Big Huge Games Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Big Huge Games full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Working with great people makes all the difference. There was an incredible amount of talent in the studio, but the major difference was that the group worked well together. Leads looked out for their groups, upper management looked out for their leads. There was tremendous cross department communication / problem solving.

Cons – BHG lost it's funding and is sadly no more. It's a tough industry in less than ideal economic circumstances.

Advice to Senior Management – Find funding and put the band back together.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Big Huge Games full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great management of projects
Extremely talented people

Cons – Big Huge Games is closed

Advice to Senior Management – keep on keeping on

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Big Huge Games as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Everyone at Big Huge Games was passionate, eminently talented, and determined to make an excellent game. It was the best place to start my game development career, hands down.

Cons – The pay was horrible and the expectations were high. But this is pretty much par for the course for internships, and I knew what I was getting into.

Advice to Senior Management – Never change. You guys are great. But please, stop trusting big publishers with the fate of your company. THQ and 38 Studios both let you down. Stay independent.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Big Huge Games

Pros – - A lot of nice, knowledgeable, talented people
- Good about letting you take time off
- Really laid back work environment
- Before the THQ buyout, decent benefits, presents for the whole company at the Xmas party
- For the most part, you'll have a lot of fun every day. Most people look forward to going into work because of the people that work there, and you get to make games; which is the dream of a lot of folks.
- Helpful, friendly HR that seemed to care about their jobs and your job (until half of them got let go)

Cons – - No raise in 3+ years for a lot of people, that's just unacceptable and a slap in the face
- A lot of people underpaid for the area and even the industry; which is notorious for underpaying the rank and file workers
- Keeping people on the payroll that never actually produce anything because they're your friends
- Ignoring the people that actually keep the company running
- After the THQ buyout, new hires doing less technical work were hired at $10,000-$20,000+ more per year than people that have been there many years. UNACCEPTABLE.
- Management gets on these kicks where they have to try all these expensive ideas that end up being discarded, at a huge waste of time, effort, and money
- Decided to work on 2 projects at the same time when they couldn't even get one out the door
- If you aren't buddy buddy with senior management, you're not going anywhere at BHG - you're invisible to them because they hire a lot of their friends. It's definitely an 'old boys club' unless you are constantly schmoozing.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay your lower-end employees better; they deserve it. You're going home to your huge houses and hot tubs and living it up. Sure, you work hard, you took the risks, and you deserve it. The senior level people are getting by just fine. But try to remember that too many of your people are going home to a cheap apartment in a crappy neighborhood and eating Top Ramen for dinner; living paycheck to paycheck and praying they or their spouse gets a raise. This isn't Wall Street... Try and distribute some of that money to the people making things happen. People stay and play games after work not because they like playing them there; it's that they can't afford a decent home PC on what they're making...

Stick to the basics and look at what successful studios are doing. Pick a direction and stick to it; but make sure it's something the PUBLIC will like; not just what you personally think is cool. Try to make games that are a little more modern, instead of catering to niche markets or trying to repeat another hit game. Don't bank on your past glory to get you through the future; it's not working. Then maybe you'll have another hit.

Quit hemorrhaging money like it's going out of style. You don't need 20x $3,000 Cintiq monitors for the artists to draw on; they can do it just fine on a cheap tablet. They're talented enough. Stick with your current technology a little longer; you don't need to upgrade everything to the shiniest piece of tech the second it comes out.

If you plan on selling the company again, make sure you can get along with their management. THEY own the company. You may have started it but you're working for them now and are just another studio head amongst many. You can't be fighting with them tooth and nail over everything (so it seemed to a lot of people).

Still, you may have a bright future ahead. Just stick to the basics and treat your 'untouchables' better. Best of luck.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Big Huge Games

Pros – Potential Growth in the company and stability, reliable people in the team, hard workers, interesting games to make and interesting challenges to take on, great people to work with. Everyone counts on everybody in the team. Good communication skills.

Cons – Meeting a whole lot of deadlines in a short period of time and there are a little bit of people in a team, I think we should hire more people to help us meet deadlines.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire more team members or train within the company

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend