I didn't want to make this post but unfortunately my hand has been forced. Sentona Games told me this week, after ignoring me for two months, that they will not be paying me the $24,000 deferred… | Stella Sacco | 26 comments

I didn't want to make this post but unfortunately my hand has been forced. Sentona Games told me this week, after ignoring me for two months, that they will not be paying me the $24,000 deferred payment they owe me for hours worked in 2025 per the terms of our contract. When they hired me, I fell for their effusive praise of my past work writing Lily's Garden and believed in their stated mission. I agreed to work full time for half my normal rate, as the company was extremely cash poor, on the stipulations that they pay promptly and that when their large-dollar funding from the Marc Impact program came in (in September, they said) they would pay me the other half of my rate for hours worked in 2025. I received zero complaints and only praise about my delivered work. Buy many (most?) of my monthly checks were weeks late, and the continued delay in receiving those checks and my deferred payment landed me in housing court, where I was at risk of eviction. The stress was immense; Sentona was my only client. I had to withhold a significant amount of completed work, and I did not perform any work for them in November or December because I was so stressed trying to find other work just to pay my rent. It became clear to me that I was never going to receive the money. I was informed in January that the Marc Impact money came in. After I sent them my invoice they did not reply to repeated reminders for two months. On Monday, I demanded payment within 24 hours, telling them I would be evicted per my housing court agreement if they didn't. They finally sent a long email that boiled down to: "you're too expensive, we just don't feel like we should have to pay you that money, so we're not." They are based in Croatia and I'm in the US; my legal options for recovery are limited and expensive. They know this, which is why they didn't pay me. After telling other game industry peers about this, I was unsurprised to discover the CEO, Nikolina Finska, had pulled this scam on vulnerable visa-holders in Finland in the recent past, leaving, as the affected individuals put it, "a trail of bodies." Sentona is currently interviewing to replace me as the writer/narrative designer for Merge Medicine. If they offer you the position, don't take it. Regardless of discipline, I would avoid working for Nikolina and Sentona Games altogether. I don't like airing this; it's not a strong-arm tactic, as I know I'm never getting my money. I just can't let others be hung out to dry when Sentona inevitably screws them over too. Beware. | 26 comments on LinkedIn