Cecil: 30 staff is â??exactlyâ?? the wrong studio size

A workforce of thirty people is precisely the wrong size for an independent game studio, says experienced game designer Charles Cecil.

Speaking during the State of Independence conference in York, the Revolution founder explained that his longstanding outfit held around thirty staff during the early nineties – but said this doesn’t fit well with big, nor small, business ambitions.

Cecil explained that studios can greatly benefit from housing far more, or far less, than thirty developers. Game studios, he said, should either be small enough to better manage a thin string of projects, or large enough to be flexible and move staff across projects to remain cost-effective.

The highly experienced games industry exec – who is now busy working with Sumo Digital and the BBC to develop four episodic Doctor Who games – went on to reveal that Revolution has trimmed down its staff numbers over the years, and collaborates with other game companies when necessary.

In an illuminating lecture in front of a large crowd of industry professionals, Cecil also went on to claim – quite casually – that Revolution hasn’t received royalties since 1997.

“Those were the days when royalties weren’t actually a myth,” he joked.