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[Donald mac Ronald]

The investors thought they were getting NASA. Instead they got Romanian space agency.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Look, it's totally fine to like what you like. But when you keep praising and defending a game that's widely considered broken or disappointing while dismissing every criticism, it starts to look a lot like buyer's remorse mixed with stubbornness. You got called out for it and not only by me.

You don't want to admit you made a bad call, so you cling to "I liked it" as a shield even if deep down you know the flaws are real

Dude I DON'T HAVE BUYERS REMORSE. Holy shit lol I would absolutely 10000% admit if I did. I've got no issues admitting to you guys if I regret a purchase

The last game I regret purchasing?

Spoiler

Doom: The Dark Ages. Should've waited for a sale.

I don't think I made a "bad call" at all (I don't even know what you mean by this). I don't remember "calling" anything. I'm not "clinging" to anything. The game is over. I finished it. I went in with zero expectations aside from hoping it wouldn't crash and break (which miraculously it didn't). It's flaws are definitely real and I've never said otherwise. I had plenty of issues. It just didn't take away from the enjoyment. For whatever reason I find janky, poor running games like MindsEye to still be entertaining. There's a certain charm to seeing your guy warp clip into a car instead of seeing the animation of opening the door and climbing in

 

[Audiophile]

This whole course of events was immediately apparent the second that first trailer dropped.

 

[Insane Metal]

That piece of shit... 100 people? What the fuck? How many in total?

 

[Gambit2483]

From what I saw from videos at DF, this is way too much predictable. Also you can clearly note the devs intentions with character models.
The game is a mess presenting itself as a quality one. If you can not make a game of superior quality, then don't try posing and selling it as one.

Huh? What was wrong with the character models?

 

[Ovek]

Mild shock.

This post deserves more love

 

[IbizaPocholo]

MindsEye Dev's UK Workforce of Around 300 Receive At-Risk Emails as Former GTA Lead Leslie Benzies Finally Addresses Staff - IGN

Build A Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based developer of MindsEye, has issued at-risk of redundancy emails to its around 300-strong UK workforce following the disastrous launch of the game. Meanwhile, development chief Leslie Benzies, former GTA lead at Rockstar, has finally addressed staff.

www.ign.com

Build A Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based developer of MindsEye, has issued at-risk emails to its around 300-strong UK workforce following the disastrous launch of the game.

Sources familiar with the goings on inside the embattled studio told IGN at-risk emails were also sent to staff at PlayFusion, which BARB acquired late 2024. PlayFusion, whose CEO Mark Gerhard became co-CEO of BARB as part of the buyout, is working on a different game — a fast-paced FPS called Ascendant which was meant to come out this year.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Today is a very difficult day for our studio. Please see the update from Mark, our CEO about changes we are making at Build A Rocket Boy. | Build A Rocket Boy | 41 comments

Today is a very difficult day for our studio. Please see the update from Mark, our CEO about changes we are making at Build A Rocket Boy. | 41 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Today is a very difficult day for our studio. Please see the update from Mark, our CEO about changes we are making at Build A Rocket Boy. | Build A Rocket Boy | 41 comments

Today is a very difficult day for our studio. Please see the update from Mark, our CEO about changes we are making at Build A Rocket Boy. | 41 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

I like how MindsEye is underlined as a spelling error.

And numerous paragraphs aren't spaced out properly or are clumped together when it's clear he wanted to do paragraph breaks.

 

[touchfuzzy]

Build A Rocket Boy is a horrendous name for a studio, for one.

And also big 'lol' at least partially trying to blame 'organised espionage and coporate sabotage' for why the game was a failure, instead of it just that they released a shitty game. That's a new one, I think.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Today is a very difficult day for our studio. Please see the update from Mark, our CEO about changes we are making at Build A Rocket Boy. | Build A Rocket Boy | 41 comments

Today is a very difficult day for our studio. Please see the update from Mark, our CEO about changes we are making at Build A Rocket Boy. | 41 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

If just one of these companies ever came out and was honest and just like "We made a shit game, our bad lol." I'd go buy the fucking thing.

 

[reinking]

The results are the same I guess but no accountability.

 

[Moondoggy]

MindsEye Dev's UK Workforce of Around 300 Receive At-Risk Emails as Former GTA Lead Leslie Benzies Finally Addresses Staff - IGN

Build A Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based developer of MindsEye, has issued at-risk of redundancy emails to its around 300-strong UK workforce following the disastrous launch of the game. Meanwhile, development chief Leslie Benzies, former GTA lead at Rockstar, has finally addressed staff.

www.ign.com

That game had 300 people working on it and it still turned out that way!?

 

[semiconscious]

Build A Rocket Boy is a horrendous name for a studio, for one.

And also big 'lol' at least partially trying to blame 'organised espionage and coporate sabotage' for why the game was a failure, instead of it just that they released a shitty game. That's a new one, I think.

yeah, i enjoy conspiracy theories as much as anyone, but that bit made me wonder just how strange these guys actually are...

 

[StreetsofBeige]

That game had 300 people working on it and it still turned out that way!?

Got money to burn. Given how crap the game was looks like they just hired any random dude. If youre going to go out with bang making a shit game, might as well use up every nickel. Give Les Benzies credit. He knows how to schmooze for investor money. Mindseye has been at bottom of the barrel Steam CCU since launch (currently at the 20-50 daily range), so to keep burning up money who cares. It's not their money.

$110M. Then more money raised totaling $151M.

https://redbirdcap.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Press-Release-BARB-17-Jan-FINAL.pdf

Build A Rocket Boy - 2026 Company Profile & Team - Tracxn

Build A Rocket Boy - Independent game development company. Raised a total funding of $151M over 3 rounds from 12 investors.

tracxn.com

 

[falconhoof]

Not gonna lie, I'm surprised this is a lay offs post and not a closure post.

How much money can they have left? There's no way that metaverse doodad thing is still happening and Mindseye is deader than dead.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Studio Behind 2025's Worst-Rated Game Hit By New Mass Layoffs

Roughly 170 members of Build a Rocket Boy's 250-person staff have been affected

kotaku.com

In the past week, an undetermined number of Build a Rocket Boy staff have been laid off from the MindsEye developer, marking the third time in the past year that the studio has made staff redundant. However, while the number of employees affected is currently unknown, sources familiar with the restructuring tell Kotaku that roughly 170 members at the studio have been affected by the layoffs, bringing the total number of staff at the studio down to somewhere around 80 employees.

While Build a Rocket Boy has yet to publicly announce the layoffs, several staff members have made posts on LinkedIn confirming that they're no longer with the studio, including James Tyler (Technical Level Designer), Tom Cross (Audio Designer), Gary Iain Gough (QA Analyst), and Leah Philpot (Level Designer). The studio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


Likewise, several members of Build a Rocket Boy's social media team confirmed in posts on the MindsEye Discord that their roles at the studio will be ending this week. "Just popping in to share that tomorrow (May 5th) will be my last working day with BARB," stated Digital Marketing Manager George Jons-Clothier. "It has been an absolute pleasure and a genuine honor to be part of this community. You folks are some of the kindest, most welcoming, talented, and passionate people I've ever had the privilege of knowing and have made every day working on MindsEye feel meaningful and fun."

Two separate sources confirmed to Kotaku that as many as 170 employees across the company have been affected. This follows two rounds of layoffs at the studio, alongside the closure of Build A Rocket Boy France in March of this year. Co-CEO Mark Gerhard blamed the most recent round of cuts at Build a Rocket Boy on "organized espionage and corporate sabotage" in a post on LinkedIn.

 

[Rien]

Who names a studio "Build a Rocket Boy" anyway? That should've been the first sign this was going to end terribly.

Isn't it an Elbow song/album?

 

[StueyDuck]

Surely the staff saw the writing on the wall when their own game was barely functioning before release

If any of them hadn't already been looking for new work before hand I dont know what to say.

 

[StueyDuck]

That game had 300 people working on it and it still turned out that way!?

Remember mindseye wasnt the actual game but a game within a game.

They're main project was Everywhere which was meant to be a roblox, S&box type of build your own games and make money in our sandbox engine type of thing.

And as someone who was a tester I can tell you it was just as broken and shit

But that project was the ambitious one. The idea was that mindseye was built using their everywhere platform

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Not gonna lie, I'm surprised this is a lay offs post and not a closure post.

How much money can they have left? There's no way that metaverse doodad thing is still happening and Mindseye is deader than dead.

They scammed investors with a Roblox-like gaming platform project. The audacity of these guys is only matched by the stupidity of those throwing money in it.

 

[Unknown?]

They scammed investors with a Roblox-like gaming platform project. The audacity of these guys is only matched by the stupidity of those throwing money in it.

Is GAF really apart of the hit team, paid to tank this game? Shame....


/s

 

[kpopSuperstar]

Remember mindseye wasnt the actual game but a game within a game.

They're main project was Everywhere which was meant to be a roblox, S&box type of build your own games and make money in our sandbox engine type of thing.

And as someone who was a tester I can tell you it was just as broken and shit

But that project was the ambitious one. The idea was that mindseye was built using their everywhere platform

They ran put of money and pivoted with Mindseye, trying to make a "GTA-like from one of the creators of GTA", Mindseye was a rushed desperation push that failed spectacularly.