A blowing fuse - Designer Fusebox Games Employee Review

2.0
May 20, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Very diverse, inclusive, friendly and respectful workforce. - Good work-life balance, very understanding of needing personal time and generous with it, including for physical and mental health matters. - Good benefits (occasional Fridays afternoons off, duvet days, training time and budget, private healthcare...), good salaries (much improved from a few years ago, although there might still be discrepancies between the teams). - Promotions happen regularly, either to higher seniority levels or to different departments, which is nice, but can also be a con (see below). - Give chances to graduates/people looking for new roles (which can be a con, see below).

Cons

In summary: most of the management and staff is either incompetent, indecisive or not listened to, which makes the development of current and new games nigh impossible and the atmosphere increasingly negative. The management is attempting to make things better, but so far they have not actively listening and communicating with their workforce, and don’t seem to care much about them since they arbitrarily lay-off competent and appreciated employees. - Indecisive and disorganised management, leading to slow or frozen project development, especially for new projects. - The staff is not listened to; upper management makes decisions without consulting their teams, even the leads. Leads are often as clueless as their teams, if not more, about what is happening in the company. - No creative direction/vision owner, no one seems to know what to do nor how to do it. - Huge tech debt, the Unity project of the live game is almost unusable. - Upper management does not understand how games are made, therefore can't provide the development teams with what they need. - Somewhat exploitative towards junior staff, hiring straight from uni without proper mentoring/management; they abuse from their lack of experience and expect them to do all the work without any manager properly helping them, and/or expect them to do multiple jobs at once. There's a fine line between encouraging graduate/junior hiring, and hiring graduates because they're cheap and won't speak up because they have no other experience. - Seniority is not always representative of the industry level, junior staff is sometimes being misled into thinking their skills and workflow are at industry level, because they get promoted without proper mentoring. - Repeatedly make empty promises for years on, keep the staff motivated by promising new game development but it never happens, go back on their words, say everything and their opposite whenever it suits them. - Mislead on hiring about what the role will be or can't always deliver on it; don't provide adequate support to get the job done or don’t give them the opportunity to do the work they were hired to do, don't understand game development workflows. - Poor communication across the different departments, there is no or very little aligment between the teams, teams often discover other teams have done work relevant to them long after the fact. - The teams are not treated equally, some are treated as better than the others (which leads to very different experiences of the company between teams). The upper management does not understand the real impact each team has in the making of a good game. - Sharing publicly feedback and questions with teammates and managers is reprehensible, many of the staff and managers can't take criticism; they say they want to improve that but they don’t put their money where their mouth is, the company communications are out of touch if not dishonest. - Used to pride themselves on inclusivity but removed it from their values, and the teams are forbidden from making the game stories as inclusive as they want to; there are concerns of homophobia/transphobia with the product direction despite a good part of the company being queer. There is also a history of sexual harassment from higher-up. - Office culture used to be good but company reorg led to a colder, impersonal communication with the staff. Live, honest communication is discouraged (even if they say they do want it). - HRs don’t have genuine talks with the staff, leading to a feeling of hypocrisy and disconnect between the company’s values and what the staff really wants.

Explore other reviews about Fusebox Games

5.0
Oct 21, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fusebox Games is the most compassionate, kind, and genuine group of people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Every new person I meet is just as wonderful as the last, and the workplace is constantly full of kudos, thanks, and compliments between employees and even between departments. I have felt very welcomed ever since I started my first day, and there has been plenty of support - both professional and emotional - right from the start. There is also a wonderful amount of support for helping me further my career in a direction I choose, with my goals being discussed in depth with my supervisor to ensure I can aim for experience that helps my career as a whole, as well as my job at the company. Finally, I am genuinely moved by the dedication of all the staff, especially upper management, to making the workplace as inclusive, diverse, respectful, and educational as they are able. There is a deep sincerity in how these matters are handled, and you can clearly see that everyone here truly cares about making sure that the company - in what is produced for the consumers, and in what is experienced by the employees - makes everyone feel heard and represented.

Cons

Being a fully remote job, it is a shame that there is an inherent difficulty socialising with the wonderful people you meet here. There are certainly attempts made by several people but when you don't see people in the office day to day, it can be hard to actually gather people together and get to know them outside of work.

5.0
Jul 29, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Fusebox is one of the better companies out there. People are friendly, respectful, and everyone works hard toward a shared goal, but without the toxicity you sometimes see in fast-paced environments - The team is fully remote with just the right amount of meetings to keep us all aligned - As a dev, I feel challenged in a good way. There’s always something new to work on, which keeps things interesting - I feel like there are growth opportunities here if you’re proactive and take initiatives

Cons

I haven’t been here long enough to notice any red flags.

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