Telltale Office Hell (Employees Review their Workplace)
after 1 year Finally back baby
Few weeks ago I found website called Glassdoor, it's a website where employees can rate, review their workplace. And I found some interesting reviews...
From Oct. 16, 2013
The creative side of the business is terrific. There are some amazing people at Telltale. Some of my best friendships were made at the company, and they still make amazing games. I think the company itself is on the way up, business wise.
The management are, honestly, not right for the job. While the studio is doing well financially, it’s not at all fun to work for them. Micromanagement from above is very common, which is frustrating at a studio with so much genuine creative talent. Also, production schedules mean the studio is in a state of constant crunch. There’s questionable transparency, and compensation is pretty poor, even within the games industry.
Please let your employees do their jobs and don’t micromanage. You hired amazing people, trust them!
From Aug. 20, 2014
I did meet some cool people and make some great friends. You will also get to meet some amazingly talented people. You won’t need to pay rent because you will be expected to live at the office. All of the extreme pizza you can eat. No need for a spouse life partner. The Tool will give you all the love you need.
Management is utterly incompetent. The Tool is a one of the worst pieces if software ever created by man. If you don’t work overtime all the time you’ll be in the dog house (<1% raise.). If you complain about too much crunch you’ll be given the “games can be lucrative” talk. You good ideas will be stolen and bad ideas will be blamed on the team. They can’t give you a raise because then they’d have to give everyone a raise. Appearances(being in the office all the time) are more important than productivity. Your ability to stroke ego will get you farther than any job skills. If you tell them where you are going when you leave some of the higher ups will try to sabotage your egress. One of my testers had a death in the family, he was told “you can mourn after we get Walking Dead out”. Seriously, I was given no end of flack about him asking for time off in the middle of crunch.
Seriously this is the WORST place I’ve ever worked. I have never worked that hard to be marginalized. Now I work in REAL software and make about 4X what I made at TTG. You guys need to be better to your people. QA is not lucrative. Programming is not the only valuable role.
From Jan. 12, 2015
Simple things like Task tracking are non-existent, meaning that the schedules in place are a complete mess. I’ll often be given two weeks on a task, but be required to switch to a different, equal task after the first week, with the expectation that I’ll simply crunch to make up for the fact that my schedule keeps changing. it is incredibly rare for me to have any sort of solid idea about what task I will be assigned more than 4-5 days in advance, meaning that I can never budget my time or plan my effort. This ends with everything being a Rush job, with cut corners, and tons of crunch.
The basic way tasks get done here, given the schedule, is that person A will have an Idea, they will then give a rough description of that idea to Person B, who will work on the task for a few days. Then the schedule will get messed up, and person B will be moved away, and the task will fall to Person C, who will have no explanation of what is happening. Person C will then finish the task as best he can, and the task will go up for a Review. The people in the Review will dislike how the Task turned out, and be confused as to why Person C got it so wrong. Instead of telling person C what went wrong, The task will then be removed and given to person D. The end result is, as a developer, I have no sense of ownership or vision for the work that I am doing . I was not there at the start, I won’t be there at the end, and 99% of the time any creative input I bring to the table will be either rejected outright, or lost due to churn. This goes doubly so if you are a veteran with experience.
Telltale likes to do things the Telltale way. They think that they invented storytelling. If you have previous experience from another game studio, Keep it to yourself. When people ask “why are these workflows so bad?” and “why are these schedules so messed up” management simply gets frustrated and tells you “things are different here”. Telltale seems to dramatically under-pay it’s salaried employees, when compared to industry norms. They have an incentive bonus program that is downright Insulting, with bonuses below 100$ being pretty common for the majority of employees. The employee refferal program here is a prize wheel, and putting your reputation on the line to refer a friend, earns you the chance to spin for such prizes as a Gamestop gift card, or an Applebees gift card. If you have enough experience to know what you want out of a company , Go somewhere else.
From Jan. 14, 2015
Insane production schedules. Over the last few years, the games have ballooned in scope, but the time allotted to make them has remained the same. Management tries to solve this problem by simply throwing more people at the project, which often creates more problems than it solves.You’re trying to build scenes before they’re even finished being designed or written.
Crunch is “voluntary” in that nobody is telling you you have to do it (usually), but if you take any pride in your work, it’s probably going to be necessary in order to ship something you’re comfortable putting your name on, because the schedules are completely unrealistic. Even if you do manage to go home at a reasonable time, you will feel like a jerk because so many of your colleagues are still there. A milestone is set, everyone on the team agrees that there’s no way we’re going to hit it, but everyone’s so afraid of the executives that we have to pretend we’re going to hit it and kill ourselves trying. Then, when the date arrives, executives look at the game, see that it’s not done, and push the milestone back, so you have to continue killing yourselves until then. Rinse and repeat.
