Gamer Guides Schilling's Company To Market | Jennifer MacLean, CEO, 38 Studios
Photo/Ron Bouley
Moving into management allowed 38 Studios CEO Jennifer MacLean to lead the company, but doesn't leave much time for video games.
Jennifer MacLean might just have every 12-year-old's dream job.
She's the CEO of a video game company. But not just any video game company: One called 38 Studios, which just happens to be owned by none other than former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. MacLean was promoted to CEO of the Maynard-based firm back in August.
So how did she end up in such a cool, fun industry? It all started with her interest in fencing, of course.
She met a fellow fencer who recommended her for a job as a game tester. She started off working for a company called Microprose in Maryland. It was there that she cut her teeth in the decidedly unglamorous job of testing games for bugs - playing the same part of a game over and over again to document problems with the code for the programmers.
From Fantasy To Reality
It's an exciting time for Schilling's startup. The company is in the research and development phase, but it will be announcing two products this year that will hit the market in 2011. One product is a role-playing game while the other is a multi-player game in the vein of World of Warcraft.
"This year we finally get to share with the rest of the world what we've been working on," she says.
In total the 38 Studios team includes 75 employees in Maynard and another 75 in Baltimore. That's the home of Big Huge Games, which 38 Studios acquired in 2009. The staff is 90 percent game developers, according to MacLean.
In addition to its staff of developers, 38 Studios has enlisted the help of big names in the game and comic book world, including Todd McFarlane, a cartoonist who is best known for creating the comic book series Spawn. The game firm has also contracted with R.A. Salvatore of Leominster, a New York Times best-selling science fiction and fantasy author. McFarlane and Salvatore are the company's "secret sauce," according to MacLean.
But let's not forget about the World Series Champion pitcher, Curt Schilling. While 38 Studios isn't on the diamond, it does benefit from Schilling's team-oriented background, MacLean says.
"The things that made him a great baseball player also make him a great person to work with," she says. "He wants to get better every day."
Despite MacLean's passion for gaming, she admits that she doesn't have the time to jump behind the console as much as she'd like.
"One of the sad parts of working in the game industry is that once you move into management you have less and less time to play the games," she says. That's because the process of developing multi-player games, which have unbelievably complex story lines and graphics, is an exacting process that requires incredible discipline and detail. To keep the organization moving along toward its release date, 38 Studios uses a project management strategy called agile methodology. Using that process, the staff at 38 Studios is divided into various teams, which meet every day for 15 minutes to troubleshoot.
With all on her plate, MacLean says her job keeps her and her colleagues on their toes.
"In a way, it's like dancing," she says.
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