Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, game director on The Witcher 3 and co-director for Cyberpunk 2077 has started up a new AAA studio in Poland called Rebel Wolves.
The studio has already lined up its first project, a AAA dark fantasy game built using Unreal Engine 5. You can check out the first teaser art for the game below.
The Rebel Wolves team is assembled from veterans of the Polish AAA development scene including developers who’ve worked on Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher series, Thronebreaker, and Shadow Warrior 2.
This includes director Tomaszkiewicz, design director Daniel Sadowski (Witcher 1), Narrative director Jakub Szamalek (Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077), animation director Tamara Zawada (Witcher 3), art director Bartlomiej Gawel (Witcher 1-3), CFO Michal Boryka, and studio head Robert Murzynowski.
“In order to create truly great games, we won’t chase trends or numbers,” says Szamalek. “Our goal is clearly defined: to create memorable games, tell moving stories, and evoke visceral emotions. It’s ambitious, true - and I’m glad it is. Art needs ambition. I don’t want to create another game, I want to work on titles people will remember.”
Founder Tomaszkiewicz says the name for the studio was inspired by the power that comes from a pack of wolves versus a lone wolf. “Personally, I couldn’t be happier to have banded together with friends who share this passion. We’re developing a video game we’d like to play in a way that games should be made,” Tomaszkiewicz says in reference to the studio goal of breaking away from traditional AAA development.
“We want to evolve the cRPG genre by creating unforgettable stories… all while working as a tightly knit team united by a shared goal and ambition… We want to stay small and agile — a place where people know and care for each other.”
The move away from traditional AAA development could be a response to reports of crunch employed in some of Poland’s biggest development studios like CD Projekt Red and Techland. With breaking this trend as a stated goal for Rebel Wolves, the team is looking to hire and build out its new game studio with open positions currently available.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.