The director behind The Witcher 3 and a few other CDPR alums have banded together to form a new game studio, with a tease of their first project.
Today brings word of a new game studio (called Blank) being formed, comprised of some industry vets behind The Witcher series and Cyberpunk. While they’re still just getting started, they made the announcement with a quick look at some concept art from their first, still untitled, project. The game is set in an apocalypse “with a twist or two” and meant to be a character-driven experience:
Today a group of games industry veterans, with credits from iconic titles such as The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077, officially announced their vision for a bold new game studio: Blank. Applying their years of experience to a clean slate, the new team is committed to bringing beautifully crafted games and unique experiences to players, favoring novel territory rather than well-trodden ground (ie. no clones, or predictable entries).
Blank.’s co-founders include 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. 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.
“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.
Discussing the formation of Blank. Marcin Jefimow, Blank. Co-Founder and Executive Producer, said “Our game development philosophy comes from our own stories and experiences. With Blank. we want to build a space where we can honor our histories, but also be playful and open to brand new inspirations as we collaborate creatively. We’ve already got a head start on a budding new project that we can’t wait to share with players and craft with new team members.”
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 development of their unannounced project.
