A New Studio Is Making a New Dark Fantasy RPG
Very recently, it was revealed that a number of former CD Projekt Red developers have formed a new studio called Rebel Wolves. It should come as no surprise to learn that it is based in Warsaw, Poland. However, it has remote employees as well. Currently, Rebel Wolves is in the process of making a new dark fantasy RPG using Unreal Engine 5. A project that sounds very ambitious because said title is supposed to be not just an AAA game but also the first AAA game in a series.
Why Should People Care?
On its own, the new dark fantasy RPG being made isn’t particularly exciting news. Fantasy RPGs might have been rare once upon a time. However, that is very much not the case now. On top of that, dark fantasy media is very popular, so much so that dark fantasy sometimes seems like default fantasy. As such, there isn’t much reason to get worked up about the new dark fantasy RPG being made even if it is supposed to be an AAA game.
This is particularly true because we know effectively nothing about it at the moment. So far, Rebel Wolves has released a single picture showing what seems to be a single down-on-his-luck vampire ambushing a couple of human soldiers plus a not-so-human companion. The single most interesting thing about it is that the latter have a banner showing what seems to be a vampire bat beneath a crescent moon. Something that suggests that the game might involve some kind of vampire-on-vampire struggle. Unfortunately, the fact that Rebel Wolves has revealed this picture and only this picture means that the game is presumably still at a very early point in its development. Thanks to that, we don’t know much of anything about it, particularly since games can change a lot over the course of its development.
Instead, what makes Rebel Wolves noteworthy would be the people who are involved in its founding. For starters, there is Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who was the director for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as well as the secondary game director for Cyberpunk 2077. The latter isn’t seen in a very positive light nowadays. However, The Witcher 3 is still acknowledged as one of the best RPGs ever made by a huge number of people, which is no small feat considering the competition. Besides this, Tomaskiewicz is also notable because he is one of the few individuals whose reputation hasn’t suffered much damage because of the outing of CD Projekt Red’s bad workplace practices. A months-long investigation declared that he wasn’t guilty of those things. Furthermore, Tomaskiewicz resigned afterwards, which has further enabled him to avoid the deserved condemnation directed towards CD Projekt Red.
Of course, successful AAA games aren’t made by lone individuals working on their own. As a result, no matter how influential someone might have been, that isn’t enough cause for confidence on its own. Fortunately, Tomaskiewicz isn’t the only name of note from CD Projekt Red to participate in the founding of Rebel Wolves. Other examples include the art director Bartłomiej Gaweł, the animation director Tamara Zawada, the design director Daniel Sadowski, and the narrative director Jakub Szamałek. That is far from being the full team behind The Witcher 3. Still, that represents a huge proportion of the team’s senior leadership. Something that provides interested individuals with a decent enough excuse to be cautiously optimistic rather than cynically pessimistic.
Will This Turn Out Well?
Realistically speaking, there is no way to tell whether Konrad Tomaszkiewicz and the rest of Rebel Wolves will be capable of replicating their success with The Witcher 3. It would be good if they manage to do so in the times to come. This is particularly true because the studio has made some very nice-sounding promises about putting its team’s well-being before other considerations, which is a definite nod towards the recent furor over crunch as well as other bad workplace practices that are widespread in the video game industry. Still, there is too much that remains unknown to make any sort of meaningful prediction.
It would be good to know whether Rebel Wolves has already managed to secure sufficient funding for its project though. AAA games aren’t cheap. As a result, if Rebel Wolves has managed to convince someone to provide them with that kind of backing, that would be a very concrete reason to believe in its chances of success.
