Traditionally, video game studios feature a physical office, housing the majority of its developers under a single roof, where they work on their next project together. In the past year or so, though, that hasn't simply been possible, which has influenced the setup of Possibility Space, an innovative game studio that's breaking tradition.

For over 20 years, Jeff Strain has worked within the video game industry, launching two highly successful game studios. Strain was the Co-Founder of ArenaNet in 2000, the studio that has been developing the Guild Wars MMO series ever since. Then Strain founded Undead Labs, the studio behind the State of Decay series. Now he is taking on a new challenge.

Like many other industries around the world, game development in 2020 and into 2021 became very difficult, with studios having to move to remote operations and many even delaying their games. Despite these issues, the potential for something not seen before was revealed: the fully remote game studio.

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Jeff Strain has officially announced his new studio Possibility Space. While being based out of New Orleans, Louisiana, Possibility Space is one of the industry's first 'distributed' game development studios. As the name implies, Possibility Space's staff are not centrally located and are working from different places around the world. According to Strain, "[The developers] felt this was the right time to create something new–a studio built from the ground up to embrace evolving needs and perspectives for both players and developers." Unlike the horrors of State of Decay, Strain goes on to describe the studio's first project as a "joyful game," attributing the "fear and isolation" of the past year to create something hopeful.

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With resumes featuring studios like Valve, Insomniac, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Double Fine, and so many others, Possibility Space is brimming with talented individuals from across the gaming landscape. Just some of the developers joining Strain include Jane Ng (Campo Santo, Valve) as Possibility Space’s Visual Director, Brandon Dillon (Oculus, Double Fine) as Technical Director, and Liz England (Ubisoft, Insomniac) as Simulation and Narrative Systems Director. Ng was formerly an artist on Valve's Half-Life: Alyx as well as the Lead Environment Arist on Campo Santo's Firewatch, but is very excited to be Possibility Space's Visual Director. "The fact that I didn’t have to leave my home or uproot my family just made it easier to see it was the right team to join. I am thrilled to be part of Possibility Space, and to play a part in opening all kinds of possibilities for players and developers," she says.

Despite the pandemic's game delays, developers have found ways to keep working from a home. Making a video outside of the office space and with the same culture of a traditional game studio was once an impossible task, but as Possibility Space's name suggests, it may just be possible. From executive talent in Jeff Strain and with a team featuring some of gaming's greatest developers, all who believe in this idea of the physically distributed studio, Possibility Space seemingly has everything necessary to redefine what the "traditional" game studio looks like.

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