Drew McCoy and Jon Shiring, both recent Respawn expats, have set up a new game development studio with the goal of creating triple-A games with a small team that keeps creative freedom at its core.
That studio is Gravity Well, and is currently looking to hire a small batch of developers to get its initially remote studio off the ground. Shiring and McCoy note in the studio’s unveiling that COVID-19 is at the core of the decision to start things off remotely, but that doing so also has the benefit of opening its workforce up to more diverse applicants as it won’t be “hamstrung by relocation or work visa issues,” says Shiring. “We want to hire the best talent in the industry, regardless of where you live.”
The pitch for the studio sees things starting, and ultimately staying, relatively small for a triple-A developer. Shiring says the goal is to grow to a studio that is around 80 people at most because “once your team size crosses 100 people, everything changes. It’s nobody’s fault – big organizations just move slowly.”
In that same vein, McCoy notes that Gravity Well aims to put its teams first and foremost by building its studio culture with the goal of being anti-crunch, offering good compensation, and ensuring each member of the team has creative freedom. More on the new studio and the founding duo’s vision for it can be found on the Gravity Well website.