Chromatic Games Reviews

Cons

Its a small company of about 35.

Cons

-Before the CEO restructured the company it was being run by someone that was extremely unqualified. Their incompetence did a lot of damage not just to the games but also internally. This has led to difficulties as we attempt to correct all of of their blunders and wild promises. -Starting salaries are sometimes low.

Cons

- CEO, Augi Lye, has started getting more 'hands on' which has thrown most processes in disarray. He routinely does random things without notice to cause more work for employees and make the company look bad. Recently, this has taken the form of disbanding any form of production, and letting go of several very good employees. - The HR department contains only personal friends of the CEO. This is huge conflict of interest, especially for the many reported incidents. - The CEO has decided to move away from allowing employees to work remotely, stating "Remote work kills creativity and culture, especially for an indie gaming company." Employees that work on-site are given significant benefits over the few who are allowed to stay remote. These benefits include: long lunches, extra time off/untracked PTO, gas card, etc. This only helps to reinforce the boys club the CEO is trying to recreate. - Very little diversity. - CEO has made mention of installing tracking software on remote employees' PCs. - Confidence in leadership is nonexistent. Good employees are being pushed out or arbitrarily let go. I would expect this trend to continue which makes stability, especially at a small company like Chromatic, nearly impossible. I can't imagine anyone who is currently working there not updating their resume, even those that are a part of this coveted boys club.

Cons

Chromatic Games is currently undergoing "transitional changes" that have damaged the company and hurt many of the employees who have given years of their time and high-value effort. During my time, as well as all other employees, we were underpaid severely considering game-industry standards across the United States. Interns got paid minimum wage for doing similar work as someone getting paid an actual salary, which isn't even that high anyways. We were constantly given unreasonable timelines for updates and game releases, but struggled through with unpaid overtime being promised bonuses that were delayed or just never paid out. The CEO is clueless and adheres to old business standards while refusing to move on from the company's only IP. If you don't work in the office, he does not care about you and will probably fire you even if remote was agreed upon.

Cons

A "family" is often used here, in the most twisted and exploitative way possible. Everyone is drastically underpaid, overworked, and expected to have things done in unreasonably short time frames. If you are non-male and non-white, this place will underpay you even more, and casually fire you if they just don't like you. Augi is a self centered, egotistical alcoholic, who has no idea how to make video games. He uses Chromatic to boost his ego and surround himself with people who kiss up to him. Stay away at all cost.

Cons

Boys Club is the best way to define the culture. If you didn't work in the office, you couldn't say anything that would be taken seriously. It didn't matter that some people at the company had worked there for more than 5 years, they were outcasts in their minds. Honestly, let's do the math. IF things were as positive as these lying reviews that have been made to counter true employee feelings about the company, why would more than half of the team decide it was time to move to another company? Why would more than half of the development team leave? The reason is this company is failing from the very top. Not "leadership", the very top. The true comical aspect of all of this is the investors are clearly blind, or being fed some extremely well crafted lies. Any investors that knew what this man was doing would have removed him from his position before more damage could be done. Instead, more than half of the real development team has left. Really though, if you are expecting a game to come out or be fixed any time soon, look for something else to play. The real creative left to another company, and all that is left is a bunch of children with keyboards.

Cons

Pay is lower than industry standards. Many employees have left to make a lot more money. Boys club atmosphere. Work pushed into others if not in the boys club. Boys club members brag about getting rid of production. This just makes others do the production work now, and the boys club don't at all. People are leaving in droves. More are actively looking. Boys club, very inappropriate behavior in front of the whole company, and more. Retaliatory reviews on this site. Insulting others because they don't like that other people had bad experiences. That's a big red flag

Cons

The above pro is a direct result of trial by fire. Over the years numerous employees were thrown into the deep end of their respective fields. Those that survived, left and went on to better and more stable studios. The design department was complaining that they were being stifled creatively, once they were given free reign the company experienced the worst reviewed two months of internal playtests. The consequences for this poor performance? Promotion. Recently restructured the company mandating that everyone come back to the office because “game development can’t be done remotely”. Those that didn’t/couldn’t come back were turned into second class employees. Employees that came back to the office were given huge perks such as every other Friday off while remote employees were left out. Nevermind the fact that Chromatic has numerous international and out of state employees. Remote employees are to have tracking software installed on their machines to make sure they’re working while office employees go out on multi hour lunches. Recently forced out or straight up fired the production department, "because production slows things down". Now there’s no production on anything and decisions are made on a whim with no forethought. Very knee jerk reaction oriented. CEO wants to get back to the glory days of a group of guys in a basement chugging redbull and making vidya games. He’s cultivating a boys club in the office environment. The company is trending back to the “Studio From Hell” days (google it), not quite as toxic as back then, but marching that way.

Cons

I was really optimistic for the future when I joined the company. In the past 4 months, however, it has become an extremely toxic place to work. Members of the team working in the office have created a boys club culture along side the CEO, showcasing the cronyism that runs rampant at this company. Further, it appears that some of this group have worked to minimize the work of and push out other leads/producers so that they could try to have a larger say in the direction of projects. In early August 2022, the CEO announced on a whim that the company was going to a hybrid structure starting January 2023 and made extremely inappropriate remarks in the process. He made this decision in a vacuum without discussing it with the team. After he made the announcement, he asked employees to reach out to HR regarding their concerns, but this only caused further confusion since he neglected to tell HR of his plan. While the CEO did ultimately approve very small portion of employees to continue working full-remote after the fact, the company did fire an employee who was recently hired with the mutual understanding that they were to be a full-remote employee because the employee wouldn't relocate to Gainesville. Employees who expressed concerns over how the decision would negatively affect those who were granted full-remote status quickly found their concerns dismissed as the hybrid model still remains inequitable for full-remote employees. The company has lied about the details of recent departures/terminations of various employees, warping stories to fit narratives they think will show them in the best light at the moment while occasionally contradicting those narratives at a later time when they feel the original narrative no longer shows them in a good light. The pay at the studio is absolutely terrible. Employees are expected to produce faster than the industry standard while making 1/3 to 1/2 of what they would get paid elsewhere. They do not value prior experience or education, but rather how well you'll fit into their boys club culture.

Cons

The typical hours are 11am-8pm and can get a little crazy before milestone deadlines. I prefer a typical 9-5 but, that is a sacrifice I am willing to pay to have a job I truly enjoy.