Glenda Studio: The crucial, woman-led racing game studio you’ve never heard of

What the report says

Add us as your preferred news source on Google Add Traxion to your "Preferred Sources" on Google to make sure you get your sim racing news always from a trusted source ← Featured • News 4 September 2026 — 7 minute read By Tom BuntenPeople are often accused of not understanding where their food comes from. The source of the supply chain is too far removed from the consumer. When you buy vegetables, you go to the supermarket and don’t think much about how they were grown, processed, and packaged to sit on the shelf, ready for you.

Much the same can be said for games. Studios outsource key components of development: art, environment, animation, sound, etc, but the supply chain is longer than you might think. Art Studios in Europe are not always the creators; instead, they outsource work to more cost-effective alternatives. In Vietnam, for example.Racing games require accurate 3D assets for cars, tracks, track-side furniture and environments in order to credibly use the term “simulation”. These assets are rarely created in the UK, Italy, France or wherever else you might expect the larger racing game studios to create the cars and tracks you interact with.

Here at Traxion, we always claim to go “straight to the source” to bring you the best quality racing game news and insights.Well, I’m in Vietnam.Glenda StudioI’m visiting Glenda Studio, seeing first-hand how much work goes into the faithful recreation of an LMP2 car, a trackside cafe or a pitlane. On the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, inside an oasis of calm (relative to the frenzied chaos outside) sits a technology and business park that houses the little-known Glenda Studio. I met with studio boss Suong Phan to see how detailed car modelling is done and how she manages a team of 70+ young artists.

Key details

Walking into the first studio room, I was hit by the intensity of the work. Each artist had their headphones on, listening to whatever flavour of music got them into their flow state, creating a silence in the room which laid bare the rapid-fire clicking and typing on their custom anime and Pokémon keyboards. The speed and detail of the work was ferocious. And Suong manages it all. I stood watching one artist making minute alterations to a rear wing of a race car on one screen while zooming into real-world photography of that same car on a second screen.While much of the shape comes from accurate scans, textures and detail are all done by hand.

“Usually a race car will take us 75 working days to create”, Peter told me as we stood watching this mesmerising work. “Whilst an 18 wheeler or some farm equipment could take upwards of 3 months”. Now of course, a lot of the assets being created in the room were for some seriously exciting unannounced games that I can’t disclose. But it’s no secret that Glenda does and has created 3D assets for Milestone, Straight4 Studios and more. Seeing assets being created live gave me a new appreciation for the craft. I asked Peter how they stay so focused whilst designing.

“Well, this isn’t a sweatshop, as people might like you to think. We have invested heavily in the office; it’s light, modern, well air-conditioned and has a great break room with karaoke, sofas and a place to host our weekly pizza parties.”“Every day, the team stop for an hour after lunch to nap, relax and listen to music. We’re surrounded by cafes and restaurants in the technology park. It’s a great place to work”Shoreditch-adjacentI was struck by the interior design of the office. The natural wood, integrated up-and-down lighting, the models of cars and games and the lay-flat space-age gaming chairs would give any development studio in San Francisco or Shoreditch a run for its money.

More from the announcement

There’s no getting around the fact that European gaming studios use Vietnamese outsourcing agencies because of the much lower cost. A Vietnamese 3D artist’s day rate is a fraction of a European’s equivalent. That being said, the inflow of European investment by game companies to this part of Southeast Asia has spawned an ecosystem of education facilities, apprenticeship opportunities and technical career pathways that otherwise may not have existed. Getting into the studio was a story in itself. Each individual cluster of artists was concealed behind biometrically locked doors requiring a face scan to allow entry.

Every screen is monitored by cameras, which clients can access to be assured of their game assets’ security.