As Rebel Wolves continues to quietly work on its open-world RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker, the studio’s ambitions as revealed through trailers and interviews have drawn inevitable comparisons between it and CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. In a conversation with The Game Business, game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz discussed these comparisons and even went as far as welcoming them.
When asked about the comparisons with The Witcher 3, Tomaszkiewicz said that he was “really comfortable” with them. “I feel really confident about our game.” Another big reason why these comparisons felt inevitable was thanks to Tomaszkiewicz’s previous work as the lead quest designer on The Witcher 3, and the second director and head of production on Cyberpunk 2077.
In the interview, Tomaszkiewicz spoke about how The Blood of Dawnwalker was conceptualized, which involved working with people who are fans of the RPG genre, along with the intent of creating “story-driven, open world games with some twists.” This ultimately led to the founding of Rebel Wolves in 2022.
“I gathered around me people who love RPGs, and from the beginning we knew that we wanted to create story-driven, open world games with some twists,” he said. “Opening a new company to do exactly the same things we did in the past is a problem, because we’ll not feel that we’re evolving, or developing ourselves. It was really important for us as artists. We want to push the boundaries of AAA RPGs by adding some risky stuff, which gives you more immersion, more emotions, and a different feel when you play.”
“I think that this [idea] is growing these days, because when you look at Clair Obscur, or Crimson Desert right now, those games are different. They are not a copy of other AAA games, but delivering something quite fresh. And I’m really glad of it because I’m starting to feel like I did in the 1990s when I played games on my 286 PC, or even on the Atari where every game was different game. Every game was some unknown. We want to deliver a similar experience for people.”
With The Blood of Dawnwalker reaching the end of its development period and getting closer to its certification for console releases, Tomaszkiewicz was also asked about whether there are plans to grow Rebel Wolves out into a larger studio. While he acknowledged that the team might need outside help for post-launch support, the current vision is to keep Rebel Wolves at its current size.
“The vision for our team is to stay the size we are,” he said. “Maybe we’ll need some help in some areas after this game comes out, so we probably will grow a little. But I’m afraid that if we grow more, we’ll lose this communication and process we have right now. I want Rebel Wolves in 10 years to be exactly the same size.”
“I want to sell [enough copies] of [The Blood of the Dawnwalker] so we can secure the production of the next two games, and create some unique stuff. I don’t have a vision to create this big corporation that will do five games at the same time and be huge. I want to stay small. I want to enjoy making games as I am right now.”
The Blood of Dawnwalker is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release later this year. For more on the open world RPG, check out our thoughts on why it’s quietly becoming a big deal.
