The MindsEye Situation Only Gets Uglier as Devs Accuse Management of Mistreatment

MindsEye has proven to be an utter calamity for developer Build A Rocket Boy, and astonishingly, the entire circumstance has taken a turn for the worse.

In the wake of a string of layoffs and claims that around 300 job positions were threatened, the leadership of the project — particularly former GTA producer Leslie Benzies and co-CEO Mark Gerhard — is now facing allegations of “prolonged disrespect and mistreatment” from both past and current employees.

An open letter published on Game Workers illustrates a predictably critical depiction of the experience of working on MindsEye. It fundamentally claims that the development process was chaotic, with management altering priorities at random while any dissenting voices were quickly silenced.

The letter elaborates on several primary points of concern: “Deficiency of transparency and communication”, “intolerable amounts of overtime”, and “poor management of redundancies”.

With nearly 100 employees signing, the letter encapsulates: “Our journey with the company has been one of exhaustion, job instability, health complications, and the collapse of a game that many of us invested years of our lives into.”

In conclusion, the letter articulates certain demands, including a public apology, assistance for remaining staff members, a coherent effort to enhance working conditions at the company, and an improved redundancy protocol.

In July, there were murmurs about Build A Rocket Boy’s intention to effectively re-launch MindsEye as part of a “redemption pathway”. However, little to no updates have emerged since then, and with the release of this open letter, we find it hard to believe that all is well behind the curtain.

What are your thoughts on this entire MindsEye ordeal? Don’t hesitate to express your disbelief in the comments section below.