A Tour of Stardock Plymouth
Thursday, April 2, 2020 by Frogboy | Discussion: Stardock Blog
With our state on lockdown, our offices are empty.
This gives me a rare opportunity to give a little tour of our offices with almost no one here.
A little bit about Stardock
So I started Stardock from my dorm room back in 1991 and incorporated it in 1993. The building we’re in now, we bought in 2005. We own it, so we are able to do whatever we want with it. It’s about 20,000 square feet and we’ve had the opportunity to try out various working area styles.
The Welcoming Committee
As you enter the main lobby of Stardock...
This is Cheesecake. An essential employee. We allow dogs at work. 
Stardock has 3 floors. This is the lower floor in an area called Lab-2 (Lab-1 is upstairs). The team is working from home. We let people check out their PCs and take them home.
This is also part of Lab-2. Lab-2 has the workstation area. It’s not an open floor plan, but rather a hybrid, where everyone gets their own workstation area. There are also 3 offices connected to it – Senior Producer (oversees schedule) – Senior Publisher (oversees the “biz” side) and Senior Designer (the lead designer on the project). We mix the artists and engineers together so that they can work seamlessly together.
This is the office I’m occupying down here. I’m currently on a new project that won’t be ready for a couple years. This is the first time I’ve been the senior designer on a game project since GalCiv II from the start.
This is part of our Cafe.
Sitting area for the Cafe. The nice thing about this area is that there’s a presentation area up front.
This is on the main floor. This is where the Impulse team used to be back in 2011. We occasionally use it for podcasts, but it’s been unfilled since 2011.
Also on main floor. Has been empty since we sold Impulse to GameStop.
Biz Conference room. I spend a lot of time here, unfortunately.
The fitness room. Empty. So sad.
My office. Empty now that I’ve moved to the senior designer office.
Gamer’s Bill of Rights.
Wife and kids.
Back of my office. There’s a little framed box of the “contract” between Chris Taylor and I on Demigod. It’s on a napkin.
Upstairs Lab-1 with Agile wall (Scrum wall). So empty.
Kristy’s workstation isn’t empty at least!
Cleanest this area has been in years. The IT area.
Play-testing lab.
Derek Paxton, upstairs in Lab-1’s Senior Designer office.
The kids of the QA area. Today, just making sure everyone else is able to work from home.
Obligatory picture of gender neutral bathroom. We have gender-specific bathrooms on every floor but we also installed this along with an area for employees who have just had children to take care of things (and we did this back in 2005).
The general goal is to create an environment that is welcoming and comfortable. We have extremely low turn-over and I think a big part of that is our company environment.
And with that, back to work!
Reply #3 Monday, March 30, 2020 5:46 PM
....and to think plans were [almost] afoot to get over there again this year....a virus got in the way [and a lack of Qantas A380s in the air] ....
Reply #6 Monday, March 30, 2020 10:04 PM
I bet with that bowl of lollipops on her desk Kristy gets a lot of visitors. 
Thanks for the tour!
Reply #9 Tuesday, March 31, 2020 7:29 AM
Looks like a great place to work. Love the progressive employee centered ideas
. Keep up the great work!!
Reply #10 Tuesday, March 31, 2020 11:47 AM
Thank you for the tour. I'm glad you own the building. A major asset to have as a business.
I'm not a gamer. I'm a bank executive and an IT professional by trade (EE). I wanted to thank you for Multiplicity and Fences. Two applications I can't live without.
Greetings from Tucson, Arizona.
Reply #11 Tuesday, March 31, 2020 8:30 PM
Thanks Brad and Katie for taking us on a tour of your home away from home and a little more insight into your biz.
Reply #12 Wednesday, April 1, 2020 2:00 AM
Looks like a nice place to work, pity it's like 1/3 planet away from me.
And best thing I see a dog and not a single cat, good work Cheesecake
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Reply #1 Monday, March 30, 2020 4:35 PM
Cool. Thanks for the tour!