Pros
I was a longtime member of the Design department at Dire Wolf, eventually ending up as a Senior Designer. I learned a lot in my tenure there, and enjoyed the following about working at Dire Wolf: - Flat organizational structure in design. Everyone's ideas were listened to, and rarely was rank used as a reason to implement one person's ideas over another. - We had autonomy over our workdays. We of course had responsibilities we had to fulfill, but generally could self-prioritize and work on projects in the way we chose. - Highly collaborative environment. My coworkers were great, and we all worked together well as a team to accomplish our goals. - Exciting projects. Dire Wolf makes awesome games, and it was a pleasure to get to work on really sweet stuff like Eternal, Clank, Dune, and more.
Cons
Production was inconsistent - we sometimes were blocked by things outside our department, and it could be tough getting work done when that happened (or it would lead to a last-minute scramble, which was also stressful). Marketing didn't collaborate with Design nearly as much as I hoped they would, and it led to crossed wires and missed opportunities. Improving communication here would go a long way.