Former MindsEye devs protest expenses-paid fan playtest outside Build a Rocket Boy offices

The IWGB union held a protest outside Build a Rocket Boy's offices in Scotland on Saturday, July 11th, with former staff accusing the studio of flying in fans for an expenses-paid playtest event shortly after mass layoffs.

IWGB chair Spring McParlin-Jones called the event "a kick in the teeth for the fired workers who are seeing fans brought in to do jobs that would otherwise have been theirs." The union's core accusation is that BARB covered travel expenses for playtest attendees — an online game, as ex-employee Isaac Hudd pointed out, that could have been tested remotely from anywhere. Hudd also accused co-CEOs Mark Gerhard and Leslie Benzies of allowing the studio's French branch to go bankrupt and then cutting another large portion of the workforce, while simultaneously hiring a fan from their Discord as a community manager.

Build a Rocket Boy has had a rough stretch since MindsEye launched to a poor reception. The studio confirmed multiple rounds of layoffs, with CEO-level statements that drew controversy — including claims of "overwhelming evidence of organised espionage and corporate sabotage." The IWGB protest, highlighted by People Make Games journalist Chris Bratt, is the latest flashpoint in what has become an increasingly public and bitter dispute between the studio's leadership and its former workforce.

With the union now staging public demonstrations and ex-staff speaking out directly against Gerhard and Benzies, the pressure on BARB's leadership is mounting. No official response from the studio to the protest has been reported.