Former CD Projekt CEO Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has revealed a brand new studio, Rebel Wolves.
The team is made up of industry talents with experience spanning several titles, including The Witcher series, Cyberpunk 2077, Thronebreaker and Shadow Warrior 2.
Tomaszkiewicz spent 17 years at CD Projekt, working notably as a game director on The Witcher 3, and head of production/secondary game director at Cyberpunk 2077.
Rebel Wolves is working on her first game, which as narrated by Tomaszkiewicz GamesIndustry.bizaiming to become the “Holy Grail of RPGs on PC.”
“We are proud of our past accomplishments, but we are hungry for more,” says Tomaszkiewicz. “We want to experiment, push the envelope, and discover new ways to tell stories in the video game medium. We felt that starting a new company, as we call it all the picks, would give us the freedom to take the risks needed to realize these ambitions.”
Tomaszkiewicz says the team has been considering starting a new studio for a while, but they felt they needed to fully establish their vision.
“What will our game try to achieve, and what sets it apart? How will Rebel Wolves be different from other studios, and what makes it a place that people will want to work in?” Asked.
The studio has a simple philosophy. The team comes first. It wants to stay young and agile, as a place “where experienced game developers can reignite their passion.”
“In order to create great games, you need to bring together talented and motivated people, and give them room to grow, experiment and think creatively,” says Tomaszkiewicz.
Rebel Wolves is looking to create a dark fantasy game from a single story
Given CD Projekt’s recent production scale and experience with RPGs, it can be considered the ideal location to realize ambitions like those outlined by Rebel Wolves. However, Tomaszkiewicz feels independence is the best way for the studio to chase his dreams.
“We are proud of the games we helped create there and are deeply grateful for all the opportunities it provided us,” he says. “CD Projekt works with well-known IP addresses, and we wanted to create our own world, adapting it to our needs and preferences. We also wanted to work on smaller games, on a smaller team, where it is easier to maintain a coherent vision.”
Rebel Wolves’ goals for her first project are also well defined. The team shares common experiences in single-story games that focus on narrative, and that’s the genre they’re aiming for.
“We want to recreate the feel of a pen and paper RPG session, where your choices seem limitless, where the world interacts with your choices, and where every decision counts.”
“We want to recreate the feel of a pen and paper RPG session, where your choices seem limitless, where the world interacts with your choices, and where every decision counts”
Konrad Tomaskiewicz
Even with a strong core team, Tomaszkiewicz sees hiring more talent as a minor hurdle.
“Experienced developers are sought after by all the major studios, it is a very competitive scene. So we are very happy and proud that we have already been able to sign some of the best artists, programmers and designers in the industry,” he told us.
“We can’t compete with the best dogs when it comes to size or discretion, but we can provide something equally attractive: an environment in which developers can think big, follow their dreams and feel ownership of their work. Of course, there are still many challenges ahead, but we are confident that That with the team of talented veterans we have already gathered, nothing will stop us.”
Hiring talent from pre-established veteran circuits can create challenges when it comes to team diversification. That’s a concern for Tomaszkiewicz, and he knows the team has a way to go with diversity. It also encourages us to check the studio’s promise of improvement.
“The core of the team are the people we’ve known and worked with before, and while this team has many strengths, it needs to be more diverse,” he acknowledges. “Currently our team consists of just over ten people, but we plan to grow to more than 80 people over the next few years.
“As we hire more developers, we want to make sure we create a diverse company, with many different voices and perspectives.”
While the development goals of Rebel Wolves so far are well established, the topic of building metavers and the tendency to NFTs looms indefinitely. Tomaszkiewicz’s response to such trends is straightforward.
“It’s very simple. We wouldn’t have it in our games. At all.”
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