Ready At Dawn Studios Reviews

Pros

Ready at Dawn is a studio that makes you feel like you're part of the family. The team works together closely and thankfully, they're a great group. If you are a team player looking to set the standards of what it means to make a great game for VR, this is the place for you.

Cons

VR Development isn't for everyone.

Pros

Amazing talent and people in the studio Really interesting titles to work on Great systems and architecture Open for anyone to share their design ideas

Cons

Meta bureaucracy lost a lot of amazing talent no longer an indie studio some design pillars defined by Meta

Pros

-Tight-knit Team with Excellent Rapport. Strives for greatness, despite problems with management. Never been easier to find friends at a workplace. -Excellent Compensation -Easy workload -CEO is very easy to talk to, even if other managers are not.

Cons

-Creative Leadership are Unfortunately Cynical and Business-Minded, will not rise to meet your enthusiasm, seek out input, or strive for improvement. Managers were also decidedly passive aggressive and uninterested, especially during exit interviews, and tried to shift blame onto me, instead of rising to meet the issues they were presented with. This is problematic for managers who are close friends with one another, most of whom face no threat of termination and will never choose leave the studio. -Disconnected Pipeline, Unclear Direction, and Arbitrary and Enigmatic Decision-Making. It's easier to keep your head down and listen to instructions on a micro scale than try to collaborate on the big picture. Your input will not be sought out, and unless you create friction by protesting leadership, your expertise will not be heard. At times, you will feel like a reluctant tool, and not a collaborator. Not a healthy place for creatives. -Too relaxed; everyone will spin their wheels trying to communicate through disjointed pipelines, and by the time work needs to ramp up, nobody has any kind of plan or logic to follow to the finish. -Culture is clique-oriented, for better and for worse. Some joking goes on behind other's backs, and there's a clear lack of transparency between seniors; work will often be ignored or omitted without proper conversation. Clique culture makes accepting other voices more difficult, people working through cultural and language barriers are often ignored or unheard. -I inquired about a leadership position with the hopes of solving some of the issues above, but was discouraged based on the assumption that I was only interested in having more control. The conversation was embarrassing for me, and cast a lot of doubts with leadership.

Pros

The team at Ready At Dawn is extremely talented and capable. I've never worked at a studio with as many superstars and as little dead-weight. There's a tremendous amount of respect across disciplines, something I've found literally no where else in the game industry. This has allowed Ready at Dawn to create very efficient art workflows, and very effective content. Top to bottom, Ready at Dawn has the most transparent leadership hierarchy of any studio I've worked at. You can't please everyone, but the owners put a lot of effort into empowering the staff and improving the working conditions.

Cons

Overtime is not mandatory, but historically, every game has required tons of overtime to complete. This leads to a lot of voluntary overtime worked with no reimbursement. This problem isn't exclusive to Ready at Dawn, but the gaming industry as a whole. Some new studios are implementing no-overtime policies, but that's a luxury most studios cannot afford. These games are labors of love, and many people gladly put the extra time in, but it's an unhealthy expectation that the industry needs to move away from.

Pros

The Studio allows you to grow and try new roles and challenges over the years (I.E. wear multiple hats). Ready is filled with passionate and very smart/talented individuals. Primary focus is on making great games (not a ton of drama). Many lessons were learned after the Order (Going from PSP to the PS4 was a harsh transition). Pod structures are now formed with directors just providing guidance which allows team members to have a greater sense of ownership. That combined with new blood has allowed RAD to become a better place. It is still a place I'm proud to work at. Work in VR where you can't (and should not) take player control away, has helped prioritize player agency. Improved transparency on where the company is going and what managements thoughts/plans are. Culture club, Coffee club, MTG league, can play computer games at your desk (after hours/lunch), and beer Fridays. Great people and friends who all love games. Stability. Leading the charge in VR games. Serious about making and shipping great games. Strive and push to make AAA games. Swords earned at 10 years.

