It was announced today that alums from CD Projekt RED have come together to form their own studio.
The new studio, Blank, is comprised of co-founders, including Mateusz Kanik (CD Projekt Red) taking on the role of Game Director, Jędrzej Mróz (CD Projekt Red), and Marcin Jefimow (CD Projekt Red, 11 Bit Studios) joining as Executive Producers, and Mikołaj Marchewka (Rookiez from Warsaw S.A) joining as Managing Director. In addition, the founders have brought together an exceptional team of developers: Michal Dobrowolski (CD Projekt Red) joins as Design Director, Artur Ganszyniec (CD Projekt Red, 11 Bit Studios) as Narrative Director, with Grzegorz Przybyś (Division 48 Studio, Artificer) as Art Director.
In a statement released this morning, the studio announced its intent to start with a blank slate and create beautifully crafted, unique experiences. They also revealed concept art for their upcoming as-yet-untitled project – a character-driven game set in an apocalypse, with a twist or two – which you can check out below.
“We’re thrilled to announce Blank and to start expanding our incredible team,” said Mateusz Kanik, Blank. Co-founder and Game Director. “After working for years in an increasingly conservative industry, we’re ready to make bold, impactful projects that share our unique creativity and values. Where the industry champions a dictatorship of the creative individual, we want to give ownership to the team. Where the industry leans on crunch culture, we prefer work-life balance. Where the industry says bigger is better, we’re setting our sights on highly polished games with a focus on emotion, story, and craftsmanship,” said Kanik.
Jędrzej Mróz, Blank. Co-Founder and Executive Producer shared how the team plans to approach game development and scaling up the studio, “Over our many years of making games, we’ve seen the importance of marrying inspiring ideas with well-defined scope, that’s supported by a strong team and realistic budget. We’re committed to quality craftsmanship and running the studio in a sustainable way; we plan to increase our projects’ scope as we expand the team and its capabilities.”
With headquarters in Warsaw, Poland, the studio currently has 10 team members, but they are looking to expand to almost 60 people to support the development of their unannounced project.
