Pros
They had good program of taking care of employees, with fixing medical support insurance, very generous health benefit. One yearly bonus.
They want to work on their own IPs.
Long vacation. Christmas party, Summer party, they create office events.
They cared for the environment, supported charities.
They started off with a fresh and hungry team that want to be great.
Sharkmob also wanted to create a good culture too. With having retrospectives and learn and improve from them.
Cons
The Leadership.
There was a lack in leadership that knows how to create a strong development foundation. That meant there where to many radical changes that did not allow the project to get out from the pre-production phase. The project was indeed ambitious.
The leadership needs to understand how game design and visuals works. That was something that was a big issue.
It was to much copying instead of inventing.
I hope they learn and can overcome it.
There where also a toxic isolation in departments.
They talked about keeping it a flat hearicy where everyone can speak their mind. But they could not take full criticism and it also created isolated departments. Communication failed because most got tired of guessing and just wanted to be told what to do.
