Fun work - Software Engineer Manticore Games Employee Review

I was with Manticore from nearly the beginning. In that time I worked with the most talented, passionate, and hard working people all working to elevate each other. There were no egos. Good ideas were listened to on their merit even across disciplines. Everyone had the opportunity to grow.

Only negative I can say is something that often comes with the territory of working at a startup - The requirement to remain agile can be exhausting. Big decisions are made to steer the ship in new directions in light of new information and must be done with full confidence. This is also what makes Manticore great though.

Almost all of the non-leadership individuals are talented, friendly, and great to work with. They still have funding.

The leadership clique struggles with effective management and work organization. There's a significant lack of trust in team members and individual contributors, resulting in an extremely hierarchical approach that leaves no room for employee agency. The workplace lacks psychological safety. The leadership clique demonstrates limited understanding of game development fundamentals - from creating quality games to establishing functional iteration and evaluation processes. The leadership clique prioritizes immediate productivity gains while creating substantial long-term technical and operational challenges. The current meeting structure is inefficient and consumes valuable time without meaningful outcomes. Excessive technical debt has accumulated, resulting in development cycles that are roughly four times longer than necessary, with additional time required for bug fixes post-implementation.