[ta987654321]

This studio closure hits a little close to me, since I know a few former employees:

- They really did not see a full studio closure coming so suddenly. Yes, they were aware that they were struggling, but the 25% staff reduction was supposed to keep the studio sustainable.

- They were in the planning stages for an original IP, their new leadership realized too late that expensive IP licenses were unsustainable.

- Their frantic development pace meant that they their engine was a patchwork of features cobbled together over the years, and not enough resources to rework it, despite their audiences stating that they didn't care enough to fix it. This made development a lot more painful than it should have been. They finally ditched it for Unity, but again, much too late.

- They were getting ready to move into a new office building. That's how in the dark everyone at the company was kept.

- All of these actions were caused by incompetent management, their staff was and still is amazingly talented.

[c3534l]

There were people who moved to accept a job at that company a few months ago who got fired. Imagine uprooting your entire life, moving across country for your dream job, for the sole purpose that management can keep up appearances that they're a functioning company so people won't jump ship. The company was scummy and ran into the ground because of incompetence.

[techntoke]

This is why I never relocate for jobs, unless they are going to include enough in the package or severance to survive for a few months if the job doesn't work out. I can't believe the sheer number of recruiters that ask me weekly to relocate for contract jobs on my dime. I'm thinking a lot of people fall for this or don't have a family, and are willing to take the risk. I imagine a lot of people get stuck in crappy jobs this way.

[antisthenes]

That's a more typically American phenomenon, I think.

Unless you live in an absolutely hopeless job market (e.g. small mid-west towns with nothing for 50-60 miles around them), then relocating for a job should come with absolutely mind-blowing perks and really be worth it for you to uproot everything.

Or you're relocating within the same region where you can still commute back every weekend or so (e.g. DC to NY or Boston to NY).

[klodolph]

There aren’t many cities with good jobs for the games industry. People don’t just uproot because they’re hopeless but also for the opposite, because they’re hopeful that the increased opportunities are worth it.

[stuaxo]

Always ask about a companies profit and revenue streams in an interview.

[Bartweiss]

From the past accounts of top-level management, I'm not convinced this information would have been accurate and forthcoming. Which is information in its own right, but it means that instead of saying "is this company solvent", you have to say "do I feel like my question was deflected heavily enough to turn down the offer?"

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-d...

[dleslie]

I've been in game Dev for a while now, and your points are screaming that there's a forthcoming closure.

- Cutting a quarter of staff is a Hail Mary unless it's preceded and accompanied by a core strategy pivot, generally.

- Planning new and original IP is typical busy work for a studio that specializes in licensed games. Hiring is hard, expensive and slow; keeping the team busy is standard when looking for another license

- Self-evident much?

- Moving offices is a great way to save operation expenses when the lease is up, if you're desperate.

- Everyone blames management, but often it's the failure to find sufficient revenue is to blame _first_. Their games just weren't selling that well.

[Bartweiss]

> Moving offices is a great way to save operation expenses when the lease is up, if you're desperate.

Even more cynically, planning a move helps defer costs in the existing space. Anything from new amenities to fixing broken desks can potentially be deflected with "it's not worth it right before we move".

[dleslie]

No reason not to defer to cynicism when working in gaming. ;)

[bb88]

> They really did not see a full studio closure coming so suddenly. Yes, they were aware that they were struggling, but the 25% staff reduction was supposed to keep the studio sustainable.

Yeah, so this is just pure mismanagement. Either they couldn't do math, or they signed an agreement that required some sort of hidden balloon payment, or they couldn't reign in their costs when managers were allowed to buy things under the sun.

> Their frantic development pace meant that they their engine was a patchwork of features cobbled together over the years, and not enough resources to rework it, despite their audiences stating that they didn't care enough to fix it.

Again, mismanagement. Someone came up with a term that managers could understand: "Technical Debt". The "Debt" part is the "interest" you pay because you are prioritizing features over maintaining your tech stack. And no doubt would add to their frantic development pace.

[Bartweiss]

> they couldn't do math

Generously, bulk firings like that can be an attempt to add runway, or compensate (painfully) for over-expansion. Telltale management may have been hoping for a few more high-profile releases that would keep them solvent, and cut staff devoted to riskier or lower-margin work in hopes of surviving until those profits hit. When the numbers came in lower than hoped, there was nothing left in the hopper and no more point in delaying the collapse.

Of course, everything in Telltale's story screams mismanagement, and the overexpansion was pretty clearly an issue in the first place. A studio producing largely one-trick games around expensive branded properties can't spin up new projects freely for new staff, and even if they do they were competing with their own games to the point of market saturation.

[jplayer01]

I remember reading stuff a year ago about how the engine was originally written by the CEO and a large reason for its persistence until today is that it's basically his pet project. Do you happen to know how accurate this is?

[ta987654321]

Yes that's why they stuck with it for so long,. Not only was their engine just barely squeaking by, what also compounded the issues were the insane levels or micromanagement involved that were costly and overworked their staff to insane levels.

Imagine having to reanimate gravity by hand due to the lack of a physics engine, now imagine that happening over a scene change that happened during a management review shortly before the project was supposed to ship.

[jplayer01]

Wow, nightmare.

[TylerE]

I wonder how many companies ever lay off 25% of staff and then actually come back to succeed?

I can't really think of any examples off hand.

[orangecat]

https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/08/29/1997-apple-bites-the-... . But yeah, not exactly common.

[pandaman]

Sony Santa Monica.