Cons

Crunch and overtime still happen more than it should, but most of the time it can be minimized if you prioritize a work/life balance. It's also better than it used to be, many years ago. Directors often get attached to a concept/idea too early and stay fixated to it for too long (while it is still a con, I feel like they are getting better at listening to non-director feedback). Design team has been understaffed over the years but it seems like that is improving. Reviews and promotions are often very late or delayed.

Pros

1. Great tools and tech for artists. 2. Crazy talented co-workers 3. A never ending snack bar (this could be a con if you have no will power) 4. "Culture club" nerdy title but it's successful. From Ultimate Frisbee to Movie nights things are always happening. 5. I've got a great lead and work in a department that collaborates very well. 6. All the full time benefits you would expect, plus birthday's off, Christmas Holiday break, etc. I've read the other glassdoor reviews and it's disappointing. Glassdoor's overall number doesn't reflect what we're doing here. Maybe I'm biased, but as someone that's been here for years... I'm happy here, and I believe people would love working here.

Cons

1. Glassdoor says I’m slightly underpaid (but that could also be from my terrible negotiating skills) 2. Bottlenecks in the pipeline. At times it's harder than it should be to push assets through. 3. A never ending snack bar (this could be a pro if you have will power) Overall, most game companies have the same cons. If I had a long list of cons to write out I wouldn't still be here.

Pros

One of my favorite parts of working for ready at dawn is that the upper management give me the ability to be as creative as I want with regards to how I get my job done. I 'm not told how to do my job as long as I produce. Giving me that freedom has allowed me to develop in ways I wouldn't have otherwise and this in turn has helped me to learn new tech as well as given me a great deal of pride in the stuff I do. As a whole the rank and file programmers and artists are not only extremely talented but also very supportive. A huge part of what gets me going in the morning is looking forward to working the staff at RaD. It's an amazing team to work with.

Cons

Ready at Dawn is a gaming studio so it shares are the standard downsides of working for any gaming studio specifically long hours. Beyond that, my only criticism is that RaD is still trying to figure out how to be a larger studio while maintaining a small studio mindset. In general having a small studio mentality is a great thing, but sometimes that bleeds into seemingly inconsistent managerial policies and practices.

Pros

If you are an artist you will get to create some of the best art in the industry. It can be stressful getting everything up to par but the directors definitely push for you to be the best you can be. There are artists from all over the world so you can learn from the best of the best while here. When you are not in crunch time it is a pretty relaxed studio with good work hours. 1.5hr lunch is nice and their core work hours are helpful for having a schedule that can work for most people.

Cons

Lot of time seems to be wasted on minuscule tasks. Lots of time refining things that aren't really going to be seen. Upper management tries to control too many minor things and middle management can be a little disorganized causing you to need to rush on things because they did not assign tasks until hours before they need to be done. Some of this they do seem to be putting a real effort to try and fix. When people are on crunch you can expect to work 60+ hours a week for a week to sometimes up to 1.5 months. Salary is average, leaning on the lower end which can be tough living in such an expensive area.

Pros

The talent inside the walls of RAD is unreal, your colleagues are friendly and cross disciplines work hand-in-hand passionately to make games they all are excited for. Management fosters transparent communication values and keeps everyone informed to the best of their ability. Speaking for myself I have been able to grow into a position that would normally have clear-cut duties but by always seeking new projects and challenging the preordained process I have been able to highlight my best abilities and flourish. Your hard work and attitude does not go unnoticed.

Cons

Everywhere you go, no matter what field you're in there will always be gossip. It's like playing telephone, it's never what it initially started as. With that said, management does it's best to control and resolve any concerns or problems anyone may have.

Pros

There are extremely talented programmers and artists working here. Everyone is passionate about making a great game and push each other to do the best. Because of this you will learn and be pushed to grow yourself so you can push the boundaries of your discipline. RAD has a track record of making each game one of the most artistic and technically impressive games on their platform and that is what makes it great to work there.

Cons

Because of the passion to push and go above and beyond people will work late to do what they feel will make the game be better. That being said there is no mandatory crunch so if you are not passion driven you don't have to stay late.