Big Fish Games reviews

The fun factor of Big Fish Games is sometimes forced and coerced. There is a "shiny happy disneyland fascist" feel about the fun you have. For example, they stage these fun company parties which are juxtaposed by a nefarious, cruel, opaque, yet public way in which some employees were surreptitiously fired for no justifiable reason (at least none that my coworkers or I could surmise). I've never seen this type of behavior at any other company I've worked for and it created a culture of fear amongst me and my fellow coworkers which was counterproductive. Ultimately I helped produce games that I was not proud of. I really love video games and it's something I'm extremely passionate about, but I felt that management and many people I was working with did not necessarily have the same passion for video games I did; instead all they really wanted was money or a day job. At the end of my tenure, I left because I could not be honest with myself and feel a sense of pride about the games I was working on. I still feel like there's a lot of innovation in this market segment, but unfortunately a lot of my ideas were drowned out. A previous reviewer on here stated that , if you want to be successful at Big Fish, be prepared to 'play the game'. I feel that this is sadly true. The leadership team does not want to be challenged by better ideas or better directions, and unfortunately it hurts your career to be overly critical. Many of the folks being promoted are ladder climbers that care little about video games or business strategy, and instead want to suck up to management for the benefit of their own careers. I felt like the company could be ten times better if the politics surrounding it didn't feel like a fraternity, and if more honesty was exchanged.

There are two major challenges to working at Big Fish. Both are common among successful startups. First, engineering resources are stretched to the limit. With so much tech competition in Seattle, Big Fish struggles to land new engineers. This makes it challenging to secure resources for projects not deemed critical. Even the simplest updates to the site can sometimes take weeks or even months. Second, with a workforce of less than 500 (and many of them in Customer Support), there aren't a lot of opportunities for career advancement. Lastly, if you want to be successful at Big Fish, be prepared to 'play the game' (no pun intended). It is critical that you buddy up to everyone at the Director level or above. Learn the humor (dark and cynical), hone your persona, and get people to like you. It's a very buddy-buddy working environment and you don't want to end up on the outside looking in.