Bendy is in trouble.
Following a tumultuous few months, Mike Mood and TheMeatly have had to lay off the majority
of their studio’s workforce.
The Kindly Beast, a team that grew out of the accidental success of Bendy and the Ink
Machine, has been decimated by layoffs that have seen over 50 people lose their jobs,
just in time for Canadian Thanksgiving.
We like Mike and TheMeatly; they’ve been kind to our channel personally, sharing our
videos and helping us to grow.
We don’t want to vilify the pair for a mismanaged situation: in our opinion, Kindly Beast simply
flew too close to the sun.
Nevertheless, some anonymous reviews of the company from former employees paint a cautionary
tale about the importance of careful structure and planning for big games.
As such, let’s take a look at work on Bendy and the Dark Revival, how things went wrong,
and what other indie developers can to do avoid making similar mistakes.
Right from the start, it’s been clear that Mike Mood and TheMeatly haven’t ever been
very good at project management.
The first chapter of Bendy and the Ink Machine was thrown together over a weekend, and the
second chapter was made in two weeks, while TheMeatly was sick.
The pair of developers focused on getting their work done at all costs, and this likely
set a negative precedent for future work.
“I swore I’d never work like this again!”
Mike commented while endlessly bug testing Chapter 4 ahead of its release.
It seems that he is chronically incapable of relaxing.
As Bendy’s popularity grew, Mike and TheMeatly found themselves scrambling to put together
an entire media empire when their primary talents lie instead in game development: a
very different skillset.
Once Bendy and the Ink Machine was completed last year, they put their small studio to
work on several follow-up projects including Showdown Bandit and Bendy and the Dark Revival.
The previously named TheMeatly Games became Kindly Beast in anticipation of a big period
of growth.
In February, in an effort to grow their business to take advantage of Bendy’s widespread
appeal, Kindly Beast bought our Karman Interactive.
This was a moment of pride for Mike, who had previously worked for the company, and had
hired them to make the mobile game, Bendy in Nightmare Run.
Over a short period of time, Kindly Beast hired forty new people, all of whom were set
to work on various projects.
Out of four anonymous reviews of the company, three mention the studio’s free coffee machine
as a perk of the job.
All of the reviews mention that their colleagues were wonderful.
That’s about all the positive things they have to say, which, a day after being fired,
isn’t all that surprising.
Showdown Bandit was the work of over twenty developers, but two weeks away from the launch
of its first episode, it was still a long way from being perfect.
Seemingly falling back into familiar habits, TheMeatly and Mike took over the project entirely,
opting to finish the episode themselves rather than rely on their full team.
The game eventually released three weeks late, but not before Mike and TheMeatly laid off
all of the previous heads of Karman Interactive, leaving Kindly Beast without an upper management
body.
The stress of this alone led several remaining employees to go on medical leave, unable to
cope with the pressure that they were facing.
Delegation seems to be difficult for the pair.
One review claims that “The Board was the only point of contact for any and all creative
and business decisions, with 50+ employees awaiting instruction and feedback at all times”.
Apparently, creative work was often dismissed entirely by Mike, who would insist that teams
started all over again with a new direction.
Eventually, as the working environment became increasingly stressful, developers were encouraged
to stop aiming for perfection.
The company’s new mandate was “get it done, good enough”.
Kindly Beats was no longer a studio that aimed to innovate or excel.
If a game was relatively stable, it could be shipped, flaws and all.
It didn’t help that the company’s production workflow was disorganised at best.
Mike and theMeatly were developers, game makers – not managers.
They were a long way outside their comfort zone trying to manage such large teams, and
their typical strategy of making things up on the fly simply wouldn’t work when juggling
so many different projects.
Employees got used to long periods of downtime as they awaited instructions from on high.
They couldn’t get any work done without the bosses’ permission, and game development
began to stall.
It didn’t help that Mike, according to one employee review, often wouldn’t come into
the office.
Whether he was working from home or simply taking time for himself, it didn’t matter:
some kind of leadership was needed at the office.
The working environment quickly became more stressful, but employees were assured that
their jobs were safe.
The removal of the former Karman Interactive bosses didn’t mean that their jobs were
in danger as well.
Then, employees discovered that their personal accounts on the company’s system had been
locked.
A subsequent publicly posted note explained that staff were to lose their jobs – but
reminded them to abide by their “contractual obligations”.
After only around eight months since Kindly Beast had ballooned in size, it shrank again.
Over fifty people were left without jobs, amounting to approximately 80% of the company’s
workforce.
So what can we learn from all of this?
It seems that Kindly Beast likely grew a lot faster than its founders could manage.
Wanting to be involved in every single decision that went into their games, TheMeatly and
Mike simply didn’t have the right skillset to handle such a large workforce of employees.
Management skills have their place in a game studio of any size, but the larger the team,
the more important it is to have clear, well-structured organisation.
We don’t think that Mike or TheMeatly set out with the express goal of harming their
employees’ mental health in exchange for a quick buck.
What’s far more likely is that they tried their best, but got in over their heads.
Perhaps this wouldn’t have happened if the pair had ever learned to take their time,
without rushing from crunch period to crunch period.
The finished Bendy and the Ink Machine released last October at around the same time as Red
Dead Redemption 2.
We almost made a video at the time about how both games featured dangerous development
crunch, but that Bendy’s was more justifiable because it came from a position of genuine
passion.
It seems we were wrong.
Game development that is built around working long hours without proper breaks or careful
structure will always end in ruin eventually.
The loss of Telltale Games earlier this year similarly shows just how important it is for
games studios to build slowly and carefully, and be content with living within their means.
We as gamers need to be aware of this.
When a game like Untitled Goose Game releases and is shorter than people might hope, we
should appreciate that it was made by four people who made the wise decision not to overextend
themselves.
Ultimately, a small gaming project that achieves its goals is far better than a theoretically
impressive game that falls apart mid-development.
We hope Mike and theMeatly all the best in trying to put Kindly Beast back together,
and we look forward to seeing what comes next, not just from them, but also from all of their
former employees as they move on to new pastures.
Whatever you’re trying to achieve in life, make sure you are pursuing your goals in a
healthy manner.
If your dreams are really worth reaching for, they’re worth waiting for as well.
As the old proverb says, be not afraid of growing slowly; be only afraid of standing
still.