Goodgame Studios Reviews

Pros

Very good and friendly atmosphere, no dress code, benefits like cereal, drinks and other. Many events.

Cons

The salary could be higher as Hamburg is quite an expensive city, mainly as it comes to accommodation.

Pros

- Some benefits are nice (not the shared pool though, which is just a HR marketing tool) - Team spirit between colleagues is good in many departments

Cons

- Delusional management who made, and continue to make, one basic error after the next - When I say management, this is effectively the CEO, as the rest of the (under-experienced, but ego-inflated) leadership just nod off whatever he says - Middle management is mostly hired externally, many of whom lack any relevant skills and contribute to an unproductive work environment by sucking up to their superiors and keeping their team members down - Accordingly, hardly any career or even training opportunities for the majority of employees - Some departments are so politics-ridden and/or entangled in nepotism that the turnover rate is through the roof - Hired way too many people for way too many projects without any strategical direction or even common sense. The mass layoffs that happened recently were not surprising in the least for anyone in the industry.

Pros

- Free cereal, fruit on Monday and Wednesday and drinks after work (used to be pretty much unlimited, but quantity and hours have been cut progressively). - Flexible working hours, 10 to 5 base and the freedom to add hours to reach 40 hours per week (unless when you're in QA). The company does not keep close track of this and largely trusts you to work the hours you are paid for. - Company parties are amazing and you get 20 euro per person per quarter for team events. - Very loose dress code, room for individuality. - Quality hires, at least in my team (see below for internal promotions). - Very flexible and fair when it comes to personal wishes. Special vacation requests for example, getting time off in advance, were possible for me.

Cons

The biggest caveat you have to keep in mind when considering this company, is that it is run (very successfully from a financial point of view) by a dentist and a lawyer. They could have been selling insulation material and the company would not be all that different. Marketing, sales and PR are by far the most important teams, and a lot of issues stem from that. - No flat hierarchies. Despite what is still being said during interviews, there is a serious level of overhead you will battle. You talk to your project manager, who talks to the first, who talks to the lead, who talks to the team lead, who talks to the department lead, who talks to ... If you're lucky people are actually talking, but it might all go through Jira tickets. Trying to skip one of those levels could get you in trouble. - For a company that is 100% privately owned, it is run as though there are outside investors. With games that have zero hype built around them, it makes little sense that you let marketing dictate a release date and that teams end up working on Saturday. On that note, poor planning seems to be a common occurrence in general. Ideas become critical overnight only to be cancelled again when fully implemented two weeks later. Breaking releases of tools the company relies on get announced months in advance, but it gets ignored until the games stop working. - Good old boys club when it comes to management. Though they advertise with the company being multicultural, once you reach a certain level you need to be white, male and German speaking. Yes there are exceptions, but they are just that. - Internal promotions are questionable at times. I've seen more than one person get bumped up to a position they would never have been hired for if they weren't dating someone higher up, or were grandfathered into the company. - Poor communication skills from the top down. Major decisions that affect entire teams are taken without any input from the relevant parties and nothing is shared until the last second. Any available information comes from office gossip. Failed projects are swept under the rug without a proper retrospective, so the same mistakes are made over and over again. - Every decision is based on tracking data. This makes sense in many ways, but also kills the creative process of game design and development. No one seems to listen to actual customer needs and wants. The value of a feature is purely defined by weekly spreadsheets that list the amount of paying users.

Pros

Great company to do a intership, due to the fact that most its workforce are interns. Good people and working culture.

Cons

GGS hires staff with no games working experience, so they can pay low wages. People with gaming experience do not last because they make them train their interns. After somet ransfer of their knowhow has occur, they fire them, because is cheaper to pay a semitrained intern than a professional. The people that are "well paid" are constantly remided of how much they earned and how great it to work there.

Pros

Company with a strong growth and therefore plenty of job offers in various departments. However, growth is financed by venture capitalists and not by current profits.

Cons

The recruiting process is completely intransparent. It seems to be luck to be selected for an interview, even if you fulfill all the requirements. No feedback will be provided.

Pros

A great place if you are under 40 and don't mind taking advantage of other people - primarily your customers

Cons

The company consistently turns a blind eye to the requests and needs of the majority of the customers. Catering to deep pocket players and lying to investors is part of the daily routine.

Pros

Diverse culture, hardworking employees, free beer after 6pm

Cons

Management seems incapable of changing with the future trends

Pros

Goodgame Studios benefits from the wealth of experience of its employees and the structures that have grown over decades. There is a clear awareness of a sustainable future perspective in the studio, which potentially offers motivated individuals a lot of room for action and development, both in existing and new projects. Especially for young professionals, GGS is a really good place to build up expertise! :)

Cons

On the other hand, they also work with very old games that do not always combine the most innovative content. The studio is not ready to develop exciting games in modern game engines yet, but is actively working towards that goal...

Pros

Free beer No other pro

Cons

Very Low salary Low recognition

Pros

GGS is simply a well-managed company. There's so many bad reviews on here, but really this company is simply a good one.

Cons

Very little bad that I can say on GGS honestly.