The upper level management micro-managed a lot at our satellite studio from the HQ in Israel. Sometimes we would get feedback not only from the game designer, but higher level management as well, and changes were expected merely based on whim or feelings at the time and were often changed back. While iteration can always be expected at a game studio, literally anyone on the management side could demand changes which created many headaches and hiccups in the development. Lest not forget feature creep as well. Many of the leads or producers I had worked indirectly or directly with did not provide clear or logical feedback. Some times it felt I was basically being told to 'make it better' which means nothing. Even more often it felt like some of the leads/directors or producers had no real idea what they were doing due to an actual lack of experience either in the game industry or their role.
Raises were not handed out without a push from our onsite management, including just a simple cost of living raise. Some people received meager raises while others were promised a bonus at the end of the year. However, they DID pay out the promised bonuses. All that said, the apparent lack of employee value became apparent after that ordeal. This is all most likely due to a very big difference between American and Israeli business culture.
The games developed at TabTale were aimed at younger children, specifically girls so needless to say, most of the games were not fun to work on. Like most mobile developers that sprung up in recent years, TabTale created clones or derivative game, most of which didn't perform too well as of late. Like any industry, if you don't change or adapt to the trends, the company will die. In the last year or so, TabTale saw a steady decline in revenue and users, mainly due to the aforementioned derivative/uninspiring game catalog. That said, TabTale closed down the US office in January 2016.
