LucasArts Reviews

Former Employee – worked at LucasArts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – LucasArts had a huge wealth of friendly, top industry talent and was a fantastic place to work.
The company culture was collaborative, respectful and fun.
The unreleased games in development during the last couple of years were of top quality.

Cons – During my time at LucasArts a number of major company leadership and direction changes were made within a relatively short time period which made planning challenging and ultimately led to several cancelled projects.

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

Former Employee – worked at LucasArts full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – breakfast, free movies, talented people

Cons – very political, stay in the same job without ways to be promoted

Advice to Senior Management – rotate employees

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

Former Employee – worked at LucasArts as an intern for less than a year

Pros – location :) - work life balance seemed pretty good

Cons – the upper management needs to have a clear direction and vision. works more like a supporting media company instead of an all-out games company.

Advice to Senior Management – you've got passionate people- trust them more and give them more ownership and responsibility

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at LucasArts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – The people are great. Creative, fun atmosphere.

Cons – Instability of upper management. Cycle of layoffs lead to uncertainty.

Advice to Senior Management – Invest in the studio and make great games again.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at LucasArts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – During my time at LucasArts, I worked with some of the most talented folks of my career. The environment was nurturing and encouraging. My career path was self determined, and supported. We had great teams, passionate about making quality games. I made some of the closest friends of my life during my time at LucasArts, and was probably the best job I've ever had.

Cons – Upper management's decision making was puzzling, and unnecessarily slow. Some questionable games would flounder for years before being scuttled. Solid strategy and planning were nowhere to be found, often demoralizing development teams. There were tons of great new IP that would get shelved in favor of Star Wars, which was clearly becoming the only IP they were interested in pursuing.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your development teams. You will not find a more passionate bunch who want their games to succeed. Enable them. Trust them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at LucasArts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – The culture and lifestyle of the brand is so amazing - working on Star Wars products with hundreds of people who love star wars is like nothing else you'll find in the industry. And you know that if something really comes together well and has a chance to be big, they will market it and sell that thing as well as any publisher.

Cons – For too long, LucasArts is not really a game company. its a side hobby because games = entertainment and George wants to be known as a leader in entertainment. So for decades he's funded a games company... but no one at the top respects games or how they're made, and they certainly dont know how to foster quality products.

Advice to Senior Management – Learn about game design. its the one thing that makes games different from film or pure animation: the interactivity of a controller/keyboard/etc. The user being able to move a camera angle or not play as expected is the X factor in saying something's fun/high quality/great. you can spend all you want but that won't ensure a 90+ metacritic game. and stop pretending that it's one big company that works together to make great stuff. the ILM + LucasArts thing has been a bunch of nonsense forever. stop acting like it matters if ILM works on game tools, and separate things once and for all.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at LucasArts full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Facilities are awesome. Company was not afraid of taking technological risks, enabling engineers and artists to do their best. Highly creative and collaborative environment, challenging each individual to grow and do things nobody had done before.

Cons – Company was sometimes unable to see the forest for the trees. Underestimated some of the challenges it faced. Higher level management didn't necessarily understand how to clear a path to some of the goals it set. Some people in key positions unable to make decisions to help projects succeed.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen more to people in the trenches, and don't turn your back on years of work just because things get difficult. If game development was easy, everybody would succeed at it at first try.

Current Employee – been working at LucasArts full-time for less than a year

Pros – Working close to ILM on ramping up the visual quality for future games and a lot of extremely talanted people.

Cons – Our coffe is quite crabby, though there is a Starbucks on the grounds..

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

Former Employee – worked at LucasArts full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Lots of cool Star Wars stuff, impressive guest speakers, beautiful campus, above average food

Cons – Really low pay, really low level of respect for the job from higher ups, poisonous corporate environment, ineptitude leading to promotions

Advice to Senior Management – Pay more, respect more, stop being so rude

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at LucasArts

Pros – The company is working on ambitious projects that are likely to transform the industry.
Amazing learning environment.
Great technology and talent resource.

Cons – Doing things different and re-thinking old ideas is not always encouraged.
It is very hard to make impact on decision making of the upper management.