Maybe it’s just because word travels faster and easier these days, but the number of talented and high-profile developers leaving big companies to start something on their own seems to have skyrocketed over the past few years. That’s No Moon, Lighthouse Games, Wildlight Entertainment, and many other studios are examples of the people behind some of the biggest games in the world wanting to try new things. That’s why I had to ask Bret Robbins, creative director of Dead Space and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, when I visited Ascendant Studios last week to check out the studio’s first game, Immortals of Aveum. His answer was not surprising:
“I think there’s definitely a personal motivation for me to start something myself. Because, if I don’t do it now, I never will. I’m not getting any younger. When I started Ascendant, I was already in the industry Worked for 22 years. For me, it felt like I wanted to take the next step in my career. Running my own studio and making the games I created. After working on other people’s franchises After a long time. In terms of the state of the industry, I think it’s becoming less and less rare for big companies to take risks because of the costs involved. How much does it cost to make a AAA game. So you’re going to see a lot of sequels, reboots, and some Stuff using IP that’s already built and people already love. I have nothing against those games or the people who make them, I play those games. But the risk of creating something new, that’s the lifeblood of what we do. We need New ideas. We need new original IP, so if the only way I’m going to do that is start my own company, that’s what I have to do.
He also mentioned the studio’s focus on developer wellness, being able to work remotely and avoiding long hours of overtime:
“I think projects can get into trouble when they have a lot of conflicts or changing visions. So, from day one, I had a very strong vision of what I wanted, and if you read the design docs, You’ll see the games we make. We don’t do a lot of left and right turns, which really hurts the project in terms of time, resources and all. I think in that sense, I’m lucky that the vision is right , it’s a strong enough vision and it’s been through the whole process. It’s telling. Second, because we started small, we’re very agile. We’re able to make decisions very quickly and not get hung up on things. We can quickly Failure. We can move much faster than larger organizations, so we can quickly find the joy of the game and understand what the core of the game is.
“I think in terms of work/life balance, I’ve made it a priority from the beginning because I’ve been in the industry for a long time. I’ve done projects where I’ve worked really, really hard and I’ve been working hours. Long, I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to ask people to do something that I personally don’t want to do. We definitely had times when we had to work overtime. Of course it happens sometimes, but we limit it as much as possible. Now we Finished the game at home, we worked really hard, but I think it’s a far cry from the crunch horror stories we’ve all heard. I don’t think it actually makes the game any better. You get more tired , make worse decisions. You’re less productive. You’re not as creative. All the stuff we don’t want people to feel. That’s what austerity does to you, and it says nothing about the game in my opinion …you’re going to make a worse game if you make people work overtime.
