Pros
The early days of the company were extremely exciting. We were building games that appealed to core audiences and we had a lot of fun doing it. There was a lot of excitement, creativity, and passion. Biweekly there would be company meetings and the previous CEO was extremely transparent with everything going on. You could ask questions and they would be answered. Morale was good back then.
Kontras
For a startup, the amount of flexibility was low. Working remotely was frowned upon, perks were low, and the office environment was very corporate. Senior management was “intense”. There were mornings where you’d walk into shouting matches between top “execs”. The atmosphere was always an uphill climb with limited resources. Compensation was very below average. Engineers were prioritized over any other position. Game trajectory became copycat clones of other successful games versus doing anything innovative.