What's it like to work at Big Fish Games in Seattle?

November 30, 2009 12:05 PM

What's it like to work at Big Fish Games in Seattle? I've heard both good and bad things. I'm looking for more opinions and anecdotes.
posted by Cool Papa Bell to Work & Money (4 answers total)

Based on the people I've seen riding my bus, they give employees a Mountain Hardware bag. That's about all I know though, sorry.
posted by Cogito at 1:16 PM on November 30, 2009

I haven't worked for them, but I have worked in the casual games development industry. It was really grueling. I worked 60-80 hour weeks leading up to launch deadlines, which happened every couple months, and I definitely got the impression that that was normal for the industry. Given how many developers supposedly want to work on games, the attitude around our office was "if you're not willing to put up with this, there are plenty of other people out there who would be." Should they have hired more developers? Used more reasonable development timelines? Probably, but we kept staying late and getting the work done, so why would they? I have no idea what that particular company is like, but I think the industry is not known for caring about "work-life balance."
posted by vytae at 6:18 PM on November 30, 2009

I've done contract work for them, early on in a project that's out now. Also two good friends of mine work there now (programmer, designer). If you'd like to talk to 'em, I could pass you along?
posted by zusty at 1:30 PM on December 1, 2009

My friends there love it, and seem to have a good work/life balance.
posted by herbaliser at 2:03 PM on December 22, 2009