I'm a game designer at a certain very large game company. After a very frustrating run on the latest project where every design improvement and decision was overridden or turned to crap without my say-so or even being noticed, it came to a head and I asked for a transfer off the project.
I was called into the creative director's office and was told point blank "I created the IP, I can destroy it and that's what I'm doing. This project is meant to make a little money for a very small budget. You're a great game designer...blah blah blah." That's where I turned off. Basically I was being told we were going to make a mediocre project just because and screw our fans/consumer base in the process. It's an Xbox game, they spend $300,000 and sell 500,000 copies just by sneezing...they DON'T CARE about quality of the game. The fact was that they could easily have made a much higher quality game for the same budget, they just didn't want to innovate nor even fix the problems with the original game in the new sequel. They pay me well, but some things are far more important than money.
Been fishing for a new job ever since while keeping my chair warm and not much else at the studio I'm at for the time being. Fortunately, Europe is on a hiring spree with nearly every major studio having openings at the moment.
