When pandemic restrictions interrupted Striking Distance Studios’ move into its new San Ramon headquarters in March 2020, founder Glen Schofield said the team had already practiced working from home—but still had to solve practical problems around equipment, networks and production work that depended on shared facilities. His April 2, 2020 interview with GamesBeat’s Dean Takahashi offers a time-specific account of how the new studio adapted, what it could keep doing remotely and what remained confidential.
What happened when the new studio moved out of its headquarters?
Striking Distance Studios began moving into its San Ramon, California, headquarters around March 1, 2020. Roughly two weeks later, as pandemic restrictions took hold, the team left the office. Schofield described a facility that included a motion-capture studio and a company still in the process of growing. These details come from his account in the GamesBeat interview published April 2, 2020; they describe the studio’s first weeks of remote operation, not its later or present-day arrangements.
How did Striking Distance prepare for remote work?
Schofield said the studio had asked employees to practice working from home for a couple of days before the shutdown. Once the team went remote, staff reported missing equipment and workflow problems. Network staff addressed issues, the studio obtained cameras, and PCs employees took home were secured and encrypted. Schofield said the team held a 15-minute Zoom meeting every day to discuss blockers.
That is the founder’s description of one studio’s rapid transition, not a tested formula for every game team. The interview does not give further technical details about its security setup or network fixes.
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Which game-development work could continue remotely?
Schofield distinguished work that team members could advance individually from production tasks that relied on people or facilities being together. Story, design, concept art and technology work were in development, and he said the team could keep working on many parts of the project remotely. But remote work could not simply replace every shared production activity.
Motion capture and actor work
Schofield said earlier motion-capture sessions had produced material that could keep animators busy for several months. New capture involving actors, however, could not take place under isolation conditions. The studio’s new motion-capture facility therefore could not be used as planned while the team was away.
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Audio and composer work
Schofield also anticipated delays to audio work and work with the composer. He presented those as areas where collaboration was harder to carry out under the restrictions—not as a quantified schedule estimate.
Hiring and interviews
Hiring was more difficult, Schofield said, though the studio continued interviewing candidates remotely. He described a plan to add 40 or 50 people; that was a hiring target in the 2020 interview, not a verified account of how many people were ultimately hired.
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What was Striking Distance building, and what did Schofield reveal?
Schofield said the studio was developing an original, narrative-driven triple-A game rather than a licensed franchise. The work included story, design, concept art and underlying technology. He called it a “triple-A experience” and also said the team was “actually calling it quad-A”—his description of its ambition, not a separate industry classification.
He did not reveal the game’s name. The Callisto Protocol can be discussed as a later game from Striking Distance Studios, but it was not identified as the project in this interview. KRAFTON’s game introduction describes it as a narrative-driven third-person survival-horror game and lists PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. That later product information does not change what Schofield disclosed in April 2020.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How large was the studio, and who funded it?
Schofield said the studio had more than 70 people and was approaching 80 at the time of the interview. He characterized the then-current team’s average development experience as 14 years. Both figures are his point-in-time estimates from 2020, not independently measured industry statistics or current staffing information.
He described PUBG Corp. as funding the studio and said he valued having latitude to choose the place, team and game. He also explained that he selected the East Bay because he knew developers there who commuted to Silicon Valley, and because he viewed San Ramon as a comparatively lower-cost location with community and transport amenities. These are Schofield’s explanations; the interview does not establish contract terms, budgets or an independent comparison of commercial property costs.
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Plans for staffing and outside support
Schofield estimated a studio of roughly 150 employees and said the game’s production could involve around 300 people before testing, with testing potentially raising that number. He said the studio was using outside help, particularly for technology, while keeping many artists in-house. These were plans and estimates in the interview, not confirmed final staffing totals.
Why this interview is useful as a studio-building case study
The interview captures a new studio’s early response to a specific disruption: the office move had begun, the team had practiced remote work briefly, and production already included tasks that could be advanced at home alongside work dependent on in-person capture and collaboration. Schofield’s account shows the difference between moving individual work online and replacing a shared production facility. It also preserves what was still unknown at the time: the game’s title was not disclosed, and the staffing figures were forecasts rather than outcomes.
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