High Moon Studios Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process moved pretty quickly. I had my initial recruiter call less than a week after applying, and then a video call with the Creative Director and Lead Level Designer a few days later. Everyone I talked to was really nice and asked some good questions about my past work. It was a bit challenging since it was focused on design and my specific experiences, not just general design concepts.

After applying online, a recruiter from the studio contacted me for a quick phone chat about my background and skills. Following that, I had a phone interview with three senior folks at the company who are in roles related to the animator position. Things went well with the phone interview, so they then asked me to complete an animation test, which I had two weeks to do. They liked my test submission, and then I was invited for an in-person interview. I met with the recruiter and HR, got a tour of the studio, and had several interviews with different teams, including the animation leads, the rest of the animation team, technical artists, studio directors, and even the head of the studio. It felt a bit overwhelming at first, but it was actually good to meet pretty much everyone I'd be working with regularly, and across different levels. The studio visit lasted about 4 hours on a Friday. I got an offer the next week. The whole process from the first contact to getting the offer took about 4 weeks.

So I got this random LinkedIn and email from an HR person, which is pretty normal in this field. We scheduled a phone screen. It was about 15 minutes and seemed pretty standard. They asked about my artistic influences and style, my strengths and weaknesses, you know, the usual. The art team was apparently concerned I didn't have any 'realistic' portfolio pieces, which I get, my work is more stylized but I told them I could do realistic. She asked me to make a piece for them to show that and send it before the next Friday. Then she found out I hadn't played Destiny and seemed really surprised, saying I should have played it and made portfolio pieces like their game. I mean, they contacted me, not the other way around, and I don't have time to play every game. Anyway, I made a more realistic art asset for them and sent it in a few days. I also bought and played Destiny to show initiative and interest, and told them about it. I thought that would at least get me some positive feedback. The interview was mid-week, and I was told I'd definitely hear back by the following Friday. That day passed, so I emailed. No response. Another week passed, I emailed again, still nothing. Another week later, I finally got a generic rejection email saying they went with someone else, about a month after the first interview. I've been rejected a lot, so it's not a big deal, but I felt really disrespected. First, the HR person lectured me about my field, even though she reached out. Then I went out of my way to play their game and create a specific piece for them, and didn't even get an acknowledgment. After multiple unanswered emails, way past the deadline they gave me, I just got a generic rejection.

This was honestly one of the worst interviews I've ever been through. And I'm not even mad that I didn't get the job. The interview started with the lead engineer barely looking at my resume, like he hadn't read it before, and he didn't even let me introduce myself or talk about what I've done. He was clearly rushed and just kept things moving, which felt like he hadn't prepared and saw me as an inconvenience. As we went on, he got more and more annoyed when I didn't have the exact answers he was looking for. He'd constantly say "no, no no" when I was wrong, and then would go on a whole tangent explaining why, making me feel small. At one point, after I got a question wrong and he explained it, he said "well you know it now, I bet you won't forget it now that I explained it to you." That's when I knew the interview was basically over and I was just wasting his time. He was also frequently rolling his eyes and looking away during the coding part. When an interviewer acts like that, you feel like your time isn't valued and you start thinking "why am I even doing this, they clearly don't care about what I'm saying." So obviously, you're not going to put in your best effort if it means nothing to them. By the end, I was just shocked at how little respect I was shown for my time and effort. It was obvious they didn't value my time or understand my skills beforehand. I've never applied to High Moon before and I doubt I will again. If this is how they treat people who are enthusiastic about their games and want to do great work for the company, I can't imagine how they treat their employees day-to-day.