Released at the beginning of December, The Callisto Protocol was one of the flagship releases of the end of 2022, a title expected as the spiritual son of the Dead Space saga and for good reason, it is Glen Schofield who is at the head of this project and studio Striking Distance since 2019. Nevertheless, we learn today that not everything is going as well as one might think internally.
Core developers and pillars of the project “forgotten” in the final credits
Indeed, about twenty members of Striking Distance would have been forgotten in the final credits of the game. The employees concerned have very different roles and work in various departments: developers, managers or directors who have been present for a long time, some even having known Glen Schofield at Sledgehammer Games. Our GamesIndustry.biz colleagues went to meet five of them to find out more and one of the developers expresses his bitterness:
“It hurts, that’s for sure. It sucks. I made a good contribution and worked on it for a while. Not being there at all sucks.”
Sources insist that the omitted employees are not team pet names. They are experienced members, pivots of the project who rightfully deserve this recognition, “really essential people who built the studio” to use the words of one source. The International Game Developers Association states that studios must credit each team member who has worked for the company for at least 30 days, whether contractors or employees who left before the game was released.
“I understand if an entrepreneur does a small amount of work for a few months and gets left behind, but we’re talking about full-time employees who have invested over a year in the title, and had their hands on parts important to the product. This is where the surprise for many of us came from”.
Another source evokes a certain favoritism, a particular hierarchy in the credits. Some were sorted into an “additional help” category, others into a “miscellaneous” category at the end of the 20-minute credits.
“There was definitely a certain amount of favoritism with the people who were credited. I feel like they picked people they liked or had some relationship with, and those were credited and the others weren’t. »
The culture of crunch also present at Striking Distance
As ambitious and experienced as it is, the Striking Distance studio is not exempt from any reproach concerning the working conditions of the employees and in particular the respect of working hours. Crunch has been a more and more freely discussed topic in the gaming industry for a while now and some developers at Striking Distance are talking about it.
“It’s a pretty intense culture of delivery and intense working hours, which is great. Video game development can be intense, especially when it comes to delivering a product of this magnitude, and you can’t always find the best work-life balance. The problem is that those of us who have taken part in this culture, who have put in the time and worked hard to develop this product, have been punished with credit default for not making a extra effort…to stay until the product is shipped. »
We can in particular rethink a questionable message published by Glen Schofield last year in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Schofield said of the work provided by his team 12 to 15 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, despite the context. The studio head had deleted his post, but that didn’t change the actual situation internally.
This constant pressure has not improved over time and the increase in the size of the team (almost double) during the pandemic has considerably changed the organization of the studio, forcing the administration to organize very regularly and integrating newcomers.
“The designers I know worked 10 hours a day in meetings alone. Then they had to crack just to basically do the job they had to do.”
Developers interviewed discuss inconsistencies in Striking Distance’s management, emphasizing both the importance of employee well-being and taking time on each task while adding permanent assignments and therefore encouraging overtime.
“There was always a lag between what they said on the surface and what they almost always said moments later to contradict it. »
“They don’t give you fewer tasks. It’s the same amount of stuff to work on, yet they want you to take all the time you need? The policy is no overtime, but you always do. »
“Every time someone left the studio, there was no acknowledgment of their departure. This is the only company in which I worked where we learned a week to a month later that someone from the team had left. »
A fairly high turnover from the fourth quarter of 2021
With this wobbly context, more and more employees walked out and the remaining developers point to the fact that management never communicated on departures and that no farewell emails were shared. A particular process that Striking Distance would have favored so as not to attract the attention of the media or even of other employees.
“You never saw those emails. There were no such emails. People just left. »Oh, what happened with so and so?« »He left.
“I think the guys at Sledgehammer like loyalty. And they can be punitive if they detect a lack of loyalty… The omission of the credits was felt as a clear disavowal by those who were left out. Someone wanted to send a message, and the message was, “Next time, be a little more loyal to us.”
Finally, the interviewed sources having been omitted from the final credits did not badly express their disappointment after being invested in this project. According to them, this choice is incomprehensible and the reasons excessive.
“I actually had a lot of fun working there, and I felt like I had a great relationship with everyone on the team, right down to C-staff and Glen. I have nothing bad to say about Glen… The only time there was some friction was at the exit, and I think the devs who left were punished by credit omissions. »
“I haven’t had a bad time at Striking Distance. I loved my job, I loved the company, I loved the people I worked with, and I loved the game. I don’t know if it was painless, but the transition was as smooth as it was. it is possible to be. I didn’t think there would be any drama about it.”
A hell of a story that teaches us more about the development of this long-awaited game and the atmosphere within Striking Distance. It remains to be seen if the studio will speak on this subject and if it will impact their next projects if they have any ideas in mind.
