RPG in Universe of the Lord of the Ice Garden Is in Production. Game Is Developed by Ex-employees of CD Projekt, FromSoftware, and Ubisoft
Mighty Koi Studio aims high. Besides the just-announced Thorgal, the team is also working on The Night Wanderer, game based on the Lord of the Ice Garden series by Jaroslaw Grzedowicz.
The success of the Witcher series has led to more Polish developers reaching for native fantasy literature. The result of this is, among others, The Inquisitor released last month, and now Mighty Koi Studio has become another example of this trend, announcing the game The Night Wanderer, which is an adaptation of the Lord of the Ice Garden series by Jaroslaw Grzedowicz.
The game is set to release on PC and Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PlayStation 5. It is described as an action RPG in the soulslike genre. The developers promise a dynamic and challenging combat system that is supposed to offer several fresh ideas. During the adventure, we will assume the role of Vuko Drakkainen, a mercenary sent to the mysterious planet Midgaard to locate a missing scientific expedition. Just like the literary original, the game will combine elements of science fiction with fantasy. The devs promise that The Night Wanderer will distinguish itself from other soulslike games, in part due to its main character having a strong personality.
The game is currently in the pre-production phase, and we will have to wait several more years for the premiere. Mighty Koi is simultaneously working on the adaptation of the Thorgal series. There are currently nearly 100 people employed in the studio, but this number is expected to double by the end of the year. As we mention in the text about Thorgal, the teams included former employees of FromSoftware, Konami, Wargaming, CD Projekt, and Ubisoft.
The Night Wanderer is developed on the Unreal Engine 5. As in the case of Thorgal, the developers boast that they will use technologies such as photogrammetry and AI while working on the game. Unfortunately, this is evident in the artwork, where the main character resembles Ragnar Lothbrok from the Vikings series (fortunately, the 3D model itself doesn't have this striking resemblance), and in one of the images, the AI seems to have forgotten to draw the character's hand.
Photo source: Mighty Koi
We can only hope that AI will do a better job as an assistant in the actual game development process. Mighty Koi has ambitions to develop games at - as the devs put it - "AA+/AAA" level. Considering the team's relatively small size, it is necessary to prioritize AI and photogrammetry, and we hope the developers will be able to create a game worthy of this brand. Artificial intelligence is controversial, but the costs of game development are increasing at such a crazy pace that in practice, in some time, only some small titles will most likely be fully hand-made.
It's worth mentioning that the first trailer for the project is about to appear any moment now (according to the official website on March 9 at 12:00). When this happens, we will update this news. For now, you can go to the game's official site, where you'll find a few short fragments of the trailer.
The novel series The Lord of the Ice Garden by Jaroslaw Grzedowicz consists of four volumes - the first of them was published in 2005, and the last in 2012.
Photo source: Mighty Koi
Photo source: Mighty Koi
Photo source: Mighty Koi
Photo source: Mighty Koi
