Naughty Dog Employee Reviews about "naughty dog"

Pros

Passionate team, talented and kind game directors. Work with some of the best folks in the industry on some top tier games.

Cons

Lots of crunch during ship year. The quality bar is high and the assumption is folks will work as much as needed, until their features are up to the Naughty Dog standard.

Pros

The people at Naughty Dog are very talented, the best in the industry. It's a great place to grow and learn and push yourself.

Cons

Striving to reach perfection often leads to long hours, but end result is a great product.

Pros

You will work the the best people in the industry. The talent and work ethic is unmatched. There are no managers or assistant managers, or assistants to the managers at Naughty Dog, because everyone knows what they are doing, and more importantly, is passionate about what they are doing. Everyone from the Co-Presidents down is approachable, and honest about what their expectations are for you, and how high a bar that is. I've been in this industry for 12 years, and I learned more about how game development SHOULD be done in my first month at Naughty Dog than I would have thought possible. There have been some past reviews that indicated problems with family/life balance. I can see that perspective, there is a lot of crunch at the conclusion of projects. That's usually what it takes to make great games, since you're trying to improve them as much as you can up to the last second. I can also say I've found Naughty Dog to be extremely supportive to me and my own family - so perhaps they've made changes recently in how that's been handled. I know that I've had broad allowances when I've needed family time.

Cons

You have to bring your "A game" every day. If you are looking for an easy paycheck, or a job where you can rest on your laurels, this isn't the place for you. You'll be hired because you're experienced and talented, but will be challenged on what you are doing, and how you are doing it on a regular basis. You will be expected to learn new tools, and new skills. You will need to adapt to keep pace. If can't do it, you'll be shown the door. High expectations come with a job at Naughty Dog. Be prepared.

Pros

Naughty Dog has an amazing track record of hugely successful titles. That success has attracted a lot of talent that in turn has increased the scope and quality of the products. Naughty Dog also pays well both in base salary, but also in sharing the wealth with bonuses/profit sharing. If you want to work on AAA titles with an extremely talented bunch of people and you've got what it takes then this is the company for you.

Cons

A lot of hard work. The people there are very passionate about making a quality title and that passion can translate into long work hours.

Pros

The people at Naughty Dog are some of the most talented human beings you will ever work with in the game industry. You'll work on some of the best games this industry will ever produce.

Cons

Mgmt thinks 6-9 month crunch, which is normal for ND, is a feature, not a bug in their production process. They don't have producers, so everything upstream gets pushed and pushed downstream until the last possible second. This just wreaks havoc on the employees for the last 6 months of a game. If you have a spouse or family, you'll never see them.

Pros

The work is extremely full-filling. The people who work at Naughty Dog are some of the best in the industry. You will grow as an artist

Cons

The crunch is terrible. The people can be very type A and arrogant. If you don't mind your soul being destroyed by the crunch, it's a great place to work.

Pros

I was a full time employee and picked up a lot of hours during crunch time. QA testers got to have the catered food which doesn't always happen at dev studios. Access to other devs was possible to "advance your career".

Cons

I find most places don't treat their QA testers well and naughty dog was no exception. There was this underlining rule that because you were a QA tester, you were scum/bottom of the barrel. It seemed like administration, programmers, artist and anyone that wasn't apart of QA, treated the QA department very bad. This negated all of the pros mentioned above. While there were plenty of hours, you as a QA tester spent it in a hostile work environment. While you could eat the catered food, you had to wait for 'the real employees' to get their food first. Finally while there was access to 'the real employees' they usually resented you because your job as a QA tester is to point out their flaws. I had a terrible experience at naughty dog. This was the last video game job I ever worked and no longer will be apart of the industry.