At the beginning of the year 2020 Enric Álvarez sent a video message to Mercurysteam employees.
At that time, the study was working on two very different projects and several workers had expressed complaints for the null communication on the part of the company in relation to what they could expect from the future, We did not know how the project was going, we did not know What happened next or if we were going to stay. Enric, trying to calm people, made a video in which literally, that in the company there was room for all, that everyone could stay if they wanted, because the company was growing and a new project had arrived. Although the confusser of the company managed to calm the spirits, the tranquility did not last long.
A few months after the recording of the video, Mercurysteam dismissed all QA workers except for two people and a large number of animators and 3D modelers. At Hunter Project , the game we now know how Metroid Dread , still had several months of development. Also several internal crises for facing.
«Things come out with a lot of sweat and tears»
«Between April and July [2020] some Nintendo representatives reviewed the project and put scissors because, as far as I know, we had overcome the scope . There were about 120 kinematics for doing, it was a Allscope too; A bottleneck had been formed in art, so they eliminated a large amount of artwork and this hurt other departments such as AI, tells us a programmer who abandoned the study shortly after this review. «I lived two fat cuts, a partner confirms us, placing the previous one between May and June 2019. Metroid had initially planned the double of BOSSES of those in the game and the double almost of kinematics and that was. Inbarcable, it was impossible. The negotiation of this other cut it took a program responsible who interceded before Nintendo because we could not reach the deadlines. There was no time because, in addition, we do not do crunch . This man was the containment dike between Nintendo and us. He saved our lives.
These cuts in the extension of the project are, for some, the clearest example of poorly organized development, which reflects a disorderly way to operate internally: The development of Metroid Dread was quite chaotic. Many times, giving me directions, my Lead and the director of the game contradicted and this we always paid the workers , tell us an old programmer. «There is talent but many times it is not in the best positions. They carry people s handling very badly and things come out with a lot of sweat and tears. The same, and the bad environment that derives from this management, is something that also an ancient artist also points out: They do not trust the worker at all and that is noticeable. Do not feel valued. The bad environment is constant and it is very tense, in general ». Speaking with some of those involved in which the Spanish game has already become a better assessment of history, he gives the feeling that the development of him was not always a rewarding experience.
They punish workers enough who do not do things as the study wants, it is something quite habitual and generates a lot of tension. Constant control is noted in the environment and it is evident that many things are penalized that are errors or that are not made of bad. I think they have a certain pride as a company by which certain opinions do not tolerate us, a former employee points out, pointing to these punishments from isolating the worker or changing it from the same sudden dismissal from one day to another ».
Another old worker gives us an example of this type of punishments : In Mercury they had two projects, Metroid and another part. Several Metroid developers, the hunter project, wanted to spend another team and they did to offer us a small salary rise than our colleagues so the punishment was double, the change and the youngest rise. According to this employee, both he and his companions were considered problematic for trying to negotiate their conditions and discuss among them the bonuses of their salary: They threatened me because I said that I knew that a partner had charged a bonus and I wanted The same because it was the same position but they told me no and that, besides, I had put my partner in a problem for talking about that.
This partner, also considered discordant, confirms its version: The bonds have a nda and do not want us to talk about among us because they say that people complain [...] salaries are very low, around 25,000 annuals juniors and 28,000 The Seniors . They trusted a lot where they had the most interesting game in Spain, because it was Nintendo.
«Teleworking was not an option»
One of the greatest challenges the development of Metroid Dread is that of the organization during an unprecedented global pandemic that has changed the way in which many studies approach their work philosophy. In Mercurysteam, given that teleworking has been more an imposition than an option - today employees have returned to face-to-face work - the effects of the pandemic have been translated into several friction with the related directive, again, with the Bad communication from the study.
The pandemic has not been managed well. It was total and absolute chaos, recalls a programmer. «On Friday [March 13] Before closing the office by confinement they sent us at 5 in the afternoon an email saying that there was going to be a rotation to work 6-hour shifts and that the rest of the hours would be kept in a Bag for the future that should be recovered afterwards. We complained enough because, besides, many left without reading the mail because they sent him almost at the last minute, something that does a lot of Mercury, so that he does not give us time to complain. What happened is that they rectified on Sunday [March 15] Next and let us be at home.
According to this programmer, the company promised to pay the full salary to the workers; However, a week later they welcomed the erte retroactively and tried not to have to pay what corresponded to them in the salary: In the end we charge the full salary but many colleagues had to protest to get it because Mercury did not want to pay 30% That corresponded ».
This former employee notes that, in his opinion, the study hurried to return to face-to-face work and, consequently, security measures in the office were insufficient: As teleworking was not an option for them, when returning to the office They installed anti-covid measurements, but I think they did not do it correctly. The sites were maintained as they were but screens were installed on the sides. Even so, we were very close to the partner opposite and without any crystal, that was not safe. In addition, we were removed by the microwave and we could not eat hot in the office because they said they did not trust them. It is always the same, they do not trust us.
When it comes to detailing the communication problems by the company, several employees indicate directly to the Human Resources Department as one of the generators of higher internal tensions: Communication with the company is non-existent. The Human Resources Department does not want to negotiate or treat any problems with the workers. In my particular case, I referred to dealing with anything with their managers, says a former artist; They made a supercreative and subjective interpretation of legislation. They did not help me with my problem, just the opposite, I ended up losing a salary month, but I did not want to insist. They interpret the laws as they want ». When explaining the case, this former worker emphasizes that other colleagues in a similar situation achieved results very different from their own, so he believes that the general policy of the department is not good or consequent.
