author: Michael Kulakowski
Wolfeye, New Team From Arkane Studios Founder, Will Announce First Game on TGA
The founder and former head of Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Prey) introduced his new development team, Wolfeye Studios. The studio's debut game will be shown for the first time at the TGA Awards ceremony, next month.
Two years ago, Raphael Colantonio, the founder of the French studio Arkane (Dishonored series, Prey, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Arx Fatalis), left it after eighteen years, again deciding to start working on his own. After his close collaborator Julien Roby joined him, both of them formed a completely new team - Wolfeye Studios, which we officially learned about through today's press release. Its first work is to be presented at The Game Awards 2019, which will be streamed live on December 12.
On the official website of the team, Colantonio lists the reasons why he decided to create a new studio from scratch. The most important of these was the lack of innovation and risk-taking among AAA developers:
"The AAA market is risk-averse and innovation suffers from it. As a Game Designer, I’ve been wanting to try new ideas and approaches and I believe the Independent games are in the best space to do so."
The realization of Colantonio ambitions is to be guaranteed by the philosophy of the studio. The team wants to create games in which the players experience adventures in complex simulated worlds, where every decision is important. The very rich possibilities of interacting with virtual objects and NPCs are also to be extremely important. The developer also relies on a unique and stylized visuals, which not only distinguish its titles from the competition, but also speed up the development of games.
This is the only promotional graphics published by Wolfeye Studios, which is most probably connected with the debut game of the team.
Thus, we can expect that the first project from Wolfeye Studios will be a new game of the so-called immersive sim genre, in which Colantonio has been specializing since the beginning of his career. The genre is represented by titles such as BioShock, Thief, Prey and Deus Ex. It combines elements of first-person shooter, RPG, and stealth, creating a one-of-a-kind mix, designed to immerse the player in the fictional game world as much as possible. Immersive sims require a lot of work from developers due to the complexity of their gameplay systems. Although we do not know how numerous Wolfeye Studios is at the moment, we can find information on its website that it does not have a centralized structure, and its members work in as many as ten different cities located on four continents. The ambitions of the founder may, therefore, exceed the capabilities of the team, as the upcoming title will have to meet high expectations.