Health, History, Horses, Hybrid Game Dev

The year was 2018. We had just finished shipping PUBG on PlayStation. On our lunch break we were completing the final match of our in-office Mortal Kombat tournament. The whole office erupted in cheer as Andy defeated Kirk, and began performing his fatality. A woman from our office building entered our gaming area.

“Was that howling I heard down here?”, the woman asked laughingly.

We had so much fun but only after did we realize how loud and obnoxious we’d been. It may sound strange, but this is the experience we set out to create with our new Rushdown office…but without disturbing the neighbors.

Rushdown was founded in 2021 amidst the height of Covid. At that time, in-office work was dwindling. So like all capital region companies, we adapted. Remote working proved to be an advantage to the industry as a whole. It gave us access to a wider pool of talent who were not bound by their location. We're lucky enough to have had enough success over the years that we can continue hiring fully remote and hybrid in-office team members.

At Rushdown we want the team to feel comfortable wherever they work, and not forcing anyone to come into an office. “Comfortable” looks different to everyone; for some, it’s at a desk in our new office. For others, it's at their home workstation. And for some, it's even in another country like Italy (Hi, Cookfair!). We feel our company culture is strong enough to transcend all available options. That being said, we want to provide as many avenues for our team to connect as possible. We've got all the online tools for doing so, but we were missing one classic real-life tool: An office.

Today, we’re proud to say we've fixed that. We rented out a space in Saratoga Springs that creates a spot for team members to collaborate at a physical location.

When it came to choosing an office location, our main criteria was neutrality and convenience; we wanted something centrally located for our team that was also walking distance to all the bars (and, um, coffee shops) in downtown Saratoga Springs.

We believe there's so much talent here in the capital region. When companies are fully remote, they often aren't thought of as "local". We are lucky enough to work with clients all over the world, which is very conducive to external online collaboration - but it's also important to celebrate our local roots, and recognize that the capital region has world class talent in it. If we can use this office - and as an extension, our culture - to attract that talent, then it's a win for everyone.

Here are some of our favorite’s around our Saratoga office:

When the office officially opens in Q2 of 2024, we want every team member to be able to experience the new space for themselves.

About the Studio:
RUSHDOWN STUDIOS was Founded in 2021 by veterans in the gaming industry who have worked on games like PUBG and League of Legends. Rushdown was created with the philosophy that when talented engineers are consistently challenged, given clear ownership and responsibility, extraordinary work can result. We focus on solving the most difficult problems for multiplayer games. At Rushdown we have many teams working on a variety of games in the industry. We truly love what we do and want to funnel our passion and expertise into features and games that billions of players will enjoy worldwide. Our mission is to build the best multiplayer online game development team in the world and share our expertise with studios across the planet.

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