adminGlen Schofield’s career has spanned major franchises, studio leadership and the challenges of making large-scale games. After announcing his retirement from the games industry, the veteran developer spoke about The Callisto Protocol’s difficult production, rising AAA budgets, remote work and the ways he thinks creative decisions can reduce costs. Although he has stepped away from game development, he continues to make art and is still considering whether to return to games.
Image credit: Glen Schofield
Glen Schofield’s career and creative life after games
Schofield began working in games in 1992 on Barbie: Game Girl. Over the years, he held senior roles at Crystal Dynamics and EA’s Visceral studio, led Sledgehammer Games, and later headed Striking Distance Studios under Krafton. He also served as executive producer on Dead Space and co-directed Call of Duty: WWII with Michael Condrey.
Since announcing his retirement, Schofield has been spending time on painting and sculpture in a home studio. His recent projects include epoxy skulls, a stylised sports-car painting and a piece of driftwood he plans to turn into a whale. He has not ruled out working in games again, but is weighing that possibility against developing a new creative practice.
Practical context: Schofield’s comments reflect his personal career choices; they do not indicate that he has announced a new game or studio project.
The Callisto Protocol’s development during COVID
The Callisto Protocol, released in 2022, was Schofield’s most recent game. The science-fiction survival horror title shared some broad genre territory with Dead Space, though Schofield said it was not intended as a spiritual successor. The team had been developing it for around six months when the COVID pandemic began.
Schofield described the pandemic as a major disruption. The studio had to adapt to remote work, and illnesses periodically took team members out of production. He said these circumstances affected the original scope: some bosses, levels and enemies were cut. He also criticised aspects of the studio’s management, attributing some production problems to Korean management.
Image credit: Striking Distance Studios
Remote collaboration and studio culture
Schofield prefers working alongside a team in person. He said being in the studio made it easier to speak with people informally, follow progress and offer guidance. In his view, those everyday interactions can be especially valuable for younger developers building their skills and careers.
Remote work, by contrast, required more scheduled calls and group meetings. Schofield said he was willing to help on games but did not want a working day dominated by video calls. For studios choosing a work arrangement, his comments point to a practical consideration: remote systems need deliberate ways for staff to get timely feedback and learn from experienced colleagues.
Why The Callisto Protocol launched earlier than planned
Schofield said he had expected the game to launch in March 2023, with the additional time helping the team account for pandemic-related disruption. Instead, Krafton released it in December 2022. He said the decision surprised him, particularly given the health issues and production interruptions the team had faced.
He also said Striking Distance created publishing and marketing capabilities internally because Krafton did not have a team set up to release a single-player physical game. Developing versions for both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 added, in his estimate, another $20 million in costs. The studio also had to distribute development kits to 200 staff during a period of computer-chip shortages.
After launch, the game received mixed reviews and fell short of Krafton’s expectations, according to Schofield. He said the team continued to work on updates and downloadable content, ultimately releasing 86 patches. A pitch for a sequel was also developed, but Krafton was not interested following the first game’s performance.
The proposed follow-up would have expanded the scale of the story. Schofield described a vast space station built up over hundreds of years, with docked ships forming a sprawling junkyard where a new outbreak could begin. Some ideas and material not used in the original game would have been developed further for the sequel.
Image credit: Striking Distance Studios/Krafton
AAA budgets, creativity and the future of game development
Schofield believes that financial priorities have increasingly outweighed creative leadership at major publishers. He acknowledged that games must make money, but argued that experienced creative developers should have a stronger voice in decisions. He also reflected on the sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft for $69.7 billion and Electronic Arts being taken private by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund for $55 billion.
He said production costs have risen through an industry-wide push for better graphics, effects and sound. Schofield recalled that Dead Space cost $28 million to make and said he would be interested in creating a game with a budget of around $70 million. In his view, a smaller budget could support a tighter team and reduce the complexity of widespread outsourcing. He also noted that he would be happy to make a game for less than $150 million.
Schofield’s proposed approach to saving money is to make reused assets meaningful to the story instead of treating reuse as a compromise. He estimated that a creative plan for reusing material from earlier games could have saved about $25 million on one project, bringing its cost to roughly $60 million. The broader lesson is that production scope and design choices can influence a budget before technology is introduced.
Glen Schofield’s perspective on AI
Schofield uses AI image-generation tools alongside painting, drawing, Photoshop and photobashing. Rather than thinking of AI simply as a tool, he views it as one of several creative methods that can shape a project. He compared this shift in perspective to the transition from making 2D games to working with 3D.
He does not suggest applying AI to every part of a game. Instead, he described selecting specific uses that suit a project’s mechanics and story, much as a game team might develop separate systems for racing, physics or water. He mentioned possible applications such as improving cameras or handling collision-related work.
For studios considering AI, Schofield’s point is to identify a clear creative or production purpose first. In his view, a strong idea for simplifying or reusing content may save more money than adopting AI without a focused plan.
Conclusion: Glen Schofield on making games with purpose
Glen Schofield’s reflections connect the production challenges of The Callisto Protocol with broader concerns about remote collaboration, publisher priorities and the cost of AAA development. He remains open to returning to games, while continuing to explore art outside the industry. His central argument is that thoughtful creative direction—whether in budgeting, asset reuse or selective AI use—can help teams make ambitious games more efficiently.
