It hasn't been an easy few years for Glen Schofield, the creator of Dead Space. The well-known developer had a very promising 2020s planned, with the founding of the studio Striking Distance and the interesting looking The Callisto Protocol suggesting that Schofield was back to what he does best, sci-fi horror. However, The Callisto Protocol didn't prove to be a massive hit, and soon after he left Striking Distance with many wondering what will be next for him.
In a post on LinkedIn, Schofield reveals that as of recently he has been working on a horror game with his daughter Nicole Schofield, who previously worked at Striking Distance too. It was described as a "sub-genre of horror" and something that was getting decent interest, all before publishers kept asking for the production budget to be scaled back and back until it had a total budget of $2-5 million. This led to the Schofields abandoning the project and to Glen for one releasing a statement where he seems to suggest his time as a game director is over.
"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.
"So I'm back to my art. I miss it all; the team, the chaos, the joy of building something for fans. I'm still around, making art, writing stories and ideas and still cheering the industry on. But maybe I've directed my last game. Who knows? If so thank you playing my games."
You can read the full statement here where Schofield also shares tons of information as to why the in-development horror game was shut down, and how it has had a knock-on effect with employees who have been helping to make the game in the UK and the United States.