They do not maintain a control of what they pay. I think they pay depending on how well people fall because there is no range by position or department or anything like that, adds an old programmer when asked about human resources management, do not have a career plan, scales. In the company depending on how well you take with José Luis [Márquez, creative director of Metroid Dread and director of Castlevania: Mirror of Fate] or Enric, according to the project where you are [...] and when you do not accept what you They propose, for example, in relation to the salary, take it as an attack, they do not want to discuss salaries and I know about colleagues that they threw about that. They directly called them to sign and it s already, without refuge or anything.
But for some workers and former workers, the problem with the Human Resources Department goes beyond bad management to introduce, according to their interpretation, in the field of manipulation, control and bad faith: Voting to the community From Madrid last May fell on working day, explains an old programmer, according to the BOE, any worker whose working day coincides more than six hours with the voting hours is entitled to 4 hours to vote. They knew it but they told us that with the state in which the development was found it was a long time and that nobody needed so much for such a simple procedure.
As usual in many studies, Mercury works with construction contracts and service, an agreement between company and worker who allows the collaboration between both parties for a given time, never greater than three years, in a specific project. The advantages offered to the Company This type of contracts are directly related to the facilities in the dismissal, allowing to swell concrete departments when they enter labor peaks and reduce them later at a minimum cost. They make a contract by work always. It is assumed that at three years it passes indefinite automatically, says one worker who spent several years in the study, they do it in all departments and then dismiss for any reason, because it allows the contract.
«Many people do not dare to speak in public»
The most recent controversy in relation to Mercurysteam and the development of Metroid Dread has come in relation to an article published in Vandal in which several former workers in the study show their frustration by not appearing in the credits of the Nintendo Game. In relation to the absence of several workers, the study has ensured that the regulations of the company establishes that only employees who have remained in the study are accredited for at least 25% of the development time: The study policy requires that anyone must work in the project at least 25% of the time, of the total development of the game, to appear in the final credits, we read in the text, Of course, sometimes exceptions are made when exceptional contributions are made » .
In the article itself, the workers consulted by Vandal are skeptical before the figure, something in which all employees who have talked about the subject with company are coincided: I never told me any condition to leave the credits, it gave it to done. I was surprised to read that percentage in Vandal, aim amer programmer. At no time did I tell me how much I had to be or what was the minimum to appear in the credits, they never made me reference to any percentage or anything like that, I am surprised by reading it in vandal because it does not put it anywhere. I had assumed that it was going to appear in the default credits having worked in the game, especially when I have seen that there are integral parts of my work in the final result. It is evident that no one has modified that part of my work, says an ancient employee whose contributions to the artistic section are evident even in trailers.
For one of the artists consulted, after the decision to accredit some employees, a culture of the punishment hides to which other workers also point out: I think a punishment that has been left out of the credits to the People who contribute and we had to leave the studio because our work is there. It is visible. That seems to me a culture of punishment. They have, to a certain extent justified, a pride and a superb that does not do them well. It is clear that they have just made the best game that has ever been done in Spain and now they should have the fumes and the egos by the clouds, but I do not know why instead of sharing what has been done, they punish us that we did That we could and contribute our granite of sand. It fits me a lot to detect things in which I have worked and that I do not recognize me ».
A partner tells him disappointment by discovering, on the same day of the launch, that his contributions of several months were not correctly accredited: I believe that my work has been relevant and enough to appear in the credits. I understand that I do not have the rights of my work because it puts it in my contract, I know since I signed, they are from the company, but even so they should be credited because my work is in the game as I did. Due to the rights of intellectual property and confidentiality I can not show my job as a letter of presentation to other studies, therefore, the only way to show it is through these credits. In addition to pointing out the enormous workwall derived from not to appear named, he also points to the enormous emotional wear that he supposes: Being in credits is something that excites us and that we are proud. And that the day arrives and seeks him with enthusiasm and is not supposed to a pretty fat blow. They have been emotionally hard days for me since the launch, it was something I had been waiting for a long time. Not only is the emotional blow, since in a way they make you feel excluded from the project, but also the professional coup (...) I just wanted to enjoy as the others of being able to announce that I have worked in the game and that is something that I have been denied and that it saddens me. It s something I needed ».
However, and despite the fact that in the photo that has been published [in private groups] of the Metroid team missing at least 50 people, these ancient workers point to that in general there is a certain fear of public speaking of the conditions within the conditions within the conditions within Mercurysteam: I think they play a little with the fact that many people do not dare to speak in public. I know two more people who are not accredited correctly but I understand that it is afraid to complain because it seems that they are going to sink the race. A partner, points directly to the Directive as a cause of this fear: The main leaders know many people and they can destroy the race if they have a problem with you. They do not mind talking about you and fucking the race and that s why people do not speak, he says.
But beyond the directive, it is relatively easy to find testimonies that praise the enormous talent in the middle and low posts and internal fellowship within the teams: I deal with colleagues and day-to-day among the welded satin was amazing. I had a great time, I have never laughed more in another study. And although it is true that there is a certain competitiveness, it is normal in creative work because we want to be the best ». They also have praise around Metroid Dread: I feel sorry not to be in the credits because it is a pride. This game is already the history of development in our country ».
Comments
Post a Comment