Our culture comes through in our games

An interview with Striking Distance Studios Chief Operating Officer Stacey Hirata

With almost 30 years of experience in operations and marketing, Stacey Hirata, the chief operating offier and the head of marketing at Striking Distance Studios, highlights the importance of providing developers with an environment where they can have fun creating amazing games. Keep reading to learn more about her experience helping developers find creative and innovative ways to create The Callisto Protocol despite the pandemic.

※ KRAFTON Blog will continue to present the interviews with the five leaders of Striking Distance Studios through the launch of The Callisto Protocol on December 2nd.

Hi! Nice to meet you. Could you introduce yourself to the readers?

My name is Stacey Hirata. I’m the chief operating officer (COO) and the head of marketing for Striking Distance Studios. Here, I’m responsible for the day-to-day business operations for both the studio and the publishing side.

How did you join this studio? And what was your first impression on Glen Schofield’s initiative for this studio and for this project?

Through the many years and decades as I’ve been doing this, I’ve heard a lot about Glen. He is a rock star and a legend in our industry. So, I was very flattered to be able to have the opportunity to meet with Glen at first. And when I heard about what he was doing and how he was going to be working with KRAFTON, I saw this as an incredible opportunity. It has been amazing to help build a team that KRAFTON could call its flagship studio here in North America.

My first impression about this project was the team was obsessed with quality. Glen is well known for his craftsmanship in making horror games. And knowing that he was going to take on something so close to his heart, something he feels passionate about, no matter what, I knew he’s going to get a great game out of that. Because Glen’s putting his entire creative imagination and passion in that game, I was sure it will be a masterpiece.

Here at Striking Distance Studios, you’re working with many talented and experienced colleagues. But that means sometimes you have to coordinate lots of discord between people. What’s your secret to handle such differences?

I don’t know if it’s really a secret. (Laughs) But to be able to work harmoniously together here despite differences and disagreements, we communicate openly, give transparency and visibility, have patience, and always remember positive intent. Everybody, not just the leaders, is here to do the best we can for the studio and for The Callisto Protocol. So, it’s important to remember we’re always trying to do the right thing. We may not always agree but we certainly are trying to do the right thing for the business.

I saw everyone in this studio gathered together for what looked like a town hall meeting. Does Striking Distance Studios hold such gatherings often?

Yes. We hold daily stand-up meetings as well as team meetings. What you saw this morning is like an opportunity for Glen and our chief development officer Steve Papoutsis as well as other leaders to make announcements to everyone here for a few minutes. It’s not just to share what’s going on with the game we’re making, but also to be able to give visibility to the rest of the studio about the initiatives that we’re doing here. We all believe in the importance of such meetings because we don’t always see that are going on behind the scenes.

Few months ago, Striking Distance Studios was named as one of the “Best Places To Work in 2022.” What could you tell us about this as the COO of this studio?

I am incredibly proud of that award and very thankful for the leadership, for the team, for the programs that we’ve put in place over the last three years. It was exceptional especially because this is a brand-new studio. Nobody in our industry has known of us. We haven’t even released a game yet. More than 60 percent of our studio had to complete a survey about working here for Striking Distance Studios to be eligible for this award. This means that more than 60 percent of our people have felt that this is one of the best places to work in the industry. That says a lot about us. And it was very proud for us to win this award at such an early stage in the studio’s life.

What do you think is the best environment to create the best games for the developers where they can enjoy the process?

I think everybody has to remember we’re creating culture in this studio. This is an entertainment industry. We make games for a living. What could possibly be more exciting than that? And I think we have to remember that is what we do. We need to have fun creating these games and these experiences for the fans because that all comes through in our games. So, I think it’s the people, not the physical studio itself, that creates fun. It’s not the furniture. It’s not the tools. It’s about the work you create with people around you.

And for you personally, what aspects of Striking Distance Studios do you find most proud of as a workplace?

On a personal note, the best thing about is probably the heart and soul of the people here. I’ve been in this career for almost 30 years and throughout this long career I was lucky to be able to love what I do and the products we made. But if you’re very lucky, you have an opportunity to work with a team that has great heart and soul as this team does. The dedication that they have for this game and for everybody else around them, that to me is the best part.