Every aspect of the game is subject to the whims of the executives and marketing, and they won’t take no for an answer. There is little oversight from executives for most of the development process, but whenever they do look at the game, you can expect to throw out substantial amounts of your work and start over because they changed their minds about something. No decision is ever final until the game is out the door (or sometimes after, in a day-one patch). Bottles of hard liquor kept on people’s desks are increasingly common. This is not an affectation; it is necessary when you’re at work at 1 in the morning because somebody decided at the last minute that your scene would be better if everybody moved three feet to the left and were crouching instead of standing (hypothetical example).
Make a decision and commit to it. The difference between us and those TV writers/producers you like to put on PowerPoint slides is that those guys are working from a finalized script that is then shot and cut. They’re not rewriting the show while/after it’s shot. (Okay, sure, substantial changes can happen during post-production, but they’re still limited by the footage that they have.) Just because it’s possible for us to change almost anything up until we ship doesn’t mean we should. I loved working here when I first started, and I still love the actual work that I’m doing. But the more I see of the decision-making process and office politics behind the scenes at the higher levels, the more demoralized I become. I realize that you guys are just trying to make the best games possible, the same as any of us. But the toll that it’s taking on employees is too much. My mental health and my marriage have suffered as a direct result of this job. That’s not something we can just brush off with a “that’s just the way it is in this industry.” It doesn’t have to be. Telltale is actually really close to being a great place to work, if we could just scope/schedule our games realistically, make a plan and stick to it, and trust that people are capable of doing their jobs (and get rid of the ones who aren’t). Also, don’t fire me for writing this (I doubt it would be difficult to figure out who I am if you want to). I love the company culture and the people I work with, and I’m writing this because I want things to improve instead of having to leave (and because we were all asked to do Glassdoor reviews).
From. Jul. 13, 2015
As the title suggests, working at the company is like running around with 13 year old boys in the wild west with no adult supervision. It’s a joke. They’ll lie about benefits to get you in the door, because they don’t care about keeping people, just hiring more. Nobody cares about morale, or rewarding good behavior. They will gossip like crazy, not tell you if they gave issues until it is too late, and the list goes on. Turnover is insane, because of all the reasons listed on the other reviews on here (the positive ones exist because the company asks people to do so).
...
So this pretty much confirms that at Telltale the games are mostly rushed... and it also explains why Imagineye (A telltale employee that worked on the WD season 1) on Deviantart keept spamming inboxes with "Telltale hires NOW!"... This is just awful...
(thanks :youngandyoungatheart for the text )
Comments
Thread: Working at Telltale Games
http://www.glassdoor.com/GD/Reviews/Telltale-Games-Reviews-E256429.htm?sort.sortType=RD&sort.ascending=false&filter.employmentStatus=REGULAR&filter.employmentStatus=PART_TIME&filter.employmentStatus=UNKNOWN
Whoever said this needs a raise.
Interesting. So it seems that Telltale is truthful when they say that they're changing the script on the fly. It sounds like it's causing a lot of inefficiencies.
It also seems like they're paying less than industry standard when it comes to salaries. That could partially explain their technical issues. Basically, you get what you pay for. In general, higher salaries attract more talented people, which means a more robust production process.
New review.
Well, shit...
Are you fucking serious? They have employees complaining about their mental health and their marriages suffering because of this job, and you're patting them on the back?! Alcohol on their desks, at work until 1 am? I feel terrible for the people actually doing the creative work there.
The management sounds like a bunch of power-hungry morons. They have no idea how to schedule anything; that's why we all get rushed games with cut corners and re-written scripts with stuff worked over and over and "Coming SOON" all the time and release dates pushed back time and time again. And then there was that tweet where one of the managers was talking about Michonne: he said, "It's Michonne, don't F it up" to his employees. That tweet just disgusts me after reading all of that. It's no wonder Telltale's release date schedules are as bad as they are; it seems they never had a proper schedule in the first place.
And HOW do we know this is reliable?
Oh! Right! This 5 fellas decided to shit on this company for their own fun. What a coincidence that they even state the same complaints and all...
Well those reviews explain a lot.. the delays, the scriptwriting, crunching to shorter episodes... But still, everyone can write a review there so I would still be cautious that some are false/
Wow. I know Telltale work under a very demanding schedule, but it's no wonder that they fail to meet deadlines and encounter numerous problems across platforms with their games if scenes are being built before they are designed or written. The amount of chopping and changing they must go through is insane.
