focus better on their management techniques by hiring stronger leaders amongst our team and stronger personnel in human resources. They have focussed their hiring to ensure there is more development experience and that candidates have a stronger cultural fit. Our leads are taking measures to mentor less experienced employees and to improve the communications gap we allowed to linger for so long. Things are not perfect here but they are improving as the people who have been so negative have left the studio. The sad reality is that those who are unhappy and have been trying to apply to other companies have not received an offer.

They say "limited crunch" which isn't true, but it is still less crunch than other studios. Laid back at times. The actual workers in the trenches are nice, can't say the same for the leads and management.

Very poor communication in all departments really. Job security as well as overall moral are low. Management is so far outside of the actual work life it's hilarious. Ran by many big egos which shouldn't be in place as they've only really made one successful game. People in charge (both management and leads) lack the skill and the knowledge on how to run teams and overall output. Segregation of employees by management makes the company culture non-existent and very hard on moral. Outside hiring is basically they're only method. They say "once you're hired you're hired for life" which isn't true as they hand out pink slips like it's water bottles. One of the owners that makes decisions is never around and causes your work life to fall into the dumps due to having to always stay around and wait for his decisions. Again it's been stressed how terrible communication is and a lot of "behind the back" politics. Unfortunately it's a small studio ran with a lackluster corporate attitude.