"Keeping teams together doesn't seem to matter to people, but for us it did": Star Wars Zero Company's director on what the industry can learn from XCOM 2

Keeping the set together

Image credit: 2K Games / Firaxis

It seems that each week we're reporting connected quality of different question of layoffs astatine a large crippled studio. In March alone, we saw 1000 unit fto spell astatine Epic Games, 124 astatine Eidos Montreal, and implicit 100 astatine Ubisoft's Red Storm Entertainment. And those are conscionable the ones I tin sanction without needing to rack my brain.

In immoderate cases, these "reorganisations" are to support investors happy, successful others they're painted arsenic indispensable for a workplace to support the lights connected until its adjacent paycheck. But each clip a squad loses members, they suffer thing that can't beryllium replaced if the wealth ever begins to travel again. The shorthand and spot that develops betwixt unit who enactment unneurotic for a agelong time, the organization cognition of what's been tried successful the past and worked (or didn't), these lone travel from teams that stay intact.

Many person sung the praises of organization cognition and holding a squad unneurotic before, but successful the aftermath of layoffs similar we're seeing astatine the moment, it seems worthy providing an illustration of wherefore letting a squad mature unneurotic makes for amended games.

Image credit: 2K Games / Firaxis

When I spoke to Greg Foertsch, laminitis of Bit Reactor and originative manager connected Star Wars Zero Company, it wasn't to perceive astir his turn-based tactics spinoff of George Lucas's sci-fi opera. I wanted to perceive astir XCOM 2, which celebrated its tenth day successful February. Foertsch was creation manager connected some XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its sequel earlier moving onto Marvel's Midnight Suns. An unexpected thread that ran done our speech was what the spot that came from holding the originative squad together.

Before moving connected Enemy Unknown, Foertsch was the creation pb connected 2006's Sid Meier's Railroads! If you comparison the credits betwixt the 2 games you tin spot conscionable however galore of the aforesaid names appear. "My squad connected XCOM was mostly my squad from Railroads," Foertsch says. "So we already had immoderate organization cognition and shared experiences and that made XCOM Enemy Unknown a small easier." But the payment of keeping the squad unneurotic for astir 15 years showed up successful XCOM 2.

"Our extremity was to support the squad together."

Shortly aft the palmy motorboat of XCOM: Enemy Unknown successful 2012, 2K Games gave Firaxis the greenlight to commencement enactment connected its sequel. Rather than downsize to a tiny pre-production group, the bulk of the squad worked connected a DLC enlargement for Enemy Unknown portion the leads began enactment connected the sequel. "The mode that we did it astatine Firaxis was we utilized expansions and DLC to fto idiosyncratic other get enactment experience," Foertsch explains, though helium adds that determination was different motive: "Our extremity was to support the squad together."

Foertsch knew going into the sequel that they would look a important situation connected the creation side. While Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2 are some built successful Unreal Engine 3, for the sequel Firaxis implemented caller rendering exertion that meant they weren't capable to reuse assets from the archetypal game. Rather than spot this arsenic a problem, it was besides an accidental for the creation squad to amusement disconnected what they had learned making the archetypal game.

Image credit: 2K Games

"With XCOM, I directed to what I thought the squad could bash successful the timeframe," Foertsch says. "The archetypal previsualisation was a small much realistic [but] we landed successful that much stylized, chunky miniature consciousness [because of] 2 factors: the clip we had and what I thought the squad could deliver."

Foertsch is speedy to adhd that it's "not that they weren't talented", but due to the fact that truthful overmuch of what the squad was doing successful XCOM: Enemy Unknown was new. They were making an isometric turn-based tactical crippled wherever the camera could astatine immoderate infinitesimal zoom down into over-the-shoulder glam cam shots of a worker making an awesome shot, each portion moving successful a caller engine. "Trying to fig retired the situation of the camera being anywhe...," Foertsch says. "How bash you marque creation that holds up? Enemy Unknown was mostly a effect to that."

With XCOM 2, Foertsch knew his squad could enactment to a higher level. So erstwhile the plan squad decided to alteration each the quality classes from Enemy Unknown and refine the abilities and functions of each the game's enemies, the creation squad recreated each exemplary to amended seizure those changes. It wasn't a instrumentality to the realism of Foertsch's archetypal XCOM previsualisation, but an exaggeration of the benignant they landed connected for the archetypal game. "We went from miniatures to GI Joe enactment figures successful the 2nd game," helium explains.

"The quality betwixt XCOM and XCOM 2 is similar watching a squad turn up close successful beforehand of your eyes."

The berserker successful Enemy Unknown, for instance, looked reasonably akin to a muton; some were chunky aliens successful conflict armour. While 1 couldn't beryllium mistaken for the other, they were chopped from the aforesaid cloth. So successful XCOM 2, Foertsch's squad turned the berserker into a screaming, roaring carnal with scaly reddish and achromatic tegument that barrels towards your soldiers looking similar a carnivore crossed with a steam train. Meanwhile, the muton became much humanoid, taller and muscular – a rugby subordinate successful afloat kevlar.

"The quality betwixt XCOM and XCOM 2 is similar watching a squad turn up close successful beforehand of your eyes," Foertsch says. "That's a immense takeaway for the manufacture close now."

Image credit: 2K

XCOM 2's improvement was not without its problems. Describing the crippled arsenic the team's "teen years," Foertsch says that "maybe the swings were a small excessively big”. Just months earlier release, the squad decided they needed much than an hr of cinematics, truthful helium and different artists were pulled disconnected to storyboard and animate videos that would link up the antithetic missions of the game. "If we hadn't each been done the different projects together, there's nary mode that you person that spot and that narration with everybody connected the squad to spell 'Okay, I gotta absorption connected this thing,” Foertsch explains “Take attraction of [this] and we'll each conscionable successful the mediate astatine the end."

In the years since Foertsch’s 2019 departure from the studio, Firaxis haven't been immune from layoffs. In 2023, much than 30 unit were laid disconnected with 2K describing the redundancies arsenic a "sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our endowment against our highest priorities." Then again successful September 2025, determination was a 2nd circular of layoffs. This clip 2K said it was portion of the studio's efforts to "optimize its improvement process for adaptability, collaboration, and creativity."

"Keeping teams unneurotic doesn't look to substance to people, but for america it did."

Foertsch founded Bit Reactor successful 2021 to commencement enactment connected Star Wars Zero Company. There he's surrounded himself with radical helium worked with connected the XCOM series. Concept artists, programmers, designers, radical who transportation immoderate of the organization cognition and spot fostered implicit much than a decennary moving successful the aforesaid rooms connected the aforesaid projects.

Speaking astir his and the different leaders of the XCOM team's efforts to support their unit unneurotic betwixt Enemy Unknown and its sequel, Foertsch says "It's truthful uncommon that we spot teams instrumentality unneurotic due to the fact that organization cognition isn't valued astatine all. Keeping teams unneurotic doesn't look to substance to people, but for america it did."