Former Respawn Entertainment developers Drew McCoy and Jon “Slothy” Shiring have founded a new AAA game studio, Gravity Well, which will develop titles exclusively for next-gen hardware and PC. The team is based out of Los Angeles and aims to “shake things up in AAA game dev.” Another key goal centers on putting the team and its members first, all in an effort to ensure Gravity Well’s longevity spans decades. As such, those who go to work for the studio will find an environment that’s “anti-crunch,” emphasizes “good compensation,” and gives everyone creative freedom.
Gravity Well’s official website shows McCoy and Shiring are presently hiring for several positions, such as roles for QA Management, Game Design, Engineering, and Audio. Due to the current situation regarding coronavirus, Gravity Well is only hiring for remote work at present.
The establishment of Gravity Well will also allow McCoy and Shiring to develop games in a manner they believe is most optimal. In putting the team first, for instance, Gravity Well intends to take the time to iterate and gather feedback, says McCoy. A statement on the website from Shiring echoes this same sentiment:
Ask around, and you’ll get the same answer from devs–once your team size crosses 100 people, everything changes. It’s nobody’s fault–big organizations just move slowly. You need meetings just to make decisions. Choices get siloed and brilliant creatives become less creative. So let’s just not do that. We’re going to build a team that is 80-85 people at peak.
As noted previously, both co-founders are Respawn Entertainment alum. McCoy, who’s been in the industry since 2006, served as Senior Producer on Titanfall 2 and Executive Producer on Apex Legends. Shiring joined the gaming industry roughly two decades ago. He was integral to the development of net code, servers, and online services for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Titanfall, and Apex Legends.
The Gravity Well founders have yet to specify what their first project may entail.
[Source: Gravity Well]
