Working at
Ascendant Studios

Rise Above

Our open-hearted team of experienced and inspired creators are empowered to have a meaningful impact on the stories we tell and the games we create.We’re passionate and creative. Obsessed with originality. Committed to quality. Focused on fun. Determined to rise above the status quo of our industry and live our dreams in an inclusive, collaborative, professional, and sustainable work environment.

Obsessed with creativity; collaboration; inclusivity; originality; quality

Our founder, Bret Robbins, opened Ascendant Studios in 2018 with the vision to make a visceral, single-player first-person shooter unlike anything the world has seen in decades. Today, we’re a fully independent AAA video game studio with a 100+ person distributed team and complete ownership and creative control over our debut new IP.

Together we’re building an unpretentious studio culture built on a foundation of respect and an earnest top-down belief in a healthy work/life balance.

Read our Origin Story

A picture of Bret Robbins, CEO of Ascendant Studios

Our Values

This is the code we follow.

Empower Each Other

We lead with transparency, encourage autonomy, expect integrity, demand accountability and empower each other to creatively and meaningfully impact the project regardless of our rank or role.

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Work with Empathy

We treat others the way they want to be treated and are a close knit, unpretentious community. We value professionalism, kindness, talent, experience, trust and commitment, and we work in a mature, honest, open and mutually respectful way.

Sustainably Create
Exceptional Games

We're determined to live our dreams without burnout. By practicing sustainable development, we take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and each other so that we can be rested, healthy, inspired and at our best every day.

Invest in Ourselves

We are empowered to share our knowledge, experiences, and insights to help each other grow through professional development, thought leadership, and mentorship.

Leave the World a Better Place

Our purpose is more than our business. We stand for human decency, peace and hope. We believe in inclusivity and equality. We endeavor to leave the world a better place, and that work begins with us.

Join our team

Our team = Our Studio

We're in this together.

Here are a few of our incredible team members whose passion and dedication fuel our studio.

Careers

The Call to Create a New IP

After 26 years in the games industry, Bret Robbins (Founder & CEO at Ascendant Studios) felt it was time to begin something new. He had spent his career working on world-famous franchises like Lord of the Rings, 007 James Bond, and directing multiple Call of Duty campaigns, but there was something about his experience creating an original IP from scratch, like Dead Space, that kept calling to him.

Read the full story

Dreaming up a new game and the studio to create it

"I remember working on one of the Call of Duty levels and thinking, what if instead of a helicopter, that was a dragon. And instead of RPG explosions, those were fireballs. And instead of soldiers, we were all battle mages, firing off spells and wrecking the place.

And I stopped and thought ‘Where is that game? I want to play that game!'"

Investing in the Vision

"I had an opportunity to just sit and write for about four months. I would park myself at a small cafe and work on the game design document and the story outline. It was a time of allowing myself to think that anything was possible and I could design whatever I wanted. Since then, a lot of the ideas have changed and gotten better, but the heart of what I wrote back then is still the vision for the game today."

When a surprising opportunity strikes

"We had been going for about a month when we heard that Telltale Games was shutting down and that the entire staff had just been laid off. Someone heard that they were commiserating over at a nearby bar, so we drove over and started meeting with people.

I hired about a half dozen people that day, including my Art Director."

Building a sustainable culture

"One thing I learned over years of working at different studios is that the culture starts at the top. I don't want people to crunch and burnout, because I personally don't want to do that either. I want people to feel that they are being treated fairly and honestly. I put a high premium on being open and transparent with the team, and I think that's surprisingly rare in our industry."

A partnership to launch Immortals of Aveum

"Just when we were getting into full game production, we started to attract attention from publishers. It was a very validating moment. We chose to partner with EA because we knew they could reach the biggest audience, and their Originals label had a great track. We also kept creative control and ownership of the game, which was key for us."

Working atAscendant Studios