Crystal Dynamics reviews

The head of this studio is quite possibly the biggest narcissist I've ever worked for. He never misses an opportunity to talk about himself and how he made Crystal what it is. What he fails to mention is how his bullying style of management has trickled down through the organization and made it a toxic environment. That is his true legacy. Strangely, some of the least qualified employees have managed to fail their way up into positions where they tow the company line: Place an unreasonable amount of work on too few people and expect to compete with the likes of other game studios that employ double the number of developers. Reducing project scope is never an option. Don't even think about proposing reasonable compromises to outrageous scheduling. Contract workers are the new wave of the future. Why hire senior people with lots of experience when you can hire three junior level contractors and not have to pay benefits or other perks? Besides, senior developers ask pesky questions. We don't have time for that.

Long hours are required with 50 hours standard except for crunch time which is closer to 70 hours a week. No over time for those of us that are salary. Crunch time happens every 3-4 months for 2 months due to understaffing. The company tends to hire seniors or people right out of college which leaves gaps. Most of us are young with little office experience. They bring in lunch and dinner during crunch time to encourage employees to feel good about working longer hours. Food is decent but not worth the overtime. Management says they like feedback and transparency but they often ignore feedback and don't share when or why people leave. Did they get fired or quit? who knows. High burnout rate. Most people have been at the company for less than 1 year. I get the feeling that if my coworkers didn't have such high amounts of college debt that they would move on. Pay is okay, but bonuses are less than 10%, and you can forget about raises higher than 3%. They promote with title, not money. The last bonus I got was based on the amount of overtime and profit of the last game. Recruitment seems to hire to fill positions, not because the fit is right. Managers give feedback that starts as a positive but often slips in a bunch of negative to fear you into working harder and longer. The bathrooms suck. Stupid to mention but when you share a bathroom with so many guys, it becomes a big issue.