I ALSO dont rlly like sss but u asking ppl not to play it is so funny T.T just bc its rlly not that fun? like i wouldnt exactly recommend it, but ur point of the devs not having much time to finish things is pure speculation. they have to develop things weeks/months in advance. theyre just shitty devs.
It's not just speculation. I have not personally worked for Gamefam, but me saying that the devs are getting crunched was based largely on the fact that Sonic Speed Simulator makes a point of advertising their weekly updates
Obviously, they don't make an entire update worth of content in a single week, but they still have to move things along pretty quickly in order to have something ready to release every week.
Also important to note is that ex-Gamefam employees have made many allegations against the company, stating that there was a terrible crunch to push out content, that they were underpaid, that Gamefam threatened to take action against employees who discussed their wages — which is illegal by the way —and that they were terminated with little to no warning, including many who were allegedly laid off before the holidays. Details are below the cut.
An article from The Gamer included statements made by former employees. One employee claimed to have received an email informing them they had been fired three days after the date the email said they were fired on
"According to a screenshot of the apparent termination email, they were told on October 31 that they were fired on October 28"
Another specifically mentioned the crunch
"'While I was employed under Gamefam it was a constant struggle due to heavy crunching in the development team,' they continue. 'We were mandated to update Sonic Speed Simulator every week. this was a heavy toll on my mental and physical self [sic].'"
Additionally
"Multiplesources [sic] put the lowest average Roblox salaries between $32,000 and $35,000"
Gamefam denied the allegations, which then led to more former employees speaking out about the poor work environment.
One employee, Joshua DeBoer, reported facing trouble after discussing wages with other employees. From a Games Industry article
"DeBoer claims that as he presented the salary concerns to CEO Joe Ferencz, the executive said, 'Do you think it's good to go among your colleagues and spread dissatisfaction? You need to be seen as a leader if you want to stay here long.'"
Bloxy News further elaborated
"DeBoer was then suspended for a week [...] According to a Tweet put out by DeBoer, Gamefam forced him to reveal by name who he was discussing wages with, and also threatened to fire him if he continued to do so. Gamefam also failed to pay DeBoer’s final paycheck with the company on time, and refused to let him exercise stock options after repeated attempts."
DeBoer took this to the National Labor Relations Board, resulting in Gamefam settling by giving him a $5,000 bonus, and sending a notice to all employees, shared by Polygon
“WE WILL NOT tell you that it is toxic or poisonous to the company if you talk to coworkers about pay,”
Maybe it's just me, but that feels like a very passive aggressive way to phrase that.
It's possible that the devs aren't very good, but even if that's the case, there's a lot indicating a toxic work environment built around crunch culture. It's true that my previous post about SSS included some of my speculations about why exactly the game has the issues it has, such as positing that many elements of the game are poorly set up in order to encourage microtransactions, but the idea of the devs being rushed is not purely based on my own assumptions.
I will admit to being a biased party, due to disliking the game but playing multiple hours a week to get reference pictures of the week's content before it's gone, but I have tried to keep this post mostly limited to known facts, or statements by people who have actually worked on Speed Sim.
People are welcome to play the game if they so desire. The main reason I add disclaimers is because, while it's ultimately their decision what games they play, I don't want to be the one encouraging people to play it.
Hopefully this helped clear things up. You can look at any of the linked articles for more information. You can also direct more questions to me, but as far as the allegations go, my knowledge is limited to what I found reading through those articles. This is definitely a longer response than you were looking for, but I wanted to give a proper explanation
LEGO Sonic chega ao Roblox em evento especial no Sonic Speed Simulator
A partir do dia 9 de agosto, jogadores do Sonic Speed Simulator, na plataforma Roblox, poderão participar de um evento temático inspirado no universo LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog. A iniciativa é fruto de uma parceria entre a SEGA, a LEGO Group e a desenvolvedora Gamefam.
Durante quatro semanas, o evento trará novos desafios, minijogos e recompensas desbloqueáveis, incluindo versões LEGO dos…
Famous American video game publisher, Gamefam is bringing SpongeBob and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle characters in the Roblox game by the end of this year.
