[Part 1] Glen A. Schofield Interview - History/EA

[AgtFox]

Glen A. Schofield, VP and General Manager, Sledgehammer Games

All I can say about this interview is how timely it ended up being. Mr. Glen A. Schofield, Vice-President and General Manager at Sledgehammer Games, a subsidiary of Activision, was kind enough to answer a series of questions for us.

We struck up a conversation and Glen offered to answer some questions about his time with EA, creating Dead Space, leaving EA and starting up Sledgehammer Games under Activision. I sent the questions below last Thursday. Unbeknownst to pretty much all of us, on Monday night news started floating that security had descended upon Infinity Ward and that just yesterday Activision would announce that they let Jason West and Vince Zampella go. Along with this announcement came word that Sledgehammer would be working on an Action/Adventure game in the Call of Duty universe. To this point, all that was known about the game was it was an “established Activision IP”. Well, now we know.

You’ll see in the lower questions I ask about the “established Activision IP” (remember, questions went out Thursday) and Glen answered it with the newly announced property. He also goes into what kind of game we can expect and how excited he is to have built Sledgehammer Games from scratch. Enjoy the interview, I’ve certainly enjoyed the rollercoaster these past couple days. You will also see pictures of their “built from the ground up” studio interspersed in the two parts of the interview.

This part of the interview talks more about Glen’s history in gaming and his time with EA, including creating Dead Space.


Loren: Tell us a bit about your history in the gaming industry. You worked at Eidos for a time on the Legacy of Kain games along with other companies, then you moved onto Electronic Arts where you had a hand in some games.

Glen: My first degree is a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I started 20 years ago as a lead artist on early games at Absolute Entertainment like The Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy and the Swamp Thing. Later I moved to Capcom, then Eidos and developed games like Gex, Blood Omen, and Soul Reaver. I also worked on Lord of the Rings, James Bond, and of course, I was the creator of Dead Space.

Crazy story, while at Absolute Entertainment I was lead artist/art director with Penn and Teller on their game for the Sega CD. It never was published but now the "Desert Bus" level, which myself and another artist created and did the art for has become a cult classic and charity event (http://desertbus.com).

Loren: You’re also an artist as well (check out ArtbySchofield.com). Do you find it hard to balance your artistic endeavors with the gaming part?

Glen: I paint all the time at home when I'm not being a husband, dad, Executive Producer, or playing games or researching for the current game. I've been drawing and painting my entire life so it's what I do to relax. It can be therapeutic even if I can only grab 10 minutes of spare time. I am updating my personal site, by the way, so hold your commentary on my site design

“Yosemite River”, Acrylicon Canvas, 30” x 40” by Glen A. Schofield

“Half Moon Bay”, Acrylicon Canvas, 30” x 40” by Glen A. Schofield

Loren: Tell us a bit about how you dreamt up probably your most notable work, Dead Space?

Glen: I am a huge fan of science-fiction and horror fan. My early illustrations were all sci-fi and I was deeply influenced by films like Geiger and Alien. I also love Event Horizon and wanted to make something that had the feel of those two movies. I love games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and play almost every sci-fi game that comes out. It was just natural for me to put my passion for sci-fi and horror together in a game. I had wanted to make the game for years.

Loren: I read a post-mortem in Game Informer when you were moved to the General Manager position, but before the Visceral re-brand. Obviously it’s well known through this interview that Dead Space was on the precipice of cancellation by Electronic Arts many times. You kept fighting for the game and obviously when it came out was both a critical and sales success. Why don’t you talk a bit about those trying times and the overall development of Dead Space?

Glen: There were countless sleepless nights, weeks and months that we felt it would be canceled at any time. It was a new genre for EA, as well as a clearly M rated concept with more violence than they were used too. I think they were unsure of the market position as well. In a way that paranoia kept us completely focused on making a great game. We knew the idea was strong, and if we could demonstrate the quality we knew we could reach then eventually EA would see the value in it.

Loren: Just as a note, what was roughly the last time Dead Space was near cancellation? The game came out in October 2008, was it in danger at any point through the middle of that year?

Glen: The team pushed really hard throughout 2007 and by the end of that year we had a couple game levels that were pretty fun and polished. When John Riccitiello became CEO we also finally had a very strong internal supporter as he was a huge fan of horror games. We weren't worried about being cancelled in 2008. Then the worry became how much marketing support it would get.

Loren: After the success of Dead Space you were promoted to General Manager and rebranded the EA Redwood Shores studio as Visceral Games in May 2009. Any story behind that name and how/who came up with it? In-between this time you worked on Dead Space: Extraction as well as greenlighting the recently released Dante’s Inferno, the still unseen Jack the Ripper game and Dead Space 2. Can you tell us a bit about each?

Glen: Visceral to me was more than a name. It described a mission statement and a vision for the direction I wanted to take the studio. We decided to focus on M titles with a particular style and a real "visceral" feel. I worked closely on Dead Space: Extraction and am happy with the way it came out.

Dead Space 2 and Ripper were early in their development when I left. Each had an Executive Producer with a particular style and interest. Conceptually they all fit well within the Visceral brand, but I imagine both have changed a lot since I left.

Inferno was well underway when I became GM. The Executive Producer had a clear idea of the game he wanted to make, and I think Inferno delivered to his vision. In hindsight, given its Metacritic score, he should have been more open to applying the lessons we learned from making Dead Space regarding innovation and production values.

Loren: A little over two months after the name change, we read a story about you and COO Michael Condrey leaving Visceral to join Activision in creating a new studio located in the Bay Area. The studio wasn’t named yet at this time and the only thing Activision hinted at was that you would be working on an “established existing IP”. Can you talk about the decision of leaving Visceral and EA?

Glen: It was the hardest decision of my career. I appreciated working at EA and was proud of the incremental changes we were making at Visceral, but Activision offered us the chance to start a studio where we could develop and foster the culture we believed in, while bringing together a team of developers who were some of the best in the industry. It's an opportunity neither of us could pass up.

Michael Condrey, the other half of the duo that left EA for Sledgehammer

Continued in Part 2 where we talk about Sledgehammer and the move to Activision.