Splash Damage Reviews

Upper management don't seem to trust their developers. I suspect this is a hangover from the work-for-hire mindset. The shift to original IPs is tricky, yes, but it involves cultivating a sense of trust which doesn't appear to be happening. The recent four-day-week solely for those who come into the office is a 'carrot' approach to ending hybrid and work from home. I am one of the many hybrid/remote workers who is actively looking for alternative jobs because of it. The very un-subtle suggestion that I need an extra eight hours of work to achieve as much as my in-office colleagues (effectively making me take a pay cut!) is insulting and illustrates the above issue of lack of trust. HR's attitude of 'we know this won't work for everyone, and that's fine' strongly suggests this is actually a layoff in disguise. If living and working in London full time is fine for you, on fairly low wages, then this probably won't be an issue. However for anyone who can't afford London living, or has to live closer to family etc, it's crashed team morale. Senior management seems to have a bit of a sexism problem as well. In many departments, all the seniors and leads are men, while most of the junior positions are women. It's incredibly difficult for women to get promoted to senior levels, even when they have more than the required level of experience. Most choose to leave instead. There's a pervasive belief in 'studio magic' - 'we made these good games before, so we can do it again because we're splash' - despite all the developers who made those games being long gone. Further incidents illustrating lack of trust or respect for the employees: - A widely publicised pay adjustment, hyped up as something to help beat inflation, ended up being paltry and more of an exercise in bringing long-term employee pay in line with recent hires. - Senior management seem to have a habit of saying one thing that they think devs want to hear, and then backtracking. eg. 'Yes this build is great!', then two weeks later we learn that it nearly failed submission and we need to make radical changes. - Calling an emergency all-hands project meeting when dozens of other game companies are doing extensive layoffs, and then laughing when multiple attendees request some sort of information about whether it's about layoffs. - Sudden, rapid project pivots close to deadlines, with key departments forced to work overtime to meet unrealistic demands. - When projects are cancelled, developers are given no time to process the loss, and instead immediately thrown into their new project. This caused the last exodus of talent.

Cons are plenty and one problem with Splash Damage is that your experience will be amazing or horrendous based solely on your project and who your lead is. Salary is low but not for all positions. Once you climb the ladder and get into the more senior roles it's fair, comparable to other companies. If you are on one of the internal projects focus on learning from the senior people and find another job. You will never progress at SD if you are on an internal project. You can be the best artist, programmer, tester, producer it won't matter. Even if you are not on an internal project and you do a very good job regardless of your position it won't be enough. You need your manager to be in "with the right people". Your manager will tell you that you are doing a good job but when promotion time comes you won't get it. If you are on the right project , do a very good job and your manager is "in with the right people" your experience with this company will be amazing. SD is a very, very top heavy company I think there's like 8 tiers of management between the top and the first employee that actually works and all the meaningful decision are made at tier 2(under the CEO). So basically between any decision regarding your personal development is your manager, your manager's manager, your manager's manager's manager... You get the point. All the leadership of the company will be strangers to you, you might see them once every 3-4 months and you might not think this is a big deal but remember, these people make all the decisions regarding your promotions, what project you work on and pay raises. All their decisions are based on 5 minute back briefs that people under them give them so don't expect them to actually know what you did. All the positions at SD are shifted one position to the left so the expectations of a junior at SD are the expectation of a mid level in another company. Mid level expectations are senior expectations and seniors are basically leads. If you are in a senior position expect to manage anything from 1 to 5 people. Most seniors are acting leads because the leads are actually in meetings all day every day. Any project that is run by SD becomes a dumpster fire mostly because there is no clear decision making at any level. Any decision will be done by comitee because remember, all decisions are done under the CEO so no one wants to take the responsibility of a decision that the people under the CEO won't like. No one has any real power to do anything at a project level. Any project that you work on will inevitably do overtime and quite a bit of it. Expect to work 50 hour weeks and all weekends at the minimum during the "OT phase" of the project. This is mostly because planning is done by people that don't actually do the work so everything is underestimated. SD is not very good at the game making part of making games. They talk the talk but don't walk the walk. Due to the company "culture", HR and the upper manangement are friends and should an issue arrise they will pick sides. They will side with the people they like regardless if they are right or not. The company used to have an amazing culture but recently(after CEO changed) it has been pushing political agendas more and more to the point that if you disagree with anything they say you can be fired. You are not allowed to discuss, much less disagree with what the company pushes through official channels. The culture now is censorship and fear. SD promotes itself as this very inclusive company but in reality if you don't fall in line with the agenda that is being pushed you will get in trouble. I suggest you never write anything not work related down. It can and will be used against you. It doesn't matter if you are right or not. Sharing a meme could get you in trouble. The company's political bias is very evident and I don't recommend you work here if you don't share their political views. It will not be fun for you at all. This is not going to get any better but it will get worse so proceed with caution.