Honestly, I'm not surprised that their employees are left in the dark. They have given customers 'radio silence' in the past when releases are delayed.
I feel most of these reviews are mostly born out of frustration with upper management rather than a desire to leave the company. I imagine it to be a friendly but generally disorganised atmosphere. However, with the way in which they have worked on Minecraft and what they plan to do with TWD: Michonne, I can see there being a lot more organisation surrounding game releases, which may take some of the pressure off their employees.
The guy that said that isn't a manager at Telltale. That would be Sean Mackiewicz, editor at Skybound. This isn't some douchebag higher-exec or something like that, it's just a guy who, after working by Kirkman's side for a few years now, wants to make sure that Telltale stays true to the source material and character of Michonne. Wasn't really meant to be fighting words or anything, and it's completely unrelated to Telltale's work conditions, or any of that. It's friendly banter, the 'words of encouragement' you'd jokingly give to a good friend, you know? If we're gonna judge off all the shit he says in the Letter Hacks columns, it's just the kind of thing he'd say.
So basically, the over-privileged upper management people that probably know next to nothing about game design that somehow strong-armed their way into a 'leadership' position are being dicks and ruining everything, as per usual. Very surprising stuff.
Also on an unrelated note: holy SHIT at that guy you linked. I think that might be the most vitriolic I've seen anyone be towards S2
I mean even the people here that don't really like it still argue that there's some redeeming qualities. But this guy... just, man. That's not to say he's right or wrong or anything like that, everyone's allowed to have their opinion and all and I can respect that, but DAMN is it weird seeing someone hold that much disdain over S2. It makes me thank the sweet god above that I have low standards, because this guy makes it out like the disappointment was completely and utterly soul-crushing. Like, to the nth degree soul-crushing.
Also, since I've already gone down this rabbit hole:
I can't be the only person that thinks that makes this guy sound like a bit of an egotistical prick, right
I get that you don't like S2 and all, but come on, is this really necessary
Actually, you know what, no, I'm going to just stop looking at this before I start to remember why I don't like tumblr very much, and why I wouldn't want to touch it with a barge-pole the length of 10 football fields
also because I'm probably starting to look like a dick myself, and if this guy ever comes across this post some day, he would probably start thinking "man, this guy's a dick, and I'd love to punch him in the face"
Eh, pretty much sounds like every typical corporate life in the U.S.A. Usually I would always take the side of the employees over management and the company. But it could always be worse while plenty folks work minimum wage jobs and must tend to their families and figure out how to get their next meal for their families on peanut pay and minuscule tips. I'd understand and feel a whole lot more grief for the tribulations of someone that works at a fast food, gas station, or dollar store with children or single parent with such jobs.. While others might work such dangerous jobs that could potentially end their life at any given day.
At least whatever suffering and sacrifices they do go through were not in vain since a few of their games actually went off to become critically acclaimed classics.
What do we have that says they're actually Telltale employees?
This is in the wrong section, don't you think? I do see the reference to The Walking Dead, but still.
Also, this is just horrible to read. Some of our worst fears have been realized.
Also , has the possibility that it could be one person making multiple accounts crossed your mind?
It's possible, but you have no real proof of that. I feel like you're begging the question, while a lot of the reviews show some consistency in content, the writing structure is all over the place. That would suggest different people complaining about a lot of the same problems. So either one person engaged in a clever, overly complicated plan to smear telltale on some website (accomplishing nothing) or these are real people with real problems. Occam's Razor makes it overwhelmingly likely these are probably real.
Now, there are more positive reviews on Glassdoor and some of them comment that a lot of these issues are improving, and maybe some of this is just from a handful of disgruntled employees, but clearly, there are some problems in management. Let's just say these aren't the only negative reviews, either.
And I hate to say it but they explain a lot, too. Likely, a part of this is growing pains. They've had huge expansion and are trying to deal with it. But my sympathies go out to these employees.
This is just sad...I guess almost every company and business has problems. I hope they will managed to solve this management issue so everyone wins. And so the developers are allowed to have their games reach their true potential.
If this is true, then whoever said this to the testers should be ashamed.
You would think that prioritizing your employees mental health in this instance, and giving him time off to cope with his grief, is more important than telling him what he should and shouldn't be feeling right now because of one game.
I'd just like to ask about the reliability of this website? These sound believable and I doubt they were made up but is this website reliable with this information? Just asking.
k.
I only credit him/her for the text, because I didn't want to sign up to that website...
I don't have much experience with this website.
I think its sources are legit ( there are negative reviews of much bigger, popular companies like Activison or EA), considering what Sean (Season 1 writer, in his latest interview) said about how he left to work in Campo Santo, how he made a rough draft for S2 & the TTg team changed almost everything...
Nice save with editing the comment dude.
So I should be happy that they are making games at all, with all of this f up-ed organization at their office.
Did they even win GOTY awards at all with the 4 games they made after TWD S1??
You don't need to antagonise him, he didn't mean it like that.
I wonder if anyone there has considered trying to unionize, or at least fight for better labor conditions. Boss won't like it, but the worst they can do is fire people. Considering the burnout rate, that doesn't seem like a very steep consequence.
This company seems to have poisonous management and executives who are either unwilling or unable to fix the problem. More generally, It seems like video game designers are often overworked, underpaid and generally treated like garbage.
Look. I didn't mean to sound as an asshole, sorry if I did. I had a hard time reading and believing that given my... let's say reputation. If all those things are true, then I hope Telltale alredy made some serious changes in their management. My hopes are that these issues have alredy been adressed, as the date on those reviews is about half year old. I wasn't even on the forums during that time. And I don't know the people who made those reviews, I only know people like ArthurV, puzzlebox, TelltaleMike or Job Stauffer. I love the games Telltale makes, I love most of the people at Telltale games. And I'm gonna defend them no matter what. Because I'm a stubborn, emotionally unstable and loyal fan of their work. And yes, they did win GOTY awards. I'm satisfied with their work and I'm tired of the hate Telltale gets. sigh
I feel like if you haven't posted this, my life would be a lot easier...
Is the only reason for posting this to complain that the games are rushed?
yeah, sorry for going off on a tangent there
If there's truth to any of this, then I feel really sorry for those employees being treated like that
so what i got out of this is management are a big ol bag o dicks?
... or maybe to give ppl some perspective on what's going on at their office.I mean if you look at it like that then... I wouldn't have bothered putting up the reviews (and making every sentence italic 1 by 1) in the first place...
I feel like a lot of us here would make better executives than the ones at the table. Holy shit that's an atrocious work life. .__. A lot of this adds up to the not so consistent story line issues in some games (such as TWDG S2 for example) and how awkward the release schedule was back then (I see the release schedule is a bit better with Minecraft though).
I didn't mean to sound aggressive.
Just don't edit your reply when we have a conversation, people replying to you will make them look like massive a-holes.
I hope that is a sign that things has gotten better.
Me too. No one deserves to be working like that.
Hmm, well, the sum up at the end made it seem like thats what the general takeaway was. Another reason to complain about the games. I personally think fans know a little bit too much about what's going on behind the scenes. If all this is true, then its pretty unfortunate, but a lot of office environments have horror stories posted by disgruntled employees, Im sure.
It probably has gotten better there in recent times. The fact that they have over 300 employees and have seemed to have gotten better at release scheduling in recent times, hopefully, will help with crunch time situations.
If you look at the website those reviews come from, Glassdoor, rather the website that's linked to the fan fiction writer that has a beef with Telltale, there are more good reviews then there are bad. Note that a lot of the bad reviews are from people that stated they didn't work there very long, which usually isn't a good sign for how things actually are (while some of them are probably genuine, the fact that their stated time at the company is so short does raise some red flags- as some of them might have been people who were fired and left a bad review in spite).
I also just signed up for the site and saw that they let you leave a review for a company without any proof that you actually ever worked for them - that's not a good sign either, especially when so many people have expressed frustration with Telltale on the internet with regards to release scheduling, writing, bugs, and the appointing of certain people on their board of directors. The fact that many of the reviews mention that stuff makes me wonder whether it's just people with a problem with Telltale rather than people who have actually worked for the company.
Even with all the possible red flags though, the amount of employees who recommend the company and approve of the CEO are actually over 60%, which isn't as bad as the fan-fiction writer made it out to seem.
I think the problem is that the video game industry is basically unregulated and developers (to my knowledge) have no say over their working conditions. In an organized company, the workers could strike to protest these conditions and the company management would be obliged to sit down with the workers (or a union rep) to find a better deal.
Of course, this would have consequences on the corporate culture of the game industry (and tech industries in general). The "Software Development Life Cycle" would progress much slower and there would definitely be no "crunch" time.
It's unfortunate that the game industry is like that. It can be a great job to get into if ALL staff member's well beings are also reasonably met. Anyway, since this is dated a bit ways back, things might've gotten better for developers. It may be evident with recent handlings. Perhaps they've had a sit down without a need for protest(?).
So the website has it's flaws... sigh And I thought the site had pretty cool idea.
Now I'm not so sure if there are ppl out there who just spend their free time typing. I don't know if haters would go in full detail explaining how it's disorganized...