“Just when I thought I was out,” Al Pacino hissed in The Godfather Part 3, “they pull me back in!” I’m starting to feel that way about MindsEye, the infamously bad action game from Build a Rocket Boy: I played it, I had an accidental good time, the expansion was abysmally bad, and it was over. But now, for suitably bizarre reasons, it’s back in my life.
We’re talking about MindsEye today because, as reported by Eurogamer, Build a Rocket Boy is bringing in an unknown number of community members for an on-site playtest at its studio in Edinburgh. And by “bringing in,” I mean the studio is paying for their flights to Scotland, two nights’ accommodations, and flights back home. I would guess that at least one meal is also being covered, given that attendees will take part in a meet-and-greet with Build a Rocket Boy staff.
How bizarre, I thought to myself, particularly given the game’s minuscule player numbers. What could Build a Rocket Boy possibly have to show that justifies an in-person event, and more to the point, why would anyone care?
But one group cares very much: Build a Rocket Boy developers. The studio is holding this event, and more to the point paying for round-trip flights and hotel rooms, after repeated rounds of layoffs—the most recent in May—that left the studio gutted, and that just doesn’t sit right with at least some of the workers at the studio. So they’re going to protest the playtest at Build a Rocket Boy headquarters this Saturday, July 11, while the playtest is happening.
To be clear, this all seems legitimate and true. Build a Rocket Boy did indeed announce an in-person playtest for “a small group of community members” on its Discord back in June, promising to pay for “flights to Edinburgh, flights back home after the event, and hotel accommodations.”
And there is indeed a protest planned, according to a Town Spot post: “Build A Rocket Boy execs are spending thousands on an unnecessary playtest event after laying off over 400 staff over the last year—come join affected workers and supporters outside their offices to show we’re organised and ready to fight for jobs.”
It’s serious enough that the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain—the group that’s currently embroiled in legal action against Rockstar over the 2025 firing of 31 employees—is getting involved.
“With their latest release labelled the worst game of 2025, and surrounded by allegations from their workers of secret surveillance, mishandled redundancies and union blacklisting, BARB management are now desperately turning towards fans to save them,” the union wrote on Instagram. “As well as trying to buy fan favour with prize holidays, they are handing over work, both paid and unpaid, from the BARB workforce to the BARB fanbase, during a game sector job crisis.
“The playtest, which will see fans take on testing duties usually carried out by professional staff, follows another recent decision to cut longstanding staff members on the community team and hire a player, with no sign of a formal interview process or role advertisement.”
The union, which is also in the midst of legal action against Build a Rocket Boy over allegations that the studio was “recording individuals in their homes and without their consent” via surveillance software installed on employee PCs without their knowledge, confirmed that it will be taking part in the July 11 protest.
What happens next, I can’t even guess. MindsEye itself is enough fun that it’s not a bad pickup for, say, a tenner or less, as long as you enjoy “fun” in the MST3K sense—but for some reason, it’s still holding at a $35 regular price. The long awaited Blacklisted expansion that promised to reveal evidence of sabotage against the game, meanwhile, was just straight-up garbola, lacking even the high school drama club earnestness and occasional bits of absolutely bonkers bullshit that made MindsEye itself entertaining. As someone who’s played more MindsEye than most, this dogged, determined effort to salvage MindsEye is beyond baffling, akin giving CPR to Lenin: People might talk about it, but probably not for the reasons Bulid a Rocket Boy wants.
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