While starting up this brand-new studio and working on making a brand-new intellectual property video game, Covid must have made it extremely difficult. How did you and your colleagues help make it possible?

I think it started with good planning ahead. We had anticipated bringing in a kind of hybrid work even before the pandemic. So, we had already put infrastructure in place so that people could work from home. So lucky for us, when the pandemic hit, we were already ready. We had already been using Zoom for remote communication far before it became as popular as it is now. So, we had already set up great work flows and great tools for the developers. And at the end of the day, I think it’s about how well our developers communicate through the pandemic. Due to the lockdown, you’ve never met each other face to face. So, it takes a lot of extra time and dedication to learn how to work together as a team despite never meeting each other in person.

And this capability to communicate well remotely opened up new opportunities for us to recruite new talents from other areas. As you know, Striking Distance Studios started out here in California. And within the last few years, even through the pandemic, we were able to open up recruitment channels in 15 more states in the US as well as two more countries including Canada and Spain.

What’s the best lesson you’ve got for the last three years?

You always have to remember to constantly learn from your mistakes, learn from the difficulties and the challenges, and to know how to take those learnings and adopt them into new environments. Probably the thing that I’ve learned the most from here is to embrace those learnings. You will learn in any company that you work for. It’s just a different set of challenges. It’s a matter of how well you embrace it, how patient you are and how you rise to the occasion to find solutions to these new unique challenges.

In a previous interview, Glen said he hopes The Callisto Protocol to be the beginning of a new franchise that will entertain the fans. What do you think about this new franchise from the marketing standpoint?

When you start on a new franchase with a new IP, you have to remember it’s not just about the immediate things that are happening. It’s looking ahead to how we want to scale, build, and create a franchise. We’re not building just a game. And so from the marketing standpoint, we have to know how do we put all of these different pieces together like a puzzle so that we come together with an integrated marketing plan that gets us to the message that would expand the audience for the following games. So, it’s about a much longer period of time than just the launch of a game. You have to be able to envision what does this timeline look like, what is the plan for the next games, not just this one.

Now that the global launch of The Callisto Protocol is literally just around the cornder, what was the most satisfying part of your job here in this studio?

It has been so rewarding to stay a step ahead, helping our people find solutions, and find creative and innovative ways. What I’ve learned throughout my career doesn’t necessarily apply all the time to the problems we might have here. So, I have to learn to be a little creative, sometimes think outside the box and try to find ways that work for our. So, creativity and innovation also apply to the business side just as much as it applies to creating a game itself.

It really takes a very large village to launch a game like The Callisto Protocol. Looking back, it’s been a crazy ride. I think Striking Distance Studios has accomplished something that nobody else in this industry has, and it’s pretty amazing. This studio was built from the ground up. Before that, we had no building, no facility, no team and no PCs. And then, we were like, “Let’s build the game for all platforms, current generation and the next-gen.” On top of that and by the way let’s build a publishing division, let’s build an office in Spain, and let’s open up recruitment channels to 15 more states. And while you’re at it, let’s just throw a global pandemic at you to make it extra challenging. So, the resilience of this studio has been incredible and unlike anything I’ve ever seen in this industry. And I saw even some of the big companies stumble during the pandemic. They couldn’t even get up again and recover. So, I’m super proud of this studio.

How has it been working with KRAFTON in Korea?

Working with KRAFTON has been amazing. They have been incredible to work with and given us a lot of autonomy as you can see with how we’ve built this studio. We were going to be a much smaller group. We had one single office here. KRAFTON has been so supportive and believed in that vision to be able to grow this flagship studio as well as a publishing team. Supporting us through expanding our talent pools into more of North America beyond California here or even beyond into Canada and Spain.

Do you have any comment for the fans awaiting for the launch?

We hope can provide a great experience for the fans as much as we love the game. I hope that our fans out there when they get to play The Callisto Protocol, love it as much as we do. So, I wish all the best to them and hope that they enjoy it. It’s been a labor of love I think as Glen has said. And so hoping that labor of love is recognized and that they enjoy the experience we’ve worked on.