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Operations · Oct 18, 2025

Running a global remote game studio

How Melo Interactive operates efficiently with a distributed team across multiple time zones.

8Countries
0 sqftOffice Space
6+Time zones
10+Games shipping

Melo Interactive spans 8 countries. No office. No commutes. Just people who ship games.


Why remote?

Simple: the best Roblox developers aren't all in one city. They're everywhere. Remote lets us hire them.

Plus:

  • Work happens around the clock across time zones
  • Lower overhead = more money for the people doing the work
  • Flexibility attracts talent that wouldn't consider traditional roles

The stack

Deel

Global payroll and contractor management. We pay people in 8 countries without the legal headaches.

Discord

Our HQ. Channels for every project, voice rooms for quick syncs, bots for build notifications. The team and community live in the same space, we're always connected to our players.

Miro

Visual collaboration for game design, system architecture, and brainstorming. When you can't whiteboard in person, Miro is the next best thing.

Microsoft Teams

Formal meetings, document collaboration, and enterprise comms when we need it.

Roblox Studio

Where the actual work happens. Team Create means multiple developers building in the same place simultaneously, the ultimate remote collaboration.


How we work

Async by default

Most of our communication is written. Discord messages, shared docs, recorded Looms. Meetings happen when they need to, not because someone blocked out a calendar slot.

Time zone awareness

With people in the US, Europe, and beyond, we rotate meeting times so no one's always taking the 6am call. Handoffs are explicit, when you sign off, someone else picks up.

Trust over tracking

We don't monitor screens or count hours. We care about what ships. If you're delivering, we don't care when you're online.


What we've learned

  1. Write it down: If it's not documented, it doesn't exist
  2. Default to public: Share in channels, not DMs. Context is valuable
  3. Hire self-starters: Remote doesn't work for everyone. Screen for autonomy
  4. Meet in person when it matters: We do events and offsites. Face time still counts

The point

Remote isn't a compromise. It's how you build a global team without the overhead of offices and the limitation of geography. We're shipping games across 8 countries, and we've never shared a building.

That's the future. We're just already there.