The birth and death of Budcat Creations, Iowa’s only triple-A studio
This was a nice little history of a game dev studio in Iowa. I wonder how they might have fared in this new era of remote work.
Some memorable passages:
I would say our core tenet was: We make our dates.
“I never thought our studio would get shut down,” Jason explained. “Who would shut down a studio that always delivered on schedule and on budget? For Activision, we never missed a deadline. On top of that, we were also cost-effective with the lowest burn rate of any Activision Studio in the United States.”
“After my experience with Budcat, I have no interest in buying a house or settling down, but I think being in motion is probably good for me, so I don’t see it as a negative.”