How big is the new studio ? We have approximately 40,000 square feet of space, which we’ve designed to house around 250 members of staff. That sounds spacious – and it is – but we have a lot of additional facilities to house as well as the team, and our desks are fairly large to accommodate the multiple screens, dev kits and other bits and pieces necessary for AAA development.
What are the main advantages of moving into the new studio? The new space comes with a huge number of advantages for us, but I’d say space is the primary one – both the space to fit the team we need, all on a single floor, but also the space to build the facilities that are necessary for AAA development. It’s also afforded us the luxury to build a studio that is a great place
to be for our people, with spaces dedicated to the care and well-being of our team members, and a good amount of space dedicated to socialising and hanging out-together, which we see as integral parts of building our new culture. As an addition, we’re also really well located in Covent Garden,
with easy public transport access from all over the city, as well as from regional games hubs like Guildford and Cambridge.
What challenges has the new studio presented in terms of logistics and how Sharkmob operates? Fortunately, project challenges have been minimal on this occasion. We have an amazing office team who looked after the new office project end-to-end, so for our development team it was a case of a single day away from project work to move. We’re also very fortunate that we have two studios as part of the Sharkmob family that work as close partners, so when there’s disruption to one studio there’s always support from the other. A new office project of this scale is always a huge logistics endeavour,
but we had some great partners when it came to the design, build and project management of the new studio, and again, I can’t speak more highly of our office team who made all of this happen.
Which single room are you most excited about? Our kitchen area is pretty special. It’s been designed to house our entire team, which means we can run large all-hands events with everyone attending. Day to day it’s also a great place to have lunch, grab a coffee and spend time together. We ran a table tennis tournament in there with the team just last night, and there’s a board game room with a custom built D&D table just off to one end of it. The most special part is the view. We’re
fortunate enough to be sitting on the north bank of the Thames at a curve in the river, offering beautiful views of Big Ben, the London Eye, St. Paul’s and The City. I think it’s a hard one to beat, and it definitely seems to impress people who come to visit.
Has moving studio location affected studio culture at all? Most definitely! Prior to the move, we were either working remotely due to the pandemic, or working from a fairly small space which didn’t provide much elbow room. That space was great for our start-up journey and will always be a fond memory for the early members of the team, but the new space provides far more opportunity for developing a culture together. A part of this is the fact that the studio is a real statement towards
Credit Maris LLP
our longer term product ambitions of building great AAA games, but more importantly, it provides an amazing space for us to collaborate, socialise and spend time together, which in my mind are the most important aspects of building a good culture.
What do you hope the studio is like in a year, when you’ve had time to settle in? The space still needs some work – we have to finish building the audio studios for example, and every day we learn a little more about how our team works and possible tweaks to the studio setup to maximise creativity and collaboration. We’ve very recently improved the amount of customisation each feature team have over their local lighting for example, introducing localised switchers and dimmers. This was a really big thing for our art team in particular. A year from now, I’m hoping we have all the major building blocks
of a AAA studio in place, and the space is highly customised to the way in which our teams like to work. I’m also looking forward to having more people with us – 40,000 square feet is a lot of room for 70 or so people! We have big plans to recruit in 2024 and beyond.
Where do you hope it goes? How do you see it In five years? So much can happen in five years, but I hope we have the whole studio space filled with incredibly talented, happy and super engaged people. We’ve hopefully launched the first game from our London studio by then, and so can shout a little louder about who we are and what we’re about. The last two years have been a very
special time for us, growing from a small start-up team with big ambitions, to where we are today – a growing team of over 70 wonderful people, a world-class development studio, and a truly inspiring project under development. Despite a backdrop of pretty challenging times it’s been an incredibly fun ride.
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