Crystal Dynamics Reviews

Pay is way too low for the area and is not competitive. Constantly losing talent to other studios. Project is understaffed and over-scoped. Company is top heavy - too many producers, three game directors, three art directors, all on one project. Site says they are stilling hiring MORE producers. We need more designers and artists, not more micromanagement. Insane amount of overtime to compensate for lack of direction on the project, with weeks of 70-80 hour crunch even when we were two years away from shipping. Upper management constantly gives contradicting information. Very Jr. heavy because senior talent keeps leaving.

The head of this studio is quite possibly the biggest narcissist I've ever worked for. He never misses an opportunity to talk about himself and how he made Crystal what it is. What he fails to mention is how his bullying style of management has trickled down through the organization and made it a toxic environment. That is his true legacy. Strangely, some of the least qualified employees have managed to fail their way up into positions where they tow the company line: Place an unreasonable amount of work on too few people and expect to compete with the likes of other game studios that employ double the number of developers. Reducing project scope is never an option. Don't even think about proposing reasonable compromises to outrageous scheduling. Contract workers are the new wave of the future. Why hire senior people with lots of experience when you can hire three junior level contractors and not have to pay benefits or other perks? Besides, senior developers ask pesky questions. We don't have time for that.