For those who might not have been aware about the history surrounding Arkane Studios, the French-created developer has been around for roughly two decades now and it wasn’t until 2017 that founder Raphael Colantonio departed from the studio to pursue a new horizon in the gaming industry. Alongside with Executive Producer Julien Roby who also left shortly after Colantonio, the two veteran developers just recently announced that the duo will be opening a new development studio.
Dubbed as WolfEye Studios, both Colantonio and Roby plans to bring a new definition of AAA titles through their small-statured team. Even more, the newly founded developer goes the next step by announcing that the first project from WofEye will be revealed next month at this year’s Game Awards.
When speaking with gamesindustry.biz, Colantonio and Roby discuss some of their criticisms on the current industry from both aspects as a developer along with being a gamer also. Sharing that despite the higher graphic fidelity that games have received upon the past three generations have ultimately brought nothing new aside from a better looking project.
“I remember this funny moment where we were doing Dishonored, and I asked my lead programmer how many characters I could have in combat. And he answered something between five and six,” Colantonio tells in his reflection on prior work. “Fast forward four or five years, we’re doing Prey. It’s a new engine, new technology, new hardware. I’m back with my lead programmer, same question. How many characters can we have? Maybe five or six. The only difference between one generation to the next was that the budget had doubled.”
Colantonio goes on to clarify that he does not dislike games with pretty visuals, just that the accustomed implication that these big budget projects requiring more graphical depth only hinders and reduces the “flexibility” to apply the needed changes to make a well-developed title ultimately. “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. We all remember games with very powerful art direction. We don’t remember any game with powerful graphics, unless it had both.”
Upon details revolving around WolfEye’s unnamed new title, the two refrained from disclosing where the game will land as per platform release despite the project’s announcement circulating just on the horizon of the next generation. However, they did emphasize on the technological capabilities that this new game will be able to achieve thanks to the hardware specifications. Adding on, Roby reiterates on what was already shared that WolfEye is looking at what matters most to the team, which is trying new ideas.
Julien Roby will be taking the helm of WolfEye Studios as the developer’s CEO as Raphael Colantonio will be ranked as the developer’s president.
What do you think of the first project from the two industry veterans from the provided image?
Source: gamesindustry.biz