I am about 1,000 kilometers from my office, and nothing is stopping me from being able to work except running around Alberta visiting my family, friends, and doing the occasional bit of wedding planning.

You see, Verse Studios is a 'virtual office', you could even go as far as to say we are a 'virtual corporation.' Everything we need to work we can pull down from our dev servers, google docs, or over Skype. I'm sitting here on my Mother-in-law-to-be's computer chatting and catching up on the status of production and the company with my fellow Versers, doing a bit of beta testing ( ie: breaking things ), and of course catching up on my way over-due blogging.

There are a lot of people who think that companies need to have an office. That everyone needs to be in the same location for the synergy to really get flying. I don't think that is true at all, I've been riding the superconscious through remote collaboration for years. Sometimes being in an office actually hinders my work, I get destracted, or I destract those around me.

When I was at GDC I overheard a conversation where two designers were cringing over the idea of programmers developing remote from each other. In a panel discussion at IGS panelists shuddered at the idea of programmers and artists working outside of the office.

I know it may not be for everyone, but man, a virtual office kicks serious but for us. More game developers should look into it, and avoid the 10,000 sq ft office with super-fly paint jobs and soft overhead lighting. No office can ever compair to the comfort of your own living room, or how great it feels to work on your patio in the sun. Happy employees work harder, I know I do, so why not let them work from where they are happiest?

Plus, office space, tres expensive. Why, I bet I could even work from the Calgary Stampede...