New Report Details How Leslie Benzies and MindsEye’s Leadership Failed Their Staff

Build a Rocket Boy’s much-anticipated project MindsEye was once positioned as the next big evolution in cinematic gaming, yet by late 2025, it has become one of the industry’s most disappointing releases, as reflected in its declining Metacritic ranking. Following an open letter signed by 93 Build a Rocket Boy (BARB) employees accusing the company’s leadership of severe mismanagement, a new BBC investigation reveals deeper insight into how studio founder Leslie Benzies and senior management allegedly failed both their staff and the game’s development.

The BBC interviewed several former BARB employees who painted a picture of confusion, inconsistency, and disregard for employee input during MindsEye’s creation. One developer, identified as “Jamie,” described the core problem succinctly: “Leslie never decided on what game he wanted to make. There was no coherent direction.” This sentiment was echoed by former developers Ben Newbon and Margherita Peloso, who both detailed how management routinely dismissed concerns raised by the development team.

“A lot of the points that we were hammering home on were just ignored and never actioned,” Newbon said, while Peloso noted that management would sometimes “laugh at” concerns raised by staff.

Ironically, the issues that did catch Benzies’ attention were those he personally identified during playtesting sessions, many of which were showcased in BARB’s public promotional videos. While it is not unusual for a game director to participate in playtesting, developers said that when Benzies reported a problem, his feedback would instantly take priority over all other development tasks. These urgent issues were internally nicknamed “Leslie tickets,” “Leslie bugs,” or simply “Leslies.”

“It didn’t matter what else you were doing or what else was being worked on,” Newbon explained. “The Leslie ticket had to be taken care of.”

This approach extended beyond bug fixing. According to Jamie, during the development of BARB’s earlier project Everywhere, Benzies frequently demanded that new features be added before the existing systems were ready or properly implemented, creating a cycle of incomplete builds and mounting technical debt.

The result was a chaotic and exhausting workflow reminiscent of other notorious development crises in gaming. Historical parallels can be drawn to BioShock Infinite under Ken Levine and Dragon Age: The Veilguard at BioWare, both of which suffered from fluctuating visions and last-minute overhauls that led to excessive crunch and developer burnout.

Peloso recalled that “people just felt like they were being commanded to give a lot to the company without too much in return.” Another former developer, Isaac Hudd, described the demoralizing crunch leading up to launch: “You really do start to see morale go down, the little arguments starting to happen. People are burning the candle at both ends and starting to think: ‘What’s the point?’”

BARB’s leadership, including Benzies, has since stated that they “take full responsibility” for MindsEye’s outcome and are working to deliver “the game we’ve always envisioned.” However, many of the former developers interviewed by the BBC doubt that vision will ever be realized.

Adding to that uncertainty, BARB informed players in July that updates for MindsEye would become “less frequent.” Its last update was released on September 25, 2025, and there has been no word since regarding future patches or improvements.

The fall of MindsEye stands as a cautionary tale of how visionary ambition, without clear leadership or structure, can spiral into a development disaster, one that impacts not just the final game, but the people who worked tirelessly behind it.

What are your thoughts on the MindsEye situation? Can Build a Rocket Boy recover from this controversy? Share your perspective below.