Everything was on schedule for Striking Distance Studios. Its new San Ramon building at the Bishop Ranch Business Park was constructed on time. Delivery people hauled in computers. Crews assembled workstations. A fridge full of ice cream was even stocked.
The move-in process was full speed ahead with a ribbon-cutting ceremony set for March 23, but then the coronavirus pandemic arrived in the Bay Area.
“We have this brand new beautiful place, not even all the equipment moved in, the trusses were being set up in the mo-cap room,” said CEO Glen Schofield. All that was put on hold as government officials issued a shelter-in-place order and nonessential businesses were closed.
With coding done from home, Schofield and his studio have been adjusting to a new normal. When the lockdown measures were put in place, Schofield said the staff took advantage of the transition by letting team members take home anything they would need to keep producing — such extra monitors or PC equipment.
But there was one worry he had in the back of his mind — productivity.
He expected that everyone working at home, efficiency would run at 50 percent. But things turned out differently. His developers were still hitting their goals partly thanks to some prep work beforehand. The team was able to record enough motion capture, so that they’ll be OK for a couple of months, Schofield said. He added that his studio is also being helped along by colleagues in South Korea.
“It actually changed my impression,” he said. “I now see that everyone is working from home. Some people are online at 7 o’clock at night. They sit there and do more. It’s given me and my C staff and chief tech director something to think about. They feel the same way. It’s all working.”
As for Striking Distance Studios’ current project, Schofield said it’s a AAA title backed by the PUBG Corporation. That’s the South Korean company behind the hugely popular “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” a pioneer in the battle royale genre. It established many of the mechanics that became popular in “Fortnite.”
Schofield said the project is single-player narrative work that’s set in the universe of “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” or “PUBG” for short. The CEO has plenty of experience with these type of games. Before starting Striking Distance, he built Sledgehammer Games, an Activision studio that was responsible for work on the “Call of Duty” franchise. Before that, he helmed “Dead Space,” arguably his most beloved work.
With his new project, Schofield said Striking Distance has advantages being based in San Ramon. For one, it’s near where many developers live and Bishop Ranch has attractive amenities such as a nearby mall, transportation options and cafes. The other is that Striking Distance has a motion-capture studio built into their building. It’s one of only two in the Bay Area, he said. The other is at Industrial Light and Magic.
He calls it a competitive advantage because his team can tweak their game animations whenever they want. If they didn’t have a mo-cap studio, he would have to rent time in an ILM studio or in Los Angeles to capture the work they needed. The benefit will be important for Striking Distance’s upcoming game.
“It allows animations to be even smoother and better,” Schofield said. An example he gave was how people naturally lean into a turn when running. With the mo-cap studio, his team can capture that. “Our animations should be smooth as a movie.”
The only issue that the CEO has for now is hiring. He said Striking Distance is looking to fill 40 openings.
“We are hiring like crazy right now,” he said. The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the process “a little bit.” The new hires arrive at an unusual time. He said the new workers will start off working remotely, but the big issue is being acclimated to the rest of the team when the shelter-in-place order is lifted.
Even after the crisis, Schofield said he expects a rethinking of work. When everyone has moved into the San Ramon studio, he said he’ll be more conducive to letting employees working from home. The experience of building a video game during a pandemic shows that the process can work though some efforts like audio recording and motion capture at the building will need to be done on site.
