Jeff Gardiner

 

Remote Work Works

This roundtable will be focused on the pros and cons of building, managing, and maintaining a fully decentralized game studio for the long haul. Gone are the days of hour-long commutes to stuff your employees in a box full of cubicles or even worse, fully exposed movable desks that look like call centers. Modern workers favor flexibility, strong core hours, and efficient communication - not listening as their cell, er, cubicle mate clips their nails or argues on the phone with their partner. We'll focus on creative collaboration tools, meeting cadence, work policies, and hiring the right fit for this kind of endeavor. This will include a frank discussion of the pitfalls and perils of this approach from someone who's assembled a strong viable remote studio while building a massive, ambitious, open-world RPG along with it.

Bio:

BAFTA Award-winning Lead Producer of Fallout 4, Jeff Gardiner is a 20-year veteran of the video games industry, over 15 years of which he has spent at Bethesda Games Studios. During his tenure at Bethesda, he has played a role in creating and shipping over 20 titles, including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. As Project Lead of Fallout 76, Jeff oversaw both its creation and its redemption to become the most-played RPG on Xbox Live at the time of his departure.

Jeff is currently the Founder and CEO of Something Wicked Games, building Wyrdsong, a preternatural open-world RPG. He has built a nearly 40-person studio fully remotely with industry veterans over the last 9 months.