Ex-Arkane Devs' New Game Will Be Revealed At The Game Awards 2019

A couple of former developers from Arkane Studios, the team responsible for immersive-sims like Dishonored and Prey, has established a brand-new studio to focus on "great art direction, compelling worlds, [and] interesting stories." The team's first project will be revealed at this year's Game Awards ceremony.

WolfEye Studios is being helmed by Raphael Colantonio and Julien Roby, Arkane's former president/co-creative director and executive producer, respectively. Though neither opened up about their forthcoming project, the two have confirmed that it will be shown during the fifth annual Game Awards, which takes place on December 12.

In a GamesIndustry.Biz interview, Roby said WolfEye is an opportunity for him and Colantonio to get back to the games they love as developers and players. "We like games that respond to player actions, where the world reacts to what you are doing, and the experience is owned by the player," Roby said. "It was what we wanted to get back to rather than being constantly distracted by the complexity of doing games which are technically more involved, and little by little your focus in development moves away from the actual experience toward technicalities which in the end don't change the experience much."

Colantonio intends WolfEye to be a studio that brings its focus on innovation instead of the bigger-equals-better approach to game development. "[I]n a world where making games is all about innovation, R&D, and trying things, that heaviness of graphics and production prevents flexibility, coming back on ideas, trying something else," Colantonio said. "That's not to say we don't like visuals. We're huge fans of great art direction, compelling worlds, interesting stories, but there's a distinction to be made between art direction and graphics."

The less-than-twenty-person studio is currently dispersed across the world and while both Colantonio and Roby want to keep WolfEye small, the team's size doesn't dictate the game's size. "A small [studio] doesn't mean making small games. We can make big games that focus on the right areas," Colantonio said.

The Game Awards will go live on December 12 at 5:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM CST / 8:30 PM ET on December 12 (and 1:30 AM BST on December 13). Show host Geoff Keighley announced the full list of nominees and the competition this year looks tough.