The director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and head of production on Cyberpunk 2077 has started a new studio in Warsaw, Poland.
Konrad Tomaszkiewicz’s Rebel Wolves includes team members who have previously worked on The Witcher series, Cyberpunk, Shadow Warrior 2, and the Witcher spin-off Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales.
This includes narrative director Jakub Szamalek, animation director Tamara Zawada; design director Daniel Sadowski; art director Batlomiej Gawel; CFO Michal Boryka; and studio head Robert Murzynowski.
In a press release, Rebel Wolves’ PR team describes the company as having “aspirations of breaking away from the weight of AAA development studios and approaching every goal as a team.” Its first project, somewhat unsurprisingly, is planned to be a dark fantasy RPG built in Unreal Engine 5, slated for both PCs and next-gen consoles.
“For all of us here at Rebel Wolves, video games were always something we felt destined to do—something ingrained in our DNA. Personally, I couldn’t be happier to have banded together with friends who share this passion. We’re developing a video game we’d like to play in a way that games should be made,” Tomaszkiewicz wrote in a press release.
“We want to evolve the cRPG genre by creating unforgettable stories and stirring deep emotions, all while working as a tightly knit team united by a shared goal and ambition. Collectively, we envision Rebel Wolves as a place where experienced game developers can reignite their passion, where they can focus on their craft and pour their love into an amazing, ambitious title. We want to stay small and agile—a place where people know and care for each other.”
This places Rebel Wolves on the forefront of the latest video game industry trend: the AAA breakaway team that explicitly promises it won’t treat its employees like total garbage. Seriously, this is the sixth or seventh new studio this year that said more or less those words verbatim. Best of luck to them.
Rebel Wolves plans to hire more developers in the next few months for both in-house and remote work. While the studio and many of its employees are located in Warsaw, several current team members work from Canada and the USA.
