Creator of Dead Space and the director behind 2022’s The Callisto Protocol Glen Schofield has said that he might be done with directing games for the time being. In a post on LinkedIn, Schofield wrote about the difficulty of getting financial backing for a new game that he was working on alongside his daughter.
“Over the past eight months, I’ve been quietly working with my daughter, Nicole, on a new game idea,” wrote Schofield. “She came to me with it, and I immediately loved the idea. Something I hadn’t seen before. We’ve been calling it a new sub-genre of horror—not just horror, but something more.”
While Schofield had decided on a budget of $17 million to develop the project fully and had developed a prototype with a small crew to try and get it funded, he ultimately hit a roadblock when it came to actually getting financing for the game. Quite a bit of the feedback, according to Schofield, came down to the budgeting, with potential investors asking him to “get it to $10 million”, and then later, dropping the budget down to $2 to $5 million.
“So last month, we decided to walk away. Some ideas are better left untouched than done cheap,” he continued. “We had a team of six here in the States and a full crew in the UK. Now, everyone’s looking for work. They’re all talented folks—if you’re hiring, let me know.”
“As for me—I’ve worked on games of every size. From 2 of us to over 300 devs. Spent the last 15–20 years making big AAA titles with great teams. That’s what I do. That’s what I love. But with the industry on pause, AAA feels like it’s a long ways away.”
Ultimately, Schofield has said that he will be taking a break from directing new projects, and instead going back to work on his own art. He has also mentioned that he might end up never directing another game again. This, however, isn’t set in stone.
“I’m still around, making art, writing stories and ideas and still cheering the industry on,” he wrote. “But maybe I’ve directed my last game. Who knows? If so thank you playing my games.”
The last major title that Schofield had worked on as a director was The Callisto Protocol. However, the title didn’t do as well commercially as publisher Krafton wanted, and Schofield ultimately left the studio he had co-founded—Striking Distance Studios—with his role being taken over by Steve Papoutsis.
“Glen’s contributions during his time at Krafton have been invaluable,” wrote Krafton in a statement back in 2023. “He built an ace team of talents at Striking Distance Studios and set a high standard for the work they did together every day. We’re confident in the team’s continued success because of the significant impact Glen has had, and for that we owe him our deepest gratitude.”
The Callisto Protocol was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Since its original release, the game has seen several updates, including one late last year that brought in PS5 Pro enhancements. Check out our review of the original for more details about the game.
