Kabam Reviews

Pros

Autonomy and flexibility to solve problems.

Cons

None that I can think of.

Pros

Very approachable and close knit team - everybody looks out for everybody else Medical/dental/RRSP benefits are strong Internal promotions are prioritized over external applicants - easy to move up once in the company Friday parties still going strong. A lot of former kabam staff come out for the Friday parties, and it is a great bonding time.

Cons

Wages are significantly below industry standard, even with the large salary adjustment completed in February. New CEO adds significant pressure on MCOC to generate more revenue to fund other projects/studios. No overtime meal coverage when expected to put in 60+ hour weeks frequently Burnout has been a common conversation piece for the last 2 years with no solutions in sight, other than optional lunch meetings about how to manage burnout Senior members frequently leaving the company over the last year without being replaced Stress and workload is immense on the project LiveOps does not get any credit for their contributions to the company. When targets are hit, the project as a whole is celebrated - when targets are missed, LiveOps is expected to answer for it and come up with solutions The project has undergone extreme changes in workflow, process, and leadership over the last year. Too much too fast is stressing and burning a lot of members out No succession plans for key members leaving the company, and as noted above, they are leaving frequently Morale is the lowest I have ever seen

Pros

- Ideal for self starters in that you are encouraged to figure out the path ahead - Empowers those who are driven; a lot of opportunity for career development

Cons

- If you are not a self starter, you may struggle - Growing pains are tough; scaling has not been without its challenges

Pros

Performance-based bonus system. Full remote office for certain roles. Education reimbursement program. Mentorship. Company events and team building activities

Cons

Relatively new for company policies such as salary transparency and career progression planning for certain roles. May fall behind in terms of compensation with the rest of the industry

Pros

They usually care for employees and are never worried with hours and sick days. They have a unlimited vacation policy which people have been using extensively and until now management never did any complaint or tried to control the use.

Cons

Management recently changed and we its not clear which direction we should be following.

Pros

nice work place and remote

Cons

there were no cons at all.

Pros

All the benefits of a close knit indie studio; good folks, strong culture, good opportunities. And all the benefits of a big corporate company; support staff (good HR, good managers), lots of contingency funds, stability

Cons

Poor success rate of new titles, a single game studio.

Pros

Fun place. Lots of social events and perks. Relaxed dress code and atmosphere.

Cons

Most employees still work from home which results in an empty office most days.

Pros

The game design team and art team are more creative and innovative, compared to the programming team.

Cons

1. Poor reception, not enough guidelines 2. Inefficient communication 3. Friendly but not effective working environment 4. Team members have decent programming skills, but not specially fit in game development. 5. Less motivate, lack of hunger to learn/adopt new things. 1. On the first day after installing required softwares, no one told me exactly what to do. If they said "your role is to write maintainable code and implement new features, etc.", that would be good because I will have a clear goal, unfortunately they didn't. Put you in the team and barely anyone contacted you at the beginning. They didn't explain many important parts of the project like how it works, wish they can teach me more. If you don't ask, they won't tell. 2. Almost the entire programming team didn't have the habit of writing documentation or comments in the program code, and seems like no one wanted to take this responsibility. "I implemented something, but I don't explain how it works to others", didn't mean they hide it, just about they don't know the importance of letting all members at the same level. One time I wasn't clear about the steps of setting up things, so I asked, they answered by sending messages(working remotely). They typed a lot but the information they provided was still limited. I remember it took more than 45 minutes for that unimportant problem. Definitely doing this wasted both of our time, and the main reason is no documentation instead of remote working. If they wrote down the steps before, could just send me the link and let me follow. Communication is necessary only when I got stuck. Having documentation can save a lot of time, not sure they were aware of it or not. 3. They always try their best to answer questions, never ignore any, but sometimes didn't summarize things in a good way. Due to lack of documentation, I needed to ask questions from time to time, usually this happened: One answered 60%, the other one answered 30%. They were knowledgeable and experienced because they handled it for a long time, but could explain what they know from a global view. Also those programmers don't have regular group meeting to summarize recent things/share opinions or new technologies. Individual meetings(one to one or 3~4 people involved) are quite common for discussing small things, however, other members don't know what happened. 4. Apparently all of them have solid background of software engineering, but not targeted in game development. They are gamers, but not really professional game programmers. They should know more about user experience and performance optimization. As long as the program works correctly, that is enough, whether it is optimal or not is not their focus. And they kept adding new things on top of unoptimized things. After that it is too late to do the optimization. Optimization should be considered at the beginning of development, not sure they realized or not. 5. Seems like they are satisfied with the comfort zone, very repetitive everyday and rarely have the need to learn new techniques. Would be inspiring if they have the ambition "We make awesome games, amazing games", no, didn't happen. They consider game programmer as their job, not their passion. Aside from their work, they seldom contribute extra things to the game project. They love games, but do they love making games? Hard to tell. It is wise to leave that place.

Pros

It is a great company to work for. They have good compensation and offer a very flexible schedule.

Cons

Too many snacks at the office.