A cluster you-know-what - Anonymous employee Deck Nine Employee Review

1.0
12 May 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I met some fantastic coworkers. In the rare moments when we had the freedom and resources to do our jobs, we made some amazing things.

Cons

Management was a disaster. We got rocked by scandal after setback after layoff, but they seemed interested in covering their butts and not fixing problems. Many teams lacked the technology, time, or buy-in that they needed to create the deliverables they were asked for. The publisher changed their minds so frequently about the game that almost all of us ended up completely redoing work we thought was locked down, crunching to get it done. Leadership's approach each time was to thrown their hands in the air and say "who could have foreseen this?" as if it wasn't a pattern that repeated every few months. We constantly had to scrap material because it suddenly wasn't in budget any longer, leading to a lack of cohesiveness in the product we created. Which was a shame, because I think most people working on it really cared and were proud of what they were able to make, despite the circumstances. But in the end, it was like trying to build a house while getting new blueprints every day. You are not going to get a quality house that way, and nobody constructing it is going to be happy. Also, the company's public-facing commitments to social equality are just lip service.

Explore other reviews about Deck Nine

5.0
2 Jul 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I was working remote, unrestricted and unbothered, with minimal meetings, receiving constant feedback from my lead. over VPN through perforce. It was great. I don't think I was ever in crunch here.

Cons

Extremely minimal. I had to use my own hardware and storage. which was fine.

3.0
5 Nov 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- People that I worked directly with were lovely - Fun environment to be working in - Everyone was excited to be doing what we were doing - Lunch was provided - Lots of support for my role

Cons

- Pay was really low for the role - Additionally so was overtime pay (although it was close to non-existent to work overtime) - Very small number of working days - Everyone else in the company seemed to deal with a lot of crunch culture which seemed quite grueling, working on mocap only was less intense, - There were a few days where I had to work through a big chunk of lunch

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