programmer

office coordinator

director of finance

accountant

Hothead Games

This company is one that appears great at first, decent pay, easy culture and great people to work with. However under the surface it begins to fall apart. 

The management is seriously lacking and you are often left in the lurch not aware of your assessment or performance until it's far too late. They are also terrified of taking risks and prefer to copy industry trends and successful games than put themselves out there.

It can be very much a boys club, particularly at the top and with that a very jock attitude to things. While there have been more woman starting at the company there is almost none at positions of authority or input. 

But the most dangerous thing to watch out for is getting comfortable. They tend to pay ok and have fairly easy schedules. They also tend to hire full time and not a lot of people get let go. However it will happen! And when you are let go or decide to move on you will realize you don't have a lot of transferable skills. They are working on games back in time. No current engine or standards that can be easily pointed to. This is very much the case with artists as there is no senior oversite at all! You may get a great lead how helps you grow, or just producers and designers somehow running the art.

Overall some great people on the floor but a company stuck in time and not sure what they are doing at the top.

I'm the new HR Director and there is alot of work to be done here. The foundation is pretty solid, and I think the leadership team really does try their best to be transparent. Lots of changes, lots of mistakes have been made but I do believe they are making strides to improve. I joined Hothead because the people are really great and the CEO truly cares about his people. I knew a dozen people here before I started and they all seem pretty happy to be here. The game industry is tough, working in a creative yet technical environment can be challenging for anyone, but I have high hopes that we will rally together and succeed!  Anyone who knows me, will know that I always do my very best to help make people feel safe, appreciated and happy.

Hothead started as a sports game company and you can tell from the competitive atmosphere. There are a ton of talented people and you will not survive if you don't have enough talent or charisma. Many people have been fired because they got push out or overshawdowed by more aggressive or cunning employees. It is definitely a dog eat dog company where you must make alliances fast and show no weaknesses. The best way to survive is to suck up to the management as many or them have fragile egos.

Hothead is a company that follows treads and doesn't innovate. Their best games are replicating the success of other titles and their worst games are too. They are so focused on following industry leaders to become one themselves. That's not to say there isn't a huge amount of creativity at hothead, but they're made by management to make a product that will squeeze as much money out of their fans as possible. If you're games successful and makes a profit you won't see anything from it, it'll go to the next project or the owners next vacation.

Not a bad place to work on games. People are pretty good and friendly and the atmosphere is alright. The games being made are super profit-focused, pay to win. Full of nagging offers to buy in-app purchases. While this is common, it’s taken to an extreme level here and it makes the games much less fun imo. Management makes bad decisions and often doesn’t let us know what’s going on. No job security as there are layoffs every few months. No promotions either, you stay in your position and that’s that.

Like the summary says, it's not easy to get quality work done here. Ideas are often shot down without much discussion. People that shouldn't be managing you often are. So much infighting that it is downright depressing at times.

Some influential people at the studio often get to run the art when they really shouldn't. It ends of making things into an incoherent mess. Work often gets re-done several times because of bad decisions, but with enough pre-planning things might have gone more smoothly.

Hothead gave me the chance to grow with the company. I had a fantastic work experience at the company. The culture and the team are amazing and the management cares about their employees. Work-life balance is important. At Hothead's downtown office there is a gym, rooftop patio and they offer weekly employee lunches. But what's more important, everyone's option matters.
Sometimes overtime is necessary due to tight deadlines, but it is part of the industry. Work hard, play hard!

A typical day was more work to do then could actually be done. The managers are stuck in old process and it slows down the development of the games for all areas. The culture was let's drink on Friday and all be happy. The workplace culture seems to depend on the team and department. Hardest part of the job for me was last minute changes and not realistic timelines for my tasks.

The individual teams here are the best in the business but execs are leaning on data leaving no room for originality. Games fail because of this. I would recommend working here but be careful and take note of the project going through, many people have left recently as it is suspect that the company may not succeed.

Hothead has great staff, good leadership, and big dreams. The direction the company is going in is positive and I feel the company will be around for a while.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Programmer 3 salaries reported	$71,667 per year
Office coordinator 1 salary reported	$67,500 per year
Director of finance 1 salary reported	$160,000 per year
Accountant 1 salary reported	$30.00 per hour

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