Horror recreation developer Bloober Crew stands at a key inflection level. Using excessive off the important and business success of the remake of Konami’s Silent Hill 2, the studio is in the method of ending work on Cronos: The New Daybreak, an bold time touring survival horror recreation of far larger scale than any of their earlier unique video games. It is grown to over 250 builders and has joined the ranks of bigger triple-A studios now investing 4-5 years in every growth cycle.
Skilled builders know that is a uniquely difficult second for firms making single-player video games. One main driver of the large recreation trade layoffs of the final yr has been a sequence of stumbles at studios that grew too quick after making a hit recreation. Constructive money stream and wholesome coffers sadly aren’t sufficient to vow stability.
And but stability is what CEO Piotr Babieno says he is looking for. In an interview with Recreation Developer on the 2025 Recreation Builders Convention, the top of the studio recognized for making video games that includes characters grappling with psychological sickness defined a few of his pondering for main a wholesome workplace.
“An important factor,” he mentioned, “is to create a protected surroundings. Each single determination I make isn’t just about if the enterprise is sweet, but when we’ll have the ability to handle the 250 individuals in the studio, and their households as effectively.”
It is a shocking worth to listen to from a CEO in the yr 2025, when many are selecting to speak about going all-in on AI or publicly criticizing their very own staff about their video games not having an “edge.” So what exactly, does Babieno outline as a “protected surroundings?
Retaining your studio “protected” is a super problem
The phrase “protected” takes on a entire new which means for a Polish recreation studio in the 2020s. Not solely are the everyday struggles of recreation growth a day-to-day problem, however, like many, Bloober needed to be taught in regards to the realities of constructing video games remotely in the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover the nation is nervously watching developments over the border in neighboring Ukraine, the place Russia’s invasion sparks considerations over a broader response that might draw in NATO. With recreation growth cycles for video games like Silent Hill 2 and the upcoming Cronos: The New Daybreak operating about 5 years, the choices Babieno makes have large ripple results.
Russia’s invasion appears to be high of thoughts for Babieno, who defined that Bloober employs builders who hail from Russia and Ukraine—each of whom needed to relocate given the circumstances of the struggle. The studio was additionally one of many first to publicly halt gross sales of its video games in Russia—not out of spite for the Russian individuals, Babieno mentioned, however as a result of the corporate didn’t need to contribute tax income to the federal government’s coffers which might drive spending on its invasion.
“Video games ought to join us fairly than make [barriers] between international locations or between followers,” he mentioned. “I really feel we’re doing all the things we will to assist our followers everywhere in the world, however we’ll by no means assist people who find themselves destroying our world and making horrors larger than we’re ready ship [in our games].”
Picture by way of Bloober Crew.
However that is a very excessive degree subject. Day-to-day, Babieno mentioned he is grappling with the identical issues many builders at his firm (and around the globe) battle with: self-imposed crunch. “I am not a good instance,” he admitted, describing the sensation of desirous to work longer hours due to “ardour” for a challenge. “We try to assist our staff as a lot as we will and generally will improve the time of growth if wanted to create a good recreation.”
Bloober apparently additionally connects staff with psychologists in and across the firm to entry psychological well being assist (and contemplating their video games are about psychological horror, maybe some consulting on the subject), however Babieno mentioned common messaging about “having your individual life” is the “first” step in creating that surroundings.
On the subject of depicting psychological well being in video games—we have heard from builders over time that generally researching real-world accidents, be they bodily or psychological, can generally have a psychological shock of its personal. Babieno mentioned he hasn’t seen that occur at Bloober, in half as a result of the studio is deliberate about what subjects it tackles. “After we are creating a new title, there’s all the time the query of ‘what would we like so as to add to the dialog,'” he mentioned, including that these subjects are supposed to encourage “judgment-free” debate on the staff.
It is the “planning” stage that Babieno appeared to circle again to in our dialog. If you wish to higher perceive the corporate releasing Cronos: The New Daybreak in 2025, that you must go all the way in which again… to 2019.
Cronos exhibits the strategic scaling of Bloober’s headcount
Observe the arc of Bloober’s lineup from 2015 right through Cronos and you will see a pretty regular improve in recreation scope going from Layers of Worry, by Observer, previous The Medium, and right through Silent Hill 2. This was deliberate, mentioned Babieno, and adopted a strategic determination in 2015 to decide to horror video games. When the corporate had fewer staff, it targeted in on narrative experiences buoyed by environmental storytelling, and scaled as much as embrace extra motion and participant navigation, now seen in the combat-heavy Cronos.
“Due to this, it was a pure step to extend the staff and improve the scope of our video games,” he mentioned, noting that the studio has picked up “extra followers” due to this. He echoed a frequent chorus you hear from indie and triple-A studios, that the corporate is in enterprise to make high-quality video games, not simply flip a revenue. It does appear the corporate communicates to its employees that they need to make stable choices as early as doable, as a result of after they do, they’re locking into a lengthy dedication they can not simply get out of.
“After we are speaking about what might be subsequent, it needs to be one thing we want to work on for the subsequent 5 years…to spend a large a part of our life to create one thing uncommon.”
These sorts of impactful choices can embrace one thing as basic as setting. Cronos is the second recreation from Bloober set in the studio’s native Poland, a determination that does not appear so uncommon in 2025 however Babienbo mentioned in the start, it was a actually dangerous name when attempting to make a recreation that appeals to a international viewers. “That was the dialog in the Polish recreation trade,” he recalled. “That we should not make video games in Poland as a result of it won’t promote in addition to if you happen to made a recreation set in the USA.”
Builders in different areas may really feel buoyed by Babieno’s phrases, as he mentioned the “act regionally and suppose globally” method has paid off. Builders on the studio have a chance to be “trustworthy” to their homeland but in addition embrace the “belief” of gamers that they’re going to be curious sufficient to embrace that religion and discover new sorts of horrors in a land they might by no means have visited.
He tossed out the concept that Bloober might make a recreation set in San Francisco (itself beset by the horrors of the tech trade), however it might by no means be nearly as good as one made by individuals dwelling in the USA.
None of what Babieno described in our dialog ought to be seen as simple or easy. It’s normal data that in in the present day’s market, simply making a good recreation is not sufficient to maintain a enterprise, and you may put “we do not crunch” in your organization values all you need, however you may lookup in the future and understand your entire staff has labored till 9PM out of affection for the sport. Taking over the mantle of leadership is about setting your self as much as make exhausting choices. “If you want to have recommendation, do not run a recreation studio as a result of perhaps it might kill you” Babieno joked.
However Babieno—and Bloober—are nonetheless right here, nonetheless alive and standing in the robust surroundings of 2025. Maybe for nevertheless tough the street has been, seeing his job as being about “defending” his employees would be the type of precept that might assist different studios endure these tough instances.
Recreation Developer and GDC are sibling organizations beneath Informa.
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