Exodus’ former studio head James Ohlen touches on why he left Archetype Entertainment: “I was running on fumes”

Back in December of last year, despite being the head of the studio, James Ohlen left Archetype Entertainment, also leaving his role as producer on Exodus behind. It was a bit of a surprise, given that he co-founded the studio after having retired from BioWare in 2018. Now, in a recent interview, Ohlen explains why he made the call, coming down to potentially the most unifying experience in game dev: burnout.

“I was running on fumes, and it was hurting my health, and my personal life, and everything. I just needed to step away,” Ohlen explained to PC Gamer. “As a creative you care about everything so much, and then as the head of the studio, you have to be cutting the baby in half all the time, and having people attack your vision constantly. I definitely wouldn’t put myself in that situation again; that’s not a healthy place to be.”

Archetype Entertainment were actually founded way back in 2019, and are still yet to actually release a game. When getting it all started, having to set up yet another studio that will make a big, AAA game with staff from similar backgrounds, Ohlen questioned his decision to do so, saying, “Maybe I fooled myself. I fooled myself that I wouldn’t be dying inside. But yeah, it was just too much.”

It doesn’t sound like it was an easy time either, as he explains, “You’re trying to manage all sorts of different personalities, and people, and groups, and organisations, and then there’s the pressure cooker of being on a big budget title.” Plus there’s the fact that Exodus features the writings of Peter Hamilton, a consultant on the game, with contract negotiations for getting him involved sounding quite tough too’ “That nearly killed me,” Ohlen said, saying that it ended up with “three different groups all trying to negotiate a contract, and [only] one of them seemed to want to get it to the finish line. I was taking calls at like, 11:00 pm.”

Now, Ohlen is focusing on three RPG adventure books as part of Arcanum Worlds, a company he set up with Jesse Sky, also a BioWare alum and Archetype Entertainment co-founder who is now serving as the creative director on Exodus. Perhaps there’s a lesson in all of this in AAA games being just a little bit too big, ‘ey? Food for thought! The full interview is worth a read, as it also goes into the trials and tribulations Ohlen went through developer Star Wars: The Old Republic.