author: Michael Kulakowski
THQ Opens New Studio; Mafia and ArmA Devs to Work on Historical RPG
THQ Nordic announced that it has established a new development studio in the Czech Republic. The team, consisting of veterans of the ArmA and Mafia series, will work on the project of a game combining RPG elements with strategy, as well as the Comanche combat helicopter simulator.
Austrian publisher THQ Nordic has been intensively expanding the list of its development studios in recent years. The latest of these is the newly established Ashborne Games, whose HQ is located in the Czech city of Brno. As we can read in a press release, the new team consists of nearly 40 veterans of the ArmA: Armed Assault and Mafia series, the UFO trilogy (UFO: Aftermath, UFO: Aftershock, and UFO: Afterlight), and Silent Hill: Downpour.
The first task of the Czech developer will be to complete the arcade combat helicopter simulator Comanche, which has been in development in Early Access on Steam since March 12, last year. The team will support the task of the existing developer, which is Nukklear from Hannover. At the same time, however, they will also start working on an ambitious project combining elements of strategy and RPG, which is to be set in authentic historical realities.
The mysterious game is still in the early stages of development, but given the developers' experience, we can expect a tactical RPG. As for the historical era, perhaps the devs will be inspired by Kingdom Come: Deliverance created by their brothers from Warhorse Studios and set the action of the title in the Middle Ages, while presenting the history of their country, moving the players, for example, to the times of the Hussite wars.
Ashborne Games hasn't finished building the team yet and is still looking for new employees, who will mostly be working remotely due to the current situation. The studio is going to use Unreal Engine 4 in all its projects. More news about the team's games will be published on the developer's social channels.
