A couple of months ago, something small happened that we haven't shaken since.
Deep in research for one of our engines, papers and mockups, with a podcast running in the background. Somewhere in that episode: go look at your favorite game companies, the ones you've followed for years, and see who actually sits on their boards today.
So we did. The studios behind the games that shaped our lives. And it was saddening. Not one game director. Not one artistic director. Barely a developer, if any at all. Almost nobody for whom gaming is a lived thing had a seat at the table where decisions actually get made: when to release, what features go in, which ones make the most money.
To be fair first: these are huge companies in an entertainment industry that has to make money, and a lot of people depend on that. We understand it, even support it in a way, because that responsibility is real and heavy. But understanding doesn't make it hurt less, because we know what it's like inside those walls: people who could see exactly what a game needed, filtered through layers of decisions made by people who never played the thing. We've all seen the results. Wonderful games trashed and abandoned for not making "proper" money. DLC priced at numbers everyone knows are wrong. Games shipped half-baked to hit a quarter. The people who worked on those games knew. They just didn't have a seat at the table.
So here's the commitment. We don't know what happens to us long-term, and we won't spend energy predicting it. But here's what we can promise: we will always try to keep this company small, passionate, manageable, with the people who make the games at the table where decisions happen, because in our company, there is no other table.
The actual ambition, stated plainly, not the one about revenue or units sold: we want to always be able to sit in one small room, all of us, and argue about ideas over pizza and a Coke until 4 AM if we have to. 4 AM used to be for playing these games. Then it became for building them. If we do this right, it stays that way. That's the only board that matters to us.