New BBC Newsbeat report shed light on the development Eye of the Mindthe debut game from Build A Rocket Boy, the studio founded by former Grand Theft Auto lead developer Leslie Benzies. According to a number of former employees, Benzies and other senior employees doomed the game's development through a combination of “knee-jerk” decisions and a refusal to listen to employee concerns.
This narrative differs from Benzies' own explanation for the game's commercial failure (it peaked at 3,000 players during its launch week, a small figure for a game from such a large company). In a virtual town hall reported by the BBC, Benzies told staff in a public address that “internal and external forces” and a number of “saboteurs” were conspiring to undermine Build A Rocket Boy from within.
“It disgusts me that someone could sit among us and behave like that and still work here,” he reportedly told workers. But former employees told the BBC that Benzies was his own internal saboteur. The CEO apparently ordered radical changes to the development of both Eye of the Mind and user generated content (UGC) platform Everywhere. One of these important changes was the decision to launch Eye of the Mind as a standalone game rather than an in-app “experience” as the studio teased in its public presentation at Gamescom 2022.
Former employees such as associate producer Margarita “Marg” Peloso and lead data analyst Ben Newbon said Benzies micromanaged development through so-called “Leslie tickets.” Benzies will reportedly require changes after lengthy play tests Eye of the Mind. These can range from minor cosmetic issues to major ones, such as entire missions being removed from the game. Newbon and other staff told the BBC that the process can be seen on promotional video released four days before the game's debut.
Newbon and Peloso also said they were laughed at or simply ignored when they raised serious issues with other members of management. All of this allegedly happened over the course of a roughly four-month sprint, with developers reporting physical and mental ailments due to stress, as well as “regressions” where one team successfully fixed a bug and another accidentally fixed it.
For more information from former Build A Rocket Boy employees, be sure to read their full reports on BBC Newswire.
The game developer has contacted Build A Rocket Boy and will update this story when the company